Breathtaking views of a canyon? Check. The sweetest crochet lace gown? Check. A passionate dip under a waterfall? Check! Danielle and Nick’s low-key Cloudland Canyon State Park wedding has all the makings of a perfect outdoorsy elopement. Hailing from Florida, this adventurous couple packed their bags and headed to Georgia because they only needed three things for their perfect wedding: mountains, a waterfall, and each other. Photographers Cody & Allison were more than happy to scale the Georgia mountains and capture some seriously beautiful moody portraits of this couple on their very special day.
It doesn’t get much more chic than a wedding in the heart of Brooklyn, let alone with a bride and groom that are both involved in the fashion industry! Abby and Ryan chose Wythe Hotel as their wedding venue for its old school charm as well as the memories it holds – the happy couple also got engaged there! Abby wore a two-piece Monique Lhuillier gown with a subtle blush skirt and an amazing beaded top for a fresh and unique bridal look. We love how Chellise Michael Photography captured Abby and Ryan’s fashion-forward spirit while keeping the timeless sophistication of New York City in mind.
The most important thing to us was to keep things simple and not lose sight of why we were planning a wedding in the first place! It’s really easy to get caught up in napkin colors, chair styles etc., so we tried not to overthink anything and just went with what we liked. At the end of the day, our goal was to throw a really fun party to celebrate our marriage and have all our friends & family members in one place. The details, flowers & cake were all just added perks to the best day ever.
Seeing that we’re both in the fashion industry, our fashion choices were a very fun part of the wedding. I chose a very subtle blush skirt and a delicate lace & beaded top from Monique Lhuillier. It was most important that I felt comfortable and also that my wedding day look felt like “me.”
My gold beaded halo I wore was extra special because my Aunt also wore it at her wedding over 30 years ago.
We chose the Wythe Hotel off the bat, without question. It has always been a special place to us throughout our relationship. We went there on our first Valentine’s Day together, celebrated multiple birthdays, and it also happens to be where we got engaged. So yeah, it’s a pretty special place to us.
The best advice we would give would be to spread out the planning and make little deadlines for yourself so nothing piles on all at once. Our wedding was never overwhelming to plan because we prioritized things accordingly. Also, this sounds so cliché, but have fun with it! We enjoyed every moment of the planning process. You get to pick your favorite things out and taste cake, what’s not to love?
Our photographers Chellise & Michael definitely stood out to us! We had done our engagement pictures with them a few months earlier in Arizona and got to know them pretty well. Aside from being extremely talented photographers, they are the nicest humans ever! They made us feel so comfortable and made the whole process really fun. They even got on the dance floor with us at the end of the night and we all danced and had a great time! The beautiful moments they capture in their photos is what made us hire them in the first place and remains the reason we would recommend them to absolutely anyone.
Ryan: Our first dance was the best part for me. Our first dance song was a cover of The Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place and has always been Abby‘s and my song. Dancing to it together at our wedding was such a happy, surreal moment – I wish that part could have lasted all night!
Abby: I had so many favorite moments! I would have to say it was when Ryan pulled me aside after the ceremony while the cocktail hour was going on. We had a little toast together and took time to really appreciate the moment. We knew the night was going to go by so fast so it was nice to have that little timeout together.
We can’t believe how naturally beautiful Caitlin and Eric’s DIY wedding is! This very talented bride and her family handcrafted DIY projects for the whole year leading up to the wedding including ring boxes, whimsical tablescapes, all of the signs, and the entire wedding’s floral design. If that’s not enough to totally impress you, Caitlin even baked her own wedding cake! It may have rained on the day of Caitlin and Eric’s Mounds State Park wedding, but The Colagrossis‘ photography team captured this happy couple perfectly, including an amazingly emotional first look.
I wanted to have a dress that wasn’t typical, could represent my style, and I felt like myself in. I just wanted to feel natural and effortless so I left my hair down. I wanted to go boho chic. I loved the sleeves on my dress, the shear backless top with strategic beading, the light flowing skirt, and minimal accessories. I did have wine colored wedges that I adored which were awesome with the rain.
We wanted the day to be memorable and enjoyable for all of our guests and didn’t want to have a cookie cutter wedding! It was Impossible to find the style we wanted for sale, so Caitlin spent the year hand making everything! It was all in the details. Then having the perfect photographers that we knew could capture it!
We wanted to have it outdoors because there is nothing more beautiful than nature and because it’s easier to bring a wedding outdoors than it is to bring nature indoors. Caitlin is a bit of a hippie so she wanted a bohemian pop of color with the bright flowers as well as her Celtic roots with pops of gold and green!
Caitlin and her parents hand built and made our wedding arbor down to each cord that hung from it! she then found hand made mismatched rag rugs to bring a pop of color and a unique isle runner. Eric‘s mother helped to make some beautiful flower cones out of music paper, in place of a rice toss. And we had Eric‘s godfather marry us!
After the rain stopped we tried for a third set of pictures, one of the last ones we took was just of the two of us, under a tree, laughing… it was perfect. It completely captured the joy and love we feel for each other everyday.
We wanted the whole day to be outside, and of course in Indiana when it says it will be a sunny day, It didn’t just rain, it monsoon-ed! But my photographers took the extra time to run out and buy the most adorable umbrellas for us to use! No one seemed to mind the rain and said that it added so much romance to the day. After dinner, the rain cleared up and we were able to move the festivities outside as planned with a bonfire, s’mores and all!
Don’t settle for the easy solutions if it means sacrificing your ideal look, and that includes opening the check book to solve it. Take the time to research the lower cost alternatives, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for already for sale, remember that you can make it for a fraction of the cost.
If you’re a DIY bride without a wedding planner like us, remember that it is still your day. If you want to stay and set up till the last minute, don’t let anyone stop you! You put a year of planning and hand craft into it, it’s ok if you want to make sure all of the details are perfect. Good food and an open bar fixes anything!
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