Romantic and ethereal garden elements combined for this beautiful wedding day, including blush blooms and tons of greenery! The Waterworks was a fitting venue given it’s elegant architectural structure, and beautiful natural setting among many Philadelphia locales. The captivating couple displayed so much love throughout their entire day, and their adorable baby son was the most precious highlight of their love united. Asya Photography illustrated this perfectly sweet day in the most brilliant photographs, and you can view the beautiful imagery paired with the behind-the-scenes details shared by the lovely bride below!
How They Met:
“We met the old fashioned way… online dating site! I had this great idea to go to law school after I graduated from dental school and I’m studying for my first year final exams, meanwhile all my dentist friends are getting their careers started and on dating services going out meeting guys every week. I really had no time to be going out on dates with exams around the corner. But my friend insisted I go on too, helped me make a profile, and a couple weeks in, Kevin saw my page and asked me out. I couldn’t meet up with him until after I finished my finals. But he was my first date. Our first date was 9 hrs long and we went to two restaurants. We really hit it off from the start.”
About the Venue | Waterworks:
“We booked the Waterworks soon after Cescaphe Event Group took over the venue. We toured the site itself and it had so much character and the structure itself was beautiful, but it was also obsolete. Cescaphe had to do a lot of remodeling, and we had to trust they would make it nice.
We loved that it was outdoors overlooking the water and Boathouse Row, and also that it’s a historical site with the Philadelphia Art Museum and Fairmount Park in the same location. Really picturesque and not the typical hotel ballroom type space. There’s multiple on site locations, rain or shine. We toured it during winter but of course we were hoping for nice weather on the day of. And September 25th turned out to be the most perfect day, sunny and high 70s. We ended up going with the pavilion for both the ceremony and reception because the Roman style columns are really grand, but it’s also intimate due to it being a covered area. The cocktail hour was in the engine house and surrounding veranda. It was so beautiful as the sun set right before the dancing started, and you could see all the boathouses lit up with Christmas lights up Kelly drive.”
Wedding Theme:
“The theme was romantic garden with neutral, peach/blush and gold colors. We also incorporated ivy/greenery in the tablescapes for the garden theme. Our chuppah was made of simple white birch poles. There were vintage style lanterns around the space, and our centerpieces were gold vintage style candelabras with lots of candles. We went with neutrals and light/muted colors rather than bold because we wanted the outdoor space (lots of white architecture and greenery from the surrounding park) to be the focal point. I incorporated anemones in the bouquets and the grooms boutonnière because that’s my favorite flower. It was black tie optional, but of course not too formal being an outdoor summer wedding, and we didn’t want a big guest list, we kept it at 125 so it definitely felt intimate.”
“We booked our wedding for September 2016 but we were actually already legally married. We eloped the previous December in my hometown San Diego (I was 7 months pregnant at the time). Not all of our guests knew about this. We had a photographer take pictures of the day when we eloped, from San Diego city hall to balboa park and finally Coronado beach at sunset. So I got our favorites from that day printed and framed in these white baroque frames, and we used them to decorate the cocktail tables and throughout the space. Our guests really loved seeing those pictures because prior to the wedding we hadn’t shared them with anyone other than our immediate family members.”
Wedding Memories:
“What we will remember most is how we were able to include our son Max in the wedding, and he walked me down the aisle in his baby tuxedo and a tiny little crocheted blue and white kippot that was Kevin’s when he was a baby (I couldn’t hold both max and my bouquet though!) He was only supposed to stay for the ceremony and MAYBE cocktail hour depending on behavior. The plan was for our nanny to take him home before everyone sat down for dinner. But he was really good, he didn’t make a peep during the ceremony, and he did the rounds at cocktail hour. I danced with him for so many songs at the reception. Everyone kept passing him around from table to table, he took naps on the loud dance floor and in people’s arms, and ended up staying out partying until 10 pm and was one of the last guests to leave! He really fell apart by the end of the night though and I remember him screaming his head off when we got him and our nanny into the Uber. We got back to our hotel and he had so much lipstick all over his face and his little tuxedo shirt was covered in food stains (yes our baby stayed with us in our bridal suite on our wedding night). And he was super cranky the entire next day.”
“Oh, and apparently a fight (like a literal fist fight) almost broke out at Kevin’s parents’ table! Imagine two 70+ year old men going at it in the middle of dinner. It got broken up before they drew any attention. We still have no idea what it was about.”
Vendors | Photography: Grace Winter, Asya Photography | Venue: Waterworks | Floral Design: Carl Alan Floral Design | Stationery: Papertree Studio | Rentals: Beautiful Blooms | Music: Janis Nowlan Band | Rabbi: Rayzel Raphael