This gorgeous black and white wedding was absolutely perfect to fulfill bride Ashley’s vision of a timeless, elegant wedding. Ashley and Terry have the sweetest love story- having met at the Air Force Academy and after being friends for years, the two finally ended up dating… and after just a few weeks decided to get married! This beautiful elegant fete, planned by Michelle Leo Events and captured by Pepper Nix Photography, was a celebration of love, marriage, and happiness- everything that a wedding always should be! Ashley is here with us today sharing more about her wedding planning and the insight she gained through the process…
What (or who) helped you most in your planning process and/or on your wedding day?
Michelle Leo Events (http://www.michelleleoevents.com) was my wedding planner, she was amazing and did all of the hard work!! I was active duty military at the time of our wedding, and my husband is too. We were planning from Japan, and then we moved to Virginia – and never set foot in Utah during the whole process! She made it super easy for us. During the day I spent most of my time with Pepper, our photographer. She kept everything moving on time, made sure every shot was fantastic, and that we got through the pictures quickly and efficiently. I love, love, love our pictures, they really show how great of a time we were all having! Our ring bearer was a little nervous all day, and as a gift earlier in the week we had given him a toy t-rex to play with. I have a slight obsession with dinosaurs, and Pepper was all about including the t-rex in our wedding party pictures; if that is what it took to get Jackson to smile. Those pictures are my favorite!
What was the most important thing to you when deciding who to work with for your wedding?
Reviews from previous customers, and if their “style” of work matched what we wanted. I am not very picky, so I really put a lot of faith in Michelle and her team of experts!
What was your inspiration for your wedding details and/or design?
We wanted it to be timeless and fun. I didn’t want to look back at my pictures and have it be very obvious that it was a “2014” wedding. I wanted to avoid trends, and really have a classic, elegant, but super fun wedding! When it came to colors, I went with neutrals, gold and black. Michelle, and her team did such an amazing job with the design, florals, the rentals, everything was perfect!
What was your favorite thing about your wedding?
How much fun everyone had! It was really important to me that everyone that came “got their money’s worth”. Being a military couple, we have friends all over the world and not one of our guests lived in the area where we had the wedding. We had guests fly in from Germany, Japan, and all over the US. We knew everyone was going to be traveling, and we really wanted to create a weekend experience to bring old groups of friends back together and have a whole lot of fun at the same time.
And you REALLY must take a few minutes to watch this film of Ashley and Terry’s day. Their vows to each other brought tears to my eyes- so perfect!
Terry + Ashley // Wedding feature // Grand America from Jared Wortley on Vimeo.
What is your best piece of advice for other brides?
Plan. Relax. Enjoy it. You really only want to get to do this once. Things will go wrong, but at the end of the day you’re marrying the love of your life surrounded by family and friends – it doesn’t get any better than that. I don’t think I ever stressed at the wedding. My brother, who officiated, called my mom at one point the morning of the wedding when we were getting ready. My mother was being very hush hush about the conversation, but finally she told me that they lost our written vows, and the ceremony script. The good news was, I had sent the entire script and vows to every groomsman, my husband-to-be, and my brother in a Facebook message. I planned for them to be lost, and they had a digital version there waiting!
Oh I just LOVE Ashley’s advice and insight! I love hearing from brides that they were able to fully enjoy their day thanks to working with incredibly professionals. And also- how gorgeously elegant is the decor? I for one love a timeless wedding!
So how about you- will you be having a timeless, elegant wedding like this one? Or will you be going for a different, more trendy style? I’d love to hear!
Vendors who made it all happen…
Photographer: Pepper Nix Photography / Planner & Designer: Michelle Leo Events / Flowers & Decor: Urban Chateau Floral / Reception Venue: The Grand America Hotel / Cinematography: Jared Wortley Films / Rentals: Diamond Rental / Makeup Artist: Kristen Packard Makeup Artist / Invitations & Stationery: Wedding Paper Divas / Band: Joe Muscolino Band
Photographer: Pepper Nix Photography / Planner & Designer: Michelle Leo Events / Flowers & Decor: Urban Chateau Floral / Reception Venue: The Grand America Hotel / Cinematography: Jared Wortley Films / Rentals: Diamond Rental / Makeup Artist: Kristen Packard Makeup Artist / Invitations & Stationery: Wedding Paper Divas / Band: Joe Muscolino Band