Botanical Inspired Wedding in Charlottesville, VA at the Clifton Inn

Abby Capalbo
October 6, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Florals rank high among my favorite things, so a wedding inspired by beautiful blooms? Well, that’s basically my dream come true. FloraCulture made sure to fill every corner with the prettiest of petals, leaving this couple with a day so lovely I am sure they are still dreaming of it. Lucky for all of us, Love By Serena was behind the lens to capture every beautiful moment in a way that will make your heart sing, and you can see them all here.

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From Love By Serena…I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Whitney & Jeff’s beautiful summer wedding at the The Clifton Inn. The two of them live in the Washington DC area and chose Charlottesville, VA for its sweet charm. Whitney loves all things Anthropologie, so it was only natural that the bridesmaids would wear dresses from BHLDN. Their special day included vintage, botanical details to match the lovely look of the outdoor gardens, live music for guests to dance the night away to, and a beautiful wish lantern send-off. A snippet about their relationship, from the couple…Jeff and Whitney met in North Carolina while Jeff was stationed at Camp Lejeune and Whitney was working with military families on base. Their first date was at a quaint seafood restaurant on Emerald Isle. Jeff had just totaled his car the week before and so showed up on one of his motorcycles. During dinner, they couldn’t stop staring at each other – they were both so excited and a little nervous at the same time. After dinner they went for a walk on the beach and fireworks went off! It was a completely magical setting (that Jeff will try and convince you was planned) for their first kiss. Jeff and Whitney had many dates and long walks on the beach in Surf City and Emerald Isle before Jeff left for his second deployment. While it was scheduled for June, Jeff had to abruptly depart in March. It was hard on Whitney, who soon created a visual for how many days had passed without Jeff and how many days were left. It was a rather depressing number at first, but as the summer approached and the weather grew warmer and beach walks became more frequent, Whitney started collecting beach rocks. She put them in a giant vase in the kitchen – one rock for each day Jeff and Whitney spent apart. She needed 324 rocks for the true countdown… After many, many emails, walkie-talkie phone calls, baked goods packages, and many rocks in the vase (about eleven-ish months later), Jeff returned. After taking a small tour of the East Coast, visiting family and friends, life began to settle down a bit for Jeff and Whitney and old routines fell back into place. One particularly windy day after returning from Chapel Hill to visit Jeff’s mom and stepdad, Jeff asked Whitney to take a walk on the beach. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a walk on the beach together and you haven’t finished your rock collection yet.” Despite the March chilliness, Whitney agreed, and they set off on their sunset walk. Jeff prompted Whitney (who was cold and hugging Jeff for most of the walk) to continue to pick up her rocks. She was too cold and suggested that they should walk back and somehow got ahead of him a bit. He continued to talk about the rocks and then paid special attention to one in particular. “Hey how about this one, hun?” he said. When she turned around, Jeff was on one knee holding a beautifully sparkling diamond ring. She was speechless for a good ten seconds, which seemed like an eternity for someone (Jeff) proposing marriage to someone. Her first response: “Oh, shut up!” (not what Jeff was expecting), was followed by a series of yeses (exactly what he was hoping)!