Wedding | Anastasiia & Andrei

Tell us a little about yourselves!

We are Anastasiia and Andrei. I’m a fashion photographer based between New York and Los Angeles, originally from Ukraine. Andrei is originally from Belarus and now runs his own marketing agency.

We’re both very spontaneous people, and honestly, that energy defines our entire relationship. We don’t over-plan life too much — we follow intuition, timing, and feeling. But at the same time, no matter how chaotic life gets, we always know we have a place in each other’s plans. That’s probably the one thing we never question.

And honestly, that’s exactly how our wedding came together too.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We always imagined getting married somewhere in Europe, ideally Italy, but at that moment it just wasn’t realistic for us. Last summer, while driving from Los Angeles to Seattle, we randomly passed through Napa Valley late at night and decided to stop at a hotel. We planned to stay one night, but completely fell in love with the atmosphere and ended up staying there for four days.

After that trip, we couldn’t stop thinking about it. We started searching for a place in Napa almost immediately, but honestly, finding the right house took much longer than we expected. We looked for months and almost gave up multiple times.

Then suddenly, in late September, we found the house in Calistoga that felt exactly right. At that point we realized we had two options: either do the wedding immediately or wait another entire year for the next warm season. We didn’t want to wait. So we decided to plan the entire wedding in about five weeks. One week later, we sent invitations. The wedding itself was on November 11th.

And somehow, despite it being November, we got unbelievably lucky with the weather. Our wedding ended up being the very last warm sunny day before the gloomy season started. Literally the next morning, the rain and cold arrived. It honestly felt like God gave us one final beautiful day before winter.

How many guests did you have?

We had 24 guests — very intimate, very personal, just our closest people.

Because everything happened so quickly, not everyone was able to come, which is completely understandable. Honestly, sending invitations four weeks before a wedding is probably not something we’d recommend doing. But somehow many of our closest people still managed to make it happen, and that made the whole experience feel even more meaningful.

What was your budget?

Our budget was probably around $30–35K, but honestly, the wedding never felt like a traditional production. The entire experience became incredibly collaborative and personal.

Instead of trying to professionally control every single detail, we created the concept ourselves: the atmosphere, the menu, the feeling of the weekend, and then trusted our friends with different parts of the process, especially the things they felt genuinely excited about. Some helped with food, some with decor, some with photos and videos. Everything came together very naturally.

A lot of the details were also deeply personal and handmade. My grandmother embroidered custom handkerchiefs for everyone with our initials, which became one of my favorite details from the entire wedding.

I also created several DIY elements myself, including the welcome sign, photo zone, parts of the decor, and even table linens for the candy bar. Before photography, I used to work in wedding decor and floristry, so even though I originally promised myself I wouldn’t get too involved in my own wedding, that creative process still felt very natural to me.

Even our wedding cake was deeply personal because my mom made it for us herself.

Because of all those handmade and collaborative elements, the wedding felt less like a perfectly produced event and more like a shared creative experience built with love.

What’s especially funny is that after the wedding, some of our friends became inspired to continue developing professionally in those creative fields afterward, which feels really special to us.

Tell us about your outfits

Finding my dress was honestly one of the most stressful parts of the process. After Andrei proposed, I immediately started searching, but everything I loved was either impossible to make in time or far beyond what I wanted to spend.

Once we found the venue so last-minute, everything became very intense very quickly. Fabrics were arriving from different states and countries, fittings were happening right up until the final days, and somehow everything came together literally at the last possible moment.

A designer connected to my husband helped bring my sketches to life, and together we created exactly what I had imagined, including the long veil detail that became one of my favorite elements of the look. Honestly, looking back, it still feels kind of unreal that everything worked out so perfectly in the end.

I also had a second dress from a Ukrainian brand called Muse. What felt really special was that they reached out to collaborate almost immediately after our engagement, before I had even publicly announced it, and the dress they sent was actually one I had saved years earlier as my dream wedding dress.

