Add a dash of retro to a fabulous country setting and the result is this: a drop-dead gorgeous day filled with crazy cool details from an awesome team of vendors + a bride and groom who know a thing or two about being crafty. Think DIY goodness meets lush florals from The Green Cottage, yummy favors from One Girl Cookies and amazing images from Katie Osgood. See them here.
From the Bride… People are always surprised when I tell them that Dmitriy and I met when we were just sixteen years old after he had transferred to my high school! They are even more surprised when they learn that we didn’t start dating until 10 years later. Having known each other for half of our lives, I have always felt that our relationship was unique. Because of that we wanted to make sure that our wedding wasn’t cookie cutter and was, instead, a reflection of us.
After dating for two years, I relocated from Brooklyn, NY to the Hudson Valley to live with Dmitriy, so we decided we wanted our wedding to reflect our country lifestyle. We started by selecting the venue, Locust Grove, a historic house overlooking the Hudson River. We also knew that we didn’t want traditional wedding food. Lola’s Cafe and Catering helped us create a comfort food style menu of mac and cheese, fried chicken, cornmeal crusted red snapper, steak, mashed potatoes and more. To match our menu we decided to order six different layer cakes and lots of pies for dessert from our favorite local bakery, Bread Alone. And to add a little Brooklyn to the mix, each of our guests received a whoopie pie from One Girl Cookies, located in my old neighborhood.
Fitting with the country theme we had the fantastic band, Mama Tired, play 1950’s- 60’s bluegrass music during our cocktail hour (they also played Beatles’ songs during our ceremony). But the music wasn’t the only retro element of our wedding. My mom and I had been collecting vintage housewares for years; we even opened an Etsy store to sell our finds! (Only the items that we didn’t end up keeping for ourselves!) With such a great vintage collection, I wanted to make sure that Dmitriy and I incorporated some of it into our wedding decor. For the ceremony, we used our vintage white kitchen table along with our yellow 1950’s pyrex mixing bowl. The photo booth prop table was a 1940’s baking table from my mom’s kitchen, decorated with another one of our pyrex mixing bowls, some vintage milk glass and a retro butter dish. The photo booth props are Mad Men-style glasses, mustaches and lips.
My amazing mom helped with a lot more than just allowing us to borrow her table. Together we made the retro-themed string art table numbers with craft supplies we bought at Michael’s. She also sewed the reception table squares with two different fabric designs that we picked out together. We loved how they made the milk glass floral arrangements, by The Green Cottage, really pop! Using the same fabric my mom made bunting which decorated the dessert table. The fabric was also glued to the framed bulletin board which we used to display the escort cards. Luckily, I also have some artistic friends and family members. My cousin-in-law’s beautiful calligraphy is on our escort cards which were then secured to the bulletin board with red buttons that I glued to thumbtacks. One of our incredibly talented friends made us custom corn hole boards, along with the photo booth wall! Many of the details we weren’t able to make ourselves came from Etsy.
While all of these elements helped to make our wedding day special, we felt that it was very important to also have a personalized ceremony. Our wedding officiant Jeddah Vailakis worked with us to make this happen. We burned sage as part of a smudging ritual and incorporated nature into our ceremony. We each wrote our own vows so that we could truly express how we felt about each other. I have to say the ceremony was our favorite part of the entire day.
A few additional details from our wedding:
We decided to have our mothers sign the marriage license.
My bridesmaids and I chose cocktail length dresses and red shoes to fit our retro theme.
The groom and his groomsmen wore custom-made suits based on 1950’s designs, along with retro-looking thin ties.
On our invitations we encouraged our guests to dress in a retro style and be as creative as they wanted!
Our wedding DJ, Ari from Beat Train Productions, was amazing! He worked with us to customize the indie rock and dance music playlist. And he actually spun vinyl, which we loved! We got so many compliments from our guests on the music.
Photographer: Katie Osgood Photography | Floral Design: Green Cottage | Wedding Dress: Modern Trousseau | Invitations: Love VS. Design | Brides Shoes: Chinese Laundry | Bridesmaid Dresses: Alfred Sung | Catering: Lola's Cafe And Catering | Hair And Makeup: Pretty Bird Bridal | DJ: Beat Train Productions | Band: Gig Masters - PartyPosh | Officiant: Jeddah Vailakis, NYC Wedding Officiant | Bed & Breakfast: La Petite Chateau Inn | Bridesmaid Gifts: Toms | Cakes And Pies: Bread Alone Bakery | Ceremony And Reception Venue: Locust Grove | Escort Cards: Foglio Press | Groom's And Groom's Men's Attire: Ravi Sehgal | Guest Gifts, Whoopie Pies: One Girl Cookies | Just Married Wedding Banner And Cards Banner: Paramore Art Works | Menu: Milk Banana Studio | Photo Booth And Ceremony Sign: DESIGNlib | Photo Booth Props, Chalkboard Speech Bubbles: Chalk Style | Photo Booth Props, Mad Men Party On A Stick Kit: Little Retreats | Vintage Housewares: Bettys Kitschen | Wedding Dress Belt: Augusta Jones | Wedding Dress Boutique: The White Dress by the shore