I am crazy about this wedding for three very simple reasons. It’s a foodie wedding. Awesome. The bride is as lovely as they come. Which I love. And the photography by Erik Ekroth is simply stunning. It’s one of those weddings that you just wish you had a ticket to, that you just know was a magical night. Love, love, love. Click here to see tons and tons of additional images.
{click here to see the full, completely gorgeous wedding}
I guess you would call our wedding “down home meets downtown.” We were catering mainly to both a NYC and Nashville crowd. We chose Blue Hill because a.) we love the food and Dan Barber – Blue Hill is our favorite restaurant, b) we love that we could have a country setting that’s so close to Manhattan and c.) we wanted an intimate setting—we wanted it to feel like a dinner party with our closest friends, but taken up a notch because, hey, it’s a wedding! Also, it was nice to have “something blue” in Blue Hill (even though I later took the blue theme a little further with the shoes!).
The big question throughout the day was … the weather — we were planning to have an outdoor ceremony and, although it wasn’t raining, it was misting all day. People kept saying “oh i see the sun!” but I knew it was doomed. The event organizer at blue hill was so nice — she said we could do it outdoor and set up the space for both options but i didn’t want guests to be uncomfortable so we ended up having the ceremony indoors. It soon dried up (of course), and so we moved outside for the cocktail hour.
Our programs were designed last minute by a former art director at Real Simple. (I was literally at Kinko’s on the morning of the wedding getting them printed and then corner-rounded them.) The programs were a play off of the invitations that we had created. We had so much fun making the invitations — I think that’s when the wedding became a real project for us — working with the letterpress co., the calligrapher, getting addresses, and designing the invites, all inspired by a design we saw on A Farm Fresh Wedding (they lent us the design). Our goal was to make the event sincere and intimate, but also light and whimsical. We didn’t do the traditional reply card, but instead asked people to check whether they “wouldn’t miss it for the world” or whether they would “be there in spirit.” I worked with the calligrapher to come up with a style that matched our invitations…the right mix of formal but whimsical. That was in keeping with our overall wedding vibe. We wanted something really nice and traditional, but not at all stuffy and hopefully the calligraphy reflected that.
Also, instead of using numbers for table cards, we asked the calligrapher to prepare cards that named tables for various cities that my husband and i visited together. So guests were asked to sit at “barcelona” or “mykonos” — the idea was that each table would have a photo of us in that city. Because blue hill had such a nice ambience all on its own, we really didn’t want to disrupt the scenery and had only a few ways to infuse our creative touches…
As for my favorite style detail…my shoes. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on ivory satin shoes that I might only wear once. Anyway I went to Christian Louboutin in search of baby blue satin d’orsays when I discovered the shoes I ended up wearing — they were just fun and a great way to get my “something blue.” I justified them by saying that they doubled as “wedding shoes” but, perhaps more importantly, as “anniversary shoes” — I plan to wear them each and every year when we celebrate the big day!
I wish I could say you don’t have to obsess about every little detail. It’s futile – of course you are going to obsess over every. little. detail. But at some point (for me, it was the morning of the wedding), it became important to just let it go and have fun. The most important thing is simply being surrounded by your friends and family. Follow your instincts and don’t do things just because you think you should or because someone else wants you to do it. For example, about four weeks before the wedding, I changed my mind about my dress (!!!). This reconsideration resulted in panicked last-minute appointments at Vera Wang and Kleinfeld’s. I was a nervous wreck even after purchasing the second dress because all I could do was think “is this IT? is it PERFECT?” Of course it’s hard to say whether something is “it” or “perfect,” but I am glad that I made sure to find a dress I really, really loved.
Wedding Gown by Amy Michelson / Shoes by Christian Louboutin / Hairstylist – Kerrie Urban / Ceremony Music by John Ragusa Music / Invitations based on a design by A Farm Fresh Wedding and with a letterpress company, Cour Noir (Brooklyn) / Flowers by Sandy Clothier / Programs by Michele Walthers / Calligraphy by Pretty Pen Jen (Austin, TX) / Favors by Lulu’s Bakery & Kate’s Paperie / Photography by Erik Ekroth