“Kitty & Craig ~ How is it possible that you make my wishes come true? Man, when I first set out to plan our wedding, I looked at SMP for a lot of inspiration (hmmm, minus the thousands upon thousands of dollars that some of the brides spend on their weddings). And I said to Mike, “How cool would that be to be on that website”. Never, ever, not even a little bit thinking I’d get slightly obsessed with the whole wedding process. Months later, I was there. Slightly obsessed. Anyhow, long story short, I’d be THRILLED to write up a little blurb and see what happens … Whoopie! See, this just extends all this fun and makes going back to work, gulp, tomorrow, that much more bearable!”
When Mike took me to Santa Fe to meet his mom for the first time, it was love at first sight. I thought, “Here is where I will marry this incredible man.”
Between us, there has always been this feeling of ease and comfort. And while we both love the life we live in Chicago, we wanted our wedding to reflect the same sense of comfort we found in Santa Fe that we found in each other. We are together in part because we have the same priorities; top on the list being family and friends. So, we enlisted our loved ones and their many talents to help us create a day that reflected a “personal touch” and was as lush in love as the garden in which we wed.
Our ceremony took place at the Selby Fleetwood Gallery on Canyon Road. In the initial planning stages, Mike’s mom, Selby, sent us some images of paintings from the gallery and we got hooked on one from an artist we had long admired, Lor Roybal. This image, Adonis and Miranda, became the cornerstone of our wedding.
I borrowed the spiced wine color from the painting when I looked for bridesmaid’s dresses (JCrew) and for the pop of color from my shoes (Kate Spade).
The girls’ flowers, from Artichokes and Pomegranates, were also filled with matching hues.
We used the Adonis and Miranda image on our wedding program fans- a labor of love that took me something like two weeks and a bruised hand (from all that corner punching)! They were worth it, though ~ guests used them as they strolled up Canyon Road to the reception.
My gown was by Marisa. I think it was an older style. It was a sample I got really, really inexpensively and had beautifully fixed up by this wonderful place, Davis Imperial, here in Chicago – they are a wonderful cleaner/tailor/preservation company!
We wanted to honor tradition yet find touches that came uniquely from us, our family and our friends. So we asked Mike’s bandmate and his wife to be our ceremony musicians. They played an acoustic version of Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” as I walked down the aisle. My cousin, who was our ring bearess, carried Mike’s titanium ring and my ruby band (that was his grandmother’s guard ring) in a beautiful ceramic dish created by Paloma’s Nest inscribed with words from “Wildflowers.”
As our numbers grew (115 of our closest came from Kansas to Philly to Spain, including some of my former students) we decided we needed a bigger reception venue and El Farol came to the rescue. El Farol is the oldest restaurant in Santa Fe and legend has it that there are bullet holes in the walls! When an afternoon downpour prevented the party from being outside, we quickly arranged everyone indoors in cozy rooms where an intimate affair took shape. The tables were filled with stunning arrangements done for us as a gift from a close friend of Selby’s. On the morning of the wedding, we all ventured to the farmer’s market to select peonies and wildflowers which were added to the fresh mint, sage and sweet peas from Selby’s home garden.
Our guests filled their plates with flash fried avocados & salsa and seafood paella before dancing to the funky sounds of the Felonious Groove Foundation. One of Mike’s wedding musts (he’s a drummer disguised as a lawyer) was to find a band that would get everyone up and moving and it worked! Our Mayan chile chocolate cakes (3 small round cakes, ours sitting on a vintage cake stand I found a week before the wedding on Ebay!) were from The Chocolate Maven and were like heaven. Instead of a traditional cake topper, we had peg people made to look like us from Naked Peggies on Etsy!
That night, we did just what we wanted: we laughed and loved, hugged and squeezed, danced and ate in the mountains with our loved ones.
You know what else? I totally forgot to add that we used squares of canvas (following the art gallery theme) for our guest book, which guests filled out with a message and hung on clothespins that I modge podged with paper in our colors.
As a wonderful surprise, Mike’s family presented us with Adonis & Miranda, who now live with us in Chicago!
image from Selby Fleetwood Gallery website
To capture the day it was without question that we chose Twin Lens. Mike and I were immediately drawn to Kitty and Craig’s style and their obvious passion for what they do. They went above and beyond , leaving us with the most incredible visual story of our day.
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Congratulations to Amy & Mike on your positively perfect wedding!!! And thank you, as well, for providing all of the details and inspiration behind your planning. We love to hear that our readers have found Style Me Pretty to be instrumental in firing up your creative juices!!
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When Kitty Clark Fritz & Craig Fritz set out to tell your story, they do so with an obvious love of the arts~ no matter the season, the place, or the media. Their artistic flair for not only painting pictures with their cameras, but telling an incredible love story at the same time, distinguishes them as truly, the best of the best! We LOVE Twin Lens Images! Thank you, guys for always sending us your stunning weddings!
For more of their sensational work, take a look at the FEATURED WEDDINGS on their website.
Here are some links to a few of their weddings previously featured on Style Me Pretty and The Little Black Book Blog …
Elle & Kevin’s Glamorous Affair (think Fred Astaire + Audrey Hepburn)
Renae & Alex’s New Mexico Hacienda Celebration
Elizabeth & Johnny’s Wedding (Elizabeth’s only rule? No Glue Guns! 5-part feature on SMP)
Eleana & Avi’s stunning Jewish traditions