Moravian Winter Wedding

Todays feature is filled with traditions and family. We love the beautiful church that these two held their intimate, traditional wedding in and we especially appreciated the fun things they did to incorporate family history and memories. Be sure to check out these little details that the bride and groom included! Enjoy!

From the photographer: Rebecca and Charlie met as two dedicated students at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA and their drive to be successful and strong Moravian faith caused them to become fast friends. Rebecca and Charlie’s Moravian Bethlehem intimate winter wedding incorporated the traditional Moravian lovefeast, and a romantic and elegant celebration for their guests to enjoy by their side. The fine art wedding photography college photographed by Michelle Behre showcases their Moravian inspired day. Just a few details from their day included Rebecca’s elegant bridal look, details, and use of color and texture carried through the event. In this collection, you will see their color palette of off-white, black, and red, inspired by their ceremony venue, Edgeboro Moravian Church and downtown historic old Bethlehem. This couple infused their Moravian lifestyle and romantic personalities into their wedding day. This was truly one of a kind.

What is your proposal story?

It was no surprise to anyone that we were getting engaged. Charlie had already received the engagement ring from my father; the ring was the one he proposed to my mother with, she passed away in 2013. At the time, Charlie and I were living about 90 minutes apart and with it being early December, midway through the holiday season, any secret plans would have been difficult to set up. And to make matters more tricky, I was getting ready to move across the country, to live with my sister in California for a few months.

But somehow Charlie pulled it off. With some help of my best friend, he was able to surprise me after work. I was planning to meet my friend at a store next-door to where I worked to do some Christmas shopping. As I walked outside I texted her that I was on my way and when I looked up from my phone, there he was. I was not expecting it whatsoever, and it was the best surprise. I asked him what he was doing there, and he responded, in true Charlie fashion, “What do you think?” as he got down on one knee.

My best friend was there, hiding and taking pictures of everything, which made it all the more special. But I think my favorite part of it all was the group of middle-aged women, who just happened to be nearby. I could hear their excited and not so subtle whispers of “oh my goodness!”, “is he proposing?!”, “did she say yes!?” and other sweet sentiments.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?

The ceremony was important to us, it held a lot of meaning. Charlie is in the process of becoming a Moravian pastor and my family has Moravian roots. We wanted a traditional service, but we didn’t want that to equate to long and boring. During the ceremony we had a Lovefeast, which is a Moravian tradition dating back to 1732. It typically involves light food and drink. We had my personal favorites, Moravian Sweet Buns, that I grew up having at a church my grandfather was the pastor of. Having a Lovefeast in a wedding ceremony is not common, so it was pretty cool being able to add something that is really special and meaningful. It was super awesome and everybody loved it.

Our biggest splurge was our photographer. I feel like there are some instances where you get what you pay for. We met Michelle a few years earlier at another wedding and I knew I wanted her at my wedding. She is incredibly talented, she has great energy and she loves what she does. She was not cheap, but holy cow it was worth every cent. The photos she took are stunning. Plus, the package included so much, even an engagement shoot.

What were your favorite parts of the day? (memories and stories)

So cliche, but it was the happiest day of my life so far. Every moment was perfect, surpassing any expectations I had.

A memory that has really stuck with me was the dance I had with my father; I still tear up when I think about it. My dad is my rock. While I am the youngest of three girls, I am totally daddy’s girl. He is the biggest Dead Head I have ever known – he has at least two different recordings/copies of every show and he knows everything about them – and growing up The Grateful Dead was always playing in the background. I love surprising him (which is rather difficult to do) so he had no idea what the song was. He was shocked that I chose a Dead song, but he was blown away by my pick (“If I Had The World To Give”). They had very few studio albums, so majority of their music are jam sessions from the hundreds of shows they played. Apparently the song I picked was only played at a handful of shows, not very popular or well known. As we danced he cried as he sang the song to me. Those four minutes mean so much to me. To be honest, everything else is a bit of blur, a purely blissful blur nonetheless.

Charlie here – it’s difficult for me to pinpoint one moment as a favorite from this amazing day. I was so glad to be able to create an opportunity for Rebecca and I’s families to finally meet and begin building their own relationships. Most of my family lives in New England where I grew up and Rebecca’s mostly lives in the PA/NJ area.

That being said, my favorite aspect of this day has to be how these relationships were built on the dance floor. Becca and I are not known for our dancing, and we always said we were hardly going to dance at our wedding. But we found ourselves needing to take a break after dancing with almost all of our loved ones, even the ones we thought we’d never see on the floor. It was truly beautiful to see the love being shared around us as we danced together and officially became one bigger family, one silly dance after another.