With adorable little flower girls in floral crowns, this wedding was destined to be sweet. And the venue – the bride’s childhood home – guaranteed a whole lotta sentiment. Add to that an amazingly beautiful love between two people (and an extra beautiful soiree planned by Proud to Plan) and you’ve got a wedding so sweet, sentimental, and beautiful all wrapped up in beyond stunning images from mk Photography. I’d say that’s a gallery worth your time!
Click here to see the full image gallery!
The basic story of our relationship is that Dermot and I met when I was in third grade. His younger sister was in my class at school and I remember going over to her house in middle school and thinking her big brother was very cute. His sister left my school in 10th grade and so we all lost touch after that. It was not until we friended each other on facebook that Dermot and I got back in touch.
At that time, I had been single for a while and when I got a facebook message from my one-time crush, it felt too good to be true and I actually did not respond because I figured it must be spam. Eventually (about 3 weeks later) it occurred to me that I was being very rude if his kind email was not spam and so I responded with something like “I am not sure if this is spam, so if it is- just ignore me, if not: Im doing well- how are you?” That started us emailing and pretty soon after that we met up for the first time in about 15 years. We were both pretty smitten from that first meeting and have spent very few days apart since then.
We dated for about 1.5 years before Dermot proposed which he did on Christmas Eve morning. That was the day that we had agreed to exchange our presents (because we had so many family parties over the holidays). We had been talking about getting a dog and had looked into what type and where we might get one and so he started to hint that he was getting me a puppy for christmas. On Christmas morning he said that he had to go out and get the present and then made a big show of making lots of noise bringing in the present. When I came down the stairs I saw that he had wrapped up a dog crate with a bow and put it under the tree. When I looked behind me, confused, after looking inside what was an empty dog crate, I saw Dermot holding the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. We spent the rest of the day in our own bliss and then got to surprise our families that night with our news at a Christmas Cve party that turned into an impromptu engagement party.
Our wedding planning was relatively easy and enjoyable. I had always wanted to get married in the house that I grew up in and so while we looked at other venues, nothing really measured up to my childhood home. Once we made that decision, many of our others just fell into place. We both put emphasis on photography, flowers and the band and so spent the most time and budget choosing those vendors. We were then were so lucky to have met Erin Proud with Proud to Plan who really helped everything else to fall into place. I was not originally planning on having a wedding planner, thinking that I am a pretty hands-on type of person- but I am so glad I did!! Both my husband and I were really able to sit back and enjoy the day- we knew that she had everything taken care of.
One of the small details that I am so glad that we did, which was an idea born out of my wedding blog oggling, was that rather than give each other gifts on our wedding day, we wrote each other letters. Mike and Jana then were able to capture the reading of the letters as we stood side by side before we saw each other. It was a wonderful moment and I am so glad that they caught it so beautifully.
Other things that were important to us were that we get married outdoors that that we have a spiritual and personal but non-religious ceremony. Getting married in PA was perfect because we applied for a self-uniting license and then had our good family friend lead the ceremony that we wrote. This allowed us to have our friends and family participate in the ceremony in a way that felt very special. Another favorite detail was our donut bar which was born out of our love of the donuts that my maid of honor’s husband (and out ceremony officiant) makes in his restaurant Federal Donuts. They really are like small gourmet cakes and come in such wonderful flavors- we knew we had to have them a part of the wedding. So rather than a traditional cake- we had a donut tower and then served the donuts on a bar with milk, coffee and iced chai for dessert. Oh, and of course I can’t forget our cake toppers which were little frogs (because Dermot’s name rhymes with Kermit and so he has been given frogs since he was young and now amassed a pretty impressive collection) which were made for us by another etsy artist called top o’ the cake.
We both had so much fun at our wedding and danced the entire night away. It was a very special and incredibly fun day and evening and I wouldn’t trade a single memory for anything.
Photography: mk Photography / Planner: Proud to Plan / Caterer: Duffy Catering / Cake: Federal Donuts / Video: AOVproductions / Flowers: Petals Lane / Entertainment: CTO Park Ave / Hair & Makeup: Cheekadee