Tell us a little about yourselves!
We are both based in Santa Barbara, CA. Natasha manages Employee Experience at Discord, a tech company based in San Francisco. Brian is a Mechanical Engineer at a local bio-tech company called Affinity Biosensors. We have an eight-year old American Pit Bull Terrier named Fela that Natasha rescued in 2014 while living in Brooklyn. Fela is named after the late Nigerian music legend, Fela Kuti.
Natasha was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and studied Philosophy at California State University, Long Beach. She moved to NYC and lived there for about 7 years before moving to a cute little neighborhood called Rockridge in Oakland, CA for work. In the Bay Area, she grew her career in tech and eventually moved to Russian Hill in San Francisco. After two months into my pandemic, she moved to Santa Barbara and shortly met Brian. Some of her passions are her 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser named Lucinda (after Lucinda Williams) and over-landing, Western horseback riding, Pilates, art, and music (if you couldn’t tell). A life goal of Natasha’s is to participate in Santa Barbara’s annual Fiesta Rodeo.
Brian was born and raised in Los Gatos, CA. He went to college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he got his degree in Mechanical Engineering. He eventually found his way down to Santa Barbara for a job in 2018 where he got into sailing. Our first date, we went out on Brian’s Hobie 16! Some of his other passions include surfing, diving (pretty much anything in the ocean), fly fishing, and mountain biking. Between the both of us, there is no shortage of adventure. Even the dog loves body surfing!
Why did you decide to get married where you did?
We knew we wanted to elope. And we knew it had to be an adventure, and there had to be surf.
How many guests did you have?
We had no guests. Kindred Weddings captured our ceremony.
Tell us about your outfits.
We definitely were going for more of a resort vibe than traditional wedding. To Natasha, Vivienne Westwood has always represented counterculture and this has always resonated with her and why she remains one of her favorite designers.
Brian made it very clear that he wanted to be comfortable. We knew were getting married somewhere tropical and Costa Rica is so colorful, so we landed on visions of neon green and that guided our search for Brian’s shirt and Natasha’s shoes. Brian’s outfit is a blend of timeless Ralph Lauren and PF. Flyers -and contemporary Dries Van Noten.
What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?
That we stayed true to ourselves and what we wanted.
Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?
When we chose Puerto Viejo, we saw that it was on Indigenous land. We wanted to acknowledge that we were visitors on sacred land and it was important to us to incorporate this in some way into our ceremony. We had done some research and reached out to Duriwak Tours, who grew up in the Bribri community to help us coordinate our ceremony. We were guided by a band of magical blue Morpho butterflies and dragonflies as we hiked two hours into Indigenous Bribri Land in the deep rainforests to share our vows under their sacred waterfall and receive a traditional Bribri blessing from one of the local elders, Don Germán. Surrounded by the forces of nature, just the two of us. We couldn’t have asked for a wedding more perfectly us.
Photographer : Kindred Weddings @kindredweddings | Ceremony Location : Kekoldi Falls, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica | Planner : Duriwak Tours @duriwaktours | HMUA : Samara Beauty @samarabeautysb | Natasha's Dress : Vivienne Westwood, 2022 Bridal Collection @viviennewestwood | Brian's Shirt : Dries Van Noten, Spring 2022 Menswear Collection @driesvannoten | Brian's Pants : Ralph Lauren, Purple Label @ralphlauren | Engagement Ring : Jack Weir + Sons @jackweirandsons | Wedding Rings : David Yurman | Bride's Shoes : Manolo Blahnik, Summer 2022 Collection @manoloblahnik | Groom's Shoes : PF. Flyers @pf_flyers