Many of you may know photography extraordinaire Max Wanger for his whimsical approach behind the lens but many of you haven’t seen Max quite like this – paired with a perfectly classic New England wedding full of elegant touches. The result is sort of blowing our minds with its sheer gorgeousness and we can’t quite get over how fashionable the guests are. They are bringing wedding attire to a whole new level of cool. Bravo Massachusetts. See the rest of the pretty details from this Crane Estate soiree in the gallery.
The prettiness doesn’t stop there… we have the gorgeous film from VideoDesign Films right here for your viewing pleasure…
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My vision for the wedding was for it to be elegant yet whimsical. My family is English (my mother is from London) and Griff grew up in the South (Virginia), so I wanted to combine elements from both of our backgrounds. I wanted it to be filled with contradictions and contrasts: a grand estate on a rolling hill as the setting, with an ultra casual bluegrass band as the ceremony/cocktail music; vintage urns stuffed with white and green flowers with hanging leaves (reminiscent of an English garden) on belgian linen tablecloths (that my mother made for us) contrasted with the vegetables we used as centerpieces on the outdoor cocktail tables; formal menus, programs and seating cards in ivory and pewter with vintage postcards (collected entirely by my husband) as our guest book. My husband, Griff, is obsessed with 2 things: farmers markets and postcards. He rides his bike to the farmers market EVERY wednesday (rain or shine) and he has been collecting postcards for over 10 years (when I met him his bathroom was absolutely covered in postcards, each with an IKEA frame). I wanted to make sure that his favorite things were included in the wedding in some way, so we wanted to make the cocktail hour feel a little bit like a farmers market with a different vegetable on each cocktail table (brussell sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, cabbage, artichokes even a bell pepper!) and we had a raw bar with local oysters shucked in front of our guests.
The color palette was neutral with lots of ivory, beige and green with a subtle hint of color (like the pale pink and navy blue striped ties on the groomsmen). I wanted it to feel natural. The bridesmaids wore comfortable summer dresses with pockets and the boys wore blue blazers and khaki’s with beige suspenders. A lot of the evening was spent on the grass, so I had a big basket with “heel stoppers” for the ladies to put on their shoes. For the table names we picked all of our “first dates”: Weird Fish (a restaurant in San Francisco), Burrito Night, English Bay, Hog Island, etc – we wanted the guests to have fun trying to figure out what they meant! For favors, we had brought Earl Grey flavored macaroons from Paulette’s in San Francisco and put them in individual boxes that we hand tied with tulle!
Photography: Max Wanger / Cinematography: Lynne Valeri of Video Design Films / Flowers: Leonhard’s Florist, Beverly, MA (Dorris) / Event Planning: bride and mother / Ceremony and Reception Location: Crane Estate, Ipswich, MA / Shoes: Oscar de La Renta / Dress: Monique Lhuillier / Bridesmaids Dresses: Thread / Groomsmens Ties: Ben Silver / Cocktail and Ceremony Music: The Goodtime String Band