A Library Wedding with Handmade Details

Though Grace and Meg's styles are different, they both love nature, to having a ceremony in the very spot where they had gone sledding the day they got engaged was an easy choice for their DIY wedding. Grace's dad made the arbor that her and Meg exchanged heartfelt vows under, beautifully captured by Teri Fiske of Ciao Bella Studios, and afterwards they celebrated at the Central Library of Rochester. “I work as a children's librarian and always dreamed of getting married at the Central Library of Rochester, and luckily Meg was totally game to make that vision a reality.”

They incorporated library elements into the details, such as due date slips for the table numbers, book page flowers for the favors and hollowed out book centerpieces with moss and succulents placed inside. “It was really fun to get creative but very labor intensive. The whole wedding turned out really well, I think,” says Grace.

“What we wanted most for our wedding was a ceremony filled with love, good food and drink, plenty of dancing and kickass pictures. If I were to do it again, I would have spent more time and resources finding truly inclusive vendors like Teri for everything. Going in I don't think Meg nor I wanted to make the fact that were were gay a big deal. And it shouldn’t be a big deal, but when we were outright rejected by a photographer, I should have realized that I needed to find vendors that really knew what it meant to be LGBT-friendly. In this day in age, you should not have a form that lists ‘Bride and Groom' as the only options, and we should not have hired vendors who did. But, happily, the rejection from the especially bigoted photographer led us to