When I receive submissions, I tend to go straight for the pictures. When I got this submission from Kim Chapman in Maine, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Audrey Hepburn as I looked as through the album. The shots of Monica touching up her hair and make-up looked like old backstage shots of Audrey and Hubert de Givenchy preparing for another infamous movie.
From the photographer: A little Hollywood glam in Rockland, Maine was a great way to end my 2012 wedding season! I played up the black and white to really “throw back” the look which is how I saw it! Monica and Carl were the coolest, sweetest couple…and I LOVE their style. Monica’s “Audrey Hepburn” like dress was made by her mother! I felt like I was watching an old Hollywood movie set as I entered the girls dressing room. Her “french twist” hair really completed her look. Now you can’t have a wedding in Maine without a little snowfall! Right on cue just in time for our couple photos, the snow fell lightly. The couple braved the cold for some “snow in the dark” shots and we are all convinced it was pretty worth it!
From the bride: Carl and I met through our very good friend, Joe, who we asked to marry us- he was our officiant! Carl proposed to me on our third anniversary at the family-friend owned cabin in Owl’s Head where we have spent (and will spend) all of our anniversaries. Planning this wedding was a joy for us and enjoyed every minute of it. We just followed our instincts and style and it all came together beautifully! How perfect!
This wedding makes me swoon! I am a firm believe that a wedding need to be a personal experience with lots of little, ornate and unique touches that stay true to the couple. This is obviously a really down-to-earth, quirky couple that really just wanted to get married and have a great party. The details are incredible, and I can’t get over the graphic design work. The cake topper is definitely one of the best I’ve ever seen. Blair Gable, one of my favorite Ottawa photographers, submitted these to me with the title “Killer Details”, and I couldn’t agree more! Here’s a little more from Blair:
Please, please, please click the link to see the engagement session. I saw it after seeing the wedding pics and I was a little blown away. This couple is beautiful and awesome and Blair is the freakin’ bomb. Congratulations Jessey & Jeremy – you might have had the cutest wedding of the season!
Check this out – one of our stylish readers at Wedding Create saw the DIY post on how to make a vinyl record dessert stand and had to have it at her own wedding. And here’s how they turned out! Thank you for sharing Mrs. Wedding Create, and congratulations!
These incredible vinyl dessert stands were made for us as a wedding present, after I’d seen the idea on a great Canadian blog – Satin and Snowflakes (I believe the project was put together by Bubby and Bean).
They made our wedding buffet table look fantastic and added a personal touch as my husband loves music and the vinyl cake stands were made by the drummer from his band.
I can’t believe it but when the buffet was put out in the evening, nothing was put on the cake stands! I think they just looked too good so no-one wanted to put actual food on them!
Now this is how to properly incorporate the Autumn season into your wedding decor. You don’t need to have burnt orange, chocolate-brown or mustard yellow in your wedding just because you are getting married in October. How about incorporating some beautiful gourds into your arrangements? If you can’t find any pale shades of gourds or pumpkins like the ones featured in McKenzie Powell’s enchanting arrangements here, try painting them. This wedding reminds me something right out of the pages of Cinderella. Here’s a little more from McKenzie herself (incase you haven’t noticed, I kind of have a crush on this Seattle-based florists’ designs):
You know what gets me? Kind of catches me off guard? Really friendly grooms. Not that most of the grooms I work with aren’t great, but usually on the wedding day I either a.) don’t really see them or b.) their stomachs are doing flips, so the last thing they care about is how I’m doing. (I really don’t blame them. No hurt feelings here.) But Chris was the exception. He appeared so calm, so happy. Going around to everyone setting up, asking how they were doing, if they needed anything. And it makes complete sense because Erin, his bride, is one of those people you’ll love the minute you meet her. She’s all smiles, beautiful, and sweet. Working with her was a dream. She gave me complete trust and made the entire process a breeze. Plus she’s a designer herself and has great taste. That helps. Oh but then comes her parents… Her dad left a super sweet comment on my Facebook page; her mom sent me a thank you card that brought me to tears. It’s pinned up in my office, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to toss it. It’s a good reminder of one of the many reasons why I love this job.
When a man from the catering staff commented on our beautiful gourds and pumpkins, I told him that I had planted the little seeds back in May, cut them from their vines in September, wiped them all down by hand, sorted them, and loaded them onto the truck in 20+ crates. He chuckled with wide eyes, clearly assuming that I must be joking. I was not.
Sean Flanigan captured the day beautifully at Robinswood House in Bellevue. The lovely blue settee is from Vintage Ambiance. Lisa Dupar Catering‘s entire staff was incredible. I can’t say enough good about them. Food-loving perfectionists. Bless them all! And to knock it out of the ballpark, Erin Skipley handled hair and makeup.
If you enjoyed our post earlier today on this beautiful Great Gatsby inspired wedding, we are happy to be able to show you even more. This charming New South Wales wedding embodied the beloved Great Gatsby tale tastefully with each subtle detail. The bride and groom were married in the gardens of the Hopewood Country House in Australia and danced the night away to celebrate. Guests enjoyed a Great Gatsby themed reception with a game of badminton, spirited cocktails and swing dancing until the evening came to a close. Be sure to check out our gallery for more images of this elegant Great Gatsby inspired wedding!
