Brittany Weinstein and Justin Pattner’s Quintessential California Wedding in Santa Barbara

“He was wearing borderline bell-bottom jeans the first time we met!” jokes Brittany Weinstein, the head of collaborations and special projects at Goop, about KKR & Co. real estate investor Justin Pattner. “I fell for him three years later.” The initial encounter took place at a dinner shortly after their two best friends started dating. “Justin’s best friend is now married to my best friend,” explains Brittany. “[Justin] liked me back then, but I had no interest. But three years later, at his best friend’s 30th birthday party in Los Angeles—where I lived at the time—I was suddenly into him, and I guess I made it pretty clear. We spent most of the night chatting, which turned into pretty regular talks on the phone once Justin was back in New York. I flew to visit him over Labor Day weekend a few months later. We went to Amagansett in the Hamptons with a big group of our friends, and it was after that weekend—a now magical weekend—that our relationship really started.”
The couple dated while living in Los Angeles, New York, and London—and then eventually got engaged in January 2014. “Justin proposed in Big Sur, a special place in general and a particularly special place to us. It was a pseudo-surprise—I can make it incredibly tough to surprise me—but what he had in store for me was completely unexpected. He orchestrated a whole celebration in Los Angeles with both of our families and best friends. He planned a beautiful dinner for everyone to celebrate at Giorgio Baldi, which is where we went on one of our first Los Angeles dates. It was an incredible, special evening.”
Then, the planning commenced. “We considered a lot of options—Manhattan, where we would be starting our life together; the Hamptons, where we fell in love; Big Sur, where we got engaged—but ultimately, we settled on Santa Barbara, the first trip we took together,” says Brittany. “We wanted to get married somewhere we could and would be excited to go back to over the years. Plus, Santa Barbara felt like the perfect place to bring friends and family together for the weekend.”
Many of their guests were coming from the East Coast, and since Santa Barbara is quintessentially “California,” they decided to really play that up throughout the entire planning process. There was the welcome bag: a tote for the beach or pool that included some sunscreen, a printed Goop guide to Santa Barbara, and a few of their favorite snacks from California. Then there was Friday night’s locally inspired menu and, of course, the jaw-dropping views of the Santa Barbara mountains at the ceremony. Everything got the California treatment.
Brittany worked with stylist Elizabeth Saltzman on her wedding day look. “She enlisted Antonio Berardi to custom-make my dress and veil,” says Brittany. “I wanted something chic and a little sexy but also classic, a dress I would look back on 50 years from now and think, Yeah, that was a good dress. I wish I could take credit for it, but it really was all Elizabeth and Antonio. They had the vision. We met in London to review the different laces and embroidery options, which was a surreal experience. The beading on the dress was so intricate and extensive that I kept my jewelry simple. I just wore a pair of delicate diamond slice earrings by Loriann Stevenson and my engagement ring. Elizabeth made the good point that when I look back at my wedding photos, I won’t want to look at the accessories I was wearing, but rather how happy I was on that day.”
Brittany wore her hair in a tidy low bun for the ceremony, but took it down afterward. The reception was on the ocean, and she wanted great beach hair at the reception. “I loved the idea of this exquisite gown and rough-and-tumble, beachy hair,” she says. “It felt very California to me.” She kept her makeup simple, as she typically doesn’t wear much day to day. “I wanted to always feel like me—like a slightly more dressed-up version, but still like me. And I did!”
The couple put a lot of thought into the ceremony, which took place on a big, beautiful green lawn at the Four Seasons, overlooking the Santa Barbara mountains. “It was about tradition, the people that we love, and, most important, each other,” explains Brittany. “We had a Jewish ceremony—however, we spent a lot of time beforehand really trying to understand the different components, and only chose the ones that really meant something to us. Justin’s mom and uncle and my aunt each read passages they had prepared for us, and Justin and I wrote our own vows.”
Afterward, guests moved to the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club across the street from the hotel. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were passed on the terrace while a jazz band played. They served Santa Barbara oysters on the half shell, potato chips with crème fraîche and caviar, blistered local shishito peppers, mini Santa Barbara lobster rolls, Santa Barbara shrimp tempura, and mini crab cakes with salsa verde. “Our wedding planner extraordinaire, Stefanie Cove, created a cocktail menu not to be messed with,” says Brittany. “They were some of the best I’ve ever had!”
Post-drinks, the group moved inside for a four-course seated dinner inspired by local California flavors: cool pea puree soup followed by a bright and beautiful fresh citrus salad with fennel and watermelon radishes. Guests had the choice of steak frites or miso-glazed black cod and were seated at long tables of 30 to 50. “We kept the florals—created by Maurice Harris from Bloom & Plume—low so people could see and talk to each other,” explains Brittany. The band played Frank Sinatra during dinner. “We wanted the dinner to feel incredibly intimate, like a dinner party we would have had at our apartment,” she says. “Toasts were given from each guest’s place at the table rather than in the middle of the dance floor—again, creating the feeling that you were at a dinner party.” The tables were covered in an exaggerated lace overlay, and the flowers were in a palette of white and nude. The only light in the room came from hundreds of candles on the tables and floodlights they used to light the ocean. The light from the candles made the silver metallic, hand-painted palm-leaf wallpaper shimmer.
While dinner was served, the terrace was transformed into a seaside lounge. “The idea was to make it feel like the terrace of a beautiful beach house,” explains Brittany. Outdoor lounges and couches with crisp white cushions were arranged with cozy blankets. Fire pits were lit, and big hurricane lanterns were placed throughout to create a really romantic light. “We opened all the doors of the dining room to create an indoor/outdoor feeling,” says Brittany. “After dinner and toasts, the craziest dance party started,” she recalls. “The 14-piece band played a little Motown, a little Van Morrison, a bit of Beyoncé—Justin sweated through four shirts! We could have danced all night.”

At some point, around 2:00 a.m., the newlyweds and some of their friends made their way back to the cottage where they were staying. “Stefanie had laid out a spread in the dining room that included every late-night food you could ever want,” remembers Brittany. “The dance party picked up again, and the night ended with the front desk calling our room at around 5:00 a.m.”