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Rustic Chic in Vermont
April 23, 2013 | Destination | 1 comments

Lauren  & Harvey  |  June 24th  |  Stowe, Vermont

From the bride, Lauren:
Stowe has the mot beautiful scenery in the world! The air is clean and the mountains are beautiful. Everyone just relaxed the second they got there and got to enjoy a whole weekend away. So many of our guests have returned to Stowe  since our wedding because they loved it so much!

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We had beautiful personalized welcome bags in a rustic cream stiff cotton for all our guests. Each bag included Vermont pure water, Vermont nut free chocolate bars, Vermont Cabot aged cheddar, a bag of Vermont specialty crackers and a small bottle of Robert Mondavi Wine.

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My bridesmaids couldn’t decide on dress colors so I fired them all (in a nice way). They were actually happy they didn’t have to stand up through the ceremony or stress about the dresses. It was also way easier for me and for them. Everyone was much happier.

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Our programs were a beautiful double-sided fan with a wood handle with small hearts carved in at the top. The program listed who was walking down the aisle, who was with us in spirit, the traditions of a Jewish wedding, a thank you to everyone for traveling to Vermont to celebrate with us and a note that a donation had been made in everyone’s name to the allergy and Crohn’s foundation. KathleenLandwheir06 KathleenLandwheir07

Upon arrival, guests were greeted with a country style rustic lemonade stand. Our signature Vodka Pink Lemonade was served in mason jars with twine tied around the top with different tags with cute tag lines.

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The ceremony was held outside on the terrace facing the spectacular Mt. Mansfield.

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The ceremony was very special to us. It was really casual and relaxed and filled with lots of laughter and joy.  Saying I do to your soul mate with your loved ones around you in front of one of the most beautiful mountains is a moment we will never forget.

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We had large torch candles along the curtain as you entered the reception.

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The centerpieces were a cluster of flowers, jugs, wooden containers, and candles.

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Our birch bark off-centered cake had the most beautiful handmade sugar flowers! KathleenLandwheir22 KathleenLandwheir25

The reception was very casual and the focus was on drinking, eating amazing food, relaxing and just enjoying being together! It was just a fun party!

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We served Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in mini personal containers and we had a sorbet stand served in cones. Both were served with personalized wooden mini spoons with our own personalized quotes on them.  We also had S’mores that were cooked outside at the fire pit. KathleenLandwheir29

We had a firework show just for our wedding. The first time we came to Stowe as a couple, we saw a firework show on the mountain and we really wanted to recreate this for our guests.

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My advice: We planned our wedding in 4 months.  I did my research every morning and evening and I got a little bit done every day. There are so many resources at our fingertips. You don’t need years of planning in order to make it perfect. The most important thing is to find great people to work with that are creative and really understand your vision. They should be able to help guide you on the path to having your perfect dream wedding.

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Lauren’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS

Photographer: Kathleen Landwehrle Photography.  Kathleen is so amazing. Calm, relaxed, creative. We really didn’t give Kathleen any directions and we couldn’t be happier with our pictures. She just knew exactly where to take us.

Venue & Food: Stowe Mountain Resort, Spruce Base Camp. The venue has incredibly high ceilings with the amazing wood beams. The floor to ceiling windows looking at the mountains within the circular room are jaw dropping! Lacy Walsh was amazing. We really wanted our wedding to just be a happy casual party where people could walk around and interact with each other and just have fun. Lacy was creative, patient, friendly and made everything easy. My whole family, including myself, are huge foodies! We really didn’t want typical wedding food or a sit down meal. The food was one of our biggest priorities and Chef Aaron was so great and used all market fresh ingredients as local as possible. The way they set up the serving stations with the chalkboards, wood planks, etc. made it so rustic and chic. They really understood our vision.

Florist: Nancy’s School House Garden.  Nancy is amazing at what she does. Our flowers and room décor was just out of this world. She understood exactly what I wanted. She was sensational and so easy to work with.

Cake: Vermont Sweet Tooth.  Marion was so sweet and thoughtful. Not only was the cake the most beautiful and special cake I have ever seen, but it was allergy free and so delicious!

Guest Lodging: Stowe Mountain Lodge. Sensationally amazing! The entire hotel is spectacular. The façade, the majestic lodge style lobby, the gorgeous rooms and the incredible service. One of the nicest hotels in the world! Also a 10 second walk to our venue.

Invitations, Programs, Welcome Bags, Drink Tags:  Andrea Abramovitch, Printcess Designs  //   Musicians: Vermont Symphony Orchestra, string trio.

Honeymoon Location:  Hawaii and L.A. -  Four Seasons, Maui  //  Fairmont Orchid, Big Island  //  Grand Hyatt, Kauia //  London Hotel, L.A

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  • Laura May 13, 2013 12:45 am

    This wedding was so beautifully decorated with the perfect amount of unique ideas! Where did the adorable little wooden spoons come from??
Autumn in Vermont
December 10, 2012 | Featured Weddings | 0 comments

Jenna & Ryan | October 15th | Waitsfield, Vermont

From the bride, Jenna:
Our wedding day was a welcoming, comfortable, rustic, Vermont inspired celebration with comfort food and lots of personal touches.

