A Los Angeles dessert blogger and her dashing groom say “I do” in an enchanting Geyserville vineyard.
It all started with a classic Hollywood meet-cute: Aspiring actress Jenny Alden first laid eyes on then-CAA coordinator Tyler Barth at a friend’s birthday party in 2003. The chemistry was palpable, but both were already in long-term relationships. Four years passed while Alden pursued her acting career (putting in a memorable performance as the nautical-obsessed bride in Wedding Crashers) and launched her sweets-focused blog, dessertdarling.com, while Barth traveled through Europe.
Then, in April 2007, both were unattached and Barth was back in the country for a week. The pair reconnected over drinks at Hollywood nightspot Avalon. “After gallivanting all over Europe, the last thing on my mind was marriage,” says Barth, but he was smitten from the minute they started talking. Alden’s second impression wasn’t quite as enthusiastic: “The hot guy I remembered was preppy—my type—and this guy had shoulder-length hair, a beard and ripped jeans. I looked at him and thought, ‘No way!’” Still, by the end of the night, she was sold. “I called my mom the next day and said, ‘I met the man I’m going to marry.’”
The prophecy came true when Barth (now the VP of business development for audio equipment manufacturer Blue Microphones) proposed nearly three years later at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco over Valentine’s Day weekend. “I decided to wow her by calling up the top eight bakeries in the city to deliver to the suite,” he says. The couple married at the bride’s family property, Alden Park Vineyards—a nearly 4,000-acre hideaway in Geyserville. Alden’s dress, a Vera Wang tulle and organza gown, complemented the ranch setting that took on the look of a rustic fairy tale, complete with a horse and carriage, a barn transformed into a chandelier-studded dining room and a “wishing” olive tree decorated with messages for the couple from their 230 guests.
The much-anticipated dessert table overflowed with goodies such as chocolate- and peanut-coated pretzels, cheesecake pops and jars of pink strawberry-milkshake gummy bottles. The couple surprised guests with a troupe of Brazilian samba dancers (they had vacationed together in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival in 2008) to lure partygoers onto the dance floor. Revelers rested their feet in pink and gold shoes donated by the couple’s close friend, TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie, while hockey star Wayne Gretzky kept glasses topped off with wine from his eponymous label. But Alden got the last word. She launched a new blog, weddingdarling.com, and an e-book devoted to the planning process.
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