Andrei’s look evolved very naturally too. At first we imagined a white jacket with black trousers, but at some point someone suggested trying full white, and we instantly loved it. In the end, he had two looks: an all-white suit for the church ceremony and another version with black trousers later in the evening.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

Years ago, before photography, I actually worked in wedding decor and floristry and had my own small business. That experience taught me how exhausting perfection can become. So when we started planning our own wedding, we consciously tried not to obsess over controlling every detail. We wanted the day to feel relaxed, intuitive, and alive. Instead of focusing too heavily on one perfect vision, we wanted to stay open and allow things to unfold naturally.

Ironically, many things went wrong or changed unexpectedly during planning. But almost every problem somehow transformed into something even better than the original idea.That mindset completely changed the experience for us. We stopped trying to force perfection and started allowing the day to unfold naturally. And honestly, it became more beautiful than anything we could have planned.

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

Faith was the most important part of the wedding for us. We are both Christians, so the church ceremony became the emotional center of the entire day. At the same time, we also wanted to exchange personal vows, which isn’t traditionally part of an Orthodox ceremony. So after the church service, we created our own intimate vow exchange at the estate with our closest friends.

We rented the villa for three days because we wanted the wedding to feel more like meaningful time spent together rather than a single event. Guests arrived early, we had the wedding in the middle, and then spent another full day together afterward having dinner, relaxing, and simply enjoying being in one place together.

One of my favorite parts was turning some of the preparation into part of the experience itself. Before the wedding, we organized a small floristry workshop where the girls helped me create flower arrangements together. It didn’t feel stressful or overly formal. It honestly felt more like friends creating something beautiful together.

We also didn’t follow strict timelines or traditions throughout the day. At one point, we literally left dinner to watch the sunset and spontaneously had our first dance there.

Everything flowed naturally instead of according to schedule. By the end of the night, everyone ended up jumping into the pool fully dressed, which somehow became the perfect ending to the whole wedding. It felt joyful, emotional, chaotic, cinematic, and completely us. That collaborative atmosphere became one of the most special parts of the entire wedding for us.

Any tips for couples getting married?

Don’t stress yourself out trying to control every detail. Honestly, the biggest thing we learned is that sometimes when you let go a little, things can turn out even better than you imagined. So many things changed last minute throughout the planning process, but almost every unexpected problem somehow led to a better outcome than the one we originally planned for.

At the same time, I don’t think this approach works for everyone. Some people genuinely feel happier and calmer with structure and detailed planning, and that’s completely valid too.But for us, accepting that not everything would go according to plan worked perfectly. We were emotionally prepared for things to shift or change, and because of that, every surprise felt exciting instead of stressful.

I think people will always remember the feeling of a wedding much more than whether everything went perfectly according to schedule.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

We genuinely loved everyone who became part of our wedding. Our photographers, Jannet Photo and Lila, and our videographer Roma are not only incredibly talented but also our friends, which made the experience feel effortless and deeply personal.

We also had an amazing private chef who fully embraced our vision and helped us create an intimate dining experience that felt more like a beautiful dinner party than a traditional wedding reception.

Honestly, the entire wedding happened because so many creative people came together with openness, trust, and excitement. That collaborative energy became the soul of the whole celebration.

Photographer: Jannet Photo @jannetphoto | Videographer: Roma Petrusyak @roman_petrusyak | Ceremony Location: Saint Seraphim Church | Reception Location: Napa Stone Estate @napastoneestate | Celebrant: Fr. Lawrence Margitich | Hire: Theoni Collection @theonicollection | Ceremony Space: Private estate in Calistoga, Napa Valley | MUA: Yana Kavalerchik @kavalerchikyana | Catering & Beverages: Chef Colorless @chefcolorless; Andrew's Gap @andrewsgap | Dresses: Nikitkina Design @nikitkina_design & Muse @musecloths | Wedding Rings: Tiffany & Co.