We are stepping away from the uber-luxe weddings we’ve been featuring lately to share with you three completely perfect, completely charming weddings that are filled to the brim with style, with handmade details and with personality for days. And this one, designed by the gorgeous bride who happens to own a fabulous new bridal shop in NYC called Lovely (that I am now completely obsessed with btw), is all about the pretty. Originally featured in the latest Real Simple Weddings, we managed to get our hands on even more of the picture perfect details…
{click here to see TONS of additional images}
Chris and I knew we wanted something that felt laid back and ‘us’. Chris owns his own business in New York City, and I own a bridal shop, Lovely, in the West Village, so we felt we had a loyalty to NYC and should definitely get married there. But when Chris’s sister offered her beautiful house in New Jersey, it dawned on us that marriage wasn’t only about the two of us, but the new family we would inherit so we decided to have it at their house. It is located in Gladstone, New Jersey, which is horse country, so not only was the their backyard and gardens an idyllic setting, but the guests driving in would pass gorgeous estates with rolling lawns.
We really played up the garden theme with the colors and décor. The flowers had a hand-picked loose quality and were bound in raffia. The bridesmaids wore mismatched gowns (two Jcrew, one Prada) in the same shade of pink which coordinated well with the hundreds of blooming roses that were around the property. We had a fun garden floral background for pictures and everyone had fun writing us messages on chalkboards as a photo guestbook. The one unexpected addition was the rain, and although that kept us under the tent most of the night, it made for amazing photos with those bright, colorful umbrellas. My stylish bridesmaids rounded up the best umbrellas our guest brought with them and made lemonade out of lemons!
We wanted to keep the budget low and the design quotient high (I work in fashion after all) so we took on a lot of D.I.Y. Projects. We made the flowers pins for our wedding party and ‘vip’ guests. Our overall eyelet theme was sprinkled throughout with cool eyelet lanterns from Ikea, these chic Evian water bottles at each table (a Christian Lacroix special edition found online), and doilies spray glued to the sides of luminary bags for the tent entrance. We printed our own menus and programs and spent a fun night over a bottle of wine binding them with lavender sprigs bought online. I think we took on just the right amount of ‘do it yourself’ to make it a bonding experience, not a stress point. In the end, we realized it was not only an amazing wedding, but an amazing journey creating it together.
Photography: 4 Eyes Photography / Video: Film Jones / Flowers: Rose Petals and Lace / Planning: Samantha Goldberg Planning / Catering: Feast Catering of Westfield NJ / Dress: Ben de Lisi (bought in London at his boutique / Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Jewelry: Megan Greene Jewelry / Grooms Tux: Etro
Thank you so much to Lanie and Chris for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us. For even more bridal inspiration, you HAVE to check out Lanie’s blog…it’s total eye candy, total wedding fashion gorgeousness. AND if you are still obsessed with this wedding and just need a little bit more to satisfy your craving, here is the GORGEOUS vignette that Film Jones crafted…
Coming up…a DIY backyard wedding that you are going to LOVE.