The details in this gorgeous Kansas occasion by Lark Photos are divine – subtle, understated and oh so personal. For me, that’s detail heaven. With a love story worthy of a novel, this couple brought their spark to their gorgeous day in each and every turn through their well thought out personal touches. The bride, as a photographer herself, stepped out from behind the camera for a change and, with the help of some talented vendors, created a beyond memorable day. It’s the perfect culmination of gorgeous backyard ceremony meets ballroom reception, and there is so much more to see in the full gallery!
Click here for the FULL wedding!
From the bride…What a great day. This is my own wedding. I am a wedding Photographer/Videographer and it was so nice to be on the other side. We’ve had such a long road to this day, its just amazing that we finally made it. Piotr and I met online through an education language exchange website. I helped him learn English and after months of talking via Skype we had to meet each other. 3 years later after many visas, plane tickets, moving over three different countries in a struggle to be together we finally got through the long visa process and were finally able to get married.
Our wedding was very old world/ meets European classic since that is where my husband is from. We wanted the travel theme to kind of subtly come out without being overkill. I have a tattoo of the world map on my arm so I wanted to incorporate that in some of the details. There were a ton of personal details that had to do with travel, culture, and our story. We had a very small intimate ceremony of 28 and a reception of about 50 people. To finally be on the other side after doing so many weddings was a surreal feeling. Working in the industry allowed us to have such a special wedding without breaking the bank and be very creative with our details. There are so many details!!!! With being at so many wedding I knew exactly what I wanted.There was a tiny hot air balloon on the top of the cake because that is how Piotr proposed to me on a hot air balloon in Turkey. We made favors for the wedding guests of pumpkin bread wrapped in parchment paper, roped with a tiny compass.
The ceremony space I loved! A friend of mine’s family owns a bunch of land and we were able to set up our small fantasy oasis in the middle of a trail fork. I had the white mantle and a few antique chairs to give it the feel of a intimate fancy living room outside. The florist did an amazing job in capturing my vision for the flowers. Soft palettes with touches and small pops of pinks and lavenders. We collected a ton of silver platter ware and crystal pieces for the flowers to ornate. We had an old mirror frame that we used to hang our initials at the entry way of the trail to the ceremony site with small antique suitcases and a birdcage we found. We read out vows from a little old world map journal I found at a bookstore and matched the charm of our invites. We found some acrylic chandeliers to hang in the trees with a few paper lanterns. We spent a few hours pre-burning the candles to give them that look. I collected wine bottles and put old stamps on them for a few of the flower accents. My favorite DIY detail was the giant gold frame we found and put gold satin material behind and roped gold sting up and down to hang our favors. They were mailing tags with friendship lapel pins of the Polish and American flags. The tags read ” Together at last ” which was a very personal touch to our story with how many times we’ve have to leave each other because of immigration legalities. I loved my cake/cake table. I actually found the frame idea from SMP. It was fitting because of the profession I’m in and it was just very different than from what I’m used to shooting. We had a picture table that showed old photos of us and our parents, it was very important to have photos of his parents because they were unable to make the wedding from overseas. We wanted the wedding to really carry that old world feeling. The reception venue really carried off our decor beautifully. The Hotel Phillips was a great choice because we hardly had to decorate to make it fit out style. I was in love with the ballroom from the moment I saw it.
Photography: Laura Kackley of Lark Photos / Videography: Mike Varel / Flowers: Amy Cason of Victorian Gardens / DJ: Craig Loftis of Elite Sounds Entertainment Group / Cake: Megan Taylor Unverferth of Cake Girl / Hair: Katie Welch of Love Your Bobby Pins / Makeup: Amanda Williams of Dollface Aesthetics / Photobooth: KC Photobooth / Ceremony Venue: Friend’s home / Reception Venue: Hotel Phillips / Event Planner: Laura Smith of Concept Consulting (conceptconsulting@live.com) / Day of Wedding Coordination: Jen Fyffe of Savvy / Invitations: Allie Statler of Announce this Design / Favor Tag Design: Dillon Kinnison / Dress and Alterations: Altar Bridal / Officiant: Craig Kackley of Harvest Chapel