Allie + Stuart’s Elegant Navy Wedding at Hyde Park Country Club

Allie + Stuart had the wedding celebration of their dreams (finally!) after several postponements. As Allie shares, the third time is a charm! Her vision of creating a classic, elegant vibe with a palette of navy and white adding pops of gold throughout the invitation and pops of hot pink in the florals came together beautifully at Hyde Park Country Club. We knew Allie + Stuart’s invitation would be absolutely stunning engraved. Engraving is one of the oldest forms of traditional printing. The raised impression of the inks added an unmatched elevated quality that would set the tone for their celebration. The thick cotton stock was engraved with navy and gold, the gold used to highlight the important elements in the suite. Allie loved the gold foil dotted envelope liner which she said reminded her of champagne bubbly! Many thanks to Leppert Photography for sharing photographs from the day!

How did you and Stuart meet?

Stuart and I met in 2009 on a study abroad trip to Europe, but didn't start dating until 2016. I knew that Stu moved to Cincinnati after graduating from Miami to help run the Pedal Wagon with his best friend (and our Best Man), Jack Heekin, but we were more acquaintances than friends at that point in time. I was always hoping our paths would cross some day. Funny enough, my parents were actually the most loyal customers their first year in business- I believe they rode the wagon 5 times that year! Anyway, fast forward to the fall of 2016 and I met Stu at Rhinehaus bar in OTR. He was watching the Baltimore Ravens football game with his brother, Rob, and I was there watching the Bengals game with two of my friends. Stu came over to say hello and we hit it off. I told him that I had never had a Gomez turtle, which he couldn't believe, so our first date was to Gomez. He dropped me off after our date on his red scooter, Ruby. One thing led to another and now here we are!

Tell us about your wedding!

Third time's the charm is so true! Everything about our wedding was perfect, despite having to postpone twice due to COVID. Looking back, it was 100% worth the wait. Our original wedding date was set for May 16, 20. We postponed it to Aug 22, but the restrictions were still too limiting and we would not have been able to have the wedding we wanted. Stu and I ended up getting officially married in August with a small group of 30 family members, and we postponed our wedding reception again to May 8, 21. We re-did the ceremony at St. Rose, where Father Barry asked if we took each other again to be married, and I actually wore my wedding dress twice! Our true first look was in August when Stu saw me walking down the aisle with my dad. We did another first look in May, and then took pictures on the golf course of our reception venue, Hyde Park Country Club, before our ceremony at 4.

Our photographer, Laura Leppert, was so fun to work with and we could not be happier with how our pictures turned out. She captured our day so well, and came close to getting hit with a golf ball to make sure she got the perfect shot! We lucked out with a beautiful 72 degree, sunny day too. Immediately following the ceremony was a cocktail hour, then dinner and dancing at Hyde Park Country Club. Clueless (f.k.a. Johnny Clueless) was our band- they were amazing and so great to work with as well. We ended the night with late night Skyline and a sparkler send off. The perfect ending to the perfect day!

I'd like to reiterate again how grateful we are to all of our vendors for working with us throughout the pandemic and multiple postponements. It was an emotional roller coaster of a year with so much uncertainty, but we knew that our vendors were willing to work with us and do the best they could to accommodate us, despite the ever changing guidelines. We know it was a hard year for everyone, and they showed such empathy and grace through it all, so big time THANK YOU!

photo by Poeme

Tell us about the proposal.

I survived! Stu proposed while on a ski trip to Beaver Creek with my family. Stu is an expert skier and loves the sport, so when he was watching youtube videos of different ski runs prior to the trip, I didn't think anything of it. Little did I know that he was trying to pick the perfect place on the mountain to pop the question. The particular run he had in mind was a double black diamond called the "Upper Stone Creek Chutes''. There was a sign next to the run that said "Extreme Terrain - means any place within the ski area boundary that contains cliffs with a minimum twenty foot rise over a fifteen foot run, and slopes with a minimum fifty degree average pitch over a one hundred foot run". Not to mention, it was -6 degrees outside with the windchill, and it was our first day, so I was not thrilled when Stu veered off onto the Chutes. While I am a competent skier, I did a somersault down part of the mountain, near the top, and was cursing Stu for taking me down this particular run.

