After two years spent roaming the globe searching for the perfect place to say ‘I Do’, this couple realized home is where the heart is. Their riverside cottage proved to be ideal and Charlotte Jenks Lewis was there to snap every detail. Filled with incredibly sweet details, from the intimate rehearsal dinner to the the homespun newlywed meal at Prairie Whale, you’ll want more of their perfect ending right here!
From The Bride…I was never the girl who dreamed about and planned details of her wedding well in advance. When Alex proposed, the idea of spending our lives together felt exciting enough. I was happy to savor our engagement and was in no rush to plan our wedding. It took us two years – and batting around many different ideas about location, venues and guest list – before we finally came up with an idea that felt right to both of us. We had recently purchased a little cottage alongside a river in the woods in the Berkshires and decided that, of all the places we had looked at from Maui, to British Columbia, to New Orleans, there was nowhere we would prefer to have our ceremony than right in our own backyard and no place we would rather have our reception than at our favorite restaurant owned by our dear friends. In order to keep it intimate and not to get lost in the ‘event’ of it, we opted to have just our immediate families and a few close friends with the idea of hosting a larger party with our extended families and all of our friends later on.
We focused in on a few things that we knew were important to us and let the rest flow from there. We knew we wanted the ceremony to be outdoors, to include dogs and kids, and to be short and personal. We wanted amazing food and drinks and we wanted our reception to feel like a great big, celebratory dinner party rather than a scripted evening. We wanted it to feel authentic, not too fussy or contrived, casual but elegant. We vetoed some of the more traditional wedding aspects that didn’t feel significant to us like a bridal party, a color theme, planned speeches etc. With the help of our very generous friends and family, we were able to create everything ourselves. The jewelry was all vintage. My wedding ring was a gift from my MIL that had been in her family. We made the animals on the tables. We made them from dollar store plastic animals and gold spray paint.
For the ceremony, instead of a wedding party we invited all the kids (and dogs!) in attendance to be in our procession. We let them choose whatever they wanted to wear – one even wore a superman outfit! – and created enough ‘jobs’ so they all had something important to do. My brother, who had known both of us longer than we had known each other, married us and Alex’s brother read a passage during the ceremony. It was incredibly sweet and personal and made for a lot of wet cheeks!
We kept the décor simple. At the ceremony we relied primarily on the natural beauty of our yard creating an ‘alter’ between two towering pines and adding just a couple of flowering jasmine plants and some glass globes with candles suspended above our heads by invisible wire. At the reception we recycled the rehearsal dinner flowers and placed them around the restaurant. We added some whimsy with our place settings – miniature plastic animals from the dollar store that we spray painted gold. The kids had their own table that we covered with kraft paper and crayons and we turned a back room into a kids screening room with movies and pillows. There were also lawn games outside for cocktail hour.
Having our reception at our friends restaurant was incredible! We were already close with the entire restaurant staff so doing it there added to the familial feeling of both the planning and of the evening. One of our best friends is the pastry chef and she made the most stunning and delicious cake for us. We had been talking about this cake since our engagement and it could not have turned out more perfectly! Everyone at the restaurant went above and beyond for us. I can honestly say that I had some of the best food I have ever had at our wedding!
The two people involved in our wedding that we did not know were our DJ and our photographer and both turned out to be amazing and truly contributed to the vibe of the evening. The DJ spun vintage records on old school turntables and got the music just right. We found the photographer after searching through blogs. After seeing her name on three of the stories we liked, we knew we wanted her and thankfully she agreed to do it. Given that these images are the only tangible thing that would last, we really wanted to have someone super talented to take the photos and we couldn’t be happier with the results.
While everything was magical, I loved the dinner and toasts the most. Everything was very informal – there were no speeches planned and whomever wanted to got up and spoke. There was lots of laughter and tears. I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling of pure happiness sitting next to my favorite person – now my husband – surrounded by so many that we love so dearly celebrating with us and supporting us in this new chapter of our lives. And when Alex told me the next morning that everything turned out more perfect than he could have imagined, I knew our two year wait from engagement to ceremony was well worth it.
Photography: Charlotte Jenks Lewis Photography | Wedding Dress: BHLDN | Bride's Shoes: Coclico | Groom's Suit: Jack Spade | Venue: Private Residence | Groom's Boutonniere: Etsy Shop Ems Desert Rose | Groom's Ring: Cat Bird | Groom's Shoes: Adler | Groom's Tie: Steven Alan | Reception Dinner: Prairie Whale | Rentals: Mahaiwe