Style Me Pretty

Wrap It Up Pretty Little Black Book!

I think the best way to end the work week is with a peek at a gorgeous New York wedding, with the MOST amazing floral design I’ve ever laid eyes on. Yep, I said it. Those centerpieces, that bouquet, I LOVE it. Stacy K Floral is my new hero. A big thanks to Empire West Photo for photographing the flower-filled fête. Enjoy your lovely, lovely weekend my LBBers and I’ll be expecting you bright and early Monday! xoxo

Photography by Empire West Photo.

This week all wrapped up in a pretty, SMP bow:

a Michigan highlight film we love, love, LOVE
a perfectly pretty Jackson Hole wedding, to die for
a chic soiree with the ideal pop of color in Little Rock
a vintage, glamorous, soft, and fabulous bit of  wedding inspiration in Texas
a Detroit affair, filled with beautiful art deco deets
a garden-chic fête with flowers galore in New Hampshire
a sweet wedding in South Carolina with the most amazing photography
a warm + cozy Breckenridge winter soiree
a Colorado Hindu wedding full of vibrancy and love
a romantic destination affair in gorgeous Italy
a Pennsylvania soiree with so much personality we’ve flipped

A few of our favorite links we are dying to share:

a sneak peak into the SMP offices and a look at our fearless leader via The Everygirl
a stunning black tie wedding in a vineyard via Grey Likes Weddings
a roundup of all the best ring pillows for your soiree via The Ritzy Bee Blog

Brides + Grooms to be – Don’t forget about our LBB! This week’s Don’t Miss List spotlights our Little Black Book VIPs who take the stress out of planning your big day. In between saying “Yes!” and exchanging “I do’s,” plan to perfect your soiree with the planners, designers, and coordinators WE couldn’t live without.

A few wedding planners to get you down that aisle you absolutely MUST check out are Brooke Keegan Weddings and Events, Calluna Events, Cassandra and Company Weddings, Chic Productions. And for the rest of your big day design, don’t miss SoCo Events, The Flour Pot Favors, Bella Signature Design,  Eventions Productions, + Mahaffey Tent and Party Rentals.

Don’t forget about your gorgeous paper products! Stationery can be the backbone of your event, especially if you work with a great artist like those in our LBB. Make sure to put Kathryn Murray Calligraphy + Allison Barnhill Designs on your list!

For those images that will last you long after the champagne is gone you won’t want to miss a stop in our LBB. Concept-A Photo,  Adeline and Grace,  Abby Rose Photo, + 4Eyes Photography are all fabulous photographers and Ambient Sky +  3rd Street Films are FAB cinematographers!

The Makeup Dolls + Alina Pizzano Couture can make sure you’re at your best when you pull up to your wedding venue, which might just be West Mountain Inn or Zenaida Cellars, both superb LBB vendors!

And after you say “I Do” (at a ceremony as classy as those by JPR Weddings) you can dine with your loved ones, with fantastic food from vendors like Wolfgang Puck Catering + Cookie Creatives, and dancy your night away with a vendor as great as Affairs to Remember Disc Jockey in the lead.

Sweetwater Farm Wedding from Alison Conklin Photography

Maybe my favorite thing in life is flipping through perfect photos from a fête that is established on so much chic personality I feel like I can smell the amazing flowers, feel the fresh breeze, and see the radient love. So today is a good day. A very good day, thanks to Alison Conklin Photography. She sent over a soiree so sweet my tooth aches. So romantic I’ve got goosebumps. So filled with personality I just feel like squeezing these little lovebirds. And so fantastic, I’ll be in the gallery all day!

Click here to see the entire soiree in the gallery!

Craig and I got engaged after six years of dating. It was especially celebratory as we had been going through a hard time — we had recently lost my only sister to a car accident, and my mom had been diagnosed with cancer two months before. Then, during our engagement period, Craig had to have unexpected major surgery, so the meaning and significance of our wedding day truly resonated with us when it arrived. It was incredible for us and our families to have something so happy to celebrate – the painful months had made it all the more sweet, and us all the more appreciative. We were overwhelmed with gratitude to have had such a special day.

When we first started planning, our primary wish was to have a wedding that would be reflective of us and be filled with meaning. We focused on things that impact the way people feel, instead of feeling like we needed to follow specific formats or traditions. It needed to be relaxed, unfussy, with a lot of natural beauty. We initially looked all over (literally) for a venue as I wanted a place that had the right “feel” versus a specific destination, until we read about Sweetwater Farm. As soon as we read the description with key Megan & Craig words such as “50 acres, fireplaces, porches, hammock, hiking trails, barn, vineyard, dogs” we knew it was a place that we needed to check out right away and our gut instinct was absolutely right. We loved that its just 30 miles from Philadelphia yet in an idyllic country setting – incredibly beautiful, and with gorgeous historical accommodations. We picked early May in the hopes of catching the peak spring blooms and nice, not too hot weather.

From there, we focused on picking vendors that had the right kind of “energy” –vendors who we would enjoy working with and who made making things easy on us a priority as we were sensitive to any additional stress. We were incredibly grateful to have found Melody to be our day-of coordinator and also to run with the event design. She’s so thoughtful and caring in ways that are hard to describe in just a few words, but its clear she puts a lot of time and energy into the couples she works with. I had pretty strong views on how I wanted things to look as well as my theme, but she paired it down, made it cohesive, and give it a professional look.

