In Santa Fe, the sky seems brighter, the flowers prettier and a Destination Wedding like this beauty seems all the more joyous. Twin Lens photographed the whole celebration from knock-out Bridesmaid attire to one almost-too-pretty-to-eat cake and right on through to gorgeous images of an oh-so-in-love couple. This is a wedding extravaganza done so, so right and you can see it all here.
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From the bride… Keith and I both went into the wedding planning process very open-minded. The world was our oyster! We live in Illinois and decided early on that we wanted to do a destination wedding. We still wanted a lot of family and friends to attend, so we ruled out anything requiring a passport. Keith and I had traveled to the Southwest a few times and loved the desert, the endless sky and the FOOD! While we had been to Silver City, New Mexico, we had never been to Santa Fe, but we both independently put it in the running for our wedding location. We flew out for a weekend of venue appointments saying that if we didn’t love it, we’d start over. We loved it.
My cousin Corinne is SUPER crafty. I am not but like being creative every now and then. With her help, we made the escort cards, programs, table stories, and faux photo booth. You can see a tutorial on how the program fans were made on Corinne’s blog. Keith and I both love to travel, and have taken several trips together. We only had eight tables so instead of doing numbers, we assigned favorite trip destinations to the tables. Keith wrote up stories of our time there to display. If one of the destinations included friends or family, we included them in the story. If they were at our wedding, we tried to sit them at “their” table. Since we were getting married in such a beautiful setting, we wanted to take full advantage. We created our own “photo booth” by buying frames from Hobby Lobby, painting them the colors we wanted, and hanging them alongside the reception area. We made props by cutting silhouettes out of heavy paper and gluing them to wooden rods, and bought a couple of chalk boards for guests to use. We also supplied an instant camera to complete the vintage feel. It was a huge hit!
My dad’s toast was one of my favorite moments. He is an excellent speaker and had the whole place laughing and crying. Keith’s dad also gave a speech. He is not one to typically do so, but he felt inspired to at the wedding and delivered a short, simple, and poignant message. It was also so great to get to set the soundtrack for the day. I walked in to the ceremony to Moon River on the Spanish guitar, and the bridal party reception entrance song, Keith and my first dance song, and the songs we danced to with our parents all carried a lot of meaning to us. My mom made my dress for a sorority recruitment event in college and it ended up being the perfect wedding dress. My mother passed away 8 years ago so it was even more special that I could wear a dress she made on my wedding day.
Wedding Photography: Twin Lens / Wedding Venue + Catering: Las Campanas in Santa Fe, New Mexico / Flowers: Marisa Peluso of Marisa Millefiori / Wedding Coordination: Heidi Mitchell of Santa Fe Soiree / Wedding Cake: Amber at Chocolate Maven / Wedding Dress: The Mother of the Bride / Ceremony Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Reception Shoes: Chanel / Bride’s Belt: Kirsten Kuehn Designs / Bride’s Earrings + Necklace: Nordstrom / Hair + Eyelashes: Travis Manning / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Alice and Olivia / Bridesmaids’ Necklaces: Anthropologie + gigi BOTTEGA / Groom’s + Groomsmen’s Suits: J.Crew / Wedding Invitations: Dapper Paper / Escort Cards, Programs, Table names, Frames + Paper Props: DIY / Ceremony + Cocktail Hour Music: Sol y Luna / Reception Music: DJ Cypher Unlimited