I think that in some past life, I was the bride in this wedding. It feels oddly close to home, with a palette of soft but beautiful pinks and creams and grays. A romantic and yet utterly chic approach to design and a hello beautiful gown. And don’t even get me started on the goodness of that Jenny Packham gown that I literally want to steal right out of the bride’s closet. It’s like everything that I ever wanted in the whole world wrapped up into one flawless piece of gorgeousness. And thank goodness Clary Photo captured it all to utter perfection. Click here to see SO much more.
From the Bride and Groom… We met six years ago, when we were in college but at different schools, and started dating a few months later while we were summer interns in New York. With all the traveling and moving we did to be together, we had a long list of places in mind for our perfect wedding. After months of admiring nearly every SMP post, we took trips to Sonoma, upstate New York, and every barn within fifty miles of Ann Arbor, MI (where we live now). We were really at a loss. However, once we connected with Katie Saeger of Simply & Forever Event Planning, she helped us see that she could make our vision a reality in almost any space.
From our very first meeting with Katie, we could tell she fully understood our inspiration for the wedding, and that she was personally invested in making our wedding dream come true. We envisioned a warm, timeless, romantic, and intimate evening. Family is extremely important to us — we both come from huge families with lots of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews — so we wanted our wedding to be a celebration of our families merging. We decided to have both the ceremony and reception at Rachel’s parents’ country club in St. Louis, and we began meeting with amazing local vendors who helped us to plan every last detail of our big day.
The unbelievable effort of everyone involved and the incredible outpouring of love from our families and friends made our wedding perfect in every way. (Even though Hurricane Isaac forced us to move our ceremony indoors, thanks to Katie and our amazing team, not one of our guests would have known we hadn’t planned to have it there all along!) We had so much fun including details that were special to us, like the antique teacups on the tables, which were a gift from Rachel’s grandmother, or the reclaimed wood Rachel and her mom found together, or the wooden boxes that Katie’s husband made to showcase our beautiful flowers. We chose a color palette of pastels and neutrals, and we loved the way these soft shades worked together in everything from the flowers, to the bridesmaids’ dresses, to the breathtaking cake. The ceilings in our reception were quite tall, and we wanted to accentuate that by covering the chandeliers with flowers and moss and hanging shimmering votives from above. Capturing all of this in photos was extremely important to us. We are so happy we chose Clary Pfeiffer from Clary Photo — we fell in love with the beautiful work she does using film. Clary had a way of making everyone feel relaxed and natural and because of that, we feel she perfectly depicted the special details of our day along with all the love that was in the air.
Wedding Photography: Clary Photo / Wedding Venue : Westwood Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri / Wedding Planning + Design: Simply & Forever / Floral Design: Sisters Floral Design Studio / Wedding Production + Design – Contemporary Productions + Exclusive Events, Inc. / Cinematography: sweetTea Media / Save the Date Video: Tim Craft & Jane Fitzsimmons / Wedding Cake: The Cakery / Music: Charles Glenn Band / Photo Booth: Studio B / Wedding Invitation: Two Blue Doors / Invitation Calligraphy: MJ Paperie / Wedding Day Calligraphy: Barb Winnerman / Bride’s Dress: Jenny Packham / Bride’s Shoes: Giuseppe Zanotti / Jewelry: Simons Jewelers / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Amsale via Bella Bridesmaid / Hair: David’s in Clayton / Flower Girls’ Dresses: J.Crew Crewcuts / Groom’s Suit : Hugo Boss