Serena and Adam’s unique wedding was a romantic and intimate brunch inside the Woodland Mosaic, an historic Solarium, at the Denver Botanic Gardens. The day featured lush colourful florals, a seating chart made out of tea bags, and high tea brunch with dreamy music from a string quartet. 

The couple wanted an intimate and meaningful event inspired by Sofia Coppola’s vision of opulence and femininity in Marie Antoinette. They opted for fewer traditions and a paired down guest list of 60. They worked closely with Rly Rly Studio on the decor, look and feel of the event.

The wedding was on a Sunday morning so they had a Mimosa and Bloody Mary bar. “Having a Sunday morning wedding cut the venue costs, alcohol costs, and music costs in half”, Serena explained. “Of course, that came at the expense of not being able to have dancing, so it really only worked because of our overall theme. I also bought my dress through a sample sale, which cut the price in half!”

They walked down the aisle together, hand in hand to their song, Harvest Moon. “We chose to do private vows right after the ceremony”, she continued. “We also decided to keep speeches private, they were given the night before at our rehearsal dinner. We also chose to get ready together the morning of, which made it so special.”

They knew from the start they didn’t want an overly choreographed day., their focus was on creating an experience that felt genuine, comfortable, and full of little moments they’d treasure. However one element they really loved was their seating chart; tea bags filled with Colorado wildflower seeds which then doubled as gifts for our guests. Rly Rly Studios also created beautiful menus that were fans with tassels and they had mismatched tea sets at each table.

Despite their thoughtful planning, Serena said they did have some challenges, in particular with the guest list. “One of the hardest things was figuring out the guest list and balancing the budget.”, she said. “It’s easy to succumb to wedding industry frills – but you don’t need (and ultimately won’t want) so many of the random wedding themed items. At least we didn’t, and our budget thanked us for it! We deliberately made choices to be able to allocate more of our budget to photography, and opted out of fancier invitations, more flowers, etc. It was absolutely worth it, our photographer, Ashley Joyce, was absolutely amazing and our other vendors were so incredible that what we did spend on was above and beyond.”

“People often say, ‘It’s your day! Do whatever you want, don’t worry about the guests!’ but this is not true!”, she concluded. “It’s one day, do what you can to make it an enjoyable and stress-free experience for you and your guests who have taken time and spent money to be there for you. Your wedding doesn’t give you a pass to inconvenience others, even when it can become inconvenient for you.”