 Below, find ideas for a gorgeous garden party wedding in the Philadelphia area. Not that we think you should put your wedding in a box, of course. But chances are you at least have a feeling when it comes to your Big Day: Will it be a swanky formal affair in a candlelit room with a marble rotunda? An airy soiree where your guests sip cool drinks from mason jars with fields of wildflower-dotted wheat in the background and cotton-candy clouds overhead? Whatever your vision for your wedding day, we’re here to help you plan it. In the following pages, you’ll find ideas for five different types of weddings—not just for gorgeous venues in the Philadelphia area, but for your flowers, gown, cake and bridesmaids’ dresses, all from local vendors and shops. Just find the one that feels like you, and you’re on your way.
{This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2013 issue of Philadelphia Wedding.}
Click here for PART ONE: City Ballroom.
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Below, find ideas for a gorgeous ballroom wedding in the city. Not that we think you should put your wedding in a box, of course. But chances are you at least have a feeling when it comes to your Big Day: Will it be a swanky formal affair in a candlelit room with a marble rotunda? An airy soiree where your guests sip cool drinks from mason jars with fields of wildflower-dotted wheat in the background and cotton-candy clouds overhead? Whatever your vision for your wedding day, we’re here to help you plan it. In the following pages, you’ll find ideas for five different types of weddings—not just for gorgeous venues in the Philadelphia area, but for your flowers, gown, cake and bridesmaids’ dresses, all from local vendors and shops. Just find the one that feels like you, and you’re on your way.
{This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2013 issue of Philadelphia Wedding.}
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 Wedding by Terrain. Flowers by Sullivan Owen. Photo by Alison Conklin. If you’ve shopped at Terrain before, or eaten in the so-lovely Garden Cafe, and always wondered what it would be like to hold your wedding there, you’ll get a chance to more than just imagine it next Saturday, February 9, when the venue holds a bridal open house in the evening from 6 to 9pm.
The space will be set up like an actual wedding from each season, so you can get an idea of what it might actually look like on your Big Day, whether you’re thinking of having it in the spring, summer, fall or winter. Terrain will be showcasing their own decorating services, though you’ll also be able to see the work of—and chat with—other local vendors, including florist Sullivan Owen and photographer Michael Ash of Ash Imagery.
Lovesick Inc will keep the tunes coming the whole night, and reps from BHLDN will also be on hand (Terrain staff will even be wearing BHLDN dresses, so be sure to take note for your ‘maids!) showcasing their wedding gowns, accessories and wedding decor for your perusal. You’ll also be able to taste samplings from their event menu with appetizers and food stations from the Garden Cafe. (Along with wine and refreshments, of course.)
The open house is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. RSVP here, and happy planning!
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 The Dorrance H. Hamilton Rooftop Garden at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Photo courtesy Casey Rodger. After a $5.7 million redo, the Dorrance H. Hamilton Rooftop Garden atop the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center (pictured) features a climate-and-sun-glare-controlled, LED-lit cast-glass canopy equipped to put on theatrical lighting displays visible from Broad Street; state-of-the-art sound systems; and two open porch areas with views of the 150-foot-high glass barrel-vaulted roof. It seats up to 200, with a menu designed by in-house Garces Catering; rental fee around $3,000.
Kimpton Hotels’ über-modern new Hotel Monaco, opened this past fall, offers multiple spaces for your soiree, including the Lafayette Ballroom, with 15-foot windows facing Independence Park and room for up to 325, and the Stratus Rooftop Bar and Lounge, with room for up to 275. All catering is done by the hotel’s Red Owl Tavern; prices start around $140 per person.
This article originally appeared in the spring/summer 2013 issue of Philadelphia Wedding.
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 Altrendo Images Sometimes, life hands you lemons. And it sucks and you have to do what you can to turn it into lemonade. Other times though, life just pours you a tall glass of lemonade and says “Relax, I got this.”
Sean and I were given some wedding news that very well could have been a sour sack of lemons, but much to our excitement, this news is of the lemonade variety.
Ok, enough with the metaphors, I’ll just tell you what happened.
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 iStockphoto One of the first things Sean and I did as an engaged couple was create our (preliminary) guest list. That, we felt, was the first step, important for choosing our venue. I’ve heard that for some couples, this is the hardest part and has the potential to lead to the most disagreements. Lucky for us, we mostly agreed on our list.
