Our wedding will have a "Stars in the Night Sky" theme, so we ironically chose the closest night to the summer solstice that fell on a weekend.
Semiformal attire! Keep in mind that our ceremony is a short walk down a dirt path, and there will be dancing on the patio at the reception, so stiletto heels and other impractical footwear aren’t recommended (unless you also want to bring some other shoes to change into, in which case, feel free!).
There are many Airbnbs and hotels in our area, so we haven’t picked one to recommend. Feel free to chat to others you know who are attending and team up to stay near each other!
As a reminder, we live in Uptown Oakland, near the 19th street BART station, and the wedding is in the Berkeley hills. We find that getting around the Bay Area is easier when you’re near a BART station, so that can be a good thing to look for in accommodations.
The easiest way to get to the venue is to drive. If you don’t have a car, Uber and Lyft both work well for getting around in the Bay Area, and you can always carpool with other guests.
Parking in the Botanical Garden Lot is free after 5pm. If you arrive early to enjoy the gardens, there is a small ($1 per hour) fee.
Unfortunately, pets aren’t allowed at the botanical gardens, and Shanté is allergic to llamas, so leave Fido and Spitz at home.
At or before 5:15pm. We encourage you to arrive to the gardens early if you’d like some time to explore. We think the entire property is beautiful, and if you arrive just in time for the ceremony, you'll only get to see a tiny part of it. Simply tell the staff that you are with our wedding for free admission to the gardens.
If exploring gardens isn’t your thing, please arrive early or on time for the ceremony, so we don’t have to leave you out!
We hired two wonderful photographers to photograph our wedding, so we ask that you be present in the moment with us and not take photos or video during the ceremony. During the reception, feel free to take photos if it makes you happy!
We’ll be having a Jewish wedding ceremony with some twists. There will be some readings and prayers in Hebrew, but fear not, for they will all be said in English too. If you want to read up on Jewish traditions beforehand, this page and this page give good summaries, though we won’t be doing all the elements they talk about.
Our wedding will be catered by Los Moles. They’ll be bringing a variety of Mexican food, including several different types of moles.
Let us know on the RSVP form! There will definitely be vegetarian options and less-spicy options, and all the food will be gluten free.
Since we don’t really like alcohol, we’re not going to serve any at our wedding. Instead, there will be plenty of other tasty beverages, including aguas frescas, for you to enjoy.
There will be dancing! We’ll likely feature a few fun group dances that are easy to learn, like the hora, that we’ll invite everyone to join in for. We’ll also have some of the other styles of dancing we enjoy, including salsa and west coast swing. And of course there will be some traditional American party dancing!
After discussing many options (including the exceptionally long “Stowell-Velednitsky”, the shorter “Stowellnitsky”, and the tiny “Velwell”), we’ve decided to keep our names as they are. We like them, and they link us to our pasts.
Mark is hosting this site through the Open Computing Facility at Berkeley, and their logo is a penguin. Isn’t he cute?
Feel free to ask us! We invited you to our wedding, so we probably like talking to you. You can e-mail us at: shante@shanteandmark.com and mark@shanteandmark.com
Of course, if it’s getting close to the wedding we might be getting stressed, so you can always ask someone close to us, like our parents, siblings, or close friends.