Real Wedding: Jen and Andy, III

On to the absolutely gorgeous ceremony which took place at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center. It’s simple, it’s elegant, it’s utterly beautiful…

photography by Ben Vigil

From Jen…

We found it very important to us that our ceremony be a lovely, thoughtful thing without any sense of manufactured wedding protocol. We asked a former teacher of ours to officiate, since he had known us both before we became a couple and we’d always been struck by his profoundly positive and truly appreciative outlook on his wife and family, who’d he also found while in portfolio school years before. He’d never done anything like it before, and took cues from his rabbi, which brought such a wonderful spirituality to the ceremony that we didn’t even know we’d want. Instead of readings or prayers, he had asked our closest loved ones for insights on what they thought made Andy and I special for each other, or what they thought made marriage so sacred, and read them to the crowd. It was a personal and truly inspirational collection of thoughts that we heard for the first time at the altar. Andy and I wrote our vows together, a list of promises we found most important and true to our marriage. As the sun set behind us, the trains barreled past, thoughts shared and honored, our guests laughed and teared up with us, and we became husband and wife.

Our flowers were simple green and white from our color palette. Kristin Hinkle Designs created beautiful personals for the bridal party and family. My bouquet was a gorgeous blend of green cymbidium orchids, hydrangeas and white jade roses (I think?). My bridesmaids had all-green bouquets of spider mums, jade roses and berries. Andy wore a white flower on his lapel, and his groomsmen wore green button mums.