This month we are showcasing our beautiful Luxe Brides Lydia and Hannah! Lydia and Hannah were married in September of 2023 at W.A. Frost Company in a beautiful ceremony surrounded by their friends and family! Here is their story including BOTH their journeys to becoming a Luxe Bride!
Tell us about the proposal!
One of the fun things about being two brides is breaking the “rules” of how to propose! We knew early on that we both wanted rings, and picked out our own long before we got engaged. When the time came in April 2022, Hannah popped the question while Lydia’s parents were visiting, on a crowded day at Como Park Conservatory. It was a delightful surprise for Lydia’s parents, but Lydia saw it coming from a mile away. Hannah is not known for being able to keep a secret!!
A month later, Lydia proposed “back” to Hannah, in front of the very bushes that would later become the backdrop for our wedding! Amazingly we didn’t cry - we must have been saving all our tears for the wedding.
Describe your bridal style. How did you want to look on your wedding day? Tell us about your dress shopping experience.
Lydia: Both of us were excited to shop at Luxe, but I was convinced that I was “just looking.” I knew that I wanted to look ethereal and feminine, and was drawn to lace and sleeves. What surprised me was how much fun I had trying on dresses that were nothing like what I envisioned, and that I never thought I’d like. I remember making Suzanne laugh by saying “this is the one I’d pick if I were marrying a man.” I never really believed that I’d experience the feeling of “just knowing” when I found the right dress, but that’s exactly what happened. I knew. It felt like the gown was made for me and my body - which is not something I get to say very often as a plus sized person!
Hannah: I went into the appointment with quite literally no idea what I wanted. I had a couple different styles I was curious to try and Gianna was amazing at picking a variety of dresses of different styles and vibes so I could narrow down what felt “right” to me. I took a long time in my first dress trying to decide what I liked and didn’t like about it before my maid of honor, bridesmaid, and Gianna told me that if it wasn’t a feeling of yes then that meant it was a no. When Gianna brought my dress over she described it as a “lord of the rings dress” and I immediately knew it was going to be spectacular. It was not something I ever would have picked for myself because it seemed so very magical, but Gianna reminded me that it was my wedding, and it was magical. Before I even saw myself in the mirror with the dress I knew it was the one. My favorite thing about it was the iridescent look to the skirt, and the way the horse hair in the lining of the skirt stiffened it to hold its beautiful shape.
Tell us more about your wedding. What was your theme and color scheme? How did you make your wedding personal to your love story?
From the beginning, we wanted a fall wedding. We met in the fall, and it’s always been a season that we associate with each other and the beginnings of our relationship. We could not have predicted that it would get up to 89° on our September 30th wedding date. If we had, we might not have dressed our three bridesmaids in velvet Baltic Born Dresses for our outdoor ceremony!
Our flowers were one of the most special things about our wedding. All the floral work was done 100% by our own mothers. They share a love of gardening, and when we asked them to take this on, they took that request very seriously. We just provided them with our color scheme - burgundy, gold, burnt orange, and emerald - and they seriously delivered. Hannah’s mom made her daughter’s bouquet, and Lydia’s mom made hers, using exclusively Trader Joe’s flowers. We were completely blown away by the bouquets - they looked professional!
Since it was fall, we had to include some witchy and spooky elements in our theme. One of our favorite elements of the wedding is that we assigned every one of our guests a tarot card, which was theirs to take home, and even printed on their place card. The head table was the “major arcana,” and each of the other tables corresponded to one of the four minor arcana suits: cups, swords, wands, and pentacles. Lydia took the time to pick out a for each guest that suited their personality, and reminded us of them. It’s something our guests were immediately buzzing about at the reception, and such a fun way to tie in the spooky season without going full Halloween.
What was the most special memory from the day?
The reason that Hannah and I met in the first place was the band Twenty One Pilots, and it has been a huge part of our lives and responsible for some of our closest friendships. Our wedding was the very first time that all 8 of those “band friends” got to be together in the same place. Twenty One Pilots made its way into the wedding in a few sneaky ways, but our very favorite of those moments was at the end of the reception. Every show that Twenty One Pilots plays, they end the same way: with a short speech thanking the crowd for being there, followed by an energized, cathartic performance of their fan-favorite song, Trees. As a surprise to our friends, we ended the night by inviting them to go all out singing and dancing to Trees with us - a finale that was mildly confusing to the rest of our guests, but incredibly special to the 8 of us.
Congratulations to Lydia and Hannah! We feel so lucky to have you both as Luxe Brides!
Vendors
Bridesmaid dresses - @balticborn
Venue and food - @wafrostcompqny
Photos - @zoeprindsflashweddings
We can’t recommend Zoe Prinds-Flash enough as a photographer. She was one of the first people we contacted after we got engaged, because there was never a chance we would ask anyone else to shoot our wedding. She is an incredible artist, and beyond that, a fun person to have around on your wedding day! Zoe is fully inclusive of LGBTQ+ and plus sized couples; we never blinked an eye worrying about whether she would capture and celebrate us for who we are.