Colorful Ohio Wedding at The Club At Hillbrook with Lemon Trees

Melissa Baran
April 17, 2019
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Whimsical

If the first shot of this bouquet is any indication as to the colorful goodness of today’s celebration planned by A Charming Fête, you’ll soon see that a modern whimsical romance follows suit. Oh, and did I mention the reception features lemon trees?! I’m quite positive that every guest who walked into that room went wide-eyed in an instant. The team at Molly Taylor and Co. really outdid themselves. Jump into the stunning collection of images by Lauren Gabrielle Photography for even more.

From the Bride, Molly… Andrew and I met just before my senior year of high school (and right before he went off to college). We met through mutual friends since we did not attend the same high school. After Andrew went off to college, we would constantly text each other, spend our breaks together, and eventually, we began dating. I don’t think either of us thought we would end up in a long term relationship or eventually married, but we quickly realized that we wanted to be together, and even spent our college years in a long distance relationship! Andrew proposed to me in May of 2017, after we had been living together for 3 years and dating for almost 7 years. We were living in Washington, DC, at the time, and took a hiking trip with friends to Harpers Ferry National Park in WV, which wasn’t unusual since we both enjoy spending time outdoors. I had absolutely no idea that Andrew was going to propose, or that he had even been looking at engagement rings! He never mentioned anything to me, but he was secretly in talks with my sister and his mom to pick out the perfect ring. When we got to Harpers Ferry, our group hiked up a mountain to get a beautiful view of the river. Once we got to the top, Andrew totally surprised me by getting down on one knee! I was shocked and kept asking, “seriously?!” It was such a special day that I will treasure forever!

We really wanted to keep our wedding bright and colorful. We knew we wanted a summer wedding, since I am a teacher and summer was the best time for me to get married. I knew I wanted colorful summer flowers with bright pinks, oranges, and yellows, and we knew we wanted to incorporate our favorite color, blue, in some way. We didn’t really have any specific theme in mind, but we shared our color ideas with my planners, Somer and Lisa (A Charming Fête) who did the most amazing job coming up with the design.

My dad is a bee keeper, and Andrew and I knew that we wanted to use honey somewhere in our wedding. We gave little personalized jars of honey to each guest as a favor which also served as the escort card display. It was so special, and my dad even designed the labels that went on the honey jars. Andrew and I worked with my dad to fill the honey jars, and to build wood shelving for them to be displayed during cocktail hour. We loved receiving messages and pictures of friends and family enjoying the honey while celebrating Rosh Hashanah! Additionally, when Somer and Lisa talked about using lemons in our design on the tables, I knew this would be the perfect place to use my mom and grandma’s antique compote jars. My mom, my grandma, and I all collect dishes and serving pieces, so between the 3 of us, we used over 30 of our own unique compotes to decorate our tables and fill them with one of our favorite citrus flavors- lemon! It was so special to use pieces that belonged to my mom and grandma on our wedding day, and they added such a personal touch to our tables.

We would say that the best moment of our wedding was officially being introduced as the Weismans while entering the reception room and immediately starting the horah. Seeing and celebrating with our family and friends from all over the country and abroad was incredibly special. The energy from the band and everyone participating in the horah set the tone for the rest of the evening. Also, as big foodies with a sweet tooth, our desserts were fantastic and we were excited to share with everyone! Our wedding cake was amazing and by far the best wedding cake we have ever had! We served each guest 2 pieces of cake- one chocolate with salted caramel, and lemon with strawberry buttercream and lime curd. As guests left, we gifted them with pre-packaged ice cream from our favorite local place in Cleveland including flavors such as salted caramel and mint chocolate chip. Our guests loved these special and delicious, touches! It was so much fun incorporating special details throughout our wedding day and leaving an indelible impression of Cleveland to guests who had never visited before.

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