Mark and Clare were married at The Jacob Henry Mansion in Joliet, Illinois. With a church on-site it was not only the perfect backdrop for their Victorian vintage wedding, but somewhere they could have both their ceremony and reception. They loved their venue and styled the whole wedding around it’s gothic elements.
“We got the idea for theme of the wedding, Victorian Vintage, from my engagement ring”, began Clare. “My ring is a very art deco in style with the diamond sitting deep in the setting, and very unique filigree designed metalwork. We love the antique look of the ring and decided to find the attire, venue, stationery, and other decorations that would go with the theme. Antiques and antique-looking things are so classic that they will never go out of style, and we were hoping to find a theme that we could look back on in 30 years and still fawn over our choices.”
“We definitely brought back a long but not lost era”, she continued. “We wanted our wedding pictures to look as if they could have been taken around the turn of the 20th century! I chose my wedding dress after we chose the venue, reflecting the mansion’s tall old-style windows adorned with beautiful lace. I wanted to fit in with the overall Victorian theme of the mansion, and styled myself accordingly, with the help of my dear friend Mindy who did my hair, make up, and created my headpiece.”
“Mark chose a gorgeous full-length jacket from fanplusfriend.com made of satin brocade. I loved his look because he reminded me of a sexy vampire whom I was giving my life to in gorgeous (albeit creepy) old mansion. Due to the length of the jacket, he was able to comfortably wear a purple shirt and black slacks underneath too.”
“Our wedding was stripped of many traditional elements that did not fit in with our personalities”, she explained. “We wanted everyone to be comfortable and have a good time, rather than sit through a stuffy event. Therefore I only asked my wedding party to wear something dark (as opposed to dictating exact clothing pieces), we had a short but meaningful secular ceremony, and kept toasts and other traditional elements minimal.”
“The venue was our favourite thing about the wedding. It dictated the whole theme and we styled our entire wedding around it – everything from our invitations, decorations, and other little details. Our guests even dressed in black lace and/ or purple to help celebrate!”
