Jessie Davidson & Shaw Leonard
J
ust eight days later, the final “brother” tied the knot with his bride, Jessie, in an intimate, romantic wedding in Montecito. The couple, who met in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, dated for about
three years before Shaw, a director and cinematographer, asked for Jessie’s hand in marriage on the banks of the Teklanika River in Alaska’s Denali National Park. After a 4,000-mile road trip, the two set off on a two-day backpacking trip, with the ring hidden in Shaw’s backpack. Shaw proposed with the beautiful sapphire ring as the couple ate dinner on the edge of the river. This was right after Jessie had joked that their dinner of freeze-dried backpacking food was “the most romantic dinner” they’d ever had.
Their intimate wedding included 50 of their closest friends and family members, and took place in the solarium at Stella Mare’s bistro in Montecito. Jessie’s father built the arbor under which they stood during the ceremony, while Shaw’s uncle married the pair. They wrote their own vows. The wedding was truly a local affair, with florals sourced from Rose Story Farm in Carpinteria; the wedding cake was the famous coconut cake by State Street eatery, Jane. The newlyweds honeymooned in Monteverde, Costa Rica, exploring the cloud forest reserves and reveling in nature.
(photos by Josh Newton) | 147