Union Station Wedding
Emily and Chris’ wedding from May 7th is exactly the type of celebration that I love to see. The couple accounted for each detail with personality and care to create a meaningful, special wedding day.
And, aren’t they just dashing?! What a classic and timeless bride and groom!
From the bride, Emily…
We originally wanted to have a small, casual, outdoor wedding. But, a number of factors, including time of year and the guest count, quickly took over and we realized that our plan wasn’t very practical. So throughout the planning process we looked for ways that we could bring our original vision into our more formal event. We selected Holy Rosary Church in part because of my Italian heritage and but also because it is such an intimate space. It was so wonderful to look out from the altar and be able to see every one of our guests.
Union Station, our reception site, wasn’t originally on my radar. But when we saw the space we were totally taken with the East Hall’s history and personality. I was worried that the space was going to be too traditional. But, working with vendors I laid out my ideas for a modern, organic, Mediterranean feel dominated by green, ivory and brown. Once we landed on the idea of “bringing the outdoors in,” the whole thing took shape. We brought trees into the reception space and hung lanterns from the branches. My cousin, who runs Butera the Florist and is a total floral visionary, came up with the idea to construct a life size tree in the Columbus Club. He then carried the tree theme through to the East Hall, where he built amazing floral structures that dripped with unique choices like succulents, herbs and artichokes. Design Cuisine made a fun crepe cake with Nutella and rasberry jam, and the florist topped it with lavender (which was also at guests’ place settings, along with rosemary). With the lighting design it really felt like we were outdoors.
We also felt strongly about bringing in as many personal touches as we could. I do a lot of work on Latin American issues, so we hired Grupo Corozo to play for cocktail hour. We are both bourbon lovers and the wedding happened to be on Derby Day, so we served mint juleps during cocktail hour. Chris and I have traveled a lot and have strong connections to our Italian and Norwegian heritages, so we named the tables after cities where we, and our relatives, have lived. Melissa Weller at Persnickety Invitation Studio and my artist mother did a great job figuring out how to create a cohesive design with a sense of humor (instead of place cards we had a big board titled “Where in the World Am I Sitting?”) Probably my favorite element was the donations table. Instead of handing out favors we selected charities that are meaningful to us and made donations in guests’ honor. The florist used glass jars and Spanish moss to integrate the table with the feel of the event and we asked guests to toss stones into the jars labeled to select the charity of their choice.
Regarding the escort cards…My grandfather was a shoe repairman and he would tie small, manila tags onto his customer’s shoes to identify their owner. We spun this idea off for the place cards. Each tag had the person’s name on it, and we used ribbon to hang them on the back of chairs. My aunt had some original tags from his shop, so we used those for the head table. Persnickety created “knock off” tags (in different colors, to help the caterers) for the rest of the guests’ tables. During cocktail hour, we displayed a photo of my grandfather and an explanation of the meaning behind the tags that served as a tribute to all of our grandparents.
When we started the planning I was overwhelmed by choices and unsure how we could reflect our personality and tastes, especially since neither of us had a strong interest of having a wedding. But thanks to our amazing vendors we were able to create a a wedding that really felt like “us.”
The fabulous vendor team:
Photography: Kirsten Rose Photography
Ceremony: Holy Rosary Church
Reception: East Hall of Union Station
Florist: Butera the Florist
Wedding Planner: Jamie Sears, Simply Chic Events
Catering: Design Cuisine
Hair and Makeup: KPN Hair & Makeup
Transportation: Linder & Associates
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