A Rustic Park City Utah Wedding: Ilsa + Aaron

I love this rustic wedding sent over from photographer Kate Osborne. It’s the perfect balance of outdoors rustic and intimate wedding. A bit into their day from Ilsa:

My main inspiration was my family’s Swedish heritage, which inspired the color theme of blue and yellow. I started thinking of the wedding as being a sort of king’s feast at a mountain hunting lodge, which helped me decide on a sit-down, served dinner and a long rectangular bridal party table. It was important to both of us to make sure that we planned the kind of party we would want to attend together. I had a hard time shifting my vision from some of the very fun dance-party style weddings I had been to, but in the end a candlelit dinner feast with mellow music was much more “us.”

And that is exactly why I love it! A wedding should be about the two of you and your type of celebration. Congrats to Ilsa + Aaron!

groom in hat

anemone bouquet

pink toms

navy blue wedding invitation

outdoor ceremony

outdoor ceremony

Most memorable moment of your wedding day? The most memorable part of the day was the ceremony. The weather had been unstable and raining off and on all day, but it turned into golden sunlight just at the right time. My florist built the arch we stood under, which was absolutely perfect and just what I imagined – four large birch posts holding up a sheet of linen for us to stand under, decorated by a string of bright yellow marigolds.

yellow garland altar

bright bouquet

bride and groom

bride with bright bouquet

bright boutonniere

groom in hat

bride and groom

bride and groom

bride and groom

antler centerpiece

I am not sure where I first thought of using antlers in the decoration, but after I had committed and bought a huge box of 40 or so deer antlers, figuring out how to incorporate them really shaped the theme.

honey wedding favor

deer cake topper

Any advice for those planning now?
Read as many wedding blogs and magazines as possible! I was almost obsessive with looking over wedding websites and virtually anything wedding related, but by the time my wedding was around the corner, I truly felt like I had seen everything new and exciting that people were doing with weddings, which saved me from having last minute regrets about what else I could have done or added to the night.

Also, I would advise brides to not get too tied to any idea or vision of your wedding. The end result of my wedding was quite different than my initial thoughts, and I think what made it successful was not rifling at unexpected changes, but rather letting the curves in the planning road shape the final outcome. Finally, choose vendors that you are comfortable with and that are willing to let you do more of the talking. In looking for the right photographer and florist, I encountered people that had a lot to tell me about “how weddings usually go,” (and after all, they’re the experts). In the end, I decided on people that seemed to have no preconceptions about how it ought to be, and I think their openness really helped shape my jumbled ideas of the day I wanted to create.


vendors:

photography: Kate Osborne // venue name: Empire Canyon Lodge, at Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah
 // wedding dress: Sarah Seven // hairpiece: Mignonne Handmade // bride's shoes: TOMS // bridesmaid dresses: Nordstrom 
// groom suit: Este's // paper goods: Etsy and Minted // floral design: Sarah Winward of Honey of a Thousand Flowers // invitations: Etsy and Minted // 
catering: Deer Valley // 
cake: Deer Valley // 
music: Paul Rasmussen and Mark Jardine

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