Forest Wedding Inspiration at Langdon Hall in Canada

Lauren Megerdichian
December 16, 2024
Categories: Real Weddings, Romantic, The Blog

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[field title=”The Inspiration”]A lover of architecture and history, the Photographer and Creative Director, Lisa Vigliotta Photography was firstly inspired by the stately grandeur of Langdon Hall, wanting to tell a love story on its storied grounds. Surrounded by old forest, sitting up top a hill over the Grand River and the beautiful town of Cambridge, it is one of the most romantic venues in Canada to get married at. Inspired but the surrounding old forest, Tiziana of Forever Events and the collaborative Creative Director team comprised of Photographer, Wedding Planner and Florist (Genevieve of The Dulce Dwelling and Lisa of Lisa Vigliotta Photography) wanted to design a wedding where the wedding ceremony, reception and cocktail table scapes felt forest like, elegant and whimsical with touched of gilded gold.

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[field title=”Wedding Colors”]Canadian forests are lush with muted and gently coloured floral and fauna and as such we chose a muted palette of moss and fern green, maroon, eggplant, and dusted blush pink.

With intimate small gatherings, each guest counts, so a wedding guest colour palette was created to visually compliment the entire wedding and give a cohesiveness to the love story. The men were asked to dress in black tie only and the women were given inspiration colour palette in shade of green, maroon, pink, blush, soft yellow, purple and gold.

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[field title=”The Venue”]Built in 1902, in American Federal Revival style, in dawn of the Gilded Age, Langdon Hall encapsulates that romantic Edwardian golden age of long summer afternoons spent playing crochet, strolling the grounds under parasols and effortlessly elegant garden parties. This grand home was intended as a summertime contrast to life in New York, London and a château in the Loire Valley by its owner and name sake Eugene Langdon Wilks, who was the son of an Englishman who inherited American wealth. Langdon Halls British inspired gardens were designed by John Charles Olmsted, son of Fredrick Law Olmsted, who is known as the father of American landscape architect and best known for designing New York City’s Central Park.

Today, Langdon Hall stands as one of the greatest hotels in the world.

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[field title=”Wedding Gown”]Our love story features two gowns. When crafting a love story, like a real wedding, all the elements set the tone for the visual storytelling of the wedding day. Like characters in a movie, all the elements play a role. The couple are obvious main characters, but fashion plays and an extremely important lead role as well. Fashion sets the tone. We wanted two looks for our bride that would both feel iconic: soft and old world glamorous, and black-tie-esqe avant-garde cutting edge fashion.

The Loved One is a Toronto icon for bridal accessories and their inaugural capsule collection of wedding gowns caught the eye of the photographer Lisa Vigliotta, specifically the Keiko gown. Loosely inspired by the Wong Kar Wai masterpiece “In The Mood For Love”, The Loved One’s premier collection of gowns and separates features references to the beauty of various Asian cultures. The Keiko Jacket features a Mandarin collar, layered short capped sleeves over full length sleeves, and a generous, sweeping peplum. Small couture-like details such as velvet ribbon trim with a tiny bow and covered buttons add to the overall sophistication of the look. The Keiko Dress features a chic flat front, with a gently gathered back for extra fullness, and like all dresses from The Loved One, pockets! The minimalism of the dress lets the bride, and the details of the unique eyelash lace, take centre stage, and creates a perfect complement to the maximalism of the jacket. The jacket is designed to be worn beyond a walk down the aisle, over jeans perhaps, or with the Keiko Mini Skirt for a second bridal look.

As with Loved One’s accessories seen throughout this love story, all garments are designed and made by hand in Toronto with exacting care, using exquisite fabrications, many of them eco-friendly. With the goal of sustainability in mind, all of The Loved One’s pieces are made to order and carefully crafted to reduce as much waste as possible.

We paired the Keiko Gown with the regal Imogen Crown made from Austrian crystal pearls, polymer clay, Mokuba ribbon, silver plated gold wire and handmade ruscus. Together the Keiko Gown and Imogen Crown pulled together the regal forest aesthetic we were vision casting.

The show-stopping veil, also from The Loved One is 100% hand-painted Italian tulle. The leafy brush strokes evoke a luxe, but still natural feel, while the cathedral length, complete with blusher adds the perfect amount of drama. Because they are hand-painted, no two are alike – perfect for a bespoke bride.

Why though, have one wedding gown when you can have two and celebrate two look. Being able to rent a gown can make the reality of that easier. The ballgown wedding gown, with is bows and ribbon laced corset to accentuate the waist and ballgown skirt is from Rent the Couture’s RTC Label wedding gown from their new collection of exclusive line of wedding gowns. This stunning gown added a classic softness, elegance and old world glamour that suited our heritage Langdon Hall Venue.

The perfect pairing to this stunning gown is the handmade Désirée Choker by The Loved One with its luxe, lustrous baroque pearls punctuated with tiny gold beads and tied with an ebullient organza Mokuba ribbon bow; a surrounding glory around our brides neck finished off with a romantic bow.

The gorgeous evening gowns from Rent the Couture on our wedding guests were selected to compliment the colour palette of the wedding.

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[field title=”Wedding Party”]Lisa Vigliotta Photography wanted to capture the beauty of an intimate wedding and not just a styled shoot. Smaller gatherings with its curated guest count surround the couple with a more mindful and meaningful gathering of loved ones and can often afford the couple more opulent design choices. The wedding party was envisioned to celebrate the connection of family, and was cast with children and teenagers to play the role of honoured younger family members being the wedding party. To give life to this love story, they needed a real couple in love and joy-filled guests to cheer them on. Lisa looked to her much loved real wedding couples from weddings past to play the roles of the guests who enthusiastically gave their time and presence to help tell this love story. Their gathering was a reunion of sorts and filled with genuine connection and love.

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[field title=”Florals & Decor”]To carry our colour palette, Dulce Dwelling hand selected exquisite blossoms of hellebore, sweet pea, ranunculus and other forest inspired flowers. She covered and cascaded the reception table and fireplace arch with moss and ferns, and the naturalized ceremony arch with spring blossoms

Tiziana of Forever Events envisioned the reception table scape of bare wood and brass antique candlesticks. Each sage green floral-toiled plate was topped with the essence of the gilded age: antique French Ormolu golden filigree and glass jewelry box, intended to be opulent wedding favours for the wedding guests.

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[field title=”Favorite Design Element”]No Intimate wedding would be complete without the element of delicious food. The cocktail caterer, Amazing Graze envisioned a round cocktail grazing table teared with multiple levels of overflowing food that resulted in creating the “jewel” of the cocktail hour that encouraged the wedding party and guests to gather around.

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[field title=”Tips To Pull Off The Look”]Your venue will set the stage for your wedding day love story to unfold. Choosing a venue that aligns with your dream will inspire your design choices and be the environment your memories are flavoured by. Selecting a colour palette that touches all the layers of your entire wedding will help your vendors catch your vision and bring your dream to reality.

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[field title=”DIY Moments”]To add an element of sound and whimsy, and to give the wedding guests something to be apart of, the Creative Director team made the ribbon wands for the ribbon wand exit with bells, wooden wands and ribbons that resulted in a magical moment for the bride and groom’s send off.

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