Ian and Gabrielle's Wedding in Germantown, New York

The story of our wedding

Our love story is one that exemplifies right timing, right place. After a chance encounter in school while studying at Dartmouth College, we became long-distance best friends working on our education and careers in different cities. One fateful Thanksgiving holiday, we were in the same city at the same time and we realized this friendship had something more to it. Four years later, we tied the knot on October 15, 2022 at Clermont Historic Site in the Hudson Valley.We wanted to pay homage to our friendship in our wedding and created the most joyous, authentic, and sentimental day for ourselves. Inspired by our shared passion for brunch, Georgian colonial homes (yes we really do have a passion for this), and a love of modern romantic styles, we threw an outrageous bottomless brunch wedding at a historic estate in upstate New York.Every detail of our day was meticulously planned to fit our theme and be true to our relationship: we got ready together with our friends and family in a beautiful antique home; I had custom shoes made in Italy to mimic the style that would have been worn by the original inhabitants of venue we were wed at; we selected custom stationary hand-crafted with delicious texture and subtle nods to our location; and we featured our beloved pup, Forrest in our ceremony and reception details.Our neutral palette was carefully chosen to allow the beauty of peak fall foliage to sing as our backdrop and our decor combined the ornate details of the period of the home with minimalist, organic shapes and textures. Small details like the lion statues at the entrance of our venue were mimicked in our invites, my vintage earrings, and even the syrup cruet for our cake. Our florals were locally sourced and chosen for their freeform shapes and encased in moss, as if these flowers had been slowly growing from the ruins and grounds of the estate. Pears and figs adorned our tables and ceremony pieces to pay homage to the stunning autumnal landscape by using local, seasonal items to add a pop of color while still maintaining our neutral scheme.Our ceremony was co-created with our officiant, a family friend, and centered on the importance of friendship to a marriage. We engaged our guests in our ceremony by conducting a ring warming ceremony to bless our union and impart their wishes and hopes for our future into our custom rings. We wrote our own set of vows and promises to uphold to one another emphasizing patience, growth, compassion, and fun. We made our pledge under a canopy of autumn foliage that fell in beautiful yellow streams as the wind blew. Bucking with tradition, our daytime reception featured brunch bites, including the best chicken and waffles of your dreams, stacked bloody mary and bellini bars, to a towering waffle cake topped with my parents' vintage cake topper from their own wedding 35 years ago. The bubbly poured as we kicked off our festivities with a champagne tower and celebrated on our custom dance floor. We topped off the afternoon with Magnolia's pudding, our personal favorite, and rode off into the sunset on our dream honeymoon to Italy.