I came up with our farmers market theme because the NYC Union Square farmers market in our neighborhood has long been one of Craig and my favorite activities, and I found many of the stands inspirational in their natural beauty. Melody and Nancy, completely embraced the idea, turned it into a full concept, and made it even better than I had hoped for. We didn’t have set wedding colors — I instead picked a palette of soft, dusty colors. As it wasn’t a priority to me that my bridesmaids look exactly the same, I picked five different chiffon dresses and three colors from the same line so that each one could pick a dress that they felt good in.

As we also had our ceremony at Sweetwater, we had the opportunity to create our ceremony– we selected the content piece by piece and asked our mothers do the readings. We picked a caterer that focused on using fresh seasonal ingredients, and a dedication to a greener way of doing business, two important things to us when it comes to food. For our wedding photos, we knew we wanted to work with Alison Conklin right away – we felt that her pictures captured moments, not people (portrait shots just aren’t our thing), and we really appreciated that we felt comfortable and relaxed with her and Geoff.

Craig and I are both music people and feel that it really sets the tone of an event, so it paid particular attention to our music choices to ensure they reflected our tastes and personal histories. One of our friends, the talented musician, Jon Divello, generously performed our ceremony music for us – even learning all six songs we wanted. Hearing him start to play “Til Kingdom Comes” by Coldplay as the wedding started was one of the most emotionally charged moments of that day for me. We had heard our reception band at a wedding last summer, loved their acoustic dinner set, and knew that they would play just the right mix of classic rock, songs we grew up to, and current hits.

it was also a priority to us that we incorporate my sister Bethany into our day — she loved Craig and we firmly knew would be in full support of our wedding. She was still my maid of honor, and in a nod to her happy and upbeat personality, we did a dance tribute to her playing one of her favorite songs and asking everyone to join us on the dance floor for it. We also lit luminaries out front in a nod to those used as a symbol of light and inspiration at Relay for Life, a very meaningful charity to her.

All in all, we really did try to be thoughtful in every stinking little detail. It was everything we wanted, and most importantly it was a joyous day for us surrounded by those we love.

Photography: Alison Conklin Photography / Venue: Sweetwater Farm / Wedding Design + Coordination: Innovative Events / Floral Design: Nancy Saam Flowers / Caterer: 12th Street Catering / Band: Brick Park Entertainment / Officiant: Journeys of the Heart / Hair: Natalie Pagano / Makeup: Nina from Cheekadee Makeup Artists

Umbria, Italy Wedding from Ruggero Farina + Italia Celebrations

Style Me Pretty in Italy? I’d definitely volunteer to head that up! This Washington D.C. bride went all the way to Umbria to have her very SMP-worthy wedding. Soft and romantic blues and sages, sweet and natural elements everywhere… Yep! All the makings of a perfectly chic, perfectly US wedding. Our sweet LBBer Italia Celebrations worked with the couple to create the gorgeous vibe that has us searching for our passports, and Ruggero Farina helped us by placing one foot through the door to the fabulous Italian countryside. No passport? No worries, the gallery is filled with so much lovely you’ll feel like you’re already there.

Click here to see the full wedding in the gallery!

Will and I met in the spring of 2007, and we’ve been together ever since. After nearly four wonderful years of dating, we took a trip to Italy to visit my father’s new home in Umbria. On a day trip to Florence, on a stairwell in the Giotto bell tower overlooking the city, Will asked me to marry him! He tells everyone that I snatched the ring out of his hand and said yes before he’d even finished asking!

We knew right away that Italy was where we wanted to have our wedding. Over the years, my family had taken several trips to Italy, and those are some of my greatest memories. And once Will proposed there, it sealed the deal, so to speak. But planning a destination wedding is daunting at best, and that’s why we were so fortunate to find Brenda with Italia Celebrations. She is truly gifted at what she does, and made our dream wedding a reality. 

We knew we wanted to be married in Umbria, and Brenda led us to La Badia in Orvieto, and it couldn’t have been a more ideal setting. We were slightly nervous booking it sight unseen, but the moment we set foot there during our planning session several months prior, we were delighted.

The ceremony took place in the ruins of an old chapel looking out over the town of Orvieto. Brenda and I agreed that the setting itself was so uniquely stunning that very little in the way of décor was needed. We brought in a few small trees and plants to frame the area, and to complement the green of the surrounding land.

While Will and I took pictures, the guests enjoyed a cocktail reception with antipasti and prosecco in the courtyard adjoining the ceremony space. But the dinner was really the focus of our wedding (aside from the ceremony of course). We wanted it to feel like an intimate family get together, and so we had just one long wooden table with a simple linen runner. During our planning session I had shown Brenda a number of photographs of what we were looking at for the table top (many of them from SMP!); we wanted many small glass vases with ferns or a single delphinium or other blue or purple flower, and lots of candles. It turned out so beautifully that our guests all stopped and took pictures of the table for several minutes before they even sat down.

Because of the smaller size of the wedding we were able to have a wonderful multi-course dinner of traditional Umbrian foods. It was all deliciously prepared by the Restaurant La Badia.

After dinner we returned to the area under the arch where the ceremony had been held, which had been transformed into a lounge and dance area. Hundreds of pillar candles illuminated the space, while a variety of quilts and pillows made the area more comfortable. Will and I opted for the traditional Italian millefoglie wedding cake and it too was wonderful!

After that we danced and talked the night away to a setlist carefully crafted by my husband. I couldn’t be more grateful to Brenda and all the staff at La Badia who were, simply put, amazing. And of course I am eternally grateful to our family and friends who made the weekend what it was! And I married the man of my dreams. While it could have been anywhere and I would have been happy, this wedding, the whole weekend, was beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.

Wedding Planning + Coordination: Italia Celebrations / Photography: Ruggero Farina / Reception Location: La Badia, Orvieto, Italy / Floral Decoration: Noosheen