Lauren and Harvey have a love story for the books, involving spur of the moment flights, and renting out an entire restaurant for the perfect proposal! You’ll have to read below for the full story, but I am beyond excited to be able to share their gorgeous rustic chic mountain wedding shot by Kathleen Landwehrle Photography! All their thoughtful details add even more beauty to the breathtaking venue that surrounds Vermont’s Stowe Mountain Resort. Lauren carried an organically styled bouquet by A Schoolhouse Garden, and their reception was complete with a stunning rustic birch inspired cake by Vermont Sweet Tooth (with violets!!!), Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, s’mores, a fire pit, and fireworks. Talk about a dream wedding! Best wishes for this lovely couple!
From the Bride…
Before the Ring:
Harvey and I met at work. At the time, we were both seeing other people, so for years we were just very good friends. Harvey’s relationship ended and we grew even closer as friends. He decided to go to Costa Rica alone for a month long vacation. The night before he left it was his birthday and we all went out for dinner, I started realizing then that I had feelings for him. After he left, I was so sad that he was gone, knowing that, I broke up with my boyfriend at the time. None of our friends wanted to tell Harvey about the breakup as they knew he would come back as he had liked me for a while. Our boss didn’t realize and emailed him right away to tell him. Once he heard about the breakup, he jumped on the next flight home and surprised me! The rest is history!
Proposal Story:
Harvey rented out a popular restaurant in Montreal that I really wanted to eat at but wouldn’t serve me due to my allergies. He had them clean out the entire kitchen and cook a romantic meal for me. It was for my birthday so I had no idea what was going on. After course 1, he gave me a birthday card, when I looked up from it Harvey was down on his knee proposing to me! After we finished eating, I was surprised again when our family arrived to celebrate with us and 30 minutes later our close friends came! Harvey knows that I love family more than anything in the world and he knew how much it would mean to me to share this moment of our lives with them. It was perfect and so special.
Inspiration + Details of the Day:
We really wanted to have a casual, relaxed wedding that was more like a get together with great food in which our friends could just mingle and have a good time. We didn’t want assigned seating or a sit down dinner. We had different types of tables set up around the room for people to move around to along with lounge areas. On the tables were amazing rustic-chic looking flower arrangements and candles in mason jars. We set up beautiful stations along the perimeter of the room with amazing food along with passed h’ors d’oeuvres throughout the night.
When looking for a venue, we really wanted to find something that had the Vermont feel. Spruce Base Camp was just magnificent. We were able to get married outside facing the gorgeous Mt Mansfield and the reception was in the Great Room, which has massive wooden ceilings with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the mountain. Since I was a baby, my family and I always came to Stowe and we would see fireworks. We decided to re-create this moment for our guests by having a firework show for everyone.
To keep with the country/Vermont feel, our dessert consisted of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream served in individual containers with personalized spoons, delicious sorbet served in little paper cones, s’mores being passed around or that could be cooked at the fire pit outside and an amazing birch bark cake.
Lauren’s Advice to Brides:
“Enjoy the night, take all pictures needed before the event and not during. Don’t worry about saying hi to everyone, they will find you! Just relax, stay on the dance floor and have a good time!”
Photographer: Kathleen Landwehrle Photography / Venue + Catering: Spruce Base Camp (Stowe Mountain Resort) / Floral Design: Nancys Schoolhouse Garden / Cake: Marion of Vermont Sweet Tooth / String Trio: Vermont Symphony Orchestra / Invitations, gift bags, programs, kippah’s etc: Andrea Abramovitch of Printcess Designs