Rustic Normandy Farm Wedding
Speaking from experience, when you find a venue you love, being flexible with your date comes easy. This beautiful duo went as far as to change their preferred season upon discovering their meant-to-be venue, Normandy Farm. Their spring fete captured by Lauren Fair Photography is the proof that a change of plans can lead to a whole lotta pretty. See more in THE VAULT!
From The Bride...JC and I met on a Penn State THON canning trip our senior year of college. JC alleges that it was love at first sight, which explains why he texted me every day and always offered to pick me up from class. It didn’t take long to realize that JC was truly one of a kind. We dated for two years after college before we moved to Los Angeles together and haven’t looked back since. JC popped the question exactly a year from the day we moved out to LA in an intimate setting along the coast of California in Palos Verdes.
We decided to have our wedding in Philadelphia since most of our loved ones lived on the east coast. It was really important for us to having everything under one room: hotel lodging, ceremony, reception and after-party. We settled on a rustic venue nearby my parent’s home in Blue Bell, PA – Normandy Farm. Given the popularity of the venue, they had none of our desired dates available so we decided to be flexible and have a spring wedding vs. a fall wedding. In the end, having a 2 year engagement proved to be invaluable, especially since we were planning a Philadelphia wedding from LA. We maximized all our east coast trips so that when we were in Philadelphia, we were able to accomplish a lot under a short time frame. A month before the wedding, Normandy Farm told us that the ceremony location was still under construction and we would either have to have an indoor ceremony or go to their sister-site around the corner. I immediately rejected both options and told them that we wanted to explore finding another spot on the grounds to serve as the ceremony location aka let’s get creative people! We ended up having the ceremony by one of their carriage houses, which was by far a much better location anyways - #winning. This spot was so beautiful, we would encourage anyone getting married at Normandy to consider this location for their ceremony.
Finding Lauren Fair Photography was one of my most memorable wedding moments. They are in my humblest opinions unrivaled in the business. Lauren and Tim were beyond helpful and through them, we were able to identity our DJ (Lovesick Inc.), hair/make-up artist (True Beauty Marks), and event stylist (Belovely Floral and Event Design). We truly had the best of the best in the area and all of whom made our wedding experience that much better. At first, many people tried to convince us not to hire an event stylist, but in my opinion, those little details are the most important part! Having an expert bring our vision to life was definitely one of the best decisions we made, especially because living in LA, I wasn’t able to do any DIY projects in addition to not having one artsy/crafty bone in my body. One of the best parts of our wedding was definitely the flowers and chuppah, which was all arranged by JC’s uncle. We never even had a trial with him as we knew no matter what he delivered, it was going to be perfect and sure enough, it was exactly what we dreamed it would be.
Deciding on the format of the ceremony was the biggest decision we had to make given that I’m Jewish and JC was raised Catholic. We wanted to respect our families and ensure that whichever path we took, both sets of parents would be 100% on-board. The truth is, JC and I are not religious and the idea of having both a Rabbi and Priest marry us didn’t feel right, especially because we don’t have any close relationships with a Rabbi and Priest. We wanted someone who truly knew us and our story to marry us. Through research, we discovered that Pennsylvania recognizes self-uniting marriages, which allows couples to get married without the presence of a third-party officiant. All that’s required are two witness signatures for the marriage certificate. We immediately knew this was what we wanted and decided to ask our closest and dearest friend to marry us. Having someone whose been a part of our story since day one marry us was one of the most meaningful moments of the wedding and definitely something we will cherish for the rest of our lives. During the ceremony, JC’s dad read a verse from the Bible and my dad read a verse from the Torah. This was actually our idea since we really wanted to represent both faiths. Being able to satisfy everyone’s needs was truly an amazing accomplishment.
