Winery Wednesday: Stone Tower Winery Wedding

No altar needed for this bride and groom’s winery wedding in Virginia.  The scenery and views where they said their vows were just spectacular – they really used it to their advantage.   Video captured by Koneffko Media

Couple

Marisa & John

About This Wedding

How many guests were invited?

We invited 176 people and ended up with 108.  We were targeting 120 and knew that many people would not be able to attend because they lived internationally.  

Was it difficult to narrow down your guest list?

Yes!  We both come from large families (John is the youngest of 9 and I’m the youngest of 4) and we wanted to make sure we also had room for some of our close friends.  So we knew we were going to have to draw the line somewhere and some people would be disappointed because they wouldn’t get the invite.  

What was your budget? Did you go over or stay under?

Our target budget was $20,000 and we stayed pretty much on target.  We went over by a few hundred.  Our main priorities were the location, photographer, food and flowers.  As soon as we booked a location, our next goal was a photographer and everything else fell into place.  We used a lot of vendors who are up and coming and we also got married on a Sunday, both helped us save some money.  We also found if we asked about discounts, most people were willing to work with us, so make sure you ask!   Two of the biggest areas we saved on was our ceremony music and videographer.   I wasn’t happy with a lot of the videographers I was meeting so I posted an ad on Craigslist and we found a great guy who had lots of experience, just not with a wedding.  It was a risk but after meeting with him we decided it was worth the chance and it paid off.  We are very happy with our wedding video.  We also had a hard time finding musicians for the ceremony so we contacted the head of the music department of our local school county and asked if they knew any students who would be interested in playing at our wedding, within a few days we got several responses.  We ended up with a quartet of high school students and it could not have turned out any better!  They were so talented and all our guests could not believe that they were not professional musicians!  

Any tips to share with brides planning their own wedding?

Make sure you take time off from the wedding planning to just enjoy being an engaged couple.  Our amazing photographer actually surprised us with giftcards for dinner and movie to make sure we made time to take a break and remember why we were going through all the craziness of planning a wedding!  

What were some challenges you faced planning your wedding?

The biggest challenge was the time frame.  We didn’t get engaged until late December and picked our location and date (May 25th) in early Janurary.  I almost felt like I had two full time jobs at time trying to plan all of the details of the wedding and working my “paying” job.  The other big challenge was knowing that we would be gone for two weeks to Europe with my company a month prior to the wedding.  We needed to make sure we had as many of the details as possible taken care of prior to our departure to minimize the stress upon our return and to make sure we also had time to enjoy Europe!  

What types of flowers did you have?

WE LOVED our flowers!  Our florist exceeded our expectations, especially with my bouquet and the sweetheart table.  I wanted to make sure our flowers were colorful and had a bit of a wildflower look.  She used combinations of hydrangeas (my favorite), roses, peonies, renoculus, stock flowers, sprays, greenery.  

Which pieces of music did you use during the ceremony?

Ave Marie (seating of family) Canon D (bridal party) Can You Feel The Love Tonight  (bride) A Whole New World (wine box) Wedding March (recessional)

Best advice you received planning your wedding

Keep true to ourselves and make sure we communicated our vision to all of our vendors.  

Did you have your wedding invitations made or make them yourself?

We had our wedding invitation professional printed.  We were a DIY couple, but we knew our limits!  

What were the highlight from the ceremony & reception?

My brother actually performed our ceremony and it was nice to have it more personalized and have someone close to us share the moment with us.  To embrace our location we decided on a wine box ceremony vs unity candle, sand ceremony etc.  Our guests loved the idea and we added a twist by having my parents contribute letters on their hopes and dreams for us both in addition to writing letters to each other.  Our final reading was an Irish Blessing to be read by John’s oldest son Zach.  Zach actually read the blessing in an Irish accent.  Everyone enjoyed it and it added a little humor to the ceremony! John works for a printing company so he was able to have a personalized floor decal made for the dance floor.  We were also able to make personalized corn hole boards for our guests to play during the cocktail hour and reception.  We wanted to make sure that our guests had plenty to eat so after dinner in addition to the our cake we provided a popcorn bar and s’more bar.  Both fit perfectly with the location. An unexpected highlight was at the very end of the evening after all the guests had left.  John and I were getting ready to leave and we could not find our car keys!  After searching we started calling family who had helped load our car and finally discovered that my brother (who had performed our ceremony) had them in his pocket and he was already a good 30 minutes away!  So John and I got out a bottle of champagne, two glasses and sat on the porch of the venue by ourselves and for the first time all day had time to just reflect on the day and how perfect everything turned out while we waited for our car keys.  

Where did you go on your honeymoon?

Since we had just gone to Europe a month prior with my company we are planning on going to Hawaii this fall.

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