Ilina & James

Have you ever seen a more gorgeous ball of white perfection than Ilina's hydrangea & peony bouquet? (insert multiple heart eye emoji's here) Thanks to a serendipitous meeting in Chicago, James born in England (who grew up in Scotland) meet Ilina from Russia (who grew up in the United States) and had a fun, dynamic and multi lingual wedding with guests travelling from all over the world to celebrate with them in Amsterdam where they now live. The whole dutch wedding is SO unbelievably stylish. I simply adore the contemporary De Kas ('greenhouse') venue, full of light and space, making such a modern backdrop for this cutting edge, nature-meets-urban wedding. With tartan kilts and a stunning lace Pronovias gown, I think I could quite happily get lost in this botanical beauty of a wedding captured beautifully by On a Hazy Morning for hours.

The Details

Ilina The Bride: James and I are got married in Amsterdam on June 20th, 2015. We've lived here as expats for 6 years, and absolutely love this wonderful village-slash cosmopolitan melting pot of a city.

The Venue

We chose De Kas (Dutch for 'greenhouse') as we love its exceptional seasonal food using produce from the in-house nursery and local farms. It also very much fit our aesthetic with the modern, sleek space juxtaposed with the surrounding nature, and high glass ceilings with lots of light. (A must in often grey, rainy Amsterdam!) And an official Amsterdam wedding location to boot.

Decor/styling

The theme we went for was a minimal urban garden style, complementing De Kas. We wanted to have the venue's greenery and stunning interior shine, using clean and simple natural white decor as accents. The flowers used were primarily white peonies and white hydrangea.

Stationery

Paper stock, fonts and design were incredibly important to us. We worked with Smythson to create simple, classic invites on thick white wove stock, engraved and using silver gilt bevelled edges. No fussy inserts or extra paper.

Ceremony/Wedding

As James is British (born in England, raised in Scotland) and I'm originally from Russia (having grown up in the U.S.), we wanted to have our wedding reflect our blend of cultures. We had a reading of a Russian poem by Alexander Pushkin during the ceremony, and James' roots were clearly reflected in the kilts worn by family and friends from Scotland. The day before the ceremony, we paid homage to our home city Amsterdam with a boat ride through the canals with our guests, using charming, eco-friendly historical boats from company Rederij 't Smidtje.

International wedding guest list

We had people come from 11 countries and four continents to the wedding, and couldn't be more grateful to our family and friends for joining our day despite the oceans and distance. It made for a fantastic mix of people from all over the world, and one amazing party.