This Philadelphia bride describes her groom and herself as “nerds,” and credits much of her wedding to the “nerd” style within. I’m not sure if she’s right, but if she is, I’m ready to jump into the nerd parade, because this fête is fabulous. I’m totally loving the library-esque feel of the whole affair – from the ceremony surrounded by literature, to the books in the centerpieces. Captured by Lindsay Hite & Jacqueline Schlossman of Readyluck, this wedding is so much less nerdy, and so much more Library-Chic, at least in this humble bloggers opinion. If you’re ready to join me in the new Library-Chic movement, there is even more inspiration over at Readyluck! Click here for more.
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I met Will one fateful evening in Philadelphia through a mutual friend who he had studied abroad with. The stars must have been aligned that night because all the people involved and events leading up to our meeting were somehow interconnected and continue to be to this day. After dating for nearly five years across two states, Will proposed to me when I least expected it.
Will loves history and is a public interest lawyer, and I love art and work at an art museum as an educator. We are both nerds when it comes to art, history, and culture, so naturally we wanted to design our wedding to reflect our passions. We chose to have our wedding at the German Society of Pennsylvania, a historic building in Philadelphia built in the late 1800’s. The space was beautiful and had a transcendent atmosphere that we thought was unique – especially to those coming in from out of town. In true nerd-fashion, we held our ceremony in the German Society’s library, which was filled with books from floor to ceiling. The reception took place in the German Society’s ballroom, which had simple, historic wood-work design throughout the room.
Will and I are very proud of Philadelphia and the things we like to do. We wanted to be resourceful and share what we love with our family and friends. For our centerpieces, we drew inspiration from the library and stacked hand-painted and stamped books and topped each stack with flower arrangements in mason jars. Instead of table numbers, we decided to identify each table with names and biographies of “Phamous Philadelphians.”
As wedding favors, we made and canned apple butter – a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe and tradition in Will’s family. We used all local, organic apples to make the apple butter throughout the year. To decorate the jars of apple butter, we cut squares of various patterned fabric with pinking shears, laid the fabric over the lid and put on the screw top over the fabric. The nametags were crumpled and antiqued using distress ink and then tied around the jars using raffia.
Our wedding cake toppers were made by a ceramic artist named Jacqueline Jrolf who works at my art museum. The birds are called “speros” which translates into ” I hope” in Italian. Besides having wedding toppers by an artist I admire, I thought her birds also had a meaningful message that fit with our day.
One of our favorite moments at the wedding was our first dance. We decided early on to take dance lessons and it really paid off! We learned the fox trot and mastered a few surprising moves and dips, which had our guests applauding and cheering throughout the entire song. We also really enjoyed the speeches given by my father and our wedding party because so many things were said that were meaningful to us.
Venue: German Society of Pennsylvania / Brides Dress: BB Couture / Bridesmaids dresses: J. Crew / Grooms Suit: Henry A Davidson / Florist: Market Blooms / DJ: Feme Olatunji aka DJ Femstar / Catering: Catering Concepts / Cake: Erin Grissinger at Ciao! Bakery / Photography: Lindsay Hite & Jacqueline Schlossman for Readyluck / Cake Toppers: Jacqueline Jrolf