Cozy & romantic Pennsylvania winter wedding

Tammy and Justin loved the idea of holding their wedding over winter. A cosy, relaxed and intimate dinner party sounded more and more appealing as they got further into their planning. The challenge they had was wanting to feature traditional winter elements without it looking too Christmas themed, so they incorporated lots of evergreens, candlelight, wreathes and plaid. A fire pit, marshmallows and hot cocoa all added to the cosy feeling and these images by LAUREN FAIR PHOTOGRAPHY transport us to this warm, enveloping atmosphere as if we were there. Held at TERRAIN in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania they utilized the greenery and wood elements in the greenhouse and garden shed on the property. OLEANDER was responsible for styling the event as well as creating the stunning florals.

HOW DID YOU MEET? Justin and I are both attorneys at private law firms. We met in the summer of 2010 as Summer Associates at my law firm in Wilmington, Delaware. We had our first date at a local tapas restaurant a couple of days after the summer program ended and then continued to date long distance after I returned to the University of Virginia and Justin returned to Columbia University for our third year of law school.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL: Our proposal was so simple and romantic and perfectly us! We had just returned from a trip to Paris, France the week before where all of our friends were convinced we would get engaged. We both enjoy distance running and went out for a Sunday long run. Justin ran ahead (as usual) but when I came down the hill at the end of my run, Justin was waiting for me and led me to a quiet location by the river across from our apartment at the time. He got down on one knee and proposed – and of course I said yes! He then told me that his dad and my parents were waiting for us at our apartment for a celebratory champagne brunch.

TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR WEDDING DRESS: I knew that I didn’t want an overly traditional dress or a dress that I had seen on every bride. Lovely Bride Philly was my first stop in my search for a dress and they made the dress shopping experience so relaxed and easy. My bridal consultant walked through the shop with me and we selected 10 or so dresses of all different styles. I loved that Lovely Bride stocks their shops with dresses from emerging designers. I think that my dress was the second or third dress that I tried on and I knew it was my dress immediately. I tried on several more dresses but kept staring at my dress. It had the perfect mix of a structured bodice and an easy flowing A-line skirt, and I loved that the dress was two-toned, which made it feel unique.

DID YOU HAVE ANY DIY ELEMENTS? The bud vases that acted as escort card holders were a collaboration between me, Cynthia from Oleander and Tait from Wooden Arrow Paperie. Since we chose terrain as our venue, I wanted to bring in a reference to the garden center by filling each bud vase with herbs or botanical. Instead of table numbers, we named each table after an herb or botanical and Tait designed the tags and corresponding table cards with hand drawn images of each herb or botanical.

DESCRIBE YOUR WEDDING FLOWERS: For my bouquet, I had fallen in love with images of oleander’s asymmetrical, unstructured bouquets and wanted a mix of flowers with the deep jewel tones that to contrast with the evergreen elements that we incorporated. For the reception space, we wanted the space to feel elegant but relaxed and to feel cozy and wintry. I knew that I wanted to incorporate a heavy mix of greenery contrasted with deep, jewel-toned flowers and that I didn’t want any of the floral elements to feel overly structured. We also requested the suspended foliage chandelier-style installation over the long central table. We left the rest to oleander and they created a more beautiful and inviting space than we could have asked for!

FAVOURITE DETAIL OF THE DAY: Tammy: I loved the freestanding live frame that oleander created for our ceremony back-drop. Cynthia had the idea to create a living portrait of us as we exchanged our vows and the 8 foot frame of greenery and blooms that oleander created, surrounded by candlelight, was one of the most memorable design elements. Justin: I loved Tammy’s dress!

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OUT TO A COUPLE PLANNING THEIR WEDDING? It’s easy to get swept up in planning all of the little details, but on the day of the wedding, try to step away for a few minutes after the ceremony to just be with each other and soak it all in.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? The cake cutting and first dance. Neither of us typically enjoy being the center of attention but in these moments we really felt each other’s love and the love of all of our family and friends.

ANY OTHER DETAILS THAT HELP TELL THE STORY OF YOUR DAY? We fought to keep the guest list small and really felt like it paid off because everyone was so excited to be there and the dance floor was jammed all night after dinner.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR HONEYMOON: We spent two weeks exploring Chile, including Santiago, a winery in Santa Cruz, the Atacama dessert and Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD CHANGE OR DO DIFFERENTLY? No – we couldn’t stop smiling the entire day and so many times over the past year we have commented to each other that our wedding day felt like the perfect day, surrounded by the people we love.