Inspiration Nation: 40 Years Later, The Bride Married in the Same Spot as Her Parents!

Quite simply, Samantha is the ultimate Style Me Pretty bride. She dreamt of a wedding set in her grandparent’s back lawn (the exact spot her parent’s wed 40 years earlier) and brought on an incredible crew of vendors including TRUE Event, Hana Floral Design and Paper Moss, just to name a few. Oh and that Austin Scarlett gown? It was a meaningful nod to her mom’s own off-the-shoulder wedding dress. See the celebration photographed by Leila Brewster right this way.

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From the Bride… Rob and I were on the same page from the start, our wedding was going to be a party where guests left feeling the love. We met in 2012 while both working for AOL (that is also where we met the one and only Abby Larson!), and pretty much haven’t spent a day we are both in town apart ever since. I am not an easy person to surprise, but Rob nailed the proposal…which overall could not have been more us – still in bathing suits, straight out of the ocean, on the beach, and the perfect combination of having it be a private moment and then getting to celebrate with our family and friends afterwards.

Family has always been the core bonding point between Rob and I. We both come from big, loud, loving families that we are very close with, so family and our respective family traditions was important for us to reflect in our wedding weekend…starting with the location. I grew up dreaming about getting married in my grandparents’ backyard, I cannot tell you how lucky I felt to make that dream a reality (and what it says about Rob that he never even questioned it). Not only was their house special because of all the great times we have had there (we both love spending as much time outside by the water as possible), but my grandfather (an architect) designed the house over 40 years ago and our wedding date ended up falling almost exactly 30 years after my parents’ got married on the same back lawn.

The meaning of the location and that view from the back lawn steered a lot of the creative vision for the wedding overall. I loved the idea of classic and timeless with personal touches throughout. The decor was “clean” — very much white and wood, with some accents of blue and natural pops of color in things like the flowers. We worked our family and large wedding party (another direct reflection of Rob’s and mine life together) in with features like our save the dates (my grandfather’s original blueprint digitized by Rob’s architect brother), our invitations (photographed by my aunt), custom matches on the bars in honor of Rob’s grandfather who collected them, a family photo table from our parents’ and grandparents’ wedding days, my matron of honor illustrated our program cover (and our program itself included “fun facts” related to the wedding and our friends and family), and our caterer made each of our mom’s respective signature cookie recipes to include in the dessert table. My dress, designed by Austin Scarlett, was also symbolic in that my mom wore an off the shoulder gown and I loved the idea of doing the same and wearing something timeless that I would love looking back in years to come.

We also had the dream team of vendors who all felt like family throughout the entire experience. Abby Larson introduced me to Sarah True of True Event, who is now a life long friend and made everything possible. We hired our band, The Hudson Project (Elan Artists), after hearing them at a friend’s wedding three years before and still remembering them as the best wedding band we had ever heard. The whole team at Marcia Seldon Catering was not only amazing to work with, but our guests all absolutely raved about the food (which says a lot for a wedding where everyone spent 6 hours straight on the dance floor and hardly sat!)…they also did an unbelievable lawn party style cocktail hour and a half (the extra half hour was one of Rob’s few requests!). Yumiko Fletcher of Hana Floral is a genius professionally and personally just the best person and energy to work with.

Our tent speaks for itself…Greenwich Tent Company/Sperry Tents outdid themselves, and Ryan Designs with the bistro lighting, drapery, lounge area, and homemade life-size photo frame was the cherry on top. Both Rob and I have creative backgrounds and really appreciated working with such creative people throughout the entire process to bring the wedding weekend to life…Emily Hostetler of Paper Moss made all of our ideas a beautiful reality with all of our printed collateral, and I am still dreaming up items to get calligraphy on just to work with Sara McCarthy of Ink Revival. Leila Brewster captured our wedding exactly how we want to remember it, through candid moments that show the emotion and pure joy of the day.

Some personal favorite moments from the wedding itself included getting ready with the best group of women and girls anyone could ever ask for, the entire ceremony (which Rob wrote most of himself and was a mix of tradition and personal…we each wrote five “promises” to each other), my dad and brothers surprising me with a performance of mine and my dad’s song (Brown Eyed Girl), and the sister “dance off” that took place between my dad’s four sisters and Rob’s mom and her three sisters!

I love Style Me Pretty, and have been a power user since way before I was engaged…so this is truly another dream come true to have our wedding featured here.

From Sarah True of True Event… The reception was set at the bride’s grandparents house on the water in Greenwich CT. The perfect backdrop for a coastal inspired wedding. Sammi didn’t want it to be overly coastal or kitschy so we were very subtle in our nod to coastal details. We selected a very soft blue linen for cocktail hour and for the reception we used a runner that was reminiscent of a capaiz shell, with pattern and design, it gave a subtle sheen to the natural texture of the farm tables. And the round tables had a sand colored linen with flecs of gold woven in, that in the sun looked like sand on the beach. A mix of elegant and natural details were woven throughout the event and each detail was carefully thought through. It is always our goal in creating the design of the event with the bride and the groom that it is a reflection of them as a couple and is not just every other wedding you go to. From the save the dates, to the hand illustrated programs, old family wedding photographs and vintage doors salvaged from the bride’s father there were special moments throughout the day that had a story behind them, just like Sammi & Rob’s relationship.