As we sat down to create our list, Sean suggested we approach it with a very open mind: just write down anyone and everyone we’d want to be there on our special day. Then, once we saw how large that list was, we could pare down to a more comfortable number. In theory I loved this approach, but it was very challenging for me in practice. Sometimes I can be too practical, and this hinders my ability to dream big. Sean, on the other hand, is a dream-now-rationalize-later type, an enviable quality that challenges me almost daily.
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 Comstock For the first time since same-sex marriage became legal in New York in the summer of 2011, a discrimination lawsuit has been filed against a venue that has denied a same-sex couple the right to tie the knot there.
Melisa Erwin and Jennie McCarthy of Albany, New York were nearly all set to get hitched at the Liberty Ridge Farm when the owners found out that what they were planning was a gay wedding—then the planning came to a halt. Because while it seems like the owners kinda wished them well, they still made it clear that because Melisa and Jennie were gay, they would not allow them to marry there; that they had the right to “market” their business to whomever they saw fit.
But the thing is, while New York law does allow exemptions for some religious institutions to remain uninvolved with same-sex marriage, it does not allow for places “of public accommodation” to make the same refusal. That part of the law has yet to be officially interpreted—but it’s sure about to be, now.
Melisa and Jennie are not seeking compensation in their suit—not surprisingly, they are no longer interested in holding their wedding ceremony at Liberty Ridge Farm—rather, they just hope for the policy to change.
Read more details here.
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And done by a talented Paoli baker.
 Eileen's original Cake Art Studio cake for the story "Just Sew" in the fall/winter 2011 issue of Philadelphia Wedding. Photo by Trevor Dixon; styling by Lauren Kozakiewicz. We just love this story!
For our fall/winter 2011 issue of Philadelphia Wedding, our friend Eileen Gray, owner and baker over at the Cake Art Studio in Paoli, created this fab button-covered cake (pictured to the right) for our story “Sew in Love,” which featured cakes inspired by the various visual aspects of sewing—stitching, piping, lace, ric rac, and lots of other fun stuff.
Over the spring, she had filled us in on this funny little anecdote: This past winter, Eileen was taking part in a bridal show at the Phoenixville Foundry when she started chatting with a bride who was getting married there. The bride told her that she already knew exactly what cake she wanted, that the cake had, in fact, inspired the whole theme of her wedding, and, as she got out a picture of it on her smartphone, asked Eileen if she thought she might be able to reproduce the cake in question.
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 iStockphoto When I started this mission, my final destination is not at all where I expected to end up, and I definitely didn’t foresee the roadblocks I’d hit along the way.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of getting married at the Bellevue or Valley Forge Park. Don’t get me wrong—I had dreamed of the day many, many times. But the venue never really came into focus, just the groom. If anything, I had a better idea of what I didn’t want: a stuffy, dark hotel ballroom with no windows and no outdoor space. I was hoping to achieve something that was unique, intimate, and a reflection of me and Pat.
I began my search with some heavy-duty research: wedding websites, blogs, bridal magazines, former brides, experienced bridesmaids. I compiled a lengthy list and began inquiring. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was inquiring about! Of course, I knew the basics—how many people can the space accommodate, price per person—but it was questions like “How many bathrooms do you have?” and “Is the facility air-conditioned?” that I later learned were essential.
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iStockphoto Some girls know exactly what their wedding will be like before they even meet the groom. It’s something many of us dream about from a young age and continue to imagine into our more grown-up years. My sister Claire and I would play wedding with our Barbies, stuffed animals, golden retriever Trouble, and even our childhood neighbor, Ronny. We would visit our Grammy, who would buy us bridal magazines from Shop Rite and together rip out pictures of pretty dresses, colorful flowers, and handsome grooms!
But once I met Sean, I stopped all of this pretend planning. Even once I knew he was the one, I was very superstitious about making plans for our future wedding before getting engaged. Now, I know plenty of girls with “someday” Pinterest boards and bookmarked engagement rings—and I definitely don’t judge—but I felt I might jinx myself. So, I shut down the dream wedding part of my brain for a little while.
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