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Colorful Hudson Valley NY Greenhouse Wedding with a Surprise Rainbow

From the Groom:

Vicki and I attended the same university and worked at the same company, but at different times. I met her by chance when I visited my alma mater to help recruit new employees, where she was a senior who'd recently accepted a full-time job at the same company.

We met in the heat of competition on trivia night at the local college sports bar. We had a great conversation over too many drinks and I knew that I wanted to see her again. Being in different stages of our lives, it was hard to find the time to see each other, but we made the commitment to do so.

After spending a year in a long-distance relationship, Vicki and I moved into our first apartment together, and from then, I knew that I wanted to be with her forever. Two years later, I planned to have all of our friends "secretly" gather with us as I proposed to her in front of the Manhattan skyline. That fateful day, I dropped down on one knee and popped the question in front of our friends poking through the bushes...and she said yes!

Since we had been living in New York City for a while, we wanted a change of scenery for our wedding. We both love upstate New York for all of its nature and had spent many weekends there hiking, exploring, and drinking wine. When we saw the Highlands Country Club in the picturesque Hudson Valley and met their amazing team, we knew that it was where we wanted to get married.

From the Bride:

George and I dreamed of having an outdoor garden wedding, but mother nature had other plans. Luckily, our venue had a beautiful solarium filled with natural light, and our indoor ceremony turned out to be even better than our original plan. The rain showers eventually subsided, and we were able to enjoy cocktail hour outside. After a day of rain, the sun finally peeked out and we were gifted the most beautiful rainbow! It was truly magical and is something we will always remember.

Some of our favorite details and moments from the wedding were:
1. Floating Sky Lanterns - After seeing the Disney film "Tangled" and photos from lantern festivals, I knew that I wanted to have a sky full of wishing lanterns at my wedding. Neither of us had ever been to a lantern festival before, but we took a chance on some paper lanterns from Amazon and it worked out! It was a unique and memorable experience for our guests, and the perfect way to end the night.
2. Having one of our close friends officiate the wedding and making a margarita during the ceremony! Neither of us are religious and we knew we didn't want a random person to marry us. One of our close friends happened to be in theater, so he was perfect for the job. We also wanted to do some type of unity ceremony, but decided that mixing colored sand wasn't for us. Instead, we made a margarita during the ceremony as our interpretation of unity.
3. My sister, the maid of honor, wrote a rap to the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme song and performed it during her speech!
4. I contemplated going with a neutral color palette for the florals, but ultimately decided to go for more vibrant colors. I'm so glad I did, because the flowers really brightened up each of the rooms our venue and the entire day.
5. My dress was by far my favorite thing I'd ever worn. The girls at Sarah Seven were so wonderful and Sarah herself actually did my first fitting!
6. We semi DIY'd all of our stationary. I downloaded a template off of Etsy, and customized the invitation suite, escort cards, and menus to match the olive branch eucalyptus theme. I liked the simplicity and cohesiveness of the design, and I think it really helped tie everything together.
7. Last but not least, actually getting married to my best friend and now husband. Seeing George get emotional while I was walking down the aisle with my dad and declaring our vows to each other was so surreal.

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$40,000
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