If you’re ready for warm summer evenings and the weddings that come along with them, I’ve got a little preview of the season to come. And with the smiles for days, the happy, beautiful couple and the sweet handmade details, it’s quite the preview. Alison Conklin Photography captured the day which has put a permagrin on every single one of us over at SMP HQ, and here’s why!
From the stunning bride… We got married on on a warm and sunny Saturday in August in the middle of nowhere, about one hour outside of Cologne, where we live. We felt that the wedding should be authentic and reflect who we are, rather than meet other peoples’ expectations so we kept it simple and personal.
We created a nice setting, making a lot of the details for the wedding ourselves. For place cards, we painted the tips of wooden spoons and tied handwritten name tags to them, to represent our love for good food and so people could use them later and think of us in their everyday lives. I sewed triangle streamers and made a bunch of giant pompoms to decorate the venue. We also put stickers with our wedding logo on 300 Reese’s Pieces and placed some on each guest’s plates, because they are our favorite candy from the US. For the guests who were staying overnight, we stuffed little white paper bags with our favorite gummy bear variations, sealed them with our stickers and put them on each guest’s pillow. The invitations and menu cards were made by a graphic designer, according to our ideas and wishes.
To us, this day was never just about the two of us. We also wanted it to be about our families and friends, because they are the people who matter most to us, and after all, some of them traveled half the world to be with us, since part of my family lives in the US!
My uncle, who is a minister, married us underneath the birch trees in the venue’s garden, in an unforgettable, very personal and emotional ceremony during which we both laughed and cried. On our way out, a friend of ours played the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” on his electric guitar and sang while we enjoyed shower of rose petals, which my mother and bridesmaid had passed around the guests before the ceremony to surprise us – what a magical moment! And there was yet another surprise: all of a sudden, there were dozens of white and red heart shaped helium balloons, which we let fly. From the first look to the last dance, we enjoyed every second of our wedding and thankfully, we got the wonderful Alison Conklin and her husband Geoff to capture all these wonderful moments for us to remember for years to come!
Photography: Alison Conklin Photography | Floral Design: Local Florist Blumen Adolphs In Hillesheim | Stationary: Papier & Feder | Food: Landgut Strumpffabrik | Officiant: Ross Foti | Wedding Venue: Landgut Strumpffabrik | Brides Dress: Jesus Peiro