It’s not very often that we come across a wedding sans flowers. Flora and Weddings are like peanut-butter and jelly. That is until we spotted this perfect day captured by Lisa Boggs Photography. It’s a beautiful mix of herbs and backyard festivities without a single petal in sight but the pretty factor is soaring right through the roof. This wedding definitely gets the SMP seal of approval for thinking outside of the wedding box. See more right here in the full gallery.
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From the bride… After my fiance and I got engaged, we started planning a large-scale rustic fall wedding in the Washington, DC area. After about 9 months into the planning, we decided that we were way over our budget due to some unexpected financial issues that came up. We drastically scaled back the wedding’s size and moved the date up from the Fall to the Spring of 2011. Lucky for us, my fiance’s mother lives in Westport, CT, just one block from the Long Island Sound. She has a beautiful and quaint back yard right on the canal, which also looks out towards the Sound. She graciously agreed to host the wedding (for free!) at her home and our planning began in earnest.
Now that we were on a tight budget, we had to reassess the themes and cost of our wedding. One of the things we had always planned to do, which certainly made the wedding more cost effective, was to have an entire wedding with absolutely no flowers! Because we were in a beautiful back yard with lots of natural greenery, it made it really easy to do. We chose very neutral colors — ivory and natural browns and beiges with pops of green. Instead of floral arrangements at the dining tables, we had small potted herbs. Instead of real flowers, we had the dining tables sprinkled with very small birch wood sculpted roses painted in multiple colors. The overall effect of the muted design contrasted nicely with the lush greenery of the back yard.
Thanks to vendors on Etsy, we were able to purchase many lovely details to enhance our overall design scheme such as: mason jars with chalk board fronts, quaint table numbers, wood heart escort cards, wedding signs and arrows, personalized jars of honey for favors, and silk clutches for me and my bridesmaids to carry in lieu of bouquets. My good friend and designer, Melanie Karlins, was responsible for helping me to articulate my vision and creating our beautifully rustic invitations, programs, and menus. AMG Catering provided the catering services for our wedding. To start out, they served guests upon their arrival fresh squeezed lemonade and fresh brewed iced tea. After the ceremony, the staff served up a deliciously long and gluten-free cocktail hour with beautiful plates of anti-pasta, delicious hors d’ oeuvres such as mini lamb burgers served with yogurt sauce on cucumber slices and and pulled barbecue pork served on sweet potato crisps. The cocktail hour was was followed by a simple and delicious family style meal of grilled flank steak, rosemary chicken, grilled asparagus, and a beautiful mixed green salad with goat cheese, beats, and candied pecans. In lieu of a wedding cake we had an over-the-top dessert buffet with multiple cakes, cupcakes, pastries, bars, and pies, about 1/3 of which were gluten-free!
Photographer: Lisa Boggs Photography / Wedding Dress: BHLDN / Hair & Makeup: Faces Beautiful / Desserts: Baked & Wired, Cherry Blossom Cakes, Angela Mia, Mariposa, AMG Catering / Catering: AMG Catering / Wedding Coordinator: AMG Catering / Paper Goods & Design: Melanie Karlins / Rentals: Abbey Tent & Party Rentals / Transportation: Teddy’s Limo / AV Equipment: A/V Davey