From Fete Photography: “After vacationing in Thailand and India, Aviva and Graham wanted to have a brightly colored wedding and used their travels as inspiration for the details and decor. Also, the bride’s grandmother lived in India for a few years, so there are some Indian elements as well. Aviva is Jewish, so their Chuppah is a vibrant material that Aviva brought back with her from India. The groom is a car enthusiast so the table decor features vintage car models that he built with his dad during his childhood. The decor also includes brightly colored votives, candles, and floral arrangements. One of the bridesmaids is an artist and during the reception, she painted a portrait for the couple as a gift. Dancing and having a good time was a high priority for the couple and their guests – they also did the hora, which is a favorite of ours to photograph! The bride and groom baked and decorated the cake themselves. The bride’s brother, who is a writer for BuzzFeed, wrote and officiated the ceremony. The bride’s other brother played the guitar and sang a few songs for the couple during their ceremony and for their first dance.”
A creative bohemian farm wedding in Asheville, NC
Graham is a mountain man. He loves the Appalachian Mountains. I love the funky, artsy part of Asheville and just being outdoors in general gives me a ton of energy whether the mountains or the beach. It is a magical place in Asheville.
Family is the most important thing to both of us so it was important to us to have them take part in the wedding. I am fortunate that I have one brother who is a musician and one that is a writer. My grandparents were a huge part of my life and unfortunately Ina is my last living grandparent so I asked her to please be part of it. She is vibrant and full of life, she is celebrating her 90th birthday this year! Anyhow, my little brother (Jordan Imbrey) wrote with myself and Graham our wedding from scratch. He works for BuzzFeed and is used to writing scripts so I didn’t feel so bad asking him to be the officiant – he went online and got his certification. My older brother, Tyler Imbrey, asked me for a list of which songs to play and he learned them and played them as well as performing a few original songs (one being our first dance) called Relent. We also included Graham’s brother in the tree planting part of the ceremony. Lastly, the totems were made from one of my family friends who is a potter. Instead of a regular bridal shower, we set up a painting area with all the pieces and had each of my lady friends and family paint a different piece. She fired them and we made those out of them. It was fun for all of them to see their work finished, too!
Graham and I wrote rhyming poems as a toast to each of our family members to thank them, as well as we used photos to make each of our parents albums and gave each of our mothers mandala necklaces made by a local artist to symbolize what a special night we shared together.
Graham built car models with his Dad when he was kid and we collected those and used them as table numbers. The only thing I bought new was a few decorative lanterns from World Market. We also used a ton of fabric and things we collected from our travels to India and Thailand. We built our own cake! It became not something to eat, so we served sheet cake from Whole Foods. I also created a large mandala design and backed it with wood for people to sign instead of a guest book – now it hangs in our house. My best friend live painted during the reception, which was awesome. Also the band’s lead singer is a great friend of Graham’s.
The Chuppa was super simple; we just found 4 branches up in Asheville and the fabric was a Sari I brought back from India – my friends carried it so we didn’t worry about making it stand up. – Aviva
Artists
- Photographer: Fete Photography
- Caterer: Catering by Corey
- Cinema and Video: Heartistree Studios
- Reception Venue: The Farm – A gathering Place
