A Vineyard Wedding That Put a Spin on Secret Garden

A Closer Look

As Virginia natives, Meredith and Cody wanted to marry with their home state's countryside as the backdrop. "Above all, we wanted the day to feel warm, inviting, and relaxed," they shared. With Evermore Occasions, they pictured their reception at Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards as an intimate, candlelit dinner party tucked away at the end of a secret garden path. They chose a soft, organic palette, layering mauve, lavender, antique rose and olive into an earthy color story. Then they gave all that nature a streak of rock and roll.

The couple invested real time in making their interfaith ceremony personal to both their Christian and Jewish families. Before it began, they hosted a Ketubah signing with their grandparents, and one of Cody's grandparents joined by FaceTime to perform the blessing over the wine. Meredith wore a strapless gown fitted close to the knee, with a long veil edged in lace. Her bridesmaids wore the palette itself, in mismatched gowns of mauve satin, burgundy, lilac and silvery prints, and their bouquets of tulips and deep burgundy scabiosa mixed every one of those shades together. Cody wore black tie, and a small photo pin in a beaded brass frame sat beneath his blush boutonniere, close to his heart.

Steelcut Flower Co. brought the path into the ceremony. On a covered stone terrace, blooms in peach, blush and plum sprang up on both sides of the aisle as if they had seeded between the flagstones. At the end, a chuppah overflowing with roses and trailing greens framed the vineyard behind it like a gate. Afterward, they slipped away to the greenhouse for a few quiet moments together, sharing dirty martinis and a flight of cocktail hour appetizers.

Inside, a round farm table was blanketed in moss, and escort cards stood in it among hyacinths and pillar candles. During cocktail hour, the DJ from Dart Collective dropped the needle on vinyl, a detail guests especially loved. It was the first sign that the music would get as much care as the flowers, and those spinning discs had more to do before the night was over.

Dinner was the hideaway the couple had imagined. Swags of olive drapery crossed the ceiling between iron chandeliers, potted trees lined the walls, and long tables in olive velvet mixed with rounds in mauve and white. Amber and green goblets, tall tapers and low, loose roses filled every table. Then the room turned up the volume. Twinkle lights ran overhead, a cluster of disco balls dangled from a ring of greenery, and a checkerboard dance floor waited below. Meredith made the table numbers herself. After a cocktail hour set to vinyl, she turned records into table markers, leaving half of each one black with its label showing and hand-painting the other half in bold florals before adding the number in gold. Each disc was half garden and half B-side. It was the kind of detail Meredith urges other couples to look for. "Find ways to make the day feel uniquely like you," she advises. Maliha Cakery's butter-yellow cake, piped with white blossoms and finished with fresh flowers, sat on mauve linen beneath a leafy tree. The mauve and olive kept the room warm, and the glitter above promised it wouldn't stay a quiet dinner for long.

Meredith swapped her gown for a pearl-beaded mini with a feathered hem, and under the disco balls it flashed like a headliner's stage costume. Records had stayed in the background since cocktail hour. By the end of the night, the music had pulled the couple right up to the turntable.