Sometimes I fall in love with an utterly classic and elegant wedding like today’s from VO Photographers. The venue is absolutely stunning and sets the backdrop for this chic neutral toned wedding. I love the mini champagne bottles for escorts!
I think it can best be said that my husband (Joe) and I sought to find the “happy medium.” While it was important to have our closest family and friends from all parts of our lives at our wedding, we also wanted to have the intimate and personal feel of a much smaller wedding, which ultimately led us to decide on a guest list of just over 100 people. We then found our middle ground in terms of formality by having a casual outdoor ceremony, but set in a striking and naturally elegant location, with all of the wedding party dressed in very classic and traditional attire.
One thing we were told uniformly in the planning process by everyone who had been previously married was how quickly the day goes; therefore, Joe & I ultimately decided to do a “First Look” before the ceremony so that we could complete the majority of our pictures before the wedding and then get to enjoy our guests for the maximum amount of time possible. Looking back, in addition to giving us more time with everyone, I found the first-look to be a very special and private moment that also helped make the ceremony more relaxed and enjoyable. I am thrilled that we went against tradition and chose this route. Even having already done the first-look, walking down the aisle with my father was an amazing and emotional moment in time and is one of my favorite memories of the day.
As we found the venue to be very beautiful on its own, we decided to let it speak for itself and only added a few bits of simple decor that we gathered from different places, including small gold table chandeliers, ivory and gold sheer tablecloths, mercury vases with candles, and light shades of classic flowers. For place cards we attached labels that we made to split sized bottles of our favorite champagne. I chose a very simply bouquet of all white roses, accented with two old vintage family broaches borrowed from my mother. With only simply decorating tasks at hand, we focused much of our planning efforts instead on finding the two vendors most important to us – the caterer and photographer. In selecting the caterer, we chose one whose reviews about the quality and abundance of the food were the best. We also chose to have a buffet style dinner to help aid in the casual and relaxed environment we were seeking, and being that we both personally prefer the variety of options offered by a buffet style.
One of my other favorite moments was at the very end of the evening, just sitting on the front cement steps of the mansion with Joe, my maid-of-honor (Diane), a close bridesmaid, and a few select others, while waiting for the last shuttle to arrive. It was a very relaxing and joyous moment to just take a deep breath and take everything in. Similarly, Joe has said that one of his favorite moments was a quiet few minutes on the outdoor patio while guests were getting dinner, which he found to be a perfect time to reflect and really enjoy everyone around him.
Photographs | VO Photographers | Venue | The Wadsworth Mansion | Caterer | Grand Gourmet | Bartenders | Two Pour Guys | Florist | Marie Chomicz | Gown | Lazaro | Makeup | Danielle Santagata | DJ | A&B Entertainment
