How did you meet?
Fred & I met at a local haunted house that we were both working at! He was 18 and I was 16 at the time. Our first date was at a Syracuse Crunch hockey game, which we have continued the tradition of every year to celebrate our Anniversary.
What is your proposal story?
After 5 years of dating, Fred proposed! He planned a surprise road trip for us with 2 friends. He took us to Overlook Mountain in the Catskills, which is here in NY. After we hiked to the top of the mountain, we stopped at an overlook area to take in the view.
It was then that Abby said “let me take a picture of you guys” (Little did I realize that both Robert & Abby were in on Fred’s plan!) So then Abby took a picture of us and Fred went down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! I, of course, said “yes!”
Tell us about your wedding vision.
We both knew we wanted a Fall wedding, but I really wanted the garden theme rather than the stereotypical leaves and pumpkin style. So I went with burgundy and navy with a pop of gold to keep it in the fall color scheme. But for all of our decor, I chose ferns, lanterns and loose greens. We had the ceremony at a family owned country estate. We loved it because it was very private and landscape fit our theme perfectly!
Tell us about your attire choices.
The color of my dress was champagne and it was a mermaid cut. I added a belt and paired it with gold wedges. What I loved about my dress is that it had buttons down the entire back! All of my bridesmaids wore long burgundy dresses with a criss-cross back. I chose that dress specifically because I wanted a photo of all of us from the back.
Fred and the groomsmen wore a navy suit, vest and brown leather shoes. Fred’s tie was ivory and the groomsmen’s ties were burgundy.
Please describe any DIY, handmade, or personal details.
I made all of our favors, signs, table numbers and escort cards myself. Our welcome signs and table numbers were done with clear acrylic with wooden bases. The backs were painted burgundy and I used white vinyl for the text on the front.
What were your favorite parts of the day?
My favorite part of the whole day was our first look and having our portaits taken. It was nice to have some time alone before the wedding began, it really helped to calm my nerves.
Tell us about your wedding flowers.
I had worked as a floral designer at Travis’ for 3 years previously so, our flowers were very special to me. After making bridal bouquets for so many other brides, it was hard to believe it was my turn to hold one of my own.
For my bouquet, I picked a large hand-tied style, with all white flowers and a good amount of greens to give a garden feel. Our centerpieces were lanterns with a small wreath of greens around them. We used loose greens on some of our entry tables to help continue the feel from the ceremony to the reception location.
Tell us about your wedding cake.
We chose to do pie as the dessert for our guests, Fred has always loved pie and I wanted something unique so it was a obvious choice for us. We had a small cake so we could do the traditional cake cutting & saved the top for our 1st anniversary.
For the cake, I chose white cake w/raspberry filling for the bottom tier and the top tier was chocolate with Boston creme filling. It had fresh flowers on top to follow our garden theme and a custom cake topper from Etsy that included our golden retriever, Evelyn!
What did you do for favors?
We did personalized stemless wine glasses with chocolate truffles inside.
Did you include any family heirlooms or special traditions?
We didn’t have any heirlooms or special traditions, but on the entry table, I displayed our parents and grandparents wedding photos, which sat by our guest book. I also did a small “In Memory” table, displaying photos of our family members that have passed on.
Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?
I would say, start planning early.. Book all the major stuff first — venue, photographer, DJ, etc Then once all the major stuff is booked, enjoy planning all the small details. Basically, take your time and enjoy the experience of planning it. Don’t let stress ruin it….no one will notice the things that you forgot or messed up anyways!
