Oh to be married in the prior home of a famous author, surrounded by acres of lush gardens and a wide open landscape reminiscent of a European romance novel. Keeping their decor to a minimum, since their venue was an elegant Victorian home with rich details already, Willa + Mike did their best to represent the beauty of literary prose and romantic ideation. To individualize the day many of the important and special wedding details (like all the florals, grown by Willa’s mother) were carried out by family members or close friends, while W + M strove to mix traditions from both England and the states.
Willa on their invitations: I designed and hand-printed our invitations. Because we got married in April and in the Northeast, I wanted to bring spring as early as possible so I wanted to use seeded paper for our invitations. I also wanted them to have an old fashioned/vintage feel so I had rubber stamps made and hand pressed them myself. I used a lovely old victorian style card paper, which I used the stamp to print on and then used the seeded paper to cut out cocoa bean shaped tags, which I tied around the invitation with hand-dyed cord that folded out into the shape of leaves.
Above is one of Willa’s best friends making the stunning floral crown you’ll see her wearing below.
That house is straight out of a dream!
My mom and I grew all the centerpiece flowers at home. We had the most amazing heirloom amaryllis mixed with paperwhites to represent the seminal and yet explosive power of spring. We accentuated and added to each of the 13 pieces so that each one was different and unique. The amaryllis bulbs were also saved and given as gifts to special guests or those who were unable to make the wedding.
Have we told you how much we love these wedding group shots? To see more of their beautiful wedding pop over to Heidi Benjamin’s blog.
Congratulations Willa + Mike!
Photography: Heidi Benjamin / Venue: The Mount / Catering: Simon-Carlucchi / Band: Soul Session / Bride’s dress: Kleinfelds / Invitation resource: Paper Presentation / Flowers: bulbs bought from White Flower Farm as well as local garden shops / Cake: made by mother of the bride