Our ceremony was meant to be outside, but it rained the night previous and left muddy conditions. We ended up getting married inside and it was perfect. In fact, I’m so happy we got married inside versus outside. The inside of the barn was beautiful and created such a great ambiance.

We chose to write our own vows and did not share them with one another until the ceremony. We had both of our mothers do a reading that was a surprise to us. The wedding vows were probably one of the most memorable moments of our wedding. To verbally express your love for one another in front of all of your family and friends was a very emotionally powerful memory.

For the music, I went downtown to the “big city” near our home and approached two street performers. They were actually two 17 year old boys who each played the guitar. I asked them if they would play at my wedding and they literally jumped at the opportunity. I picked out the three songs I wanted them to play for processionals; they learned the songs and did an amazing job. They also played for our cocktail hour.

We picked the apples and made 20 apple pies for dessert. I made the burlap overlays, table runners and 140 fabric napkins.  I had my uncle cut down a tree on his land and he made the wood slices that served as the centerpieces on the tables. We also used different widths of tree slices to display the apple pies. I used milk bottles from my family’s milk dairy to hold flowers on the table. I bought apple cider from a local farm to put in vintage bottles to serve as table numbers. I made the centerpieces (a canning jar with bird seed and a candle).  Ryan made a photobooth out of wood. For our favors, we jarred Pumpkin Spice ground coffee in canning jars with the pieces of fabric that matched the napkins on top, tied with twine and made labels. We found old house shutters on Craigslist, put nails in them and used them to display the seating cards.  We borrowed cut birch tree branches from a friend that were strung with white lights and attached them to the posts of the barn creating even more ambiance.

My advice: Let the wedding represent who you are as a couple. Incorporate your favorite things whether it be food, drink, music, art, etc. And enjoy the process.

Following a night of dancing, we rented out a local pub and invited all of our guests to an “after party”.


MY RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Photographer: Sarah Cocina Photography. Sarah was amazing. Her creativity and patience allowed for beautiful pictures. We loved how our artistic the pictures were. Since my wedding, Sarah has done my pregnancy photos, newborn pictures of my children and family pictures. I cannot say enough wonderful things about her.
Caterer: Catering by Dale. She was so accommodating to our budget and worked with us to design a perfect menu that reflected who we are.
Venue: The Skinner Barn // Wedding Gown Designer: Essence of Australia from Fiori Bridal  //   Shoes: Cowboy boots from Shepler’s

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Relaxed in Vermont
October 24, 2012 | Color | 0 comments

Sarah & Eric  |  August 27th  |  Essex, Vermont

Although there was a hurricane roaring up the East coast, the weather was simply gorgeous and EVERYTHING was all so perfect! For us, the day was about celebrating with our guests, and making sure everyone had a great time.

The outdoor ceremony was beautiful. We were married in front of a cedar arch made by my dad. We wrote the whole ceremony, and included close friends and family members. I especially loved how our color palette complemented the surrounding landscape.

My advice: Weddings can be simple and beautiful.  We planned ours while I did a VERY busy fellowship so didn’t have a lot of time for fuss.  Spend more money on the things your guests will enjoy like an open bar & excellent food, and hire a great photographer.

Hurricane Irene came through that night (started during our reception, and continued on into the next day, wrecking many places in Vermont), we barely made it out of Vermont for our honeymoon–we had planned to fly back to NYC to repack and catch our flight to Hawaii, but all flights from Burlington were cancelled on Sunday, so instead we drove to Washington-Dulles (took us 14 hrs) and had to buy a road atlas on the way because we had to take so many detours because of the flooding–had we left VT several hours later the roads would have been too flooded to drive on, but we did catch our original flight from LAX to Honolulu!

 Sara’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS

Photographer: Lucas deSousa Photography– AMAZING pictures, we could only narrow our favorites down to a few hundred.

Venue, Food & Lodging: The Essex, Vermont’s Culinary Resort–we chose The Essex because we really wanted the wedding to be fun/easy/convenient for our guests AND we liked that most things could be accomplished with one vendor & that left little for us to do/set up the day of the wedding.  The food was delicious.  Stacey Elwell (wedding coordinator at The Essex) was incredibly professional, and met with us several times, the day went seamlessly and EVERYTHING was PERFECT!

Florist: Silver Toad Floral Design, Randi was very helpful–I didn’t really know what I wanted for flowers initially, but she helped me make great selections, and everything was gorgeous.

Officiant:  Greg Trulson, Justice of The Peace–Greg met w us about how we wanted the ceremony to be–we wrote it all ourselves, he was laid back and added some fun to ceremony.

DJ: Top Hat Entertainment –listened to our general music suggestions, and played great music–the dance floor was packed the whole night.

Plus:  Wedding Gown & Shoes:  David’s Bridal  //  Hair: The Spa at The Essex  //  Bridesmaid Dresses:  Macy’s   //   Men’s Wear: JoS.A. Bank  //  Tent Rental: Vermont Tent Company  //  Invitations: Wedding Paper Divas

Honeymoon Location:  Kauai, Hawaii

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