REAL WEDDING: Brooke & Spencer’s Timeless Romantic Outdoor Wedding

Real Wedding

May 19

romantic outdoor tented wedding reception

Brooke and Spencer’s wedding was certainly a favorite of our 2023 season! Abundant florals and intentional details highlighted the natural beauty at The Felt Estate, while Brena Band kept guests dancing all night.

HME provided design and coordination services, our focus being on creating a beautiful atmosphere where family and friends could gather and create lasting memories. When Brooke and her mom, Mary, first sat down with me to talk through their vision for the day, they described a timeless and romantic aesthetic, focusing on flowers and candles to create an intimate setting. The color palette was made up of ivory, champagne, and cream, varying shades of blush and dusty roses, accented with natural greens and burnished gold. Here’s a tip – always lean in to varying shades when choosing a color palette, and don’t restrict yourself to just a couple of colors. Not only does this create a more visually interesting design, but it also allows you the flexibility to choose items you like, and not just ones that fit one of your chosen colors.

Here’s a tip – always lean in to varying shades when choosing a color palette, and don’t restrict yourself to just a couple of colors.

Brooke knew right away that she wanted to bring in a different chair than what the venue provides, so we chose beautiful blonde wood chairs from Alpine Events. We anchored the wood dance floor with a large greenery hoop full of mixed foliage provided by our friend Nathan at Green NV and his amazing team. Additionally, strategically placed tall centerpieces helped draw the eye upward, and created a middle “level” of florals between the greenery hoop and the tabletop centerpieces.

romantic garden wedding tablescape with flowers and candles

One of my favorite things to do as a wedding designer is to brand the entire guest experience, carrying components such as colors, fonts, images, and textures from save the dates, to invitations, to the wedding day.

One of my favorite things to do as a wedding designer is to brand the entire guest experience, carrying components such as colors, fonts, images, and textures from save the dates, to invitations, to the wedding day. For Brooke and Spencer, that meant using a pencil sketch of the Felt mansion on the main invitation, and then using the same sketch on the menu cards and ceremony programs. Similarly, the vellum jacket of the invitation suite inspired us to pull a semi-sheer chiffon ribbon into the design, which was seen on the bouquets, ceremony chairs, and napkins.

For the ceremony at the always-charming chapel on the Felt Estate, Green NV created two stunning focal points for either side of the doors, and designed them so that they could be repurposed at the reception behind the newlyweds. I highly recommend working with your floral designer to repurpose as many ceremony arrangements as possible, particularly large pieces that can be used at the reception entrance, on an entertainment stage, or behind a head table. Similarly, bouquets can be placed on auxiliary tables (guest book, dessert, bars, etc) once formal portraits are complete. I never repurpose these as centerpieces, but rather in places where they make beautiful accents and enhance existing decor.

I highly recommend working with your floral designer to repurpose as many ceremony arrangements as possible, particularly large pieces that can be used at the reception entrance, on an entertainment stage, or behind a head table.

romantic garden wedding design with newlyweds

For me, the highlight of the day was being able to show Brooke the reception space as we finished setup. She came down to the tent to see how things were going and when she saw everything coming together, started to cry. While I never expect that a client will have such a powerful reaction, it is an incredibly special moment when they do, and touches me deeply.

A huge thank you to Rachel Gabrieles Photography for capturing this gorgeous September wedding, and I am extremely grateful to the entire vendor team for their hard work and dedication to making Brooke and Spencer’s day so special!