Lauryn and Ben’s Travel Themed Wedding

From the bride, here’s their wedding day story:

How many guests?

• We had just under 200 guests

What was your wedding theme or vision?

• Our wedding was travel themed, each table a different location we had been to together.

Why did you choose your wedding venue?

• We chose the Garver Feed Mill because it was very much “our vibe.” Tall ceilings, exposed brick, industrial lightening. It was perfect for us!

What made your ceremony unique or special?

• Lauryn’s uncle is a Broadway stage manager, who we asked to be our officiant. He was the perfect man for the job! He created a ceremony for us that was uniquely us and incredibly personal. It was also a surprise on the day of! We asked to not have a preview beforehand, so that we too could be hearing it for the first time on the big day. The ceremony was amazingly done, including a special travel ceremony where members of ours families and the wedding party put items into a suitcase for us, to be opened in one year. The suitcase was a suitcase that he had found that belonged to Lauryn’s late grandmother, who had just passed away two weeks before the wedding.

What made your reception unique or special?

• Our reception reflected our travel theme in every aspect. A flight board which was the schedule of events, every table with pictures of a location that we had traveled to together, our gift table with old suitcases that Ben’s grandmother used to immigrate to the United States from Hong Kong. We also asked people to get up and sing in front of everyone at least 10 seconds of a song with the word “love” in it to get us to kiss. We were shocked at how many people did it. We could barely eat!

Describe your florals for bouquets and flower arrangements.

• We wanted simple bouquets and flowers. A small white rose for all of the men, white flowers with greens for the bridesmaids, a red rose for Ben, and Lauryn’s bouquet full of white and red flowers with greens, to give a little more dimension.

What was the vision/inspiration for your wedding cake?

• We did have a small wedding cake just for us to cut. It was very simple, just white, with a custom cake topper of a bride and groom and a plane flying around the world. Our main dessert was a donut wall, which Ben and the Man of Honor (Lauryn’s brother Danny) hand made, full of Greenbush donuts. We almost didn’t even get any donuts ourselves, they went so fast!

Describe the favors for guests.

• One of Lauryn’s hobbies is making French macarons, so Ben and Lauryn hand made and Lauryn hand decorated French macarons for all of the guests. The macarons were decorated with planes, rings, suitcases, and one was even made to look like the world.

Were there any special sentimental items in your wedding?

• Many! Lauryn’s bouquet had a locket with pictures of her parents on their wedding days, the suitcase in the luggage ceremony was Lauryn’s Grandma’s who had passed away exactly two weeks before the wedding, and the suitcases at the gift table were Ben’s grandmother’s.

Were there any DIY details for your wedding?

• Pretty much everything was DIY! We did not have a wedding planner, Lauryn and Ben planned it all. Every detail was created by us. Lauryn and her mom created all of the suitcases centerpieces filled with wood flowers, the centerpiece vases, the donut wall, the photo board, seating charts, etc. Everything.

Did you plan any surprises on your wedding day?

• The only true surprise we had was that we had not heard the ceremony and had no idea what was in it. Lauryn’s uncle had asked us individual questions for months, and he took those and carefully created the beautiful ceremony. So on the day, it was definitely a surprise for us to hear for the first time, just as everyone else was.

Did you have something old, new, borrowed, blue? If so, what?

• Something old: Lauryn’s mom and dad’s wedding cake knives

• Borrowed: Lauryn’s parents ring bearer pillow, which Lauryn’s grandma had made for their wedding 41 years ago

• New: the locket with Lauryn’s grandparents pictures

• Something Blue: the garter from Lauryn’s parents wedding