Real Couples // A Dreamy, Fun Wedding in Saratoga Springs, NY: Daisy + Sam
/I (Daisy) am a free spirit that loves music and food. I bake, cook, sing, and love anything that grows from the ground. Sam is a sweet introvert who is both intelligent and creative. She follows many passions and always likes to solve problems.
I met Sam in my pajamas. PJ's with pink elephants ice skating on them. She loves to remind me. I was picking up a friend and she was walking with them. She was so beautiful. I found myself holding my breath as she walked up to my car. She never left my mind after that. I was such a fool too. I kept stuttering and getting tongue tied. I just wanted to be around her.
I proposed to Sam first. Since we are lesbians we agreed that we both would propose because equality. I think the funniest part about me proposing to Sam is that she was such a pain in the ass that day! So she didn't feel well and tried to get out of going to dinner that night (even though I had a friend fly in from Virginia!!) She met me at the restaurant, she didn't even want to talk to me! Then after we got done with dinner, I went ahead to the bar while she stayed behind and walked with our friend. Once I got there I had friends waiting and one friend played bass guitar while I sang. Once she realized what was happening, she just started crying. It was so sweet. She made it harder to finish my song. But once she said yes, she also said sorry for being such a pill all day.
Then, when she proposed to me, she waited until we went out to California. She planned a picnic on Santa Cruz beach. She made drinks and charcuterie for us (which impressed me since I'm the chef) and then she left for a few minutes because she "forgot" something in the car. She came back with this hand drawn poster of a robot she likes to draw for me and asked me right there. I started crying and the drunk girls behind us started cheering! They asked if they could get a picture for us and shared their wine. It was lovely.
I told her the ring I wanted before she bought it. I'm particular. It's beautiful.
She, on the other hand, wanted me to find the perfect ring on my own. I had one custom made for her. She hated it. Figures. So I took it to a local jewelry maker and had her take the stone out and make a new band. Luckily she loved that ring. (But she broke it and I had to have it repaired because she is a fidgeter.)
We also got ring finger tattoos. We both have professions that demand our hands be ring free for our safety. I think I like those most of all. It's a constant reminder of our love.
Finding our venue was all accident. We ended up crashing someone's wedding because we were invited to a "party" by one of my hippy friends. We walked up the driveway and saw the illuminated barn and we knew that was where we wanted to be married.
I have to say all of our vendors were a dream to work with. What a truly talented and professional team of people.
I used a lot of vendors based on personal relationships and recommendations. I worked in the service industry and knew plenty of people who helped me find my dream team. I couldn't be happier with the results. Our DJ specialized in 60's music and we had a very retro fun vibe. I remember hearing so many old great songs, it added so much ambiance. We chose to have one of our closest friends officiate our wedding. He is very special to us both and we really felt that he could deliver the mood that we wanted.
We actually got most of our decorations from scrounging in an old abandoned play house. We found tons of vintage decor and items. One of my favorite finds were two shot glasses that had eyes on them that said "An eye opener."
The flowers we bought online and they were so gorgeous. The stars of that show were the pale pink peonies. If you've never seen a bloomed peony before, I highly suggest you find some. They are such a stunning flower.
Sam chose to recite the vows from The Corpse Bride. We are both big Disney/Tim Burton fans. She was so nervous, the cutie.
I decided that the only way I could really convey my feelings for her was to sing her a song I wrote. Which she absolutely did not expect. It's always so scary to sing to the person you love. You want them to love it most of all.
We had Waltz lessons at our reception! We hired a professional waltz instructor and had her teach basic steps during cocktail hour, it was her special. All our guests had a great time learning and it also made any awkwardness lessened because there was an activity for people to focus on.
Food is one of our favorite things to share. All the food we chose reflected our tastes as a couple. We chose a mix between Mexican and Southern classics. Everything was so divine. We even got duck for two as our own special entree. Our cakes were made by a woman I worked with. We had 3. They were all mousse cakes with traditional French attributes.
The night ended with us lighting paper lanterns as our guests started to dwindle away. It was so picturesque with the lanterns and the barn all alight.
Words by Daisy, the bride, as told by Amber Marlow. Photos by Sarah Wigley.
VENDORS
Photography | Sarah Wigley
Beverages | Hamlet & Ghost
Catering | Airstream Catering
DJ | David McDaniel
Cakes | Vivian Pratt
Hair | Christina Archambough
Dance lessons | Foxy Trot Dance Studios
SARAH WIGLEY
Sarah is a wedding photographer with Rob Spring Photography in Saratoga Springs, New York. In addition to wedding photography, Sarah has a passion for fine art, travel photography, and cat memes. Over 350 of her photographs have been featured on Vogue Italia’s website, and her photography was shown at Milan Fashion Week in 2012. Things that you can expect from Sarah on a wedding day: sick dance moves, much giggling, and copious amounts of dad jokes.
