Sometimes there is nothing better or more beautiful than a simple, classic, elegant wedding in a setting that is very much like home. It’s not ostentatious or overdone, flashing with colors, or overflowing with details and decor. Sometimes all it really takes is a few well-placed, heartfelt and pretty details, surrounded by family and close friends, coming together to celebrate the love of the happy bride and her smitten groom. Such a wedding was captured in the most beautiful of ways by Kate Preftakes Photography. I am honored to share it with you today along with, at the request of the bride, their love story and wedding details in her own words. Enjoy!

C and M met because the woman C was supposed to meet on that dark and frigid night in February had canceled. New York City’s subways were flooded as a series of atypical weather events – heavy rainstorms, interspersed with ice storms and heavy snows in early 2010 wreaked havoc across the Northeast. The rain event was what caused M to become the recipient of the orphaned ticket to a local blues concert at the invitation of a close friend. Little did M know that by accepting her invitation to “come out to dinner and a show with us – and, oh, by the way, there will be this guy there from Germany” that M’s life would take a different course than the one she had carefully charted.

When she walked into a popular Mexican restaurant that evening, she instantly knew that the man to whom she was just introduced would become her husband. She casually asked why he was in New Hampshire, of all the places one could possibly end up in in the US. He replied that he’d bought a 1700s Georgian style home in the state and was renovating it as “his place in the country.”

Fast forward a year, and C and M were sitting in a former five-star Spanish château dining room in Carmona, Spain while on holiday. The food was made with local ingredients by an MIT educated engineer turned handy-man, château manager and chef extraordinaire. It was a magnificent meal and it was also the night that C proposed.

The food they had that night inspired a splendid five-course wedding reception dinner, designed and prepared by the talented Peter Varkonyi at Home Hill Inn in Plainfield, New Hampshire. The locations C and M had visited while in Spain were represented in the themes of the tables as well as became the overall inspiration for a Spanish infused-New York City Tavern-on-the-Green-style cocktail and dinner party.

In planning their wedding, having it in New Hampshire was a “no-brainer”. Home Hill Inn was a place C had taken M out to dinner a few times and was where he had stayed while the renovation ensued of what would soon become “their” home. The Inn has a well-maintained patina and softness to it, as places with such age and history gain over time, and, representative of its name, “it felt like home” to both of them. Plus, it was conveniently located in the middle for 99% of their guests as most had a drive or a flight of 7 hours or more.

Their wedding not only joined two people and two families, but also two cultures. They used English and German on the Save-the-Dates, the invitations, and the program as well as in the ceremony itself. They were married between two Linden trees overlooking a grassy pasture by the Pastor of a local Unitarian church whom the couple had met the previous Christmas. Coincidentally, she also spoke German. She conducted the ceremony in both languages and C and M exchanged vows in both as well, thus including everyone in the moment of their union.

C and M, staying true to their own simplistic and classical styles, didn’t go for a crazy theme, party favors or matching colors. Nor did they have a wedding party – it was just them – and, typical of German “church” weddings, they also walked themselves down the outdoor “isle”. They relied on the beauty of the surrounding landscape, the architecture of the Inn, the angled lighting of an early September day, wonderfully composed flower arrangements and simple, but timeless, table settings to craft a wonderful celebration focused around the energy generated by the magical combination of good music, good food, good drink, and close friends and family.

Magical combination indeed! I love this wedding and all of it’s elegant simplicity, that they chose a place that felt like “home”, that they joined two cultures as well as families and conducted their ceremony in both German and English, and created that special Spanish infused-New York City Tavern-on-the-Green-style reception that was a perfect reflection of their love story. Thank you, M, for sharing your words with all of us today. We wish you and C so much love and luck in your beautiful home for years to come! And thank you, also, to Kate Preftakes for not only capturing their very special day so beautifully, but for passing it along for us to share today! xoxo