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Swanson Vineyards. The bride and groom during the ceremony. The bride’s family linens and silver served as table settings.
arried beneath a majestic grove of Redwoods looking over her family’s Napa vineyards, Claiborne Swanson wed James Frank in a June ceremony that was equal parts romantic bohemian and old-world elegant. Walking down the aisle to the jubilant voices of the Joyful Sounds gospel choir, Swanson (in a Monique Lhuillier gown) and Frank gracefully mixed the traditional with the unexpected. The reception took place beneath a sweeping tent arrayed with blooms of every imaginable size: Cascading mixed-scale bouquets adorned every surface (the vision of Swanson and florists Torryne Choate of Birch and Kate Stanley Designs). “If I had to describe a feeling or a mood, it would be a marriage of opposites—Hollywood in the ’20s meets Paris on a warm summer night in the middle of a vineyard,” says the bride. Toasting the evening, the bride’s winemaker father gave the newlyweds a special bottle of vintage dessert wine, etched with their names, and the couple then drove off in her parents’ 1969 Mercedes under a full summer moon. S.T.
Driving off in a ’69 Mercedes convertible. The magical milieu. The mother and sisters of the bride with her nephew ring-bearers.
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2/25/10 5:36:22 PM
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