Wow, I could literally stare at this beyond adorable wedding all.day.long. It has a super fun, whimsical feel with bright florals, the best hand made signs, and don’t you even dare get me started on those amazing menus and colorful stripped napkins. I’m officially in love with each and every detail so much so that I want to throw a party and have it look just like this. Frost Photography seriously rocked it and the proof is right here.
Don’t miss this fabulous film by McKenzie Miller Films:
Click here for the FULL wedding!
From the Bride… Brendan and I wanted the wedding to feel like us — a little bit traditional, a little bit informal and filled with a lot of love. I always envisioned a tented wedding with twinkling lights, cheerful colors, delicious food and dancing under the stars: relaxed and romantic with a homemade feel. The Aurora Inn perfectly combined that backyard, summer party atmosphere with a beautiful lakeside setting that felt at once charming and luxurious. While it was important to us that the details captured who we are as a couple, we also wanted them to reflect who we are as individuals and where we came from. In addition to using my grandparent’s 54-year-old cake topper, old photographs from our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents’ weddings were displayed on large wooden frames. We also made signs that list the cities and mileage of where we’ve lived and where all of our guests would be traveling from to celebrate with us that day. It was Brendan’s idea to make them to look like ski resort signs, and they were a huge hit with our guests. Because Brendan is an avid snowboarder, we painted over one of his old snowboards for our guests to sign instead of using a traditional guestbook. It was a fun, sentimental way to combine things that we both love.
Because the invitations are the first detail the guests see, I really wanted them to reflect the details that were going to be a part of the wedding day. The design was very basic; we printed the invitations on brown Kraft paper with simple, fresh lettering in black ink. Using over 100-year-old twine that I found at Tinsel Trading here in NYC, we tied the invitation together with the RSVP postcard, a hand-drawn map and a tag with an Audrey Hepburn quote that I’ve always loved. While creating the invitations was probably one of my favorite things to do, it took a lot of trial and error to get them just right. I realized the hard way that in order to have that handmade feel and still look professional, I was going to have to teach myself how to use Photoshop, which was a combination of frustrating, exciting and addicting! In the beginning of the process, Brendan couldn’t believe I was investing so much time into something as seemingly simple as invitations, but in the end (even after all the tying, stuffing, and stamping he was subjected to), he was very proud of the results. Spending the time on the invitations and learning to use Photoshop inspired me to make even more projects. The menu cards, the wedding programs, the canvas welcome bags (which I screen-printed by hand), the itinerary card on the back of the vintage Finger Lakes postcard, and all the paper signage throughout the wedding were all a combination of my own hand-drawn elements and graphic design. I loved it so much that I decided to open my own Etsy shop for other brides that want personalized and handmade details for their big day.
Even after all the planning and details, on the day of the wedding, I was so caught up in the joy of being with friends, family and, of course, Brendan, that I didn’t even worry about a single detail or decoration. This is of course thanks to the amazing event coordinator at the Aurora Inn, Heather, who became my best friend in the months leading up to the wedding. I would bounce ideas off her and she would tell me from a practical, professional and organized perspective how we could pull it off. I felt like she was genuinely dedicated to making “our day” exactly the day we wanted.We did a lot of research to find the perfect people and were lucky that my talented photographer Caroline Frost Shea and amazing cinematographer McKenzie Miller were willing to travel from NYC to the Finger Lakes to capture everything about our day that we wanted to remember. All Brendan and I had to do was just soak it all in and enjoy the day. And it was the best day of my life.
Wedding Photography: Caroline Frost Shea of Frost Photography / Photography Assistant: Mary Beth Mahaney / Wedding Venue + Catering: Aurora Inn in Aurora, New York / Event Coordination: Heather of Aurora Inn / Floral Design: WildFlowers / Wedding Cinematography: McKenzie Miller Films / Wedding Invitations, Menus + Other Decor: Hoopla Love (Owned by the Bride) / Wedding Dress: Anne Barge via Kleinfeld Bridal / Bride’s Shoes: Nina via Macy’s / Hair: Riki Lebeid of Syracuse Makeup Artistry / Makeup: Tina Mercurio of Blow Dry on the Fly / Groom’s Suit: Bar III via Macy’s / Rings: Pico Jewelry