This is the wedding of my studio-mate and one of my best friends, Jennifer Parsons, of Tiny Pine Press, to Ben Upham, now also of Tiny Pine Press.  Jennifer and I met many years ago when I fell in love with her stationery designs (those of you who know me well know that I have a pretty good stationery addiction) and I knew right away that we would be fast friends.  Now I’m lucky to get to share all my days with this woman, whose talents, creativity, and ingenuity are boundless. Plus, she’s pretty much the best person to get to talk with, on any subject.  We spend pretty much all day, every day, talking as we work in our Los Angeles studio.  We even have our desks set up facing each other so we can peek at each other through the computer monitors.  We are lucky girls!

When Jennifer got engaged, studio talk turned to wedding planning and it was pretty incredible to get to watch all of Jennifer’s ideas come together in what turned out to be a perfectly sweet homespun wedding.  Also, the paper goods were incredible! I still have her save the date and invite displayed on the shelf behind my desk.  And I just added her baby announcement (which I intend to keep on display until Baby Otis goes to college).  We will have to show you on the blog here one of these days.  You can definitely feel her husband, Ben’s, influence in the design.

I love the wording Ben came up with for the invitations.  Jennifer thinks no one really reads the wording, but I come from a literary background and I always find myself reading the wording.

The guest favors were a set of coasters, made by Jennifer’s family and friends in Virginia, fondly called “From the East Coast to the West Coasters.”  Her mom made cathedral window coasters; her brother, Oscar, whose leather goods I collect every chance I get, made the leather ones stamped with the couple’s monogram, an aunt and friend did the crocheted ones, and her Uncle Glen cut various tree branches for the wooden ones.

Jennifer looked so beautiful and she wouldn’t stop smiling all day! It was the best thing ever!

The ceremony programs echoed the save the dates.  Both were little stitched books, shown above.  In the ceremony program, she included a tribute to her father who had passed away.

The music was one of my favorite parts of the whole day.  Ben’s friend Dale Henderson (founder of Bach in the Subways) joined Jennifer’s friend Sarah Newberry for ceremony music and then Jennifer and her mom (who everybody calls Mama) walked down the aisle to a recording of Jennifer’s father playing Greensleeves.  It was such a really special way of honoring him and feeling his presence in the ceremony.  Then, Eleni Mandell, got up and sang with Jennifer’s multi-talented brother, Oscar.  I love that the photo above shows Dale with his cello, Ben’s parents, his sister and her husband, and a bunch of all of our friends in the background.

The design for the dinner was so beautiful, featuring forest-inspired florals by Jennifer’s friend Sharon, Clementine Floral Works; screen-printed napkins and letterpress menus made by Tiny Pine (of course!), and crazy-quilt table runners made by Jennifer’s first grade teacher and her mom.

The menus were letterpressed, of course! I love how the little pressed flowers she used on the menu, save-the-date, and invites looked like the cathedral window quilt pattern.

The guest book was filled with postcards reproduced by Jennifer from her personal collection of postcards from her Aunt Verdie’s many lovers.

Oscar’s toast was one of the great toasts I’ve ever heard and had us all laughing and crying within a moment’s time.  It pretty much brought down the house, and ended with a bottle of moonshine, carefully brought in from Kentucky, and passed around—all night—amongst the one hundred guests.

Jennifer and Ben had decorate-your-own cupcakes for dessert, plus an entire table of other sweets, which featured fried apple pies (thanks, Mama!), and Jennifer’s legendary secret-recipe chocolate chip cookies.  Jennifer and Ben both have a crazy sweet tooth!  Sweet teeth?

Jennifer’s friend John, who is an fantastic musician in his own right, and who is the Tiny Pine pressman, spun vinyl for the reception.

The “cupcake cutting” was attended only by Jennifer’s nephew Alex and by me.  Everyone else was going crazy for the decorate-your-own-cupcakes!

My husband Matt and our friend Lily (who took over on photo duty after the first dance so I could join in the dancing).

Congrats to the happy couple!  I feel so lucky to get to witness—and continue to witness—your milestones, big and small, day in and day out, as your little family grows. 

See it here over on StyleMePretty.

♥

photographs, Gia Canali

stationery, Tiny Pine Press; florals, Clementine Floral Works; venue, Carondelet House; bride’s gown, Jenny Yoo; bride’s necklace, Elephant Heart; bridal headpiece, Sonia Boyajian; groom’s suit, Barneys New York; ceremony cellist, Dale Henderson (New York); ceremony vocalist, Sarah Newberry; ceremony vocals, Eleni Mandell and vocals / guitar, Oscar Parsons; leather coaster wedding favor, Oscar Parsons, Foak Leatherworks; cupcakes, Frosted Cupcakery; day of coordination, Ashley Scharf and Samantha Sias.  Calligraphy: Anne Jones, save the dates; Aleksey Shirokov, invitations; Laura Mendoza, escort cards.