Ethereal Forest Wedding
Our #MZBride of the week is the absolutely beautiful Annabelle Devlin who got married in our Kaylyn gown. Surrounded by their loved ones, the couple held their gorgeous wedding at Camp Hale, between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River valley in Colorado. In the following interview, Annabelle shares with us how she started planning her wedding journey and will give you her exclusive tips!
How did you start planning your wedding? What were the first steps?
Brent and I met in college at SMU back in 2012 and got engaged in September 2019. After being together for so long, we have had many conversations about our wedding one day. We both grew up going to Colorado - Annabelle to Aspen, Brent to Beaver Creek - and Brent's dad recently moved out to Beaver Creek full time. It was our happy place. Once we were engaged we immediately knew Colorado was where we wanted to host the long-awaited event! I am from New York/New Jersey and Brent is from San Diego and we met in Dallas, TX, so we thought it was the perfect place to have our families meet in the middle. The next step was reaching out to vendors. I was obsessed with Laura Murray's photography and knew I wanted to work with her. She was the first decision we made - even before a venue - Meaning I had to find a venue around her schedule :) Soon after a trip with my mom to Beaver Creek, we chose to get married at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch. We loved it. A few months later, our wedding was almost completely planned - My dress included. And then in March 2020, the pandemic hit NYC, where we lived. We never thought it would last as long as it did and affect our September 2020 wedding. In June 2020, we cancelled our wedding. We decided to take a break planning while we decided if we wanted to elope or plan another wedding.
Eventually we decided to replan the wedding and book July 2021 at the Ritz. Vendors were devastating because only some could make the date work - Including Laura Murray. It was like a puzzle trying to find a date that worked for everyone. The pandemic was still scary for us, especially knowing we wanted Brent's grandparents there, so we decided to postpone it yet again. I was laid-off due to the pandemic, which was the best negative of all time, started graduate school, and Brent and I moved to Dallas and bought a home. We were starting over!
Finally, after deliberating everything, we decided to start over as we replanned our dream day for the third time. With not much time to spare, we booked Camp Hale as our wedding venue. A dreamy, isolated venue tucked into the mountains between Beaver Creek and Vail, CO, Camp Hale is perfectly Colorado. It had a pond, in which my nephews were fly fishing, and our pup, Poppy, was able to run around the wedding and greet guests. We had our guests dress in black tie, as we love getting dressed up and loved the fun contrast of tuxedos in the mountains. We danced the night away, invited the people who were all involved in Brent and I's meeting up to take a shot with us on stage, and ended the night covered in face paint. Not only did we meet at an SMU "paint party," but our favorite bar in NYC was called Riff-Raff and they'd paint your face as you walked in the door. Every person, including bartenders and our photographer, partook in the face painting. The night couldn't have been more fun. Everything happened for a reason, as our day couldn't have turned out more "us." Our vendors including Laura, Tunisa (our band since day one), a new florist, as ours had moved during the pandemic - The Story Of- and our caterer, Gourmet Cowboy, who were lifesavers. Our amazing wedding planners, Something Blue, were with us through all of this.
How did you know your dress was 'the one’?
As I began to replan my wedding for the third time, I was not excited about my dress. I had my dream man, my dream vendors, and I liked my dress. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t my dream. I was, fortunately, able to sell my dress to the most deserving woman who couldn’t get a dress in time for her wedding because of all of the pandemic-caused delays. I asked my future Mother-In-Law to join me at Neiman Marcus “just to look.” After trying on a few dresses, I spotted Mira Zwillinger’s SW22 Kaylyn gown. We all knew it was the dress immediately. There was no going back. I will never forget my mother-in-law saying “That boning!!” We were all just starstruck at the fun, flower-adorned take on a classic silhouette. The boning, the subtle glitter, and the floral appliques had me saying yes immediately.
I look back on the day still being in awe of the dress. It reminds me that everything happens for a reason. I wouldn’t have worn my dream dress if everything didn’t happen the way it did. We got our dream day exactly how it was supposed to be – pandemic, postponements, and all. I loved my dress so much that I even designed our wedding invitations, florals, and our cake to tie it all in (without Brent knowing). The whole event had single white stemmed roses, which my florist, The Story Of, couldn’t have nailed more.
How did you find working with the bridal store team?
Absolutely amazing. They ensured my dress arrived on time and was perfect for the big day. I am so grateful. I work on the Neiman Marcus Marketing Team, so buying my dress at the downtown historic store just made it even more personal. The Mira Zwillinger team made sure every detail on the dress was perfection. I was blown away by the level of detail.
3 advices that you would give to our future brides?
1. Don't be afraid to commit. After so many years planning, I became so indecisive about what other options I had for flowers, venues, etc. Pick something you love and then trust your gut. 2. Similarly, trust the process. It sounds so cliche, but truly everything DOES happen for a reason! 3. Enjoy the process. I see so many friends who are stressed about every detail. While not always easy, remember why you are planning this amazing day. You are marrying the love of your life and surrounded by your closest family and friends. Marrying Brent surrounded by our people was the dream, ultimate goal, and the best part of all of this - and everything else was just additional happiness.
What was your wedding theme?
We got married in the middle of a valley, surrounded by mountains and National Forest land, so we didn't go above and beyond with a theme. Instead, we let the surroundings speak for themselves and had white flowers throughout the event as a cohesive, yet simple, theme. Very little greenery incorporated, we had single, white roses throughout the wedding. My bridesmaids each held a long single stemmed, giant rose; the tables had hundreds of white roses each in their own bud vase; our cake had white rose appliques trickling down it; and our invitations had the same. The final piece was my Mira Zwillinger dress, which had white on white floral appliques with a perfect touch of shimmer. The sheer boning was such a stunning and special detail to the dress. I get emotional thinking about how much I loved my dress and how I felt in it that day. It was perfect for us.
