Boy meets girl in a bar. Brief conversation is shared. Contact information is exchanged. Life goes on. A typical NYC story, wouldn’t you say? Well, John and Louise’s tale has a slightly different ending, involving a lifetime of wedded bliss!
John grew up in Chicago and Louise grew up in Denver, Colorado. John is a Director at Deutsche Bank and Louise is the Director of Client Services for the digital marketing group at The Wall Street Journal. They met in 2008 at a quaint West Village restaurant named Kingswood. It was John’s birthday and he was out with friends. Louise was there enjoying a glass of wine with old high school friends. After a brief conversation and exchange of emails, they parted ways. Not thinking she’d ever hear from him again, Louise was surprised when he emailed the next day to see if she’d like to get together.
As Louise put it, “The rest is pretty much history.” All of her friends say hers is the one positive story of meeting a guy at the bar! She never dreamed she’d meet her husband that way, but is ever-thankful that their paths crossed that night.
On one of the first mild, spring mornings in March 2011, John and Louise were walking their yellow Labrador, Lex, in Central Park. With coffee in hand, they strolled along their usual route through the Great Lawn and around towards The Metropolitan Museum of Art. As they turned the corner to an open field, Louise started throwing the ball for the dog, and when she turned around, John was on one knee to propose, accompanied by Lex with a slobbery ball!
After deciding on a destination wedding, L+J debated for awhile about where to get married. Having grown up in Colorado, Louise had always imagined a ranch-style wedding with cowboy boots and wildflowers. But after looking into western destinations, she wasn’t thrilled with their options.
That’s when they went in a more coastal direction. Louise’s vision for the big day came together almost immediately. She pictured John in coral pants and a navy blazer, and that set the tone for the entire wedding: classic and preppy, a look Louise had always loved. Everything else fell into place around that framework, including their custom pelican wedding invitations from The Green Kangaroo!
“We loved working with TGK to bring this vision further to life with our invitations. What sold us on TGK was the ability to create something custom, but still keeping costs reasonable. I’ve always loved Pelicans, mom and I used to watch them in Florida growing up, and I wanted to incorporate that as a theme to run throughout. TGK was able to pull these all together to make a beautiful invitation that set the tone perfectly for our upcoming weekend.”
Louise and John ordered the Design a Pocket Invitation and requested a custom designed pelican to adorn their cards. They also elected to mix up their script and block fonts, for a more modern look, and added an extra accessory card.
Louise said that their laid-back, preppy chic style made the wedding unique, including everything from the men’s coral pants to the simple, but elegant ceremony on the beach.
“Nothing was over the top, but the little details made everything unique, and that started with the invitations. They set the tone for the entire weekend — classic, but fun and light-hearted.”
A friend of Louise’s made custom statement necklaces for the bridesmaids that matched the boys pants. L+J also threw in splashes of bright green with custom linens and florals. And because John is from Chicago, they had a surprise Chicago-Dog cart at the end of the night with PBR cans.
Another contributing factor of the event’s success was their venue, Watercolor, which could accommodate the entire group (120 guests) so nobody had to drive anywhere. It made for a very intimate, special weekend surrounded by friends and family.
From the moment they arrived to the day they departed, everything was perfectly lovely. Louise said that chilly nights were the only unexpected surprise. (But a chilly night in Florida is not really so chilly, now is it?!)
Louise describes her favorite memory as walking down the aisle (a boardwalk) with her father on a gorgeous afternoon, with the glowing orange sun setting behind the softly crashing waves, and seeing her husband-to-be waiting, surrounded by all their loved ones.
“It was the perfect setting for the most special day. I’m one lucky girl. Also, when I saw the boys walk out in their matching outfits, I was thrilled — my vision had [been] executed flawlessly!”
All photographs courtesy of Dede Edwards at Dede Edwards Photography, LLC.
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