September 5, 2016

Shrine Mont Wedding: Mary Beth and Chris

When I worked on Mary Beth’s older sister Kate’s wedding I immediately fell in love with their whole family. I could not wait for Mary Beth to start planning her wedding (P.S. she was single at the time.) Mother of the bride Mary kept me posted when MB and Chris started dating, and when Chris popped the question, I think I was one of the first people Mary alerted via email!

It took no time at all for the families to agree that the wedding would be at Shrine Mont, a place that is so near and dear to this family’s heart. The best way I can describe this is that it is just like the summer retreat in Dirty Dancing, but without the snooty restaurant and accompanying waitstaff. Rather, three times a day camp guests gather in the dining hall for some serious home-cooked comfort food.

Shrine Mont is in Orkney Springs Virginia, a 2 hour drive from DC and a stone’s throw from the West Virginia border. There isn’t much else in Orkney Springs, so we brought in Charlottesville caterer Harvest Moon, and the florist was based near Luray, the band Walrus (who also played at Kate’s wedding and obviously crushed it) came from Greenville NC, the photographers came from Boulder CO and the linens from La Tavola came in from California. To say it was logistically challenging was an understatement.

We settled quickly on a colorful wedding, with bright summer flowers for this camp wedding. The reception room has very tall ceilings, so we incorporated curly willow to add height to centerpieces. Mary brought dahlias from her home garden that were used on the cake. Yes it was a little drizzly during the ceremony but look at that altar – there was no way we were moving to the back up location. And as any summer camp wedding should, we wrapped the evening with a bonfire and s’mores.

I can’t thank Holland Photo Arts enough for these gorgeous photos. The tractor photo is magazine-cover worthy. And if you can spot my cameo, it is one of my favorite photos of me in action.

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