Laura Normandin and Ben Tyszka chose the Picnic House in Brooklyn's Prospect Park as the setting for their wedding, complete with dancing, a barbecue lunch, and a bicycle-ride ending.
The couple's leafy save-the-date arrived in a vellum envelope. Laura designed an invitation suite that incorporated her own type and phrasing with Gwen Frostic's block-printed cards. Invitations and response cards were tucked into envelopes that Laura calligraphed herself and adorned with vintage stamps.
Laura fashioned her breathtakingly beautiful butterfly bouquet from silk and feather creatures secured on thin wires so that they float and flutter realistically.
Bridesmaids Julia Schuette and Leigh Douglass Renshaw, who introduced Laura to Ben, wear silk dresses by Simple Silhouettes and carry bouquets made by Martha Stewart Living's crafts director Hannah Milman.
Flower girl Logan Normandin wears a crown of vintage silk flowers handmade by her aunt, the bride.
Sisters Charlotte and Flannery Brown pose for a snapshot; their father, Rev. Matthew Brown, married Laura and Ben.
Laura made Ben's boutonniere from vintage silk flowers; his colorful tie and pocket square coordinate perfectly with the bridesmaids' shawls.
Laura embellished the ceremony programs with butterfly and bird cut-outs.
The bride and groom pose for a photo with Martha.
The newlyweds are flanked by family and friends.
Favors are glass-topped specimen boxes holding pressed butterflies, leaves, and flowers.
The bride calligraphed the seating cards, then rubber-stamped each one with a butterfly, which she cut into a silhouette before folding the card.
Scented geraniums, herbs, and other foliage nestle in terra-cotta pots at the reception; the bride and her family hand-painted the pots and grew the plants, and invited their guests to take home their favorite as a favor.
Guests receive paper bags in which to stow and tote their geraniums, each bag printed with a gracious thank-you note from the newlyweds.
Seasonal vegetables, salad, and baby potatoes accompany savory barbecue, while custom-printed Gwen Frostic napkins echo the invitation motif.
Tiers of sugar-flower-topped cupcakes preside over a dessert table draped in Japanese floral linen. The sugar flowers, from Sugar Flower Shop, top cupcakes made by caterer Sage Events.
The sweet surprises kept on coming, like these fresh-baked heart-shaped biscuits and strawberries, which share space on a plate with a sugar-flower-topped cupcake and a fruit tart.
A trio of friends nibble on refreshments in the airy, light-filled Picnic House overlooking the lawns of Prospect Park.
Old-style country band the Dixons provide nostalgic music complete with an upright bass.
The bride and groom coast away from their reception on white bicycles bearing Just Married flags. The bikes are a reflection of their love for cycling. As an adorable afterthought, Laura affixed a white basket to the front to hold her butterfly bouquet.
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