Wedding Inspiration: Meet the Gunnings
Happy Monday, friends! I'm excited to share with you today the first interview in a regular series of wedding inspiration I'll be posting each week! In this series, many of my very kind, beautiful, and gracious past brides will be sharing their experiences planning their wedding along with some of their very own planning, inspiration and marriage advice. I hope you'll join me in welcoming our very first sweet guest, Layla, and her new husband, Stephen!
The Basics
Wedding Date: August 30, 2014
Wedding Location: The Fells Historic Estate & Gardens
All the Fun Details
How did you and your significant other meet?
Stephen and I met through mutual friends who were dating...after insisting they not set us up on a double date.
How did your proposal happen?
Stephen proposed on the dock of his family’s Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire home, with a message in a bottle floating in the water!
What tradition(s) were important for you to include in your wedding ceremony? Why?
My step-brother officiating the ceremony was really important to us. We also did the breaking of the glass & standing under a Chuppah, which is a Jewish custom. My maid-of-honor and Stephen's god-mother did readings we chose for each of them. At the end of the ceremony everyone walked down the aisle to some of our favorite songs that are special to us.
Did you include any family heirlooms or heritage in your wedding celebration?
Both Stephen and I got married in my great-grandparents' wedding bands, which was a tradition for both my grandparents and parents.
What was the inspiration for your wedding style?
We really wanted something simple, neutral, elegant, rustic, romantic, and fun!
What were the top 3 most important aspects of your wedding?
The wedding party, the music, and the photos!
What was your favorite part of the planning process?
Everything! Except the seating chart...
What is the best memory you have from your wedding day?
This is the hardest question! The cucumber martinis. Kidding! They aren’t lying when they say it’s all a blur, but I guess the moments that stick out the most are both parents walking me down the aisle, our first dance, and dancing with my sisters to “Chandelier." There are so many more, though!!
What was your favorite piece of advice you received about marriage?
We got the same advice from three of Stephen's aunts on our advice book! Each of them said, "May all your ups and down be between the sheets." Haha...They're all still married so I guess they know what they're talking about!
Anything else you'd like to share?
To all the brides-to-be...Don’t feel like you need to spend a ton of money on every aspect of your wedding. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in all the planning and feel like you need to have the best of the best of everything. Pick what is most important to you and your husband and don’t skimp on that. Cut costs elsewhere. For example, pictures were very important to us so we spent more on our photographers but kept the flower budget low. We also knew having a band wasn’t important to us so we hired a great DJ and used the extra money to hire live music for the rehearsal dinner and cocktail hour..and we still ended up spending less than if we hired a band. Just personal preference! Also, nothing is going to go perfect and that’s okay! I almost passed out while getting my dress on, and during the ceremony, I forgot to put on my gorgeous earrings that were a gift from my maid-of-honor. Our head table, which was supposed to have 8 seats, only had 2 and after our first dance we all had to stand there and wait for more chairs while all the other guests were seated. But no one else notices or cares and it makes for some pretty great memories!
Visit their
to check out more of Layla and Stephen's fun wedding stationery!