Gray and Yellow Wedding at The Barn at Fallingwater
For their special day Rebecca and Chris choose The Barn at Fallingwater, a rustic, eco-friendly venue located on the property of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright House. Using a color palette of gray and yellow, Rebecca and Chris' wedding is full of rustic and DIY decorations that we know simply swoon over. We also must mention we love Rebecca's short wedding dress, always a fan favorite.
Continue reading to hear more about this historic wedding venue and a bit of advice from the bride Be sure to check out the fabulous wedding film by Villatoro Productions at the end of the post to get a closer look at this gray and yellow wedding! You can view so many more photos from With Love & Embers in the full gallery here.
On the Venue:
The iconic Fallingwater was a mountain retreat designed in 1935 by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, owners of Kaufmann's Department Store. Built over a waterfall with a unified, organic composition and limited color palette, Fallingwater instantly became famous and is now listed as a National Historic Landmark.
The Barn at Fallingwater was originally built in 1870 and is a “bank barn” or a style of barn built into a hillside, with a back entrance at the second floor level. In 1940, Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr. purchased the barn, expanded it with the addition of a milking parlor, and operated it as a dairy farm based on Jersey cows. In 1967 the Barn was transformed into a nature center and in 2002 it was renovated using sustainable design to create an adaptive reuse of the building, while also preserving the historical space. Currently The Barn uses green and recycled materials throughout the spaces and is green powered. It features three primary spaces for meeting and gathering: The Fireplace Room, The Threshing Room, and The Courtyard. What an amazing idea for a wedding venue!
From the Bride:Chris and I had been together for an amazing 7 and half years when we got married. Over the years, we have grown together, we've had many adventures together and we had fun imagining our future together. When we started planning our wedding, we came up with a quick list of all the things we wanted it to be. We wanted it to be casual yet special. Good beer, good food, like a fancy picnic but with an epic dance party. During their wedding ceremony Rebecca and Chris locked a bottle of wine and letters to each other into a wooden box stamped with their wedding date. They plan on opening the box on their 10 year anniversary and celebrate their love all over again! What a sweet way to commemorate their big day.
Looking back, I believe we achieved all of this and more. We tapped into our friends and families talents, with a friend creating our wedding cake, a cousin designing our floral arrangements, my sister-in-laws beautiful singing voice, my brother marrying us and two amazing Aunts helping create the dress I dreamed of. Our parents were a source of endless support, even through many of the non traditional ways Chris and I went about the wedding. I was in awe by the amount everyone cared to help out.
Take a peek at the amazing wedding film Villatoro Productions captured of this gray and Yellow wedding at The Barn at Fallingwater below!
https://vimeo.com/75080710
Read on to hear from Rebecca about how she and Chris budgeted for their gray and yellow wedding and thing she would have done differently!
How Rebecca and Chris budgeted for their wedding:We waited a few weeks after getting engaged to sit down and have a good talk about what would be realistic for our wedding day. From there, we planned out how we were going to save money together over our 16 month engagement. We made a list of what was important and a priority to us. We chatted with our families about the same. The engagement was a great catalyst for us to sit down and talk about our finances as a couple (beyond the wedding) which helped us go into our marriage on the same page financially.What Rebecca would have done differently:1. Buy more booze and discuss with your bartender. Our venue required us to provide our own alcohol and to hire a bartender (who we hired through our caterer). We decided to go beer, wine and 2 signature cocktails, which made it easier on us to purchase. I researched quantities, the average amount people drink, calculated, rounded up, double calculated and then rounded up more. Yet, Chris and I found ourselves running out of many of the options, discussing this mid-reception and requesting (an awesome!) uncle to head to the beer store to get more. Part of this is that the bartender/caterer kept thinking they were "out" of alcohol, but really they had "lost" it (aka, it was in the fridge... out of sight, out of mind I guess). Part of this was that we were serving out of mason jars, which are larger than normal size drink glasses. It all worked out fine, most the guests did not notice or care. Overall, I would've liked to buy more alcohol (you can always take it home) or discuss options more thoroughly with the bartenders ahead of time. I wish I would have re-emphasized not to pour the liquor drinks ALL the way up the mason jar. If you have a signature cocktail, discuss the proportions and recipe (man those drinks were strong!). And to have a back-up plan established with them to alert you (vs. finding out when you personally went up to the bar for a drink).
2. Discuss what you will be doing post "I do" after walking back down the aisle as a married couple. I somehow ended up doing an impromptu receiving line while Chris went to tell a vendor something before we went to continue our photos. If you want a receiving line, do it, it is a great way to see everyone. If you don't, you might want to plan to sneak away quickly before the guests start coming out because you will want to say hi once you see someone, they will want to say congrats to you and so will every other guest, which can get overwhelming quickly when you didn't plan on a receiving line.
3. Delegate, delegate, delegate! We were lucky to have so many helpers, yet I still felt the need to do a lot of things myself. It may not end up exactly the way you wanted, but it will relieve you of some stress.
4. Go with the flow. You might have a wedding planner, a day of planner, or not. These can all change how the day will go. No matter which way you go, remember that everything will not be perfect (No matter how many people tell you it's your day! It will be the best day of your life! You will remember it forever!), we are still all human and it is still a day on Earth. Things will go wrong, but that is okay. Concentrate on everything going right!
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- Caterer: Bart's Catering and Fine Food
- Cinematography: Villatoro Productions
- DJ: Pittsburgh All-Stars Event Services
- Dress designer: Ann Taylor
- Groom’s attire: Men's Wearhouse
- Hair: Rochelle Noone of Becoming To You
- Photographers: With Love & Embers
- Venue: The Barn at Fallingwater