In the summer of 2015, my husband, Rich, and I had a perfect (fairy-tale-like) wedding in our beautiful mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The wedding ceremony itself was held at New Life Covenant Church. Even though this wasn’t our church, it is the church where two of our best friends, Alan and Tia, got married. The church is located just a few minutes from our reception location, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. We had numerous out-of-town guests and having the wedding ceremony at this church just seemed to fit the plan– plus, it had a beautiful sanctuary and we immediately knew it was the place we would say “I do.”
This is us with our families! We love them. <3
It’s so amazing how everything comes together on your wedding day, but I know that it wouldn’t have come together so flawlessly if not for the amazing talents of my Certified Wedding Designer at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Christina Domasky. Our reception was held at the Chateau Lafeyette in the larger ballroom. I knew for a long time that I wanted my wedding to be at Nemacolin. It’s one of my favorite places– for dinner, a weekend away, a relaxing spa day, hitting the slopes, and so much more! It’s truly a gorgeous resort and we’re so lucky that it happens to practically be in our backyard (about 20 mins away)! We met with Christina several times to discuss our vision for the upcoming day. I wanted it to be classic. Black table cloths and chair covers with Tiffany blue accents. Everything needed to sparkle. Christina and her team were able to take my vision and make it a reality. Literally perfection.
Perfect, right? When I first started planning my wedding, I really had no clue what I was doing. I kind of knew what I wanted, but I didn’t realize how much went into getting to that perfect outcome. Christina really took the stress out of it for me. She is such an organized person (which I loved) and had all of the things I needed to decide on laid out for me. The food was AMAZING. The ballroom was everything I wanted and more. And the cake, well, the cake was just fabulous.
Let’s backtrack a little… My friends are seriously the BEST. The bachelorette party they threw for me was amazing and oh so Pittsburgh-themed. Erin (hey, you know her!) even had my wedding photographer, Jacqueline Rech, meet us in Pittsburgh for an all-night photo sesh! Did I mention I love the Steelers? Oh, good, just making sure.. 😉
So, obviously, the night before the big day, I wanted to be with these girls that mean so much to me! My bridal party and I spent the night in a beautiful suite at the resort where we could all just relax and enjoy some time together!
Staying at Nemacolin’s Chateau Lafayette the night before allowed me to have a stress-free morning getting ready with my very best friends! My sister, Kaitlyn, is furthest right, next to Erin, in that last photo. She was my maid of honor. Oh, and are you surprised who did my hair for my wedding?? Erin doubled up as bridesmaid and hair stylist for my wedding party. As if I would trust anyone else! She’s the BEST! She brought in her team and they got the job done just beautifully! Make sure you check out her work here.
Richie’s groomsmen came to Nemacolin that morning and went to lunch at The Tavern. They also had a place to get ready at Falling Rock Resort, a safe distance from the girls!
If you’ve not been to Nemacolin Woodlands, well, you happen to be missing out! The photos from that day that Jacqueline took just couldn’t have been more beautiful– thanks to both a gorgeous backdrop and an amazing photographer!
PS. Check out the beautiful Swarovski jewelry on the girls (and me)! I had it made custom by Cathie Nilson. Cathie is the owner of an upscale boutique in New York and also has an Etsy shop where she sells her beautiful creations.
Love those! Nemacolin’s Falling Rock Resort was the perfect location for bridal party photos! We got married on a very rainy day, but were so blessed to have a break in the rain and a little sunshine exactly when we took our pictures! Talk about perfect timing…
I got my dress for the big day from Bridal Beginning in Mt. Lebanon, PA.
We had a photo booth at the wedding! The company we went with was Red Eye Photo Booths. It was definitely a great idea! Yes, that’s Erin in the photo (lol). When the night was over, we received an album with everyone’s photo strips and they all wrote us special notes next to their photos! They also received a copy of their photo strip too!
Music was provided by the talented DJ Klean Kut, who I actually met on my travels– and he made a special trip in to Pittsburgh to DJ for my wedding!
One of my favorite parts of the wedding is unseen in all of the photos — my videographer! Mike Williams did such an awesome job that I have to provide you with some of the sneak peeks! Mike made this mini video for Instagram. We have the full length video on DVD and there also is a highlight video approx. 4.5 minutes long on YouTube!
You can see how we arrived at that beautiful reception I showed you at the beginning of the article. If I had to plan my wedding again, what would I change? I wouldn’t change a thing. The day went absolutely perfectly. After the wedding, we headed off to Bahamas where we stayed at a Sandals Resort, but that is a travel post for another time.
Natalie Bencivenga from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote an article on our wedding and you can read it HERE.
Thanks so much for reading about our wedding! If you have any questions, please send me a message via the “Contact Us” tab! The pink links will take you directly to the websites of the people that helped make our wedding day perfect!
xo,
Ashley
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