One look at the Evergreen Museum And Library and it’s easy to see why this beautiful bride + groom had only one venue on their list – it’s breathtaking. But add in some ah-mazing DIY details, vintage meets rustic stylings and gorgeous golden hues and it takes on an entirely new level of pretty. See every fabulous moment captured beautifully by Edward Winter of READYLUCK right here in THE VAULT.
From the Bride… In planning our wedding, Braden and I had always agreed that our biggest priorities were to ensure that our guests enjoyed themselves while celebrating our marriage alongside us, and that whatever the celebration materialized as, most important was that it reflected who we were as a couple and how grateful we were to have everyone we loved together in one place.
The week after we got engaged in October 2014, The Evergreen Museum & Library was the first and only venue that we visited in the hopes of finding an available date. And, much to our inconceivable luck, we were able to secure August 15, 2015 at both The Evergreen and at the Loyola University Alumni Chapel – two places so special to us that throughout the months of planning we would often pause and ask each other, “Can you believe we got this lucky?”
I envisioned a style that was ethereal, timeless, and elegant while at the same time laid-back and welcoming. We chose a color palette that celebrated natural beauty of the grounds including evergreen, pale peach and blush tones, ivory, and mixed metals of antique gold and silver, and infused it into everything that we created.
With a creative background and a passion for do-it-yourself projects, I immersed myself in as many of the projects and the creative details as I could (for better or for worse), working especially close with our vendors – all of whom were so accommodating and inspiring to work with that by the time our wedding approached, they felt like good friends who were there to celebrate with us. Our florist was sweet enough to let us be very much a part of the design process for all of our floral arrangements, an area that we agreed was one of the most integral design elements of the day. We chose leafy deep greens in tribute to The Evergreen, soft peach garden roses, and ivory spray roses as our main florals, opting for loose yet somewhat structured arrangements throughout. Amidst the table arrangements we interspersed mercury glass hurricane vases in varying heights along with Victorian rose-colored glass votives, which paired beautifully with our ivory gold-trimmed china. We incorporated a number of vintage pieces as well, including mahogany farm tables, a white washed barn door converted into a bar that we used as our DJ stand, and gorgeous wrought iron chandeliers that we adorned with greenery and clusters of flowers.
While I am so proud of the many things that we designed and created for our day, I think the most special detail was our escort cards. My grandmother who had passed less than a year earlier, only days after Braden had asked her and my parents for my hand in marriage, had always taught me the importance of picking up stray pennies, no matter where you found them as they were “pennies from heaven” and symbolized luck and that someone, somewhere was thinking of you. After her passing and throughout our engagement, Braden and I began finding pennies seemingly everywhere. Wanting to incorporate her presence in our day in a subtle but special way, we knew that pennies would be the way to do it, not only to honor her, but also to pass a little luck off to our guests as a thank you for joining us. We spent hours carefully hand stamping pennies issued in 2015 with each guests’ table number, and then affixed them to escort cards that I had designed individually to match all of our paper goods. At our cocktail hour, guests collected them from a vintage window display that Braden’s father had built for us, repurposed from their old beach house in Long Beach Island, NJ where we had spent so many summer weekends. In addition to their lucky penny seating card keepsake, donations were made in our guests’ honor to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in lieu of traditional favors.
If there is one piece of advice that I could give brides-to-be, it would be to continually remind yourself and each other that the true purpose of the day is to celebrate the love you have for one another, and to always keep that in mind throughout the planning process. It’s easy to get caught up in the details, and they can definitely play a role of importance, but the most rewarding parts of the day won’t be the things you can see or touch – it will be the way the moments you shared with each other and your guests made you feel and the memories of them that you will carry together for a lifetime.
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Photography: Readyluck | Coordination: Gingerwood Creative | Event Design: Penny Luck Creative | Floral Design: Crimson and Clover Floral Design, Inc. | Wedding Dress: L'Fay Bridal | Cake: Rouge Fine Catering | Ceremony Venue: Loyola University Chapel | Reception Venue: Evergreen Museum And Library | Hair and Makeup: Behind The Veil | Groom's Attire: Imparali | Groomsmen Attire: Men's Wearhouse | Transportation: Z Best | Cake Topper: Better Off Wed | Getting Ready Venue: The Aspen Institute At Wye River | Invitation Suite: Invitations By Salutations | Paper Goods: Penny Luck Creative | Photo Booth: Lady Liberty Photo Booth | Rentals: Vintage Affairs | Table Numbers: Z Create Design