Your Tuesday morning is about to get a whole lot prettier thanks to this gorgeous Finger Lakes wedding by Leo Timoshuk! There really is no better venue than a romantic vineyard, especially this one with its sweeping views of the Hudson River and amazing waterfalls. The bride put tons of special, personal touches on her day including that pretty and priceless vintage glass that graced all the tables at the reception. See that and so much more right here in the full gallery!
Click here for the FULL wedding!
From the Bride… Mike and I met in college, and we really got to know one another after I asked him to tutor me. I could tell right away that he was sweet on me, but he was too much of a gentleman to ask me out until the end of the semester. Just a few months after that, Mike graduated and moved five hours away. We knew we had something special, so we continued our relationship long-distance for the next two years until I graduated and moved to Rochester with Mike. A few years later, I had almost given up on Mike ever proposing, so I was completely surprised when he did! We were on a trip to Hawaii, and Mike suggested that we go snorkeling at sunrise in an old volcanic crater called Hanauma Bay. There were so many colorful fish and coral that it was like swimming in an aquarium. We even saw sea turtles! I thought Mike was leading me to see another turtle, but when I swam over to him, he pulled out a ring underwater! I had to surface and pull off my snorkel to say yes! It never occurred to Mike that he could have lost the ring in the ocean until after we came back and told people the story.
When it came to planning the wedding, Mike and I really wanted a personalized, memorable event for our guests. Since both of our families live in different states from us, we wanted to choose a location that our guests could make into a get-away vacation. We chose Glenora because of the beautiful view and great location in the Finger Lakes. We wanted the wedding to have a slightly rustic, vintage, romantic feel that drew on the natural beauty of the lake and vineyard. I’ve always had a thing for antiques and colored glass, but it was a real family affair to pull the wedding together. The tables were decorated with my stepmother’s lifetime collection of depression glass. We found the blue mason jars when my aunt saw an ad in the newspaper from a farmer cleaning out his barn. My mom sewed all of the burlap table runners herself, and another aunt made our cakes. Mike and I were both avid readers growing up, so I purchased vintage copies of some of our favorite children’s fiction and used the books as table names. I also commissioned a custom mason jar stamp with our initials and wedding date from Etsy to use as our unofficial monogram and repeated the theme of “L&M’ throughout the wedding, including the moss-covered letters I made for the ceremony. We wanted our ceremony to really reflect “us” so we chose to incorporate a wine capsule — we selected a bottle of wine to drink on our first, fifth, and tenth anniversaries and wrote letters to our future selves to seal in with the wine. Neither of us is big on public speaking, so these letters suited us perfectly. Plus, it was kind of fun to hammer a nail in my wedding dress!
One of my favorite moments was my dance with my dad. We started out dancing to “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John, which despite being a good song, does not have a lot of meaning to us. Then after a few minutes, our band faded into my Dad’s absolute favorite song, “Taking Care of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive. The look of surprise on his face was priceless! We had such a great time dancing that I don’t think the smile left my dad’s face for the rest of the night. Mike and I spent a lot of time during our engagement collecting and crafting to create a meaningful event, but it was all worth it when Mike said to me during the last slow song, “Could today have been more perfect?” It was an amazing day filled with fun, friends, and family, and we felt so surrounded by love.
Wedding Photography: Leo Timoshuk / Wedding Venue: The Vinyard Cottage at Glenora Wine Cellars in Dundee, New York / Floral Design: Flower Power Decor / Wedding Coordination: Chrystie Payne of Glenora Wine Cellars / Band: Something Else / Catering: Glenora Wine Cellars / Wedding Cakes: Mary Sauer, Aunt of the Bride / Wedding Dress: Casablanca Bridal “1914” via Bridal Belle / Hair: Meredith Towsand / Makeup: Charisse Koba / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: The Limited / Groom’s Suit: Hickey Freeman