Amy, the supremo/czar/truly amazing person behind this wedding, is the kind of creature that wedding photographer Eric Hegwer refers to as an UberBride.
UberBride (noun): The opposite of Bridezilla. A bride (or couple) that shows exquisite taste, has a grip on design and rocks the fashion scene (if only at the watercooler). A relaxed bride, totally on her game, who somehow manages to make everything play well with everything.
And where does the UberBride take you? To heaven, of course.
Even with Ariel Stalling’s wisdom still ringing in my ears, in James Earl Jones’ voice — “YOUR WEDDING IS NOT A CONTEST” — I have to admit that this event, which lodged in my head and rattled there for months after I first unearthed it looking for God knows what — is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the perfect wedding. (There, I’ve used “perfect” and “wedding” twice in one post. Gah.)
Eventually, I thought, “what if two other people on earth haven’t seen this?” I resolved not to let that happen, not if I could help it.
And now writing this, I realize I’m doing this couple a serious injustice. Because one of the things that makes this wedding so perfect is that it wasn’t Amy’s wedding, but Amy and Scott’s wedding. Really. Scott even contributed to the exquisite design of her dress, an area normally on the wrong side of the DMZ when the bride runs the show. Which makes this wedding something very special and modern, notwithstanding the vintage accoutrements.
She Had me at Hello
What jumped out for me about Amy’s gorgeously personal wedding? At no point did she get steamrollered. The wedding never started to run her, instead of vice versa. Every detail bristles with cool, collected calm. Not once did she say to herself, “I like it, but is it GRAND enough?” This isn’t a wedding made of hodgepodge ideas taken from the last three months of magazines, it’s one that could only have come to life with this couple.
All the delicious details from Amy’s East Lake / Victorian wedding. Click image for larger.
The Delectable Details
Amy had a bit of a head start, it’s true. She’d managed plenty of events before. So she knew the importance of things like signage, and she wasn’t fazed when her wedding day at the Druid Hill Park Mansion House in Baltimore cycled from hailstorm to rainbows, then through thunderclaps (right after they took their vows!), and finally back to rainbows again.
Despite all the bipolar weather, life inside the Mansion House was luminous, with its creamy antique walls, tall ceilings and towering windows. A few touches brought the outside in, such as Scott’s pyramid trellises wrapped in grapevines, and centerpieces made of fresh tree branches.
Amy chose a turn-of-the-century bird theme, to reflect the mansion’s history — the porch had previously been used as an aviary — and she worked from a palette of dreamy, purplish blue and plum.
You can see how she appreciates materials: unusual ones. Touch-me ones. So, you have the gorgeous rooster feather collar ringing Black Magic callas for the bouquets, gold dupioni silk for the aisle runner, plum velvet ribbon and hand embroidery on the ring pillow. There’s grapevines and leaves for the banisters, and sumptuous sillk tassels tied to the cameras. Not to mention that bespoke gown of ivory silk and beaded lace.
One of the things that really took my head off where the confident little ways that Amy got just what she wanted, without blowing the bank. The purse that screams “made for Amy?” It was. She found the antique frame on eBay, and had her seamstress create this work of art from it. (Who even thinks of these things?) That sassy net pouf? Crafted from a 1940’s cocktail hat she snagged on eBay. Those gorgeous strings of crystals and pearls? Costume, but they couldn’t be more perfect.
It’s these kinds of things that made me want to bow down. And little details, like how she supplemented those pricey callas with bulk buys online … while remaining beloved by her vendors, who I’m sure continued to wonder how they’d lucked into this UberBride.
And just like with a truly vintage wedding, Amy carefully thought through how they’d reuse everything after the wedding. (The pyramids: now in the garden. The silk runner: back as luxurious curtains and tablecloths.)
I can’t go any further without bringing up the cake, which only Amy can describe:
“I designed the cake to combine architectural and naturalistic elements. The topper, in white chocolate, replicates the cupola on the Mansion House where the wedding took place (another one of Scott’s design contributions). I immediately connected with Marcella, the cake decorator, when she understood my reference to Eastlake Victorian ornament and I learned she had studied architecture. SHE could understand me!”
I’m betting that Amy gets handwritten Christmas cards from Marcella for the next decade or so.
When all was said and done, this event — with its quiet grandeur that brings back a slower time without ever being costumey, and all those photos of relaxed and loving faces — left me with a feel of something big. I mean, just look at those expressions on the mothers’ faces when Amy hands them bouquets composed of flowers from their own weddings.
And I think I’m seeing an event that didn’t just fly by so fast that Amy and Scott missed it all, from the guests to the cake, with no choice but to try to recapture it later in sensationalized photos. This didn’t seem to be “the best event we wished we’d been at,” but one that was joyous and serious as it unfolded, yet far from humorless. The kind that you’d really want for launching a lifetime of shared memories — not just between yourselves, but all the intimates and relatives you’d chosen to be part of it.
See Amy’s profile and more photos at TheKnot
Gorgeous photos by Michael DiBari
