A Refined Wedding on a Family Vineyard

In April of 2010, Marc Diaz was ready to delete his Match.com account, and decided to go on one last date. At the same time, Josef Lukan was setting up his profile and preparing to go on his first Match.com date. “When we met in person we realized we actually lived a few blocks apart,” says Marc. They hit it off immediately, and dated for six years before Josef popped the question during a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands. “There must have been something about the coqui frogs chirping after the evening rainstorm,” says Marc, laughing.

Josef grew up visiting his aunt and uncle’s vineyard, Broll Mountain Vineyards, in Murphys, California, and he and Marc loved the idea of sharing the beautiful landscape and town’s history with their family and friends. They planned their wedding for August 12, 2017—late enough in the growing season that the rows of vines were heavy with deep purple grapes—and invited 140 guests to the open-air celebration, which was inspired by the surrounding landscape. Erin Betts Events helped fill the space with olive branches and soft white flowers, and The Nichols photographed the lively evening, as seen below!

“We loved the natural setting and the rows of vines on the hills,” says Josef. “We wanted our wedding to really highlight the natural setting.”

Josef wore a peak lapel Tom Ford tuxedo, while Marc opted his from The Black Tux. “We went formal and black for the ceremony, then changed into white dinner jackets for the reception,” says Josef. They topped their tuxedos with bowties and white rose and eucalyptus boutonnieres.

The grooms exchanged timeless rose gold bands from Tiffany & Co.

“It was important to us that our officiant know us well,” says Josef. The couple invited their priest from their church in New York to come to California and preside over the traditional ceremony!

The ceremony took place beneath a gazebo shaded by oak trees. Two wine barrels, topped with arrangements of olive branches, dyflexia fern, and open white garden and spray roses, flanked the altar.

The couple didn’t have a traditional wedding party, but instead had their families walk down the aisle before they made their entrance, hand-in-hand.

Marc and Josef lived in New York City when they started planning their wedding, then moved to California halfway through the process. “Dealing with a move, a new job, and planning a wedding was stressful, but relinquishing control to our planner once the weekend arrived was easy!” says Marc.

“We wanted to feature the vineyards wines, but did have a full bar as well,” says Josef. “We had Moscow mules in copper mugs, and they were so popular that we ran out of ginger beer!” The bar was topped with roses and jasmine vine in mercury glass compotes.

Before their grand entrance, Josef and Marc swapped their black tuxedo jackets for white dinner jackets, complete with white orchid boutonnieres tied with black satin ribbon.

To enhance the setting’s elegant, rustic feel, long wood farm tables were topped with white linen runners. Compotes were filled with eucalyptus, jasmine vine, rosemary, Italian ruscus, and clusters of white spray roses, bouvardia, freesia, lisianthus, and ranunculus.

Why have one cake when you can have four? The small cakes were frosted in white buttercream, then topped with a variety of fresh flowers. Flavors included chocolate caramel, almond rose, buttermilk white with fresh berries, and lavender lemon with lemon curd.

“We hadn’t planned for it, but we found out that the Perseid meteor shower peaked on our wedding night. There were several points throughout the evening where guests could see multiple stars shooting across the sky!” says Josef. The grooms made sure to enjoy their wedding—and the process—as much as they could. “Don’t take it too seriously,” says Marc. “The days, years, and decades after your wedding are more important than the color linen you choose!”