Ah, Paris, I love you. Of all the destinations, sweet Paris radiates elegance like no other. Effortlessly, too. And my proof is in Ethan Yang‘s breathtaking imagery today. Paired with a stunning Bride donning an Inbal Dror dress, I can’t help but be mesmerized by every single shot. See them all in the gallery.
From the beautiful Bride… Paris – It was certainly a dream come true. Shortly after we got engaged and about a year leading up to our special day, I had countless variations of where and how our wedding would turn out to be. The common theme amongst my many visions was that this wedding, wherever it ended up being, was inevitably destined to be intimate and elegant.
By channeling our passion for fashion, the arts and beautiful architecture, Paris was simply the perfect choice. We couldn’t think of a more appropriate opportunity to celebrate our unity by planning a hopelessly romantic wedding and an once-in-a-lifetime trip for all of our friends, family and most importantly, for each other.
Now that once the destination was decided, we had a couple of options: a chateau wedding? A wedding in a hotel? We wanted to make traveling for guests as easy as possible without having to rent a car or traveling more, so we decided on a hotel. My vision was romantic yet elegant. After contemplating on many inspiration boards and color themes, I decided on blush, crème and champagne as I thought it would best fit the Four Seasons George V for our wedding. I wanted to incorporate similar colors to the rich, romantic feel of Parisian arts and décor and thought those colors would best compliment because they were subtle yet sophisticated.
Planning a wedding from abroad in a country that I was unfamiliar with; with the language barrier, different time zones and working fulltime (right, ladies?) made this an experience of a lifetime. Every moment, beginning from the day we started planning up until the very last minute of the wedding night was truly a memorable one.
After the ceremony, as we were taking pictures, we were greeted by waving, applauding pedestrians. The genuine smiles from the strangers helped us express the love we had on this fantasy day in Paris. The wedding day was more beautiful than anything I could have ever dreamt of – from the gorgeous weather to the view of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel suite, the intimate group of our family and friends were the perfect people to share the momentous day with. On a warm, spring night, the romantic sophistication of Paris swept through the air and our wonderful photographers – Ethan and Karis, did an amazing job capturing this special day that will allow us to reminiscence in true color for the rest of our lives.
Believe it or not, After only a couple weeks of dating, Jun bought me a Jimmy Choo Passport Cover for Valentine’s Day and wrote, “So we can travel in style together.” Little did we know that would come true. In fact, the passport cover was the same material and exact design line as my reception shoes, unintentionally! That there told me it was meant to be. The first gift I had ever received from Jun became an essential to our wedding and we sure did “travel in style.” Escaping to Paris was the perfect solution to being truly relaxed and having fun, while still having a stylish wedding.
We wanted to incorporate the elegance of the Four Seasons and the delicacy of the French language to the décor as much as possible. Since our intimate wedding required four guest tables, it was the perfect idea to name the guest tables after each season in French. This enabled us to thematically decorate each of the four guest tables’ flowers by the color and tone of each season. So fitting yet, so unique as we found the words “printemps, été, automne, and hiver” absolutely beautiful and motivational to use for our décor.
Our escort cards – I wanted these to be particularly unique since there are so many variations of escort cards. I wanted them to be special and something that would set the theme for the wedding and would stand out. I thought, why not feathers since I incorporated them into our wedding invitations?
The only thing that was DIY was those feathers, feathers, feathers. I went to numerous craft stores in the city to look for the PERFECT feathers. Now many know, feathers do not come in perfect condition; flimsy at best. I finally made it to a craft store that most students from Parsons and FIT go to to get their fabric and found just the right amount of white feathers and bought their whole stock. Most, if not all, were in horrible condition which I knew would be a huge project.
First, I had to cut out “sample” escort name cards to see how it’d fit and how much I had to cut from the stem. After testing and wasting many, I trimmed the sides of every feather and made it primp and proper. Second, I used a flat iron and curling iron to fix the ends and hair sprayed each one so they would stay in tact. I was worried how “in tact” they would be during the travel and making it to Paris. That was something I’d worry about later. Third, had to go back and trim each one to make each look as similar as possible – from the length to the dimensions of the feathers as they would be standing up. Fourth, I Inserted them into thick books to flatten and straighten the strands out more. Waited a few more hours and Voila! Perfection. Fifth, I gave my MOH dimensions of the escort cards that I would want cut out so she could type in each guest’s name. We picked the perfect font to match the feathers and my theme, and I printed them on card stock and cut them to stick onto the stems of the feathers. We found a styrofoam box at our florist’s and spray painted it glitter gold and made it a base for the feathers to stand on. The amount of feather hair and dust we ate from these, I cannot tell you. We looked like a sweatshop spread out with different sections of each feather. All in all, it took 5hrs to finish and I could not tell you how proud I was in making my perfect, yet unique escort cards that guests would remember. If I had to do it all over again, I would.
Photography: Ethan Yang Photography | Wedding Dress: Inbal Dror | Ceremony Venue: American Church In Paris | Reception Venue: Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis | Bridesmaids Dresses: Vera Wang | Catering: Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis | Tuxedo: Tom Ford | Feather Escort Card: DIY | Flowers For Reception: Jeff Leatham | Reception Dress: Pnina Tornai | Shoes (Ceremony): Valentino | Shoes (Reception): Jimmy Choo
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