Let me start off by saying: How gorgeous is this couple! They look so happy, and I would be too if I looked that good in a dress. This knock-out couple really incorporated some great DIY details in this ceremony. The handmade signage, the vintage suitcases, button boutonnieres, hanging frames from the surrounding trees, vintage glass bottles with flowers… all my favorite things! Ceremony spaces are often underutilized since most couples focus their energy on the reception, but it’s the special touches like these that make a wedding truly unique and memorable. Photographer Genevieve Georget-Smyth tells us a little more about their story (and a little of hers):
“My mother-in-law has the most remarkable garden. So often, when we make the long drive down to visit, we’ll pull up in the driveway to find her knee deep in dirt wearing a giant, over-sized sun hat. To watch her, you’d think that she was lost in another place…lost among her flowers and wind chimes…lost from the chaos and happenings of day-to-day life. It’s a really beautiful thing to witness.
Gardening really isn’t for everyone though. Gardening takes patience…it takes inspiration…it takes trust. It takes the ability to sit back, relax, and know that in the long run…the effort is always worth it. The effort will bring forth something more beautiful than you ever imagined.
It certainly didn’t come as a surprise for me to know that Jessica and Pierre felt it appropriate to have a backyard, garden wedding to exchange their vows. Right there, among the trees and the flowers, they stood before their loved ones to make a promise. A promise to be patience…to be inspired…to be trusting. A promise that if they found themselves knee deep in dirt…they would do it together.
Because the truth is that marriage isn’t always easy. It will endure hard times…stresses…external factors. But just like those countless hours spent in a garden…the effort is always worth it. The effort surpasses the storms…makes it through drought…it can even outlast a hungry animal or two!
Jess and Pierre, congratulations! You have already started bringing forth that certain something that is more beautiful than any of us could ever imagine!
Thank you for letting me be there to capture it…”
♥
Photographer: Genevieve Georget-Smyth / Dress: Isis / Florals: Kristen Lafreniere (freelance florist) / Hair and Make-Up: Brittanie Havens / All other projects were DIY projects
When Justyna Baraniecki sent this vibrant wedding to take a peek at, I jumped on the opportunity to publish it. This purple party looks like it was filled with tons of energy and fun! Here’s a little more from the photographer Joel Bedford:
“These were made in Ottawa earlier this month for a lovely couple named Lyzon and Elie. By far one of the best weddings I’ve attended, mostly because of the sweet, sincere people who were invited and how welcome they made me feel. After a very touching ceremony, we went off into the market area in Ottawa (for those who are unfamiliar, it’s pretty much the bar / restaurant district downtown) to make some photos and came up with the ones you see above.
What you can’t see is me sweating my face off, more than I ever have before. It was about 35 degrees and in the middle of the city with the sun reflecting everywhere, well I don’t have to tell you what that’s like, I’m sure, especially while lugging 40 pounds of gear.”
All in all, it was a great day spent with wonderful people and got some cool photos to boot.
Ladies and Gentlemen! The wedding of the season has been published on Style Me Pretty!
On July 11th I posted about “The Bride Who Lost HOT 89.9′s ‘Run-Away Bride’ Contest Gets a Surprise Wedding!”. The big day was on July 15th and it couldn’t have been more spectacular. Erika & Eddy’s wedding was a project of passion, and thanks to Shannon of Kennedy Event Planning I got to flex my design muscles for the first time and show this couple the wedding of their dreams. The forecast called for rain, but it was sunny and warm all day. This was such a momentous and touching occasion and I am so proud to be part of the wonderful team that put this together. Huge congratulations to Erika & Eddy, and a huge thank-you to Laura Kelly for dreaming up this heart-warming event! Here’s the article from Style Me Pretty:
“This may be one of the coolest wedding stories, like, EVER! This bride and groom were gifted their dream wedding by Laura Kelly Photography and a slew of other super-talented Ontario vendors after the bride placed second in a contest put on by a local radio station where the winner received a fully paid-for wedding! Feeling like this bride also deserved to win, Kennedy Event Planning, Full Bloom Floral Design and Scrumptious Catering (just to name a few) pooled together to put on a gorgeous outdoor soirée for 30 of the couple’s nearest and dearest! Check out the rest right here-and don’t miss the sweet film by Know by Heart!
