When Hunter contacted Faces Photography to plan a surprise sweetheart session for his partner Oscar, they decided that Big Cottonwood Canyon was the perfect location. With the help of L Floral Studio, who created boutonnieres to add a pop of color and fun, and Sugar Rush Photo + Video, who documented the entire session, they put together a sweet session that showcased the couple’s indescribable love for each other, as well as their impeccable style. We can’t get enough of all the heartfelt moments in these photos!
Modern romance gets a DIY twist in Blake and Clayton’s wedding at The Ravington. From the beginning, the couple knew they wanted to create an upscale yet relaxed dinner party vibe. So they filled the historic venue with lush florals, modern signage, marquee letters, and even a donut peg board! The bride’s getting ready photos with her girls gave us some serious squad goals: from their “first look” reactions to their heartfelt prayer before the ceremony. And let’s not forget their perfectly mismatched dresses in shades of pink, which complemented the bride’s flowing beaded-top dress from a&bé bridal. Photographer Abby Roses had us from the first photo, and the video from Anna Schroeder Visuals was the cherry on top!
The most important thing to us was to make the day a celebration of all the people who have impacted our life, both individually and together. We wanted to be able to walk down the aisle and lock eyes with people and know the significant role they’ve had in our lives. We wanted to make our wedding day a celebration of those people – the people we have to thank for who we are today. We knew we wanted a smaller wedding, to be able to make it a more beautiful, detailed, and intimate experience than we could have if we had a larger wedding.
We DIY’d quite a few things, but my favorite DIY addition was our invitation suite. I’m a graphic designer, so it was an easy decision to design our own invitations. We got them printed by a local printer on watercolor paper and then dip-dyed each invitation and RSVP card individually in pink and blue dye (our wedding colors). Watercolor warps, so I had to iron each invitation and RSVP card individually!! Clayton had a leather stamp made with our initials that matched the invitations. On every invitation suite, we tied on a little customized leather piece. They were a labor of love, but definitely one of my favorite touches!
The most memorable part of the day was, hands down, walking down the aisle and seeing Clayton for the first time during the ceremony. We went back and fourth on whether or not we wanted to do a first look, and actually ended up having to call each guest individually to change the time because we changed our minds last minute. The anticipation and weight of that moment was better than I could’ve ever imagined. So worth it!
From the get go, we knew that we wanted a smaller wedding. When our wedding planner asked us what we wanted the feel to be, my immediate answer was ‘a big dinner party’. I wanted the people there to know that while our day is of course a celebration of us, its also a celebration of everyone who has been a part of our lives, how they’ve impacted us. I wanted it to be upscale, but still relaxed and fun. With those things in mind, we went for a combination of romantic + modern. It ended up being the perfect mix!
I loved being hands on with the elements of the day. We made our own Donut Peg Board, customized our coffee cups, and my dad made the letter boards and sidewalk signs.
At the reception, we had two favor stations: Cake To-Go and Bouquets To-Go! For the cake, instead of having one big cake, we did 5 smaller cakes, all different flavors. We had personalized Chinese to-go boxes that we boxed up cake in + a little wooden spoon for people to take for their post-wedding snack! We also had a to-go station for all the leftover flowers from the tables so they didn’t go to waste. They were all wrapped up for people to take as they left!
Congratulations to Blake and Clayton on the start of your new life together, and a special thanks to Abby Roses for sharing these wedding photos with Junebug! Love this couple’s twist on a modern romantic style? Then we think you’ll really appreciate Cas and Zack’s modern romantic Western Australia wedding at The Flour Factory!
Jenny and Mike’s wedding in Cleveland was full of emotion, beauty, and fun spins on cultural traditions. A Charming Fete wedding planners created a dreamy garden ceremony and reception in a palette of ivory, blush, and gold, incorporating rustic details into an elegant, minimalist design. Although the couple kept with Jewish wedding tradition in most regards, they also did a great job personalizing the ceremony and reception to reflect their relationship and their values. At the ceremony, they said the traditional Jewish wedding vows but reinterpreted the circling ceremony (to have a more modern message) and had the officiant read aloud love letters they had written for each other. At the reception, rather than give out favors, they let their guests vote between two charitable organizations to which they made donations after the wedding. We simply can’t get enough of every heartfelt, genuine, and honest moment that Suzuran Photography captured on this special day!
The Couple:
Jenny and Mike
The Wedding:
Private Residence, Cleveland, Ohio
It was very important to us for the whole day to feel “normal”– comfortable, fun, full of love. We didn’t want anything to feel formal or affected in any way. We made very thoughtful, conscious decisions about every single aspect of the day and made sure not to incorporate anything just because it was traditional or what we were “supposed” to do. It really paid off– the whole day was completely organic, fun, and the magic came naturally just from being with the people we love!
We worked with our officiant to make sure the ceremony felt comfortable and authentic to us while still maintaining important cultural and religious traditions which we both loved. At the start of a traditional Jewish ceremony, for example, the bride circles the groom 7 times which can be interpreted as a sign of subservience and the bride’s responsibility of creating a Jewish home for her new family. In order to honor the true egalitarian nature of our relationship and our ceremony as a whole, our officiant suggested we take turns circling each other 3 times each and then circling each other once. It was a beautiful reinterpretation of an old tradition. Although we both wanted to write our own vows we also felt like a) we would never be able to get through them without sobbing and b) we loved and wanted to say the traditional Jewish vows. As a kind of compromise, our officiant had each of us send her a letter about why we loved each other and why we were choosing each other as our spouse. She ended up reading what we each wrote out loud right before we exchanged traditional vows, and it was a beautiful (and at points hilarious).
Having everyone we love in the same place at the same time was the most indescribably incredible experience each of us has ever had. Watching friends from all stages of life meet and love each other was totally life-affirming and magical. There was a moment before the ceremony got going when we came back from taking pictures on our own, and our entire wedding party was sitting around cracking up, having an absolute blast together without us. Before they even noticed we were there, we just looked at each other beaming and soaking in the scene.
Instead of giving out favors, we each picked a charitable organization that was close to our heart and put out jars and tokens for each guest to cast their “vote” for one of the causes. Then, we made donations in our guests’ names after the wedding. It felt like a great and authentic way to incorporate our individual passions into our wedding day.
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