Sometimes things are out of our control. You can’t predict the weather or even the actions of your guests on your big day, but kudos to whoever could have predicted what this year would be like with Coronavirus. The current situation has caused many couples to have to change their plans. For this couple, their lake wedding was traded for the loveliest of garden wedding venues – a greenhouse for their purple wedding. Gorgeous!
Stunning Purple Wedding in a Greenhouse
When a couple has to pivot and come up with new wedding plans, it can lead to heartache. For Victoria and Jeremy, it turned into a gorgeous ceremony filled with garden wedding decorations in the form of lush plants. After all, they did get married in a greenhouse!
Not only is their purple wedding theme filled with love, but you can also draw inspiration from their rustic backyard wedding ideas, or you can seek out a greenhouse, too. Either way, their garden wedding pictures are enviable, and their love story is so sweet.
The Origination of Their Purple Wedding Theme
One point of note is some of the basis for their purple wedding ideas, especially when it came to the flowers. Victoria’s favorite flowers are white calla lilies, and the purple roses were in memory of her late sister, who passed away from Cystic Fibrosis. Their wedding day also happened to be her late sister’s birthday, which was an extra way to honor her.
The sunflowers were in memory of Victoria’s grandmother. Memorializing passed loved ones can be tricky, but this couple did it in such a beautiful way! Victoria gave us a glimpse into how their lovely greenhouse wedding unfolded.
The purple wedding flowers had a special significance to honor the bride’s late sister.
What plans did you have to change?
Once Virginia went into lockdown, and our venue canceled all events, our photographer offered us her greenhouse. We were initially going to wed at Lake Fredrick near Winchester, Virginia. We had to change our cake and flower vendors as they were located near our original venue.
Instead of our suite at the Marriott, we stayed in an Airbnb close to the greenhouse. We also opted not to have any friends or family present. Our original wedding was set to be an intimate ceremony of 30 people (immediate family and best friends), and our reception was about 85 guests.
Our wedding was initially planned for May 8th. We wanted May 9th because of the significance of the date (my late sister’s birthday), however, the venue was booked on the 9th, so we settled for the 8th. Once COVID-19 happened and Megan offered her greenhouse, it was perfect because we actually got our May 9th date!
I also had to change the shoes I was wearing, and I had to style my own hair. Fortunately, Jeremy was able to get a haircut and our officiant and my makeup artist drove 3 hours just to accommodate us.
Although the wedding was just the couple and their vendors, over 100 guests were present via Zoom.
Why did you decide to still go ahead with your wedding?
Jeremy and I just wanted to be married. While we really wanted to celebrate this moment with our loved ones, the most important thing to us was becoming one in the presence of God and starting our life together.
It was more about the marriage than the wedding. Not to mention, we had no idea when we might be able to reschedule (we still don’t). The last thing we wanted was to postpone our union just to have our rescheduled date postponed further.
How did your vendors react to the changes?
Fortunately, our venue, Shenandoah Lodge in Lake Fredrick gave us our money back the same day they announced closure. Our cake and flowers had not been paid for yet.
Our cake vendor, Kimberly (The Lucky Cakery) reached out at the start of things and actually recommended that we delay payment. She was willing to do our cake last minute but expressed that she was concerned about there being a shortage of eggs and other ingredients that she would need.
Our photographer found local vendors to assist. Angela gave us almost an identical cake to the one we initially wanted but on a much smaller scale.
Although they had to switch vendors, their cake was similar – yet smaller – than their original plan.
What precautions did you take with your purple wedding?
We decided to not have anyone present for our wedding day, as hard as it was. Jeremy’s parents take care of his grandmother. My mother and my sister are both health care workers, and both of us have nieces and nephews. Also, all of my family is out of state.
As much as we wanted at least our parents and siblings present, we wanted them healthy more. The risk of exposure still seemed too great. Additionally, we made sure to quarantine/social distance the days leading up to the wedding just make sure weren’t coming into contact with people unnecessarily and putting our vendors at risk.
What were the pros/cons of having a smaller wedding?
For us, the biggest pro was how much time we got to spend with each other that day. After the ceremony, we danced, and it felt like we were the only ones in the room. Well, technically we were if you don’t count the 100+ guests on Zoom!
“…this is what marriage is. This is what life is about. You can have all the plans, but you have to ready and flexible when life throws you a curveball!”
Instead of having to take ten minutes or so to ourselves and stick to this timeline of photos, meet and greet, dinner, dances, etc. that we had planned for the larger wedding, we simply just got to stay in the moment.
As a bride, I didn’t have to worry about making sure I got to speak to everyone and get photos. I was able to stay in my husband’s arms all evening and just be in the moment. It was perfect.
The cons, of course, we’re that our family and friends weren’t there. We both were single for a very long time prior to finding one another. Our relationship is special, and we have an amazing village that supports us and wanted to celebrate with us.
Although guests couldn’t view the garden wedding decorations in person, they sent well wishes.
Did you personally learn anything by having to change your plans?
We’ve learned so much from this experience. The best lesson I think is that – this is what marriage is. This is what life is about. You can have all the plans, but you have to ready and flexible when life throws you a curveball.
I think marriage is unpredictable and we have to be ready to adapt and discuss the changes with an open mind a willingness to accept that our plans may not always come to fruition. But if we trust God everything will always work out as it should! When life gives you Corona [virus] grab a lime!
Another beautiful lesson we learned is that people will show up for you if you let them/ask them. We’ve had so many people go out of their way to ensure we got married and that we looked going doing it.
From my makeup artist driving 3 hours to do my makeup and also help me into my dress, to our Airbnb hosts going out of their way to provide us with a full-length mirror for getting ready to complete strangers buying our wedding night dinner and toasting to us.
A small photo on the bridal bouquet is a lovely way to memorialize a passed loved one or friend.
What are you doing about a honeymoon?
This is one of the saddest subjects. We originally booked a 2-week honeymoon to Seychelles in East Africa. Of course, that got canceled. We decided we still wanted time away from work and away from the hustle and bustle of DC, so we spent a week in Sevierville, TN in the Smokies.
Jeremy and I rented a bright lime green Jeep, drove down to the Smokies, and stayed in this amazing cabin with huge windows and an insane view of the mountains. We slept and hiked and cooked and just loved on one another with our phones on do not disturb.
It wasn’t the island we wanted or as long as we wanted, but it was what we needed then. We are still planning our two-week honeymoon as soon as it’s safe to do so!
Love this purple wedding palette? Save it!
Greenhouse Wedding Vendors:
- Venue – Vaughan House Greenhouse
- Photographers – Megan Vaughan Photography
- Flowers – bloom by Doyle’s
- Cake – Angela Hudson Cakes
- MUA – Amina Jameil Beauty
- Airbnb Treehouse – All Belong Co.
- Wedding Night Dinner – Benjamin’s
