Lithuania Wedding by FotoPerlas

This wedding is, in two words, simply amazing.  It pulls you in from the very first stunning image by FotoPerlas and leaves you to dream about it all day long.  It makes “wow” a fixture in your vocabulary… And it begs you to spend your day (or week) wrapped up in all of its lovely.  Yes, it is that kind of amazing.  And with a gorgeous nature-inspired design by Viktorijos Vestuves, a charming cupcake bar, a beautiful calla lily bouquet and a breathtaking location, I am most definitely in love.  Believe me, you don’t want to miss a single moment of this awesomeness.  So, join me in the gallery for even more!

Click here to see the entire image gallery!

From the Bride and Groom… The two of us met in Virginia while attending graduate schools. When a friend of Columbia’s struck up a conversation with Jura, we had an instant connection.  After successfully navigating a long-distance relationship, we were able to re-unite in Boston and later moved to Ithaca, NY.

We decided to get married in Lithuania in order to be closer to Jura’s family and to introduce our friends and family from the U.S. and elsewhere to this beautiful country (we ended up having guests from 12 different countries). We knew planning a wedding from across the globe would be difficult, so we engaged a terrific Lithuanian wedding planner, Viktorija, to oversee the process. During the summer before the wedding, while on an extended stay in Lithuania, we chose all the venues for the wedding and coordinated the rest of the planning process from the U.S.

We wanted to have a fun and festive, yet elegant and modern, wedding that incorporated aspects of our lives and interests.  We also sought to include traditional elements from Jura’s homeland of Lithuania. SMP was definitely an amazing source of inspiration and ideas. The overarching visual theme of our ceremony and reception was nature – leaves and trees with colors of green, brown and ivory.  We exchanged our vows (In Lithuanian!) in a beautiful neo-Gothic church. The church was decorated simply, with white flowers, candles and small live trees brought in for the occasion. We continued our nature themed day with a brief photo shoot in a beautiful pine forest, just around the corner from our ceremony location.

We incorporated a number of interesting Lithuanian traditions into the wedding festivities. After the ceremony, Columbia carried Jura over a bridge and we then attached an engraved lock to that bridge, representing our new bond.  To seal the deal, we tossed the keys into the river to be washed away. Upon our arrival to the reception, we were met by our parents with traditional essentials of the home, bread, water and salt. Later, our parents also transferred to us a beautiful candleholder, symbolizing the hearth of the home.  We also had a group of dancers dressed in traditional Lithuanian dress teach our foreign guests couple of traditional dances. On a lighter note, our “matchmaker” (the friend who caused us to meet) was subjected to a mock hanging – a unique and humorous Lithuanian tradition that is apparently meant to represent the family being disappointed with the groom and punishing the matchmaker for deceiving the family about the qualities of the groom.

Wedding Photography: FotoPerlas / Event Design & Planning: Viktorijos Vestuves / Wedding Ceremony Location: Druskininkai Church / Wedding Reception Location: Europa Royale Hotel, Druskininkai, Lithuania / Wedding Invitations: Two Turtle Doves Stationery / Bride’s Shoes: Nina / Shoe Clips: Etsy (Vintage) / Wedding Dress: Madeline Gardner