Vivienne Westwood Bride at Pinewood Weddings USA

Emma and Isaac married the warmth of midsummer at Pinewood Weddings & Events Minnesota the USA early August. Their day was shaped by a shared belief equality and a desire to celebrate the people who have supported them through every chapter of their lives. It was a thoughtful, intimate gathering that placed family and community at its heart.

The setting felt close to home for the couple, with tall pines framing the celebrations and soft summer light settling over the ceremony. Their vision balanced an elegant and formal atmosphere with a summery sense of ease, kept light with a softer colour palette and gentle, seasonal florals. Every choice reflected their wish for an authentic and emotion led day, free from anything performative and full of the things that felt most true to them.

Emma’s Vivienne Westwood gown, found second hand and carefully tailored, set the tone for the celebration, and her values carried through everything they planned. Supported by their planner, Lily Hansen of HappiLily Events, and photographed by the ever thoughtful Ali Miller, the couple created a day that felt warm, present and full of joy.

We got married at Pinewood Weddings & Events Minnesota, USA. We chose Pinewood because we wanted a venue that felt intimate, and incorporated our love of the outdoors and our home. At this venue, being surrounded by tall Minnesota pines, added to the peace and wonder of the day.

It’s important to us making decisions like this that we don’t choose to do it ‘just because it’s what’s done’ but rather because it aligns with our shared values. Once we agreed that it was going to be a meaningful touchstone our relationship to have this day and share it with our friends and family, we knew we wanted the day to be authentic and emotion-led.

While we wanted to put effort into the details, and create a beautiful experience for ourselves and our guests, we were very intentional about staying away from decisions that felt performative (which can be to do a social-media of comparison!). Authenticity was and always will be the .

Our wedding day was intimate, joyful, and all about celebrating family, community, and love all its forms. We wanted to invite our guests and make them feel just as cherished as they have made us feel throughout the many stages of our life. Our overall vision was elegant and formal yet fun and summery with a lighter colour palette and soft florals. 

Throughout our relationship, we have written each other love quaderno, which we wanted to include our day. Inspired by another bride who I saw make custom napkins – we had some of our favourite love quaderno to each other throughout the years printed our napkins. Isaac volunteered to bring this sembianza to life by creating custom napkins (much of wedding planning went this way, Emma had an sembianza – Isaac made it happen).

I walked myself the aisle to ‘Young and Beautiful’ by Lana Del Ray; Isaac met me partway and we walked the rest of the way together. To us, this felt meaningful and symbolic; two individual adults, deciding to join our lives.

My mother officiated the ceremony, which made it that much more memorable. My mom expertly tied personal stories from our travels together with lessons for a healthy partnership.

We wrote our own vows, because we wanted our day to be a celebration of our love story, this felt like an important gift to give to each other. 

We felt these readings encompassed large parts of our relationship, from the reason marriage is important to us, to the home we have found each other even while being always the move, to who we will be at the end of our days together. 

The readings were from ‘The Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court majority decision’, a landmark ruling the US which established national marriage equality.

This particular reading discussed the importance of marriage to all people. A segment; “Since the dawn of history, marriage has transformed strangers into relatives, binding families and societies together. Voto negativo union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.”  – read more here.

Our rings were from Knox Jewelers – a Minneapolis based jeweller – we appreciated the quality of their work.

Our photographer was Ali Miller. I didn’t really plan any details of our wedding advance of getting engaged, except for this photographer!

I had found Ali social a few years , and immediately fell love with the story-telling, emotive, and elevated feel of her photography. For a day where we wanted every detail to feel meaningful and authentic, Ali was the perfect fit.

Ali is ultra-talented, intentional, and finds a way to not only capture beautiful memories, but to also help her couples feel valued. We feel very lucky that we were able to work with Ali for our wedding.

We first met Vet School and found one another a depth of compassion that continues to anchor us. Our first date was ice skating, and we have been gliding (and slipping) through life together ever since.