‘Erika and Eddy used to be just two people in love, walking around Ottawa, Canada, thinking about planning their wedding. And then Hot 899 (a popular radio station in our lovely city!) announced a contest called Runaway Bride. The contest was that two brides-to-be would be dropped off at Parliament Hill in the morning, and they would have seven hours to get as far away as possible (with rules like not being able to physically touch a phone, and a 10-minute time limit for riding in a car or on a bus, etc.). And the prize? A complete wedding package valued at over $55,000. Erika didn’t waste any time filling out her application and brought it down to the station with crossed fingers and a vague feeling that their application would be chosen. And she was right — Hot 899 narrowed it down to 50 couples and treated them to brunch where two names would be drawn. When Erika’s name was called, she barely had enough time to put her game face on before the competition started. I remember that I had four shoots on the day of the contest, and every time I got back into the car, I’d listen for the updates on Runaway Bride. At 4:55 p.m., I pulled into my driveway, and stuck around so that I could hear the winner. For the whole day, I had been rooting for Erika because she sounded so sweet during all of her interviews. I listened as they announced Kathleen as the winner and waited for the part where they would tell Erika about her runner-up prize. But that never really happened…
‘I ran inside, checked the Hot 899 Facebook page for updates and saw that the last photo that was posted was of Erika running in the home stretch. So I left a comment on the photo, something along the lines of, “ERIKA! You did so good! Girl, call me up and I’ll shoot your wedding for free, we can just pretend that you won.” I figured Erika would never see my post because I assumed it would get buried by all of the posts about the winner, but I felt it was worth a shot. But then one of Erika’s friends, who follows me on Twitter, saw my tweet, took a photo of it with her phone and sent it to Erika. About three hours later, I got a friend request from a certain Erika Osbourne. I got SO excited when I saw that and immediately sent her a message letting her know I was serious about my offer. She sounded so grateful when she wrote me back. I read about how she had such a great experience with the contest, but that their uncertain job security wouldn’t allow them to get married any time soon. I’m pretty sure she expected me to say, “Aww, too bad!” but instead, I went home, paced around my kitchen for an hour and decided to call the wedding guru. I called Shannon at Kennedy Event Planning and rambled for 10 minutes about how I had this crazy idea but no clue how to start working on it. I thought she would call me crazy and tell me to let it go, but instead she said, “I’m in.” We made it our mission to get an amazing team together to sponsor a wedding for Erika and Eddy. And thanks to the girl I call the wedding guru, we did it.
‘Erika and Eddy were married on July 15th, 2012, among 30 of their closest friends and family. Everything — the jewelry, dress, limo, cake, champagne, etc. — was sponsored by our amazing creative team. The wedding went off without a hitch. Shannon at Kennedy Event Planning wanted to make sure that Erika and Eddy were involved on as much of the planning as possible. Erika was drawn to a color palette of orange, pink, cream and white, and Shannon ran with it. She incorporated peaches into every last detail and created a gorgeous, delicate, romantic event that took Erika and Eddy’s breath away. When they pulled up to Stonefields Heritage Farm on the day of the wedding, they had absolutely NO idea what to expect. Like I said, they picked the colors and let Shannon run with it. Erika took me aside at one point during the day just to say that she was so thrilled with how everything turned out, but even more so … completely overwhelmed. Capturing the details was really important to me, because I knew that after the wedding, she would look at my photos and see things she didn’t get a chance to see during the wedding day. Most brides know exactly what details are on their tables, but this was such a different situation.I can’t tell you how magical this event ended up being … a creative team got together and pulled out all the stops to create a dream wedding for two people who said “I do” while barely having the words to describe how they felt. Erika and Eddy hold a special place in all of our hearts.’
“From the Bride…
‘My name is Erika, and I am one half of Esquared, a couple that was recently married thanks to Laura Kelly Photography. My husband (that word still gives me goosebumps!) is Eddy. We had been going through some tough times with job losses and had to postpone our wedding due to the financial strain. I had applied, and was successful, in securing one of two spots for a local radio contest in which the grand prize was a dream wedding. The competition was a long day of grueling physical activity, and while it was incredibly fun, it was also very strenuous. Unfortunately I was not the ultimate winner, and there was no consolation prize. Eddy and I were going to have to wait quite some time before we would be able to be married. However, Laura Kelly did not think that was good enough. She spoke with some of Ottawa’s finest wedding vendors, and through a lot of hard work, perseverance, love and dedication, she (along with Shannon Kennedy of Kennedy Events), she gave Eddy and I a beautiful, spectacular, absolutely gorgeous wedding FOR FREE! The kindness and generosity that was extended to us through complete strangers was absolutely over whelming and surreal. It was completely unexpected and blew our minds. I am so fortunate enough to sit here typing this email to you as Mrs. Harrison. This would not have been possible if it wasn’t for Laura Kelly and Shannon Kennedy.’”
Tanya & Adam were married on July 14th of this year in Chichester, Quebec. We’re loving the great attention to detail in this lovely couple’s wedding. We really loved how vintage the decor feels between the glamorous pearls Tanya is wearing, the aged paper used for the wish tree tags – Uh, how great are the wish tree tags??! Amazing! – and the royal purple incorporated into every little detail. Have I mentioned how much I love the wish tree tags? From the photographer:
“I LOVE the details in this wedding. Tanya & Adam thought of everything to make their day beautiful. The decor was stunning and they really chose some unique ideas for their big day.”
I have tried for the past three hours to post this beautiful wedding featured on Jose Villa’s blog. Unfortunately, I am still having an extremely difficult time managing S&S since we rebranded and converted to a new editing practice. I urge you to go see the entire wedding. Jose Villa has an incredible way of capturing everything beautiful in life in every picture! This ultra-feminine, dreamy wedding looks like it floated off a cloud. I hope you enjoy this little teaser as much as I do, and I apologize for all the website troubles lately!
