Vintage Illinois Wedding by Avery House Photography

A little confession: while you are sitting here soaking in the gorgeousness that is this wedding, I my friends am enjoying happy hour with the incredibly warm and kind Stevi and Matt from Avery House Photography. They are the duo behind my fave wedding I shared with you all last week and again they knocked it out of the park with this phenomenal peach and blue hued Illinois fete. I would have never thought to pair together soft corals, creams and perry winkle blue but Kate, the gorgeous bride, did it in the most perfect of ways. Is her dress not the prettiest you've ever seen? Scroll on to take in all of her insightful advice to future brides. And in case you missed it check out their adorable engagement session that I shared this morning. Enjoy the rest of your Monday, my loves! 


I am seriously lusting after Kate's Melissa Sweet "Fern" gown. The detailing is so romantic!


{Advice to Future Brides} The best advice I can give is to keep some sense of perspective. It is very easy to get caught up in all the pretty details of wedding featured in magazines and blogs but it i OK to pass on some things for the sake of your budget and sanity. The compliment I most frequently heard after my wedding was that I kept all the stuff that mattered and did away with the rest. Yes, custom gift bags to welcome out-of-town guests would have been nice. But those guests had plenty of fun without the added expense and effort on my part. Monogrammed wine bottle labels or candles may have been cute as favors but when I tallied up the expense, I decided that money was better spent on an incredible band. The point of a wedding is to end up married to your honey and celebrate that marriage with friends and family. Focus on those two things and you'll be happy with the results.

{Biggest Obstacle While Planning} My biggest obstacle was most certainly self-inflicted. As a former art student and lover of wedding blogs, I was totally in love with every quirky, creative wedding idea that crossed my path. I wanted to make my own invitations out of antique books and sew old sweaters into wine cozies for my favours. I planned to hand paint our Ketubah and make letterpress stationary as gifts for my bridesmaids. Halfway through the planning process, I had an apartment full of musty antique books (ebay!), frustrated roommates and mountains of work piling up at my job. I had to take a step back and admit that am not, in fact, in the business of wedding planning and cannot expect to tackle every project myself. It was at that point that I started looking to my wedding vendors to do what I had hired them to for - so I could keep the rest of my world from falling apart from neglect. Once I gave up that notion that everything had to be done (perfectly) by me, the rest of the planning process was much more manageable.

{Fun Fact} Jason and I chose to roll the dice and go forward with out outdoor wedding despite looming storm clouds. Towards the end of our ceremony, the first few drops began to fall. Jason broke the glass and everyone shouted "mazel tov!" and as we kissed, not one, but two rainbows appeared above us. While I spent my engagement hoping for a warm, sunny wedding day, we wouldn't have had our rainbows without the rain!
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Photography: Matt and Stevi Savage, Avery House Photography / Flowers: Marie Pauly of Wild Orchid Custom Floral Design / Venue and Caterer: Bloomingdale Golf Club, Bloomingdale, Illinois / Music: Orchestra 33 / Favors: Kelly Siebens, Lillycakes / Stationary: Bella Figura / Dress: Melissa Sweet "Fern" with accompanying cathedral veil / Hair and Make Up: Carla from Appease, Inc / Menswear: Ralph Lauren / Bridesmaids" J. Crew silk chiffon "Sophia" hazel blue / Shoes: Nina / Clutch: Nordstrom / Calligraphy: Calligraphy by Cristine, Cristine Bunting / Papercut Ketubah: Judiac Connection

38 Lovely Comments:

Naomi said...

Love this wedding and the bride is right, there aren't any rainbows without the rain. Lovely thought. The colors are perfect and I love that they provided comfort and warmth for their guests. The brides bouquet is gorgeous. What a lovely classic wedding. Thanks for sharing, love!

Unknown said...

This is gorgeous, the soft olors compliment each other well! :-) Enjoy your happy hour too!

Brooke T said...

I need those shoes! I love the brand Nina! and this is like a perfect wedding despite it raining! It's gorgeous and I LOVE the blankets :)

Unknown said...

I love the photos (of course, how could you not?!) but I love the Bride's advice most of all: concentrate on marrying your fiance & celebrating that marriage with family & friends. Precious advice!!!

Michelle @ Ten June said...

Ahhh those colors are phenomenal. So pretty and sweet, perfect for a wedding! I love her shoes too! Gorg.

Laura *You Stir Me* said...