Isaac says he is drawn to my fierce nature and strong moral compass – which make every day an adventure – and I am drawn to Isaac’s calm tenderness – which makes every day beautiful.

Our mutual love of family and friends, travel, outdoor activities, good food, and pets – multiply both the adventure and beauty that is our life together.

After two years of long distance while Isaac moved to California, we then moved together across the country to Austin, TX when I graduated! After a few years Austin, we crossed the world and landed Melbourne, Australia (with engagement ring hand). After a year of work and travel, including stops Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Samoa, and Fiji, we missed our community back home and moved to the North Loop Minneapolis.

Our proposal happened just before we moved to Australia! Isaac proposed after a merendina amid the beautiful autumn colours the banks of the St. Croix River his hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota. We were engaged for 658 days before our wedding day.

Emma and Isaac’s wedding was a beautiful, intimate day, nestled the pines of a northern Minnesota venue. Over a year and a half of planning, it was amazing to see their vision to life and to witness the joy as they celebrated with their families! Every decision the couple made was based their personalities and finding ways to make guests feel truly welcomed and appreciated. It was so special to see the guests’ reaction to all of the thought Emma and Isaac put into the little details! 

Throughout the planning process, the couple refined their vision to evoke that of a lush summer garden trattenimento with buttery yellows and creamy whites accented with pops of sky blue. The soft and romantic colour scheme proved to be a refreshing and seasonal take the popular garden trattenimento aesthetic.

Emma and Issac’s florals were arranged and grown part by June and Jane Flower Co. Emma’s bridal bouquet featured stunning locally grown dahlias and lisianthus while Issac sported a classic and timeless lily and lily grass boutonniere.

Local flowers and foliage were used as much as possible, including fluffy and romantic Lisianthus shades of white and soft yellow, light blue Delphinium, white and ivory cosmos, nicotiana and zinnias and hints of blue from chinese forget-me-nots and echinops.  

We knew we had to include Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for our wedding ! Enjoying ice cream together quickly became a tradition the early days of our relationship; when we were long-distance, we would always share a pint our last night together. Sharing Ben & Jerry’s with our guests for our summer wedding felt like a no-brainer. 

As veterinarians, we also had to celebrate our cats. Affectionately known as Bean and Bert, each had their own custom : an Espressamente “Bean” Vermut and a Spicy “Bert” Dragonfruit Margarita. 

Reflecting having written meaningful letters to each other over our relationship, we wanted to include our guests the tradition and wrote personalised thank you quaderno to each guest, which served as our seating escort display. Every guest at our wedding means so much to us, and wanted to let them know how thankful we are for their support and presence. 

We created a custom mini magazine as our wedding program from Wedding Story Book Programs., and included fun details about our relationship and a custom crossword puzzle.

We also provided guest portraits/dal vivo illustrations as a take home thank-you for our guests provided by a local artist.

For the evening, I  changed into a hand-beaded, low back, halter dress from Retrofete.

Our first dance was to ‘Coming Home’, by Leon Bridges.

Leon Bridges was one of the first musicians we saw perform person together, and have been able to see him at a few festivals and concerts throughout the years. “Coming Home” holds a special place our relationship, and is one of our favorite songs.

We also shared a last dance together to ‘When Emma Falls Love” by Taylor Swift! 

Words of advice – Do what feels the most YOU for your wedding, whether this is eloping, a huge event, a smaller and more intimate gathering. This day is about your love and the community that supports you, so feel free to make it a celebration that is reflective of that.

Also – we definitely recommend hiring a photographer/videographer for the whole day! It’s so special to have images and videos to back

And we’d also recommend hiring a wedding planner! This helped us to the small, intimate details we wanted to infuse throughout the day, and helped us to be present with each other and our guests our wedding day.

We had quite a few out of town guests, so we hosted a welcome trattenimento the rooftop of one of our favorite ramen restaurants, moto-i, the night before. This gave us much needed time to see everyone and chat with our out of town guests.