Erin + Ted definitely deserved a wonderful wedding after spending most of their eight years together in different cities! Wedding planner {Lora McFadden} helped make sure the day was perfect. The wedding took place at Old St. Anne’s Church and the reception took place at {St. Andrew’s School} where the couple first met. The couple’s big day was captured by {Jared Wilson Photography}. The beautiful blue and white floral arrangements are by {Flowers by Le Style 25} and {Liz Marden} provided five wedding cakes in five flavors, also in blue and white. Erin’s dress is from {Vera Wang} and her shoes, {Valentino}. Check out more of Erin + Ted on Jared’s {Blog}.
How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We met when I started as a sophomore at our boarding school (where the wedding reception was almost 10 years later). We instantly became best friends but it wasn’t until senior year that we started to date and we’ve been together ever since! Then, we relied on long drives and phone calls for college because we were at different schools. After we graduated, Ted moved to Boston for work and I moved to Baltimore for school so it was another year of flying around the country to be together. FINALLY, after all that time, I moved to Boston last year and we got to be in the same place again. When I started medical school, we moved to Chicago and Ted proposed (finally–we had been dating for 8 years by now) on our first night here which also happened to be our dating anniversary! It was a perfect introduction to our new city.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? Definitely rustic chic. We really wanted to capture the beauty of St. Andrew’s but also throw in a little bit of our personality which is pretty laid back. We wanted the day to feel like a fun dinner party but for 250 of our closest friends and family!!
Favorite design element of your big day: The entire reception look was designed around the mahogany dining room tables at St. Andrew’s which we moved out to the Front Lawn for the reception. Everything really stemmed from there.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: My mom flew to Chicago for the weekend and met me at the Vera Wang store. The consultant who was helping me pulled out this navy blue dress and told me that it was available in ivory and that it would be perfect. But, the ivory version was at the cleaner’s and wouldn’t be back until later in the week when my mom would be back home. So, even though I absolutely loved it, we spent the rest of the weekend looking for something else. After we couldn’t find anything, I went back to Vera Wang on my own and tried the dress in ivory. I was the only one to see it on before we bought it!!! But, it was absolutely perfect.
Describe your wedding flowers: We/I (let’s be honest, Ted really didn’t care about the flowers) really like funky, unique flowers so I met with the florist and described my really vague image that consisted of nothing by pincushion proteas. They turned out beautifully and we actually got cream peonies in June which is just unheard of so I was really excited.
Describe your wedding cake: We are pretty indecisive so when our baker suggested that we have a spread of cakes instead of the traditional big cake, we knew that was perfect! We got to have five different cakes with five different designs and most importantly, five different flavors!
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The napkins that we had in great fabrics to highlight our wedding colors and accent the tables which really were the centerpiece of the settings. Ted really loved the cigars (and so did many of our guests)–they were the perfect end to the night and a great respite from dancing. Oh, and we served milkshakes during late night and everyone enjoyed the cool-down!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: festive, muddy, perfect
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? Enjoy it but don’t obsess about it. I stressed over little things that ultimately didn’t matter at all–no one cared if the tablecloths on the cocktail tables were canary yellow or dandelion. AND, hire a great photographer because the day goes so quickly and you want to remember it all. We spent a long time making our escort cards but by the time we got to the tent, they were all gone and we never got to see the spread!!
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We’re really looking forward to getting settled in to Chicago and exploring this wonderful city. We’re ready to travel together and enjoy our new life as a married couple.
Congratulations Erin +Ted! We wish you all the best in your life together!
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