A Spring Wedding

We met on a winter night in New York, at a show that my band was playing at the Mercury Lounge. Sven had read about us in a show listing in TimeOut magazine and, in a rare mood for indie pop, he went to check it out. (So I guess we owe our meeting to a compelling write-up by the magazine writer :)). Then after the show, we met at the band merch table. I was living in DC at the time so we were just occasional pen pals over email for a few months. But during that time, both of our fathers passed away within 2 weeks of one another due to long illnesses. It was a rare and heartwrenching experience for us to share, especially since we were still virtually strangers. That summer, my band was back on the road in NYC, so we planned our first date to see the movie Once at Sunshine Theater. By the end of the summer, each of us knew that the other was for keeps :)

When we were planning the wedding, we didn't want to just go through the motions of wedding traditions, so we tried to be creative and put a twist on the usual conventions like guest books, escort cards, and favors. My dad was a prolific visual artist, so instead of printing escort cards for the tables, my sister and I made 85 antique wine charms/pendants for each guest with my dad's artwork, which corresponded with images of his work at each of the tables. We linked each charm to our signature “mojito-tini” cocktail, with names tags attached.

Instead of a guest book, I drew a big bare oak tree and had guests sign it by leaving their fingerprint as a leaf or bird, using stamp pads in the wedding colors. People really put their personalities into the drawings so it turned out really well!

My mom, maid of honor, best girl and I also made all sorts of decorative crafts in whimsical, rustic and vintage fashion. We painted and hand-distressed wooden "Hsu-Pfeiffer Wedding" and "Mr. and Mrs." signs and made a "love is sweet" banner out of burlap fabric. We cut and sewed hundreds of fabric flowers and strung them into 8-ft garlands across the ceiling (thanks to several members of my family who pitched in!). We also cut paper butterflies and heart garlands from aged books that we got from the Salvation Army.

As Sven and I are both coffee fiends, we decided to decorate tiny burlap bags as our favors and filled them with Jamaican Blue Mountain beans (jelly beans for the kids!). We also wanted the tables to be adorned with wildflowers in a variety of antique vases, mason jars, medicine bottles. Because it was a destination wedding, I had to rely on the Bells & Whistles, our florist, to bring that vision to life, which she did perfectly! 

Photography compliments of Neil GT