Real Weddings :: Snippet & Ink

09 Mar

I sure do love Nancy Neil‘s photos – she does such a lovely job of capturing not just pretty details, but also special moments. Caroline and Christopher’s wedding was full of both. The intimate celebration took place at the bride’s sister’s home, with just over 50 guests in attendance. One of the questions I ask brides and grooms is, “Why did you choose this for your wedding? What inspired you?” Caroline’s answer: “Doing it any other way just wouldn’t have felt like us.” Isn’t that exactly how you want to feel about your wedding?

Christopher and I planned the wedding together, which was a fun, exhausting, and ultimately rewarding experience. We learned so much about the ways we like to communicate under different circumstances, about the ways we interact with our family and friends, about the stuff we agree and disagree on, and about what really matters to us. From the beginning, we each took on different duties, and consulted each other on everything. As a result, our wedding day felt like a celebration that we had truly crafted as a couple with the people closest to us. It was a great start to our marriage.

One of my favorite things about the decorations was that my friend Lisa [Van Wambeck] made some garlands specifically to honor a very dear friend mine and some close family members who had passed away. I knew I would be missing them on the day of the wedding, and I wanted some way to represent that without it feeling too heavy or sad. Lisa asked for a color or motif to represent each of them, and worked them into specific strands of the banners. We didn’t tell any of the guests about it, and it wouldn’t have been obvious at all to anyone looking, but it felt really nice to look out at those decorations and remember the people I wished could have been there.

We wanted the reception to feel like a relaxed dinner party that we would host in our own home, and finding a way to serve food that we really loved was an important part of that. We were so lucky to find Ayda Robana from Om Sweet Mama. She was wonderful to work with and everything was delicious: gorgeous trays of fresh fruit and vegetables, beautiful crostini, and a wonderful cheese platter for the cocktail hour. Dinner was served in multiple courses, family style, to encourage people to mingle and linger over their meal: Orecchiette con salsa di noci with sage and roasted squash, roasted seasonal vegetables, sautéed greens with parmesan and truffle oil, polenta puttanesca, red leaf and arugula salad with citrus vinaigrette. For dessert we had two cakes: olive oil cake with Sauternes and roasted pears and fresh whipped cream, and chocolate hazelnut cake with crème fraiche. I made the little cake flag decorations at the last minute the night before the wedding!

Photography: Nancy Neil

Venue: private home in Arroyo Grande, California

Bride’s dress: Amy Kuschel

Hair: John Allen for Bungalow Salon

Bride’s hair accessory / feather hair clips: Lisa Van Wambeck

Groom’s suit: Theory

Personal flowers: Shell Beach Flowers

Stationery design / printing: the bride / Boxcar Press

Catering: Om Sweet Mama

Congratulations Caroline and Christopher!

15 Comments »

08 Mar

Real Wedding: Shu & Lin

Intimate weddings (and elopements!) at San Francisco’s City Hall always steal my heart, and this one from photographer Kate Harrison is no exception. Shu, the lovely bride, kindly took the time to share her and Lin’s sweet story with us:

We found each other on our alumni club’s social website when I was studying in London and Lin worked in Hong Kong. Although we were oceans apart, we found an instant connection. When we finally met, it felt like we’d known each other forever. After many long haul flights back and forth across the continents, Lin proposed on a visit to the UK, totally spontaneously: no ring, no flower, and I said yes! Thinking back, it took such courage that neither of us imagined, yet it was a rare moment of facing and following one’s own heart.

Instead of the traditional big fat Chinese banquet, we opted for a simple wedding, as fuss-free as possible. San Francisco City Hall came to my mind – I remembered seeing a photos from a wedding there and falling in love with the breathtaking architecture, and the ‘calmness’ within such a busy place really struck me.

I’ve always loved vintage styles, especially the 1940′s, and I dreamed of having a dress like Audrey Hepburn’s. After weeks searching in vintage shops and fairs in London and online, I finally decided to make my own wedding dress, using some original vintage patterns. I had so much fun, going through decades of wedding fashions, imagining how I would look in them and then finding the exact dress I wanted. On our wedding day, I ended up doing my own make-up and hair, I wrapped a piece of dotted veil around what I call a ‘messy up-do’, (it wasn’t perfect but it suits the casual and spontaneous mood of our wedding), and I stepped out the hotel with my groom, feeling so happy in my DIY-ed outfit.

The wedding went in a flash – all we could remember was the warm feeling of being together through it all, just the two of us. I have to thank our lovely photographer, Kate Harrison, who acted as our witness. She captured the essence of those intimate, joyful moments of our day, that was particularly what we wanted to remember.

Our wedding trip to San Francisco left us with the sweetest memory. It was a total adventure and our life-long journey starts there. The planning process can be easy – after all, it’s the firm belief in love and the faith to walk the journey, holding hands, that matters.

Well if that’s not romantic, I don’t know what is. Congratulations Shu and Lin, and thank you to photographer Kate Harrison for these dreamy photos. See lots more over on Kate’s blog, right here.

