Tag: <span>Vermont</span>

Vermont BrideandGroom
I’ve been wanting to post about the wedding for months but between editing thousands of photos and trying to put words to the most pivotal, meaningful, and magical days of my life, it took me a waaaay longer than expected. Excuses, excuses aside, I’m back to SeeingDesign a wed woman and thrilled to share the marriage of Anne Elizabeth Collins to Michael Patrick Howard.

mountaintop-inn wedding
Set in Green Mountains of Chittenden, Vermont, covered in the fresh snow we were hoping for, the Mountain Top Inn was truly the most amazing venue for a winter wedding.
winter wedding rings
Ski days of yore was a subtle theme throughout the day.
wedding-palette-purple-grey-cream
Plum, winter white, and grey—from silver to charcoal—made up our palette.
The bride and groom before seeing one another.
sleigh-wedding entrance
For the entrance to the ceremony, my dad escorted me to the aisle in a horse-drawn sleigh. (Total fairytale land.)
To make the thought of a beautiful 32-degree ceremony a little more appealing, we provided heat in many forms: spiked hot cocoa, cozy knit throws, and hand warmers in little burlap sacks.
winter wedding ceremony
Looking out to the snow-covered lake and mountains, 150 guests sat by the bonfire as Mike and I took our vows. 
Vermont winter wedding kiss
With the musician who played at our first date strumming his guitar in the background, Mike kissed the bride.
Winter Bridal Party in Sleigh
After the ceremony, Mike and I were swept away in the sleigh and into the woods to take a moment to be completely giddy on our own, then we picked up our closest friends for a spin before cocktail hour.
Wedding_Table-display-birch and mercury glass
For the reception, birch covered votives and mercury glass vessels of different shapes and sizes adorned the tables. Pops of purple in the napkins and blooms brightened up my attempt at a rustic glamour display.
winter wedding tent
With the draped-fabric ceiling, dozens of glittering antique chandeliers, and candles at every turn, the canvas tent felt like a cozy escape from the cold (lots of heaters, champagne, and dancing didn’t hurt either.)
winter wedding couple
Mike and I took in a moment by the fireplace before the after-party and its epic bouts of sledding.  

Everyone says weddings are the greatest day of their lives and it’s cliché, but I’m thrilled to be a part of the club.

Photos by Birke Photography

Places

wedding-invite-inspirationUnlike most things in the wedding process that have some sort of example to follow, creating invitations is a total free for all. They’re supposed to symbolize the couple, the wedding destination, and attempt to be pretty and unique at the same time. That’s a lot to fit on a piece of paper but here’s our attempt at the process.

wedding invitation inspirationOur design inspiration all started with a plate, our birch log table project, and a wintry Vermont forest. With this hodgepodge of photos, we went to letterpress genius Meredith Kurosko of Regas New York. In addition to being an incredibly talented graphic designer, she has the patience of a saint (a former magazine editor is no easy client) and I’d like to thank her for an amazing job.

After a passionately collaborative process, our whimsical birch forest came to life (top). From a distance, icy winter birch branches become a feathery and ethereal frame to our invitation text.

For the RSVP card, the idea is that you go deeper into that forest and find our special spot. (BTW…Check those Sunday Festivities! Going to be fun, right?)

To kick off the festivities and to help my Southern California family find the fun in cold weather, we’ve decided to make the rehearsal dinner a vintage ski costume party. This means get decked out in funny ski gear from the era of your choosing–anything from 80s neon jackets to 40s leather goggles.

wedding-envelope-designSince we had no idea what our invitations would look like when we created our Save the Dates, we tried to work backwards and give the two pieces of stationery a bit of consistency. Playing off of our original “Speckled Stones,” design we gave the envelopes a similar snowdrift but with more of a bubbly champagne effect.

We love every piece–and this is just a PDF! In silver ink and letterpress, they become the perfect invitations to our chic and quirky Vermont wedding.

Projects

weddding-reception ideas with flower petalsThere are plenty of fantastic wedding photographers out there but the right one can be hard to find. Every photographer’s offerings, pricing, and caveats are so different, it’s easy to lose site of the goal: pretty pictures. So to make the most diplomatic decision for our Vermont wedding, Mike and I decided to do a blind test. To start, I picked ten images from our five favorite photographers (Corbin Gurkin, Orchard Cove, Birke Photography, Sabin Gratz, and Eve Event), gave each image a random number, wrote it down on my little decoder sheet, and put them in one big desktop folder. Then Mike and I each independently picked our top 20 photos from the master batch and determined the winner by seeing which photographer’s work was on our lists the most.

It was a bit of a process to orchestrate but in the end, we had a clear winner–Birke Photography. Founding photographer Caroline Bargerstock’s work is artistic without trying too hard. When you look at her photos  you see all the happiness, love, and beauty that should go into a wedding and that’s exactly what we were looking for.

Here are some of the photos that wooed us into choosing Birke Photography:
weddding-reception-ideas for barns

weddding-reception-ideas and chapel

wedding-reception-ideas-flowers

wedding-reception-ideas-cheek kiss

wedding-reception-ideas-flower-girls
wedding-reception-ideas-kiss

Etc

vt-wedding-venue-tentIt’s official. We are having our winter wedding at the Mountaintop Inn! We looked at number of fancy and fabulous places around Vermont but this Chittenden resort just said Mike and Anne. Set on 350 acres of forest overlooking a massive reservoir, this venue feeds our love for the Green Mountains and all the activities they have to offer: snowshoeing, cross country skiing, sledding, lounging by the fireplace, and stargazing from the hot tub.

To us, Vermont is prettiest under a blanket of snow so when it came to choosing our ceremony spot, the mountain-facing patio was the only choice. This outdoor location may sound crazy for a wedding in early March (especially to my Southern Californian family members) but it’s that little bit of insanity mixed with extreme beauty that will make this wedding memorable and uniquely ours.

vt-wedding-venue-cermonyThe Ceremony
This photo was one of the few examples the Mountaintop Inn had of an outdoor winter ceremony (go figure), but seeing these huge smiles set against snow-covered mountains was the only example we needed.

vt-wedding-venue-tent-interiorThe Reception
I’d take a tent over a ballroom any day. Never doubling as a conference room or a tradeshow floor, tents only go up on special occasions. And this one is particularly lovely with its draped-fabric ceilings, arched windows, parquet floors, and winter-ready heat system.

vt-wedding-venue-cabinThe Accommodations
For weddings over 100 people, the entire property automatically closes to the public and becomes reserved for our family and friends.  Guests can choose to stay in one of the quaint rooms at the inn or for something a bit more secluded, they can rent one of the chalet homes. These houses sleep anywhere from 4-18 people so it’s conducive to a couples retreat or a slumber party with old friends.

Next on the wedding to-do list: pick a photographer.

Etc Places