Nightingale Nuptials: Part Three

Posted on August 29th, 2017

Sorry to leave you hanging!  When we left off, Ian and I were husband and wife and pretty darn excited about it.  We caught our first glimpse of the gorgeous party we had been planning for nearly a year, and seeing each of the details fall into place was fantastic.  My favorite was our custom toile (thank you, Nico & Lala) incorporated onto our cake.  We did have a full dessert bar with different flavors of macaron, carrot cake pops, traditional St. Louis gooey butter cake, chocolate dipped macaroons, and cake truffles, but I love cake and didn’t want to eschew the custom!

There is only so much you can do to transform a traditional indoor space, but our planner did an amazing job by mixing table styles and building custom arbors over the long tables, even casting a romantic glow with dangling votives that played off the brass tapers.

The dinner we served was definitely non-traditional, particularly for a black tie wedding.  We included lots of the elements you would find at a typical wedding– filet mignon, lobster, chicken– but used them in more casual ways by serving heaping platters of tenderloin sandwiches, lobster rolls, and fried chicken.  We gave another nod to our shared prep school days by serving the dinner family style, as was done in the lunch room at our school, but this also enabled guests to pick and choose what they wanted.  Personally, I wanted everything.

After the loveliest toasts and blessings, we came to the most dreaded part of the evening.  Ian and I had not been looking forward to our first dance.  We had skipped out on choreography, worried we would look artificial, but after only one dance lesson together we also weren’t quite ready to wander aimlessly.  It delivered on my anxieties, and was in fact the least comfortable part of the day, but we laughed our way through it and appreciated that first test of our marriage My first dance with my dad (an excellent dancer) was a blast.  Fun fact: my dad actually booked the band without checking with me because he knew I would agree with the choice!  (Right, as usual)

It seems like a dramatic statement to identify one moment as the best of your entire life, but I have no doubt that watching the fireworks towards the end of the evening is mine.  Ian and I stood in front of our guests, arm in arm in a private moment as we watched the public display of our wedding celebration announce our marriage to the surrounding area.  We could turn around and see everyone we love looking up in the sky, their faces lit by the bursts of light, gathered together in support of us.  367 days later, I am still riding the wave of that feeling.  It also inspired the gift I gave Ian for Valentine’s Day!

The night ended the way a good wedding should: with more dancing, as I gripped my groom and my gin and held on for dear life.

Nightingale Nuptials Vendor Credits

Planning: Before I Do (I would trust Jenny with my life) // Photography: L Photographie // Reception Venue: Old Warson Country Club // Florist: Artistry // Wedding Dress: Oscar de la Renta, from Nordstrom // Cake: La Patisserie Choquette // Desserts: Sarah’s Cake Shop // Paper Goods: Nico & Lala