Apparently, the place I fell was the exact spot where he wanted to propose but, due to my mood at that point, he decided to hold off until we made it down a bit further :) He pulled over further down the run to 'admire the scenery'. He popped off his skis and sat down in the powdery snow. I did not want to take off my ski's for fear that I wouldn't be able to get them back on. However, he wore me down and I eventually sat next to him. It was very beautiful and we had the back of the mountain to ourselves. It all happened so fast but then he was kneeling in front of me with the ring! Thank goodness he didn't drop the ring in the deep snow, or we would have never found it. We joke now that he was just testing me - the ring was my prize for making it down that mountain!

How would you describe your wedding style and colors?

I would describe my wedding style as traditional and classic. We were married at St. Rose Church, with a cocktail hour and reception at Hyde Park Country Club immediately following the ceremony. I love navy and white because it's so timeless. That was my starting point. The groomsmen wore navy tuxes and the bridesmaids wore long navy dresses. To add some color contrast, I really wanted pops of pink flowers (hot pink and light pink peonies and roses with crisp green leaves), and Marti Heard executed our vision perfectly!

What was the inspiration behind your wedding day?

I've always wanted to get married at Hyde Park Country Club. My family has belonged there since I was young, and it was always so fun to see weddings there over the years. I wanted a traditional and classic wedding with a great band to keep our friends and family dancing all night long. I also really wanted the flowers to 'pop' and make a statement. Navy, white, pink and green was the color palette that I was going for.

Tell us about your wedding stationery vision and how it came together.

I've actually kept wedding invitations over the years, so I had a helpful starting point. I remember bringing a lot of my friend's invitations to my first meeting with Kristen and saying how I liked this, or that, and I pulled ideas from other invitations that I loved to craft my invitation (thanks friends!). As soon as I made a comment about something, Kristen was making the changes right there so I could see what it would look like. That was amazing. I was seeing our invitation come to life as we spoke.

I knew I wanted navy and white invitations, with some gold influences. Similar to having pops of pink in my flowers, I wanted pops of gold throughout the invitation. Adding a touch of gold really made the invitation look elegant, and we strategically put it in places to call out certain aspects, such as our "AS" crest, our names, and the church. We added gold dot backing to the inner envelope of the invitation which also added a subtle touch of elegance and reminded me of champagne bubbles! The response card was all navy, but the reception card was a combination of gold and navy- it highlighted in gold that the reception was at HPCC. I really liked how we called out all of the important things in gold. One of our harder decisions was whether to have the invitations printed or engraved.

In the end, we had them engraved and I'm so happy we splurged. The invitations are so beautiful and really set the tone for our wedding. We sent out our original, engraved invitations on March 15, 20, right before we went into lockdown on March 17, 20. Due to the evolving COVID situation at that early time, we ended up postponing our wedding. I have to give a shout out to Poeme for reaching out and designing a printed "change of plans but not of heart" card at cost during that difficult time.

Favorite wedding movie?

Off the top of my head, "Wedding Crashers" comes to mind. It's hilarious! Stuart is also from Baltimore so "crab cakes and football-that's what Maryland does!" is a funny quote from that movie which is also so true! Stu is a die hard Baltimore Ravens and Crab Cake fan. As far as I know, we did not have any wedding crashers at our wedding :)

Nicolette MeadeJune 16, 2021Hyde Park Country Clubengraved invitations, navy and gold, Navy wedding, Hyde Park Country Club, Marti Heard Flowers, Leppert Photography, Maura Bassman Events, envelope liner, navy wedding

Allie + Stuart’s Elegant Navy Wedding at Hyde Park Country Club

Custom Design: by appointment | Retail hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12PM - 5PM