This wedding was submitted via Two Bright Lights.

24 Comments »

07 Mar

Real Wedding: Eulalia & Paul

When Ryan and I were considering a summer or fall wedding, Chileno Valley Ranch is one of the venues we looked at – so fun to have a chance to feature a wedding there! It’s one of those places with lots of possibilities, from the apple orchard to the garden to the barn…

Photography: Michelle Walker

Venue: Chileno Valley Ranch in Petaluma, California

Bride’s dress / shoes: Azadeh Couture / Jimmy Choo

Flowers: Paul Robertson

This wedding was submitted via Two Bright Lights.

14 Comments »

02 Mar

Real Wedding: Kate & Felix

Warning: This post is wordy. With lots of photos. I couldn’t help myself – there was too much good stuff to leave any of it out.

So many of the photos that end up in a real wedding feature are about little details, things like confetti in glassine envelopes or designer shoes. And those things are wonderful and lovely and I enjoy them as much as the next person. And maybe 90% of the weddings that get featured are outdoor daytime weddings because, well, the lighting is gorgeous. Nick Tucker’s photos from Kate and Felix’s winter wedding are something else entirely. Instead of gauzy afternoon light, they’re beautifully composed high-contrast nighttime shots. Instead of details, his photos capture energy – you can just feel the joy and love that were present at this wedding. Why did the couple choose this photographer? “We wanted someone who was instinctive, embraced chaos and didn’t mind low light levels,” says Kate. Brilliant.

And that brings us to the specifics of the day. Kate, a media producer for The Tate, and Felix, the artistic director of an immersive theater company, chose for their venue “a rambling empty old house near North Wales, that hadn’t been lived in for over 60 years.” Says Kate, “We are very lucky and have a lot of very talented and creative friends, who camped in the house the week before the wedding and set about transforming it from a shell into its former glory. Lots of ivy, enormous branches of mistletoe, rich brocade, beautiful furniture…”

In Nick Tucker’s words (since he was there and since I couldn’t possibly say it better), it was “a genuinely strange wonderland wedding…a blend of gothic and 1950s high society Manhattan, the whole place peppered with dandies, roustabouts, raconteurs, and Belle Époque beauties. And yet the day’s crowning achievement was that none of the spectacle ever overshadowed what was, at heart, just a very beautiful marriage. The whole thing was personal and idiosyncratic, but it was never self-consciously eccentric and never lost sight of its being a wedding day and amazing party.” Have you ever heard a more delightful description of a wedding? And the best part is, you can see all of that in these photos.

Okay then, on with the photos already!

From Kate: My dress was vintage, late 1930′s silk and tulle from a wonderful shop on Portobello Road in London called Jane Bourvis. Jane also found me a beautiful long Victorian veil. I wore dark blue velvet ballet shoes from Emma Hope and my great grandmother’s gold and pearl necklace. The New York artist Jude Miller handcrafted bluebell flowers from paper for my hair (Felix had proposed in a bluebell wood the spring before).

My favourite moment was seeing Felix for the first time, it was extraordinary and spine tingling, the best feeling I’ve ever had. And as I walked up the aisle, my little nephew said in a stage whisper saying ‘Goodbye Kate Vogel,’ which was extremely perceptive, since I was becoming Mrs. Barrett…

How about those gigantic mistletoe “chandeliers” – what a clever idea for a December wedding!

We wanted to have lots of music and dancing at different times throughout the day. We had a Welsh choir in church, Morris Dancers (old English pagan tradition), Music Hall Sing Alongs, a British Cockney knees-up with Chas & Dave and English folk music for dancing and reels with the band Bellowhead.

Yes, that is a 30-foot wedding cake fireworks bonfire…

A huge thank you and congratulations to Kate (a Snippet & Ink reader!) and Felix, and thanks to Nick Tucker for sharing this spectacularly beautiful and eccentric wedding with us. A perfect reminder that there’s not one right way to have a wedding, and that above all, a joyful marriage celebration – whatever it looks like – is the whole point. And if you can’t get enough, see the rest of the photos from this wedding over on Nick’s blog.

Photography: Nick Tucker

Bride’s dress / shoes: Jane Bourvis / Emma Hope

Paper bluebells: Jude Miller

Music: Chas & Dave / Bellowhead

Immersive theater company: Punchdrunk

25 Comments »

26 Feb

Real Wedding: Bethany & Eric

A classic New England wedding for your Saturday! Bethany and Eric were wed at the groom’s parents’ home, in Massachusetts: “After a six month renovation, the house was ready just days before our wedding!” says the bride.

One of Bethany’s favorite parts of the day? “When Eric and his four brothers, all very musically talented, sung ‘1,2,3,4’ by the Plain White T’s a capella. They set the tone for a very joyful day.”

A green and white palette reflected the garden venue: garden roses, sweet peas, lisianthus, tulips and hydrangea. In addition to flowers, centerpieces incorporated small birds nests, as well as pots of ivy and ferns, small candles wrapped with birch bark, and larger candelabras for a more formal touch.