Elizabeth and Josh’s Black Tie Affair

From the Bride: Our wedding day was pure MAGIC! The inspiration for a winter wedding came from several factors that ended up being absolutely perfect for us. The season is magical, it’s in between wedding seasons, it’s the anniversary of our engagement, but most importantly, December gave us a chance to include my Dad in our wedding. I lost my Dad to cancer in 2014, and I knew planning a wedding one day was going to be tough. I was never going to be able to have my Dad walk me down the aisle, to give me away, or share a dance with in front of all our family and friends. But we could honor him by having our wedding over his birthday weekend. Everything pointed towards a December wedding, and that's where the idea for an intimate, elegant, black tie holiday wedding was born.

We envisioned a classic black and white color palette, with pops of greenery and gold accents to give it a holiday feeling without being overly Christmas themed. Our style is very classic, yet modern. We wanted everyone to feel comfortable, while being dressed to the nines. My most favorite unique element of our wedding has to be the decor for our ceremony. From the row of bare Christmas trees as our altar backdrop, and the candlelit lined aisle, to the snowflake adorned tent, it was truly a winter wonderland. Finding the dress was the easiest part of wedding planning. I had adored it for years, it was “the one” before I had even met “the one.” The black floor length sequined bridesmaids dresses (with stretch!) were hands down the perfect monochromatic complement to the groomsmen’s black tuxedos. The vision for the flowers was simple, yet elegant: white buds with greenery. My bouquet was wrapped in my great grandmother’s handkerchief, and incorporated were dried hydrangeas I had saved from my dads funeral, which made it even more special. The wedding cake was a beautiful white four-tier monogrammed masterpiece. Neither of us really eat sweets, but honestly if we could have had a layer in every flavor we would have, because they were all incredible. It ended up being such a fun experience, and we even dedicated a layer to my grandmother’s favorite flavor: carrot cake!

My favorite moment of the day was seeing Josh's face light up as we locked eyes on my way down the aisle. Even though we had done a first look earlier in the day, it was in that moment that everything felt so real. Surrounded by a sea of friends and family, in that moment it was just the two of us. All the nerves from the wedding day disappeared, and it was just us. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of planning, but that was when we both finally realized this was the moment everything had led up to. The most special part of the wedding was when my mother said “yes” to walking me down the aisle. Everyone knew there was a huge void to fill, and I couldn’t imagine a more special person to be there for me on the biggest day of my life. Anyone who knows us knows that she’s not just my mom, but my best friend, and I’m so lucky to have had her play such an important role in our wedding. The best advice for any bride planning a wedding is to invest in a wedding planner. Hands down it was the best, and easiest, decision we made the entire wedding. Not to mention our wedding planner, Shelly Fortune, is the best in the business. We did not have to worry about a single thing on our wedding day, and actually got to enjoy every second of it because everything was already taken care of. I cannot recommend it enough for a truly stress free wedding day!

Elizabeth and Josh's Apiary Wedding

Elizabeth and Josh’s Black Tie Affair