My one piece of advice to brides is to not feel pressured to make your wedding look like someone else's or what you've seen on Pinterest. It’s very easy to get caught up in wanting your wedding to look like something you’ve seen online, but the most important thing is staying true to yourself as well as your budget! When it came to our Save the Dates, I knew I wanted to do something that really represented our personalities in addition to doing something totally different than anything we’ve seen before. We decided to do an “awkward family photo” magnet which was a huge hit amongst our family and friends. Our goal was to bring a smile on our loved ones faces and we accomplished just that. Try to find similar ways you can challenge the status quo because those are the things people will truly remember most!
We decided to have our wedding in Philadelphia since most of our loved ones lived on the east coast. It was really important for us to having everything under one room: hotel lodging, ceremony, reception and after-party. We settled on a rustic venue nearby my parent’s home in Blue Bell, PA – Normandy Farm. Given the popularity of the venue, they had none of our desired dates available so we decided to be flexible and have a spring wedding vs. a fall wedding. In the end, having a 2 year engagement proved to be invaluable, especially since we were planning a Philadelphia wedding from LA. We maximized all our east coast trips so that when we were in Philadelphia, we were able to accomplish a lot under a short time frame. A month before the wedding, Normandy Farm told us that the ceremony location was still under construction and we would either have to have an indoor ceremony or go to their sister-site around the corner. I immediately rejected both options and told them that we wanted to explore finding another spot on the grounds to serve as the ceremony location aka let’s get creative people! We ended up having the ceremony by one of their carriage houses, which was by far a much better location anyways - #winning. This spot was so beautiful, we would encourage anyone getting married at Normandy to consider this location for their ceremony.
Finding Lauren Fair Photography was one of my most memorable wedding moments. They are in my humblest opinions unrivaled in the business. Lauren and Tim were beyond helpful and through them, we were able to identity our DJ (Lovesick Inc.), hair/make-up artist (True Beauty Marks), and event stylist (Belovely Floral and Event Design). We truly had the best of the best in the area and all of whom made our wedding experience that much better. At first, many people tried to convince us not to hire an event stylist, but in my opinion, those little details are the most important part! Having an expert bring our vision to life was definitely one of the best decisions we made, especially because living in LA, I wasn’t able to do any DIY projects in addition to not having one artsy/crafty bone in my body. One of the best parts of our wedding was definitely the flowers and chuppah, which was all arranged by JC’s uncle. We never even had a trial with him as we knew no matter what he delivered, it was going to be perfect and sure enough, it was exactly what we dreamed it would be.
Deciding on the format of the ceremony was the biggest decision we had to make given that I’m Jewish and JC was raised Catholic. We wanted to respect our families and ensure that whichever path we took, both sets of parents would be 100% on-board. The truth is, JC and I are not religious and the idea of having both a Rabbi and Priest marry us didn’t feel right, especially because we don’t have any close relationships with a Rabbi and Priest. We wanted someone who truly knew us and our story to marry us. Through research, we discovered that Pennsylvania recognizes self-uniting marriages, which allows couples to get married without the presence of a third-party officiant. All that’s required are two witness signatures for the marriage certificate. We immediately knew this was what we wanted and decided to ask our closest and dearest friend to marry us. Having someone whose been a part of our story since day one marry us was one of the most meaningful moments of the wedding and definitely something we will cherish for the rest of our lives. During the ceremony, JC’s dad read a verse from the Bible and my dad read a verse from the Torah. This was actually our idea since we really wanted to represent both faiths. Being able to satisfy everyone’s needs was truly an amazing accomplishment.
My one piece of advice to brides is to not feel pressured to make your wedding look like someone else's or what you've seen on Pinterest. It’s very easy to get caught up in wanting your wedding to look like something you’ve seen online, but the most important thing is staying true to yourself as well as your budget! When it came to our Save the Dates, I knew I wanted to do something that really represented our personalities in addition to doing something totally different than anything we’ve seen before. We decided to do an “awkward family photo” magnet which was a huge hit amongst our family and friends. Our goal was to bring a smile on our loved ones faces and we accomplished just that. Try to find similar ways you can challenge the status quo because those are the things people will truly remember most!
