Artfully Wed. A refined Osage House Wedding

Aug 18

I’ve taken forever to write this blog. To be totally honest I haven’t even known where to really start. I’ve bragged about Alie’s bridal session at Greystone Estate and how absolutely epic it was to see her in this wildly beautiful architectural wedding dress in front of such strikingly modern architecture and I’ve already gone on and one over Alie and Hunter’s engagement session tucked away at sunset at the Benton County Fair. Still one of my very favorite engagement shoots I’ve ever done because of the texture, the haze, and the simple challenge of trying to shoot in such a public scene without a million other people being in the frames. All of the time spent talking about these two families, these two people have been special to me but the truth is that they all lead up to this.

One of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen.

Hard Stop.

My first meeting with Alie was with her parents and her at Samantha’s Garden, the flower shop in Bentonville, Arkansas that they own. If you’ve never stopped into this little shop, you should - if not to wander around and look at whatever Justin has built in there this week, smell the amazing flowers practically dripping from the walls, and day dream about how this family seamlessly integrates florals into scenes like art work, then do it to meet the people. Diana and Justin are two of my very favorite humans alive. They are welcoming, kind, generous, filled with faith but what sticks out most really is their joy. They’ve passed every bit of this down to their kids and Alie is this perfect example of what joy looks like when it collides with beauty.

So we day dreamed about this wedding, the way flowers would obviously take center stage, and the list of amazing friends and vendors they’ve brought on to help bring it all to life. Katie McIntire from Amanda Reed Weddings was handling the planning and even design work, The Osage House would be the perfect venue with ultimate flexibility to try something that had never been done there before, Lost Wax would entertain everybody until we all dropped, Lightworks would make a room filled with magic glow, Boun would handle hair and makeup, Jessica Whalen would film every little moment and then there right in the middle of it all was this odd reality check…

they wanted me as their wedding photographer.

Fast forward months into planning and what had been designed here was something totally unique. Now if you haven’t seen the Osage House done in a truly classic way yet you should check out these weddings to see what it looks like.

Jordan and Jordan's Osage House Wedding

Alix Ann + John's Osage House Wedding

I’m not saying these weddings were basic, not by a long stretch but Osage was designed with this flawless concept in mind. A ceremony in white chapel at the bottom of the hill and a reception up in the ballroom overlooking a million miles of ozark hills through 270 degrees of 2 story windows. This one however wasn’t that wedding. This black on black wedding featured a bride and groom in white (no other color was worn by any guest at all). This wedding was loaded upstairs in the white ballroom with so many white hydrangeas I’m not convinced there isn’t a global shortage still. This wedding was packed with black on white, full contrast, full drama, full high end design from the moment Alie appeared at the top of the stairs to the moment her and Hunter walked back up the aisle to the sound of 300 guests cheering and clapping and then, seriously though, then the magic happened.

It was like a wedding wonderland straight out of a day dream.

Downstairs in the open air basement space was tens of thousands of flowers arranged in the most colorful, dramatic room. Tables were inside arbors, or under hanging florals surrounding a mirrored dance floor and one of the most iconic wedding bands in the south on stage just waiting to see the thumbs up happen that the last fork had dropped. It was epic and there in the middle of the dance floor in his white Gucci shoes he didn’t want to walk in the grass in (promised I’d give you a hard time about that Hunter), and her white Nike sneakers was one of the most beautiful couples I’ve ever seen dancing with complete abandon surrounded by all of these smiles I love so much. Her parents and his. Katie and so many of the ARW team passing out hats and glow sticks and even late night cheeseburgers from McDonalds. A surprise drop in from Stephanie Benton and even Amanda Reed to congratulate Alie and hug Diana and Justin. A who’s who of Arkansas vendors and wedding people celebrating the wedding we all couldn’t believe we’d had the chance to be a part of and a completely epic expression of art and design and detail wrapped in love.

So that’s it. I’m still smiling ear to ear reliving this day again and again. In awe of what was created and the people who came together to create it and if I wasn’t about to hop on a plane for another wedding I think I’d be driving down to Samantha’s Garden right now to hug them all and tell them thank you again! Don’t forget to check out the brilliant minds behind all of this hard work below.

The ultimate guide for wedding planning in arkansas

● PLANNING: KATIE MCINTIRE FOR AMANDA REED WEDDINGS

● VENUE: OSAGE HOUSE

● CEREMONY: OSAGE HOUSE

● MAKE-UP ARTIST: BOUN

● HAIR STYLIST: BOUN

● PHOTO: MILES WITT BOYER

● VIDEO: JESSICA WHALEN

● RENTALS: EVENTOLOGY, ALCHEMY

● STAGE: FORGE PRODUCTIONS

● DANCE FLOOR: CENTER STAGE

● LINENS: NUAGE