MaryClare + Kenneth’s Timeless Hudson Valley Wedding
HOLY MOLY MaryClare + Kenneth were the timeless beauties of my dreams. I cannot say enough positive things about working with these two. MaryClare mentioned on multiple occasions that the most important thing to her on her wedding day, besides marrying the love of her life, was to get timeless and beautiful portraits of the two of them. (WELL DON’T MIND IF I DO!). A quote from MC that I think is so so so so so spot on and important with how I view things as a wedding professional is… “Trends are very easy to get caught up in the wedding business and so, when I was planning our wedding, I wanted to choose a style that felt as beautiful and timeless in 30 years as it does today!” - MaryClare
MaryClare and Kenneth, both West Point graduates, decided to hold their wedding ceremony at the Cadet Chapel on the West Point campus. Their reception was held at The Thayer Hotel.
Read on to learn more about this amazing couple, how their paths crossed, the hilariously unlucky sequence of events that led up to their proposal, and MaryClares practical and timeless approach to her wedding planning and wedding style.
How they met : “Kenny and I had crossed path several times before we ever knew of each other. We went to the same small college, but never saw each other there. Similarly, we were posted to the same location with similar friend groups, but still never met each other. Eventually though, our paths would cross. When I graduated college, I was given a decision to move to San Antonio or stay in Georgia. It was tempting, but I decided to stay in GA. At the same time, Ken had plans to move to San Antonio. However, something happened with his paperwork and he got stuck in Georgia for a few more years. This showed me that whichever decision I made, we were destined to meet! While our love story was simple, our marriage proposal was not!”
How they became engaged (a series of pretty hilarious unfortunate events : “When Ken decided to propose, he asked me to dinner at the Tower of the Americas in downtown San Antonio. The building is unique because of the rotating restaurant at the very top of the tower. After dinner, moments before Kenny was going to propose, a lady at a neighboring table got her foot stuck in the rotating mechanism of the restaurant wall. I rushed over to free her from the situation and it caused quite the scene. Needless to say this ruined the mood for the night.
In hopes of redemption, Ken planned a trip to the San Antonio Zoo the following day. When we arrived at the Zoo, we began walking to the entrance. Suddenly, we saw a large billowing cloud of black smoke over the trees and with further investigation realized a car had caught fire! I called the fire department and Ken once again realized his pursuits were overshadowed.
Ken was persistent though! The next day he took me to the River Walk. This was where we had spent our first date in Texas. We walked around like normal and finally we stopped on a bench near the waters edge. There he proposed to me, and we were congratulated by a river cruise which was nearby!”
How did we decide on our wedding: “Ken and I knew very quickly after we met that we wanted to get married. We started planning our wedding in December of 2022. As many know, wedding timelines have increased tremendously since the Covid pandemic. We wanted a summer/fall 2023 wedding in Saint Louis (my hometown), but most of the venues and churches were fully booked until early 2024. Thus, we expanded our search beyond Saint Louis to places that meant a lot to both of us. We settled on West Point because we both graduated from there, our closest friends were from there, and our families wanted to visit. Since we were basically choosing a destination wedding, we planned on October 2024 which would give our family and friends enough time to plan for the trip!”
One of the best pieces of advice I received in planning this wedding was to write down my top 3 priorities and spend time/money on those.
“My top three were
1) Photography (Caitlinn Mahar-Daniels)
“I am lucky enough to have friends who trust me in the creative process and thus I have planned a lot of weddings for other people. From these experiences, I decided that I wanted very nice photos of Ken and me. The first contract signed after the venue was with my absolutely AMAZING photographer, Caitlinn (you! Lol). This was over 18 months out from our wedding, and while I felt a bit crazy doing this, I found out that 18 months is actually pretty average for booking photographers! Choosing Caitlinn as my photographer was one of the best decisions I made during the planning process!”
2) Dress (Justin Alexander from House of the Bride in Augusta, Georgia)
“Second was my dress. I had a good idea of what I wanted, but I didn’t quite know how to make it a reality. The aesthetic was Jackie O and Grace Kelly. Very Timeless, traditional and romantic. I was blessed to work with Miss Whitney from The House of the Bride! With her expertise and understanding of my style, I only had to try on two dresses before I knew! While the dress was absolutely magical, I wanted to add some other pieces to the look to bring a bit more romance. My mom and I ended up sewing together a nude/mesh body suit and hand sewed on appliques all over it to create the sleeves seen in the photos. Similarly, I knew I wanted a cathedral veil with a blusher. My mom and I also ended up sewing on appliques for the veil. This was very special and I am very grateful for the opportunity to work on it with my mom!”
3) Entertainment
Third was entertainment! My mom actually gets all of the credit for this one! She has planned the entertainment for both of my sisters weddings and each time she chooses the dueling pianos! I highly recommend live entertainment if it falls in the budget, because the performers can really draw the crowd in!”
How did you choose your wedding style?
“My personal style tends to lean towards practical and classic. I really like muted colors and items that will stand the test of time. When I purchase something, I intend to keep it for many years and so I tend to stay away from trends. Trends are very easy to get caught up in the wedding business and so, when I was planning our wedding, I wanted to choose a style that felt as beautiful and timeless in 30 years as it does today! To pick the colors, I made a PowerPoint for my then fiancé with all of my top color choices. I had dark green, navy blue, dark red, and pink/green. Ken chose the dark red and so I went with that. Not only is there something so rich and cozy about the dark red choices, but I also felt it was a very timeless choice especially for the venue!”
Scroll down to hear about MaryClare’s advice and experience with her hair + make up and communicating your vision with you florist.
MaryClare (a self proclaimed no-makeup type girly, absolutely LOVED her make up artist Nicole of Baby Breath Bridal Services ) “Nicole was fantastic! I do not wear makeup and when I do, I definitely do not wear lipstick! Nicole changed this all around for me! I gave her the go ahead to do whatever she wanted as long as there was no sparkle. She absolutely NAILED the make-up look! From the eye shadow and eyelashes to my favorite part, the lip color (can you believe it), Nicole’s vision completely perfected the style I was going for! For those who are planning their wedding, I would definitely book Nicole and if you can’t I recommend giving your MUA a bit of leeway in the look because it might just turn out as magical as mine did!”
MC has some really unique advice for communicating your vision to your florist, and in her case Greenery Plus Florist . “What a fantastic job David Umberto did with the flowers! I told him I wanted a cascading white bouquet and holy cow did he deliver! What an absolutely stunning bouquet that he designed! The flowers at the reception were spectacular as well! I ended up going through his portfolio of flowers and removing and drawing on the photos to show him exactly what I was thinking! I highly recommend doing this if you are planning a wedding. It is incredibly helpful to the vendor if you can pick something from their past work to show exactly what you want.” LOVE THIS.
