Stephanie + Will’s Winter Wedding Celebration
So many beautiful moments and thoughtful details throughout Stephanie + Will’s Cincinnati wedding celebration. From the beautiful photos taken along the Ohio River with the fall leaves still turning to the personalized decor details created by Grainwell, of which Stephanie is one of the amazing graphic designers, to the very last song played on the dance floor. Stephanie writes, It was an absolute dream come true, and it meant the world to us that so many friends and family traveled near and far to celebrate that day with us. Photography by Jonathan Gibson unless otherwise noted.
Tell us a little about you and Will.
Will and I both are from Florence KY! We grew up in the same neighborhood, but didn't actually meet until the end of college! His triplet brother, Alex, went to Louisville with my life-long best friend, Paige, and they invited us both down for a Derby party! Will always laughs when I say this, but it was truly love at first sight for me. I saw him across the room and knew I just had to meet him. He admitted later that he felt the same way :)
Will graduated from Thomas More University and is currently the Branch Manager for the Independence branch of Ferguson Enterprises - a wholesale distributor of plumbing and HVAC products. I graduated from the University of Cincinnati, DAAP, and I'm currently a Graphic Designer at Grainwell in Covington. We focus on wood-based home decor and personalized gifts!
We both are very close with our families and friends, so we love spending time with them! We love sports, whether playing them ourselves or watching them at any level! Will coaches basketball for 8th grade at IHM, and lacrosse for Cov Cath. We also love going for walks, camping, hiking, and being outdoors together. And occasionally we are in for a good movie night with our cat, Seve, and our newest pup, Goose :)
Tell us about the proposal.
WOW - Will went above and beyond with his proposal! I've attached photos because there's no way my story can do this moment justice! We got engaged on October 21, 2017, which also happened to be Sweetest Day! Sweetest Day is very special to me because it is also my parent's wedding anniversary (10.20.79), and they have been married for over 40 years.
He actually bought my engagement ring in January 2017, but knowing how much that day means to me, he waited and planned the most perfect day for 10 months!
Everything was a total surprise, and to pull it all off, he had the help of his sister, Catie, and our (almost) sister-in-law, Alex, take me out to brunch and to get our nails done together. I fell for all of it because Catie mentioned that she was going to a wedding the following weekend (which was true) and wanted to get her nails done with friends. We also already had plans to go to his parent's house that night because it had been blocked off for a month in our calendar as "Ammerman family game night."
When I got home from nails, he made me go upstairs and get ready for the night, and when I came back down he had poured me a glass of wine and had dinner ready for us! He said he wanted to have a mini-date with just the two of us before we went over to hang out with his family. It was already dark by the time we pulled up to his parent's house, and when I got out of the car, he began to walk me toward their backyard.
His parents have a gorgeous backyard with a gravel fire pit, and fairy lights hanging all around. I noticed as we were walking up that the backyard seemed especially bright and even made the comment that his mom "went all out" for family game night lol. As we turned the corner to see the path to the fire pit, my eyes welled with happy tears immediately - there were so many candles lighting the path to a chair set up for me.
Will was leading me there, but he got nervous and excited and dropped down to his knee before I could make it to the chair to sit down! Neither of us remember what he said, but we both remember me saying, "OH MY GOSH", "ARE YOU SERIOUS" and "ABSOLUTELY!" As we hugged, his brothers set off fireworks, and when I turned around I saw that he had also carved pumpkins in a line to read "marry me?" At that point, I also looked up and realized that both of our families had been watching the whole proposal from the house! They put a little party together and slowly our closest friends started arriving to celebrate the night with us.
It was one of the best moments of my entire life.
Will's mom, and his whole family worked so hard to make that night possible. I still can't thank them enough!
Tell us about your wedding stationery vision and how it came together.
For my stationery vision, the only thing I was sure of was that I wanted some sort of floral element, and at least a touch of foil! In order to figure out more specific details of what I liked, I started researching images of invitations on pinterest and minted. Over and over again I was drawn to navy or dark colored backgrounds with white text and foil details. I also loved the idea of a vellum overlay to complement our invitations!
When I met with Kristen, I shared my inspiration images with her, and within moments she began to bring my vision to life. She rocked my world when she took this gorgeous, colorful, watercolor texture and masked it into the leaves of the greenery surrounding the text - I mean - that's amazing! lol
Another special detail that we worked on was for the vellum overlay - Kristen designed the overlay with an excerpt of the lyrics to our first dance song, and surrounded it with the same beautiful greenery border so it would lay directly over top of the design on the invitations. Every detail for our invitations was so special, and so thoughtfully done! Everything came together because of the creative talent of Kristen and her ability to communicate the design so clearly.
I was so excited the first day we met with Kristen and throughout the entire process, I emailed her probably 1,000 times (sorry, Kristen lol) because I was so excited. I love Poeme and I refer as many people as I possibly can!!
I loved watching our parents and friends walk down the aisle before my dad and I took our turn.
