Today’s featured wedding comes to us from St. Louis, Missouri…a very sweet, rustic, vintage-travel themed event reflecting Lindsey + Darren’s years spent together abroad in Africa and the Middle East. Very cool! The couple’s choice of venue, a 200 year-old restored brewery, was the perfect backdrop for the bride and groom’s altar made from a Middle Eastern textile draped over a wooden beam taken from Lindsey’s family barn; and nicely complimented the display of fabrics and pictures collected throughout their travels. I love how Lindsey’s lace Monique Lhuillier gown called ‘Ingrid’ contrasts with the rustic, industrial loft style of their venue while also honoring the vintage charm of this special day. Congrats to the happy couple!
Lindsey + Darren | June 15, 2013 | St. Louis, MO | Dress Listing: Monique Lhuillier ‘Ingrid’
The Ceremony
Darren and I met while we were working abroad and chose to have a vintage-travel themed wedding. We choose to hold the ceremony in a 200-year-old restored brewery in St. Louis, MO. 90% of our guests were from out of town, including us because we live in California and choose to have our wedding in my home state of Missouri. The brick walls and wooden beams resembled my 150-year-old farmhouse which gave a vintage, rustic feel to the ceremony. We built our own archway using a wooden beam from my family’s barn and incorporating fabric we found while working in the Middle East. We both faced our families, unconventionally facing the opposite direction of what a normal ceremony usually resembles, so they could see our faces as we read our self-written vows. We started the ceremony with a ring warming and had various passages read from “The Profit” by Khalil Gibran. By the time the ring exchange took place, the rings had been passed to each guest to make a small blessing of our union.
The Reception
Our reception took place in the same building, up the stairs, from our ceremony. We used fabrics we collected from Africa and the Middle East and displayed pictures of us throughout our travels on a 100-year-old wooden door turned into a display table. My uncle is a potter and created hand-thrown pottery for each of our guests with a design that Darren and I specifically created together. Each table was crafted after a different place we had visited together and the seating chart was a large map displaying our travels together. We tried to keep the costs down as much as possible and use only locally sourced vendors. My family farm supplied the cheeses used at cocktail hour, the retired captain of my hometown’s fire department baked each of our mini cheesecakes for the dessert and a family friend supplied the flowers. To make sure that our families and friends had a place to go post-reception, we organized an after-party in the cellar of the reception and ceremony space to give an extra few hours of party time. The after party included billiards, darts, karaoke and a vintage hot dog cart for a late night snack.
Lindsey’s Dress Search
I knew I wanted to have a simple lace dress with some sort of sleeve, however I did not know exactly what it was going to be. I looked for dresses in every city I visited (Chicago, St. Louis, Portland, Reno) throughout the summer and finally tried on the Monique Lhuillier in Los Angeles near where I live. It was out of my price range, but once I tried on the hand-made lace, I could not put on any other dress. I bought it that day.
How Lindsey Felt in Her Wedding Dress
Elegant, Timeless, Beautiful
Why Lindsey Decided to Sell Her Wedding Dress
To be honest, the dress was out of my price range when I initially tried it on…however, it was so beautiful I could not take it off. Once I brought the dress home, it became a piece of me and it would be a shame to have it only worn once and left in a closet for the rest of my life. It is an absolutely stunning piece of art that I would love to pass along to another lucky bride.
