Whimsical Greenhouse Wedding

Once upon a time, there lived a bride with a love of Shakespeare and a dream for a wedding full of romance and whimsy. With her sights set on the Philadelphia Horticulture Center as the venue, for its overwhelming greens and playful atmosphere, she planned and prepped all the pretty details. More beautiful than she ever imagined, BG Productions Photography captured each magical moment... and they lived happily ever after in the gallery right here.

From The Bride...Josh and I are both professors in Montreal, he studies film and I study poetry and literature. As a young professor of literature, I have always loved Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I reveled in the forest imagery, the mythical creatures, Titania, the queen of the fairies, and the general sense of whimsy and playfulness in the language and scenery. When I got engaged, I knew I didn't want to have a wedding in a hotel or associated with anything corporate, but rather, we wanted to capture that atmospheric magic and forest playfulness. We chose the greenhouse at the Horticulture Center because it was breathtaking, it overwhelmed the senses with its aromas and intense array of greens, and teh white industrial ironwork of the greenhouse looked spectacular. Our colors were mint green, coral, and yellow. We did a lot of the design details ourselves including making the menus, creating the wedding ceremony programs with poetry by ee cummings, WB Yeats, Kahlil Gibran, 150 handmade origami boxes with chocolates in them, stuffed burlap bags with Caladium bulbs paired with wildflower seeds, etc. I asked my bridesmaids too buy the vera lace yellow dress from Anthropologie, it was under $100 and I knew they could use it again. I also asked them to buy any pair of mint green heels and whatever jewelery I wanted. I bought a pair of Ivanka Trump mint green heels myself with Kate Spade mint green earrings. To continue with the woodland fairy theme, I wore a baby's breath wreath and our flowers were mostly wildflower filler (solidago, thistle, etc). The greenhouse was so lush that we only needed floral accents. The centerpieces were either mason jars with flowers, a lantern, and candles OR a large center wreath with flowers spilling over the edge and three candles. The men wore gray suits, brown shoes, black suspenders, and yellow gold bowties.

Josh and I wrote our own vows, we had a friend marry us, and we had other friends read poetry during the ceremony. We talk about our partnership, our love for travel and adventure, but mostly our deep connection to each other.