Real wedding: Youngna + Jacob

Of course you remember Youngna + Jacob’s handkerchief wedding invitations right?  I mean, seriously, how could you forget!  They were stinkin adorable!  Well here’s the wedding for you, fresh off the camera, chock full of sweet little details I’m sure you’ll love….

Venue: We were married at the mountaintop home of a family friend in South Kent, Connecticut, who generously let us use the space. It’s a gorgeous modern farmhouse on a dozen acres that overlooks 70 miles of Catskills when facing West. Finding this great location helped us choose our date; we knew it’d be peak foliage.

Date: Our date was October 10, 2010 — 10/10/10! We chose this because it was the Sunday of a holiday weekend, so we knew we could invite guests to stay for brunch on Monday, but also cause we loved the symmetry of the date and wanted to integrate it into some of the design elements of the wedding. We had 125 guests.

Dress: My dress was the first I tried on and came from Saja in Soho. The designer personally walked me to the tailor to have the dress hemmed and was amazing about getting it to fit just right. My shoes were designed by Rachel Comey. Jacob’s (the groom’s) suit was Paul Smith (came from Barney’s) and his shirt + tie were from J.Crew. His shoes were Duckie Brown for Florsheim.

Hair/makeup: I had my hair/makeup done by a wonderful woman named Frances Sorenson who came up from Brooklyn. This was a huge splurge for me! Originally I was going to have a friend do my hair and makeup (I don’t usually wear any), but knew I’d feel more confident having a professional do it. I loved the loosely, pulled back look she gave me and she was also a calming force as I nervously got ready.

Rings: Our rings were made by Caitlin Mociun, a talented Brooklyn-based textile and jewelry designer: http://www.mociun.com/

Invites/stationery: Our invitations (that you posted about!) were made by our amazingly talented friend, Kelli Anderson. Kelli has more photos and the story behind them here: http://www.kellianderson.com/projects/handkermap.html

Flowers Friends made my bridal bouquet and all the table arrangements. The boutonnieres came from Sprout, a great little floral shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. My mom brought a huge bundle of bittersweet as well, from Lakeside Farm in upstate New York to add some color.

Photographer: All these photos were taken by our friend and the talented photographer, Todd France: http://www.toddfrancephoto.com/

Menu: For the wedding we went with a local BBQ spot called Woods Pit BBQ that completely won us over (yes, in Connecticut!) and had ribs, chopped brisket, roast chicken, mac n’ cheese, baked beans and cornbread and then Jacob’s (groom’s) mom made an enormous caesar salad (a family recipe) and I made an Asian slaw salad. Our beer was provided by Peak Organic, a brewery owned by our friend Mike Cadoux. We got wine from Bear Flag (great labels, great wine), which we ordered from Dandelion Wine in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They were SO helpful with letting us taste bottles and were extraordinarily kind throughout the wine decision-making process.

Cake: We didn’t get a traditional wedding cake, but Jacob loves carrot cake, so as a surprise, I had a custom-designed 12″ carrot cake made by Amelia Halverson. She is based in Park Slope, Brooklyn and I’d heard rave reviews about her cakes by a few friends. The carrot cake was frosted with a white chocolate cream cheese icing, and she created the design based on my request for it to be a picture of the two of us in a polaroid on the cake (we are both photographers), and integrate autumnal colors around that. She did a fabulous job and the cake was so delicious! The rest of the dessert table was completely made of up sweets made by friends and relatives. We had: dulce de leche cheesecake bars, pumpkin cupcakes, salted peanut butter brownies, mexican wedding cookies, rocky road bars, Jacob’s grandmother’s recipes cheesecakes and apple pie.

Photobooth: Jacob runs a Brooklyn-based photobooth company called Shootbooth, which we naturally had at the wedding! It’s designed so you feel like you are getting photographed by this antique camera, but then you can get printouts on the spot to take home with you. They do all kinds of custom backgrounds — for ours, I wanted to use the fall colors and so I sewed a series of felt garlands to string up and bought the felt circles on Etsy. You can see a gallery of photos + the video they put together here: http://shootbooth.com/index.php?/galleries/jacob-and-youngna/

Some DIY projects we did:
1. Chuppah: Jacob’s dad went into the woods and found / cut the branches we used as chuppah poles. The fabric on the chuppah was embroidered by my mom and is a modern interpretation of a traditional Korean tapestry including the symbols of clouds, cranes, water and mountains. This was also used in a separate Korean ceremony called a Paebaek that we’d had the day before.

2. Signage: Our friend Dustin John laser-burnished signs saying CEREMONY, 10/TEN/10 –>, WC with arrows into wood, which we placed around the grounds and to help people find the location.

3. Table decor: Our tables were designated by etchings of leaves that my mom made (she is a printmaker) from leaves found at my family home. So, the table names were Oak, Pine, Cherry, Poplar, Maple, Tulip, etc. At each seat, there was also a hand-sewn napkin (all sewn by my mom). Silverware was rolled and tied inside with jute, and a nametag with an illustration to match the leaves was attached.

4. Pumpkins: Our friend Vicki Hendrix did an amazing pumpkin-carving job, carving the 10/TEN/10 logo to make a jack-o-lantern!

5. Pom-pom garlands: We made a canopy of pom poms to hang over the entry-way and also behind the dj booth with multi-colored (in bold fall colors) crepe paper.

6. Food: as mentioned, our friends provided all the desserts aside from the carrot cake. Family, friends and Jacob and myself made all the hors d’oeuvres as well.

7. Guest book: I typed up about 100 different prompts on index cards, which we clothes-pinned to some string and guests could choose one they liked and fill it out. They said things like “One thing I’ll always remember about 10/10/10 is… ” and “My advice for married life is:…” and so on.

[images from Todd France Photography]