This down on the farm Cooperstown wedding by Orchard Cove Photography is playing my heart strings like a fiddle. The lovely color combos, the pretty pretty paper from Spark Letterpress, the gaggle of geese and pretty pretty sheep – I’m surprised you can’t hear my heart strings singing and strummin’ from where your sitting this morning. There is just.so.much to sing about in this lovely affair, so I suggest you take a little jaunt over to the full gallery of images for even more!
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From the Bride… I had grown up visiting Cooperstown in the summertime and knew that the town had so much to offer, so we came up with a four-day itinerary for our guests and really tried to emphasize the different events on our custom made save the date with Spark letterpress… we would throw a beer tasting with a local brewery during a welcome party at the Baseball Hall of Fame on Thursday evening, hold a golf outing at the Otesaga Hotel’s golf course on Friday morning, a softball game on the famous Doubleday Field before the rehearsal dinner on Friday and then have the intimate wedding ceremony and reception that we were hoping for on Saturday evening. Cooperstown just felt FUN – and we couldn’t wait to show our guests this perfectly quaint and beautiful village.
We wanted to respect the quaint, rustic and historical aesthetic that makes Cooperstown so special – we kept the ceremony decor simple but detail-oriented. The church at the farmer’s museum was such a blank canvas and I fell in love with it for its simplicity. It felt unfair to try and “pretty” it up too much. My mom and a few of her friends collected vintage hankies for over a year and we displayed them in a basket at the entrance of the church with a note that said “for your happy tears.” We followed along with this same theme at the reception with pashminas in a vintage suitcase and a sign reading “for a midnight stroll,” next to these were flip-flips with a sign reading “for your dancing feet.” I love mason jars and initially tried to use them as our reception centerpieces but ultimately decided they were better suited for the ceremony location. They fit in perfectly with the beautiful church windows.
Our paper goods became such an important part of our wedding process. We realized that in order to get people to Cooperstown for more than just one night we really needed to lay the foundation for a fun, energetic and lively weekend. The team at Spark Letterpress were out-of-control, cannot-describe-accurately-in-words AMAZING and I would recommend them (and do recommend them) to everyone I know. We worked with them on designing and letterpress-printing our save the dates and invitations – and then they designed our menus, programs, place cards, favor cards and welcome basket items – but had their partners at Village Invites in Manhattan do the actual digital printing for these items.
Zack and I are both pretty into food so we spent a few different car rides coming up with food and drink pairings to act as table cards – each table was named after things that go well together – like “peas and carrots,” “meat and potatoes,” “bacon and eggs” – and our head table was named “Laura and Zack.”
As for reception details, we organized bocce and croquet games on the back lawn during the cocktail hour which made for good times and some amazing photos! We also had several tables set up in a room off of the dining room displaying wedding portraits of family members, the cigar bar, candy bar and photo booth- these details helped to gave off the vintage, fun and whimsical feel that we were hoping to emulate that night and throughout the entire weekend.
There are so many moments throughout the day that we will treasure – but after we were about 10 minutes into all of the festivities and Zack and I had the opportunity to look around and see all of our friends and family laughing, playing croquet and bocce on the back lawn, enjoying the beautiful veranda and view of the lake, we really just felt a huge sense of relief come over us… like we “did it!” And while I know it sounds a bit cliche, the feeling of having so many people surrounding you on that day and having them all in the same place and rooting for you is just an indescribable feeling and one we will carry with us always.
Wedding Photography: Orchard Cove Photography / Wedding Ceremony Location: The Farmers’ Museum / Wedding Reception Location: The Otesaga Resort / Bride’s Dress: Monique Lhuillier / Bride’s Accessories: Sara Gabriel / Florist: Coddington’s Florist / Band: Prime Time Horns / Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew / Hair: Timeless Spa and Salon / Videographer: Bigler Productions / Umbrellas: Bella Umbrella / Invitations: Spark Letterpress