In that moment watching them, I was filled with so much gratitude. My heart was so full, it could have burst! Just as my dad and I were about to walk down I was overwhelmed with emotion at what was about to happen! We said a prayer together and made our way down the aisle. Again, seeing Will brought my heart and mind at ease and I couldn't wait to get to our vows!
How was your everyday style reflected in your wedding day or was it a departure from your usual style?
I think some things were my style, and others were a departure! The style of our wedding was mainly determined by our venue, and while The Phoenix is gorgeous, it doesn't necessarily reflect our personal style. My style was definitely reflected in my dress, Will's tux, our bridal party attire, our flowers, and through our stationery ;) We received so many compliments on our invitations - they were classy, unique, colorful, and so us!
Describe your wedding day.
It was a rainy and chilly day in November, much colder than I thought it would be! The whole day was full of excitement, nervous energy, happy tears, smiles, and so much LOVE. The highlights of the day for me are:
- In the morning while we were getting ready, Will surprised me and had flowers sent with a card that said "See you soon" :) It made me cry instantly because it was so sweet, and I missed him lol.
- When my mom and I were together as she helped me put my dress on, and then having the first look with my dad! So many happy tears!
- First look with Will, I walked down the marble staircase to him as he waited at the bottom. Seeing him for the first time that day was indescribable, but it put my mind at ease and all I could feel was immense love for him.
- Taking photos with our bridal party at Smale Park and the Roebling Bridge, it was so cold, but we had fun! One of my bridesmaids was holding my flats, and our photographer asked her to put them down for an impromptu photo, and when she went back to get them, my shoes were GONE! lol she felt so bad, but it was no big deal at all - it honestly made for a great story later.
- We had about an hour before our ceremony, so my bridesmaids and I played heads up on one of our phones and spent the whole hour laughing together. Right before the ceremony started, one of my best friends said a prayer with all of us together!
What detail of the wedding did you focus on the most?
I definitely spent the most time working on our reception decorations + details for the venue! We were very lucky to have the whole building to ourselves the day of our wedding, so I worked on decorations for all three floors of the venue.
Our stationery for both our invitations, and for our venue decorations is the next spot I focused a lot of time and thought. We also put a lot of work into the welcome bags we made for our guests who traveled, and everyone who stayed at our hotel!
I just have to make a note here that the service at The Phoenix was exceptional. Our decorations were set up flawlessly, the lighting was perfect, the food was AMAZING, and we felt so taken care of throughout the night. The whole reception went so smoothly!
- We had a blast in the party bus on our way from the ceremony to the reception! We popped a bottle of champagne and passed it around! lol
I also loved being announced at our reception!! Our DJ was an incredible emcee and got the whole crowd of guests pumped up for our entrance. And with that burst of energy we went right into our first dance - Mango Tree by Zac Brown Band and Sara Bareilles. "I love you, say that you love me too, and we can turn the whole world upside down."
- All of the toasts were so good, genuinely well written speeches that were so funny at times and equally as meaningful!
- The song my dad and I danced to is called "A Rose in the Garden" and before we danced, he presented me with one single white rose! More happy tears. My favorite line from that song is - "That's my face in the mirror, It's sometimes you that I see, We've been here for so long now, I see your soul in me"
- After that we danced the night away and we ended the night with the last song - This Is It by Scotty McCreery! It's become one of our favorites, and I had some of the lyrics to this song engraved on the back of the watch I gave Will as his wedding gift- it said, "Looking out, I can see forever"
What advice would you offer to engaged couples?
The best advice I can give to engaged couples is to make a conscious effort to spend time together outside of wedding planning! Your engagement flies by, and it's such a special time. Date nights give you a moment to relax and to check in with each other throughout the planning period. Have fun with planning, and remember that the most important thing about your wedding day is that you get to MARRY that amazing person you said yes to.
I want to share a piece of advice my sister-in-law, Kara, gave me about writing my letter to Will. I was a little overwhelmed by trying to fit all of my emotions and all of our years together into one letter. She told me to take a deep breath and to focus on telling Will one thing I wanted him to know on our wedding day. I ended up writing that along with everything I was looking forward to that day and in the days to come.
CREATIVE PARTNERS
Venue: The Phoenix | Photographer: Jonathan Gibson | Florist: The Secret Garden | Videographer: Chris Printz | DJ: Billy Sarge | Hair + Makeup - REFeyeANCE (previously Eye Do Makeup and Hair) - Specifically Becki! She was OUTSTANDING, so sweet and very talented! | Limousine: Motor Toys Limo Service | Lighting: CLEAR Lighting | Rehearsal Dinner Venue: New Riff Distilling | Rehearsal Dinner Catering: Funky's Catering | Gown: Bridal and Formal | Alterations: Debbie Palazzo | Bridesmaids Dresses: BHLDN | Wedding Cake: Fantasy in Frosting - Although they recently closed their doors, Will and I were big fans of their bakery because they made my parents' wedding cake shortly after they opened in 1979.