I absolutely love the blankets! Such a pretty feature for all the guests. I completely agree with you that it's a huge budget saver to keep the big things that are important to you and not worry about the rest - it won't matter in the end and you'll look back on the entire day with fond memories of everything that you did accomplish instead of those that you didn't:)

Kristen said...

Her dress is gorgeous! Love her veil too!

Emilee Sutherland said...

Oh my goodness! I LOVE her dress!!

cindy* said...

so, so lovely! i just love the color palette. i also, of course, love Fern...I may be biased though, i wore the same dress :)

Holly said...

VERY gorgeous wedding. I'm in love with her dress, too!

Laura said...

I love the colors and little details like the blankets outside :) I completely agree with her "advice" :)

Unknown said...

Wow. Impressive pictures!!

Vicky
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Anonymous said...

ok so that dress is gorgeous.

Anna Elder said...

so pretty!! i love detailing on the sweetheart top!! gorgeous. love the cozy blankets too, what a great idea!

Kate said...

What a wonderful post! Thanks so much for featuring our wedding and all the kind words :) -Kate & Jason

sofia @ Brancoprata said...

I don't know how you do it but the fact is.... you find the perfect weddings... with the perfect colors, and beautiful couples and amazing details and.... it's always... just perfect!!!!

Piril Maria said...

Amazing photos.

I'm also about to plan a wedding and your blog will make my brainstorming so much easier. Love it.



Love,
http://thebookness.blogspot.com

Megan said...

Her dress is so precious...definitely one of a kind!!

I love her wedding advice. Such a smart bride!

Sophie said...

ahh omg this is just stunning! x

The Loveliest Day said...

Ugh, I love that dress! Tried it on myself when wedding dress shopping, but it didn't look nearly as good on me. Such a beautiful bride!!!

charminglychesney said...

the dress is divine!

jacin {lovely little details} said...

that picture of the woman in the snuggly blanket resonated with me and reminded me of my grandmother, i just love these shots and how they capture the moments. and that dress? swoon.

Felicity said...

This wedding resonates warmth from the sincere joy on the faces of the bride, groom & wedding party to the simply stunning blankets.

Blessing to you both, I hope that there are many more rainbows as your lives progress together.

x Felicity

{The Perfect Palette} said...

I related to this bride! I too was an art major in college :) So I was all about crafting every single detail! Funny she mentioned personalized wine labels and candles. I actually had personalized wine labels made & gave a bottle of my family wine to each guest who was staying in town for our destination winery wedding. Oh, and for favors, I gave candles in mason jars. I took on TOO many projects, but it was so much fun. But I would have to agree that you have to set priorities and figure out what's important to you and what's not. Most important is the love between you and your future hubby. Not all the pretties.

christine donee said...

I sort of melted when I saw the blankets in the basket.. what a wonderful idea.

BridalHood said...

I love her dress! And what a gorgeous and classic wedding.

jessica // union shore said...

love the color palette and her dress is beautiful!!
and i LOVE the blankets, such a great idea for outdoor weddings!

Lisa said...

WOW! So beautiful, intimate, and cozy looking! Her dress is so unique and stunning, and the details are perfect. Congratulations to the beautiful bride and groom!
Lisa

clearlytangled said...

so gorg. i really love her dress, and what a lovely thing for two rainbows to appear at the end of the ceremony.

Liesl said...

Darling, just darling! I'm "rolling the dice" as well and going with an outdoor wedding and reception...fingers are crossed! That said, I just love Katie's outlook about without the rain they wouldn't have had their rainbows and I do love rainbows! :)

Liesl :)

A Crimson Kiss said...

That gown is heavenly, the cable knit blankets are inspired and I'm absolutely smitten with their double rainbow-what a perfect day!

Erin said...

my goodness this is just beautiful! & i love those warm but pretty blankets - charming!

Mallory said...

I LOVE the ideas for those blankets, how perfect!

ASHLEY said...

What a sweet wedding :) Loved that they had rainbows!!!

Ashley said...

how cozy are those blankets?! it makes me dreamy for fall and cool weather with hot apple cider. But not yet! we've just barely made it out of winter!

Kamie said...

So pretty! I love the blankets so cute!

Nikki said...

I love the advice of newly married. Beautiful wedding.

Kate/MagnoliaRouge said...

Where to start... her dress is so so pretty.. the flowers=gorgeous... the blankets=love that idea... the list goes on!!