Winter weddings

Elyse & Brian | December 31st

From the bride… When we got engaged, I knew that I wanted a winter wedding. I had dreamed about being surrounded by snow-covered mountains while wearing a simple dress with vintage touches and a fur stole. I knew what I wanted, but Brian took some convincing- he couldn’t picture getting married in the winter because he thought it would be too cold and people wouldn’t come. In the end, he realized that if I was happy, he would be happy.

THE DATE

Originally, we hadn’t thought about having a New Year’s Eve Wedding.  We quickly learned that New Year’s Eve was one of the last dates the Mountain Top Inn had available for 2018. It felt like it was meant to be, so we canceled our second day of venue tours and booked our date 12.31.2018!  Once we had the date and the venue finalized everything else sort of fell into place.  Being that it was New Year’s Eve, I knew that I wanted everything to be very simple and elegant with just a hint of glitz and glam.

FINDING MY DRESS

My first (and last) dress appointment was on a Saturday morning in May.  All of the important women in my life joined me to help me find my dress- there was 9 of us pulling dresses to try.  I had thought I wanted a long sleeve dress, but once I tried starting things on, I realized very quickly that I did not like the dresses that had sleeves and went back to a strapless with a sweetheart neckline.  I had thought I may have found my dress it was very, very, simple/ plain when my consultant said to me “Wait here one minute before you decide- I just thought of something!” She came back with ‘Katalina’ dress from Spring 2018 collection from ‘Blue by Enzoani.’  The minute that I stepped into the dress, I fell in love with the simplicity of it.  My favorite part of my dress was the tulle at the bottom with the wide crinoline ribbon around the hem.  I felt as though I needed to add a few details to the dress, so I had my seamstress sew a string of crepe buttons down the back along the zipper. She also sewed on an art deco inspired belt at the waist to add a little bit of glitz for the event.  I also wore a vintage silver fox fur while we were outside for photos. My wedding look felt very classic and elegant.

THE BOUQUET

My elegant bouquet incorporated anemone flowers for a pop of darkness which really made it stand out from the rest of the white flowers. I loved the contrast.

THE BRIDESMAIDS

The silver sequin dresses perfectly blended with the snow, and they all looked like they had dresses made out of snowflakes. I gave all her bridesmaids necklaces with the geographical coordinates of the Mountain Top Inn and matching earrings.

THE CEREMONY DÉCOR

Brian and I wanted our ceremony site to feel warm and romantic, so we decided to use a lot of flowers and candles in our decor.  The arbor had a beautiful flower piece on the top left corner with a smaller piece on the right side and my mom, Patty, had bought a very soft romantic feeling fabric that draped around the birch to soften it up a bit.  On either side of the arbor as well as down the aisle we had white rose petals with several candles lit in clusters at varying heights- it was gorgeous!

THE CEREMONY

My Aunt Trixie was our officiant, and she knows me better than most people.  She knew exactly what to do to personalize our ceremony so that it would be meaningful for us.  Brian’s cousin Pete did a reading. My sister Sarah and Brian’s brother Scott assisted in a traditional “hand-fasting” ceremony (knot tying/blessing of the hands) honoring our Irish heritage.  Most importantly, our parents were invited up to read us our vows to each other. Brian and I had not heard any of the speeches ahead of time and had no idea what my Aunt had planned.  It was amazing experiencing it all for the first time at the ceremony at the same time that our guests heard it. The love we felt from everyone surrounding us at our ceremony was overwhelming- we could not have been happier in that moment!

THE MEN’S ATTIRE

Keeping with the elegant New Year’s Eve vibe, we decided to have Brian, and his groomsmen wear black tuxedo’s with black bow ties.

THE RECEPTION DECOR

We knew that we wanted it to feel elegant and decided to keep it simple mostly white with hints of silver and grey throughout.  To add some warmth to the reception barn, we decided to use drapes around a lot of the wood posts- we didn’t have a huge wedding, so it not only helped to separate the space but also added a softness to an area that had a lot of wood details.

I loved our centerpieces- we incorporated mirrors for dimension with floating candles and white flower arrangements with a hint of greenery.

MY ADVICE

Enjoy every second of it together, have fun, and try not to sweat the small things! Find a venue and vendors that will help to guide you through the process.  Our planning was a breeze, and we owe most of it to our vendors for keeping in touch with us throughout the entire process and sending reminders when certain deadlines were approaching.

THE WEDDING TEAM

Photographer: Idena Beach Photography
Venue, Lodging, Caterer, Flowers: The Mountain Top Inn & Resort
DJ: Top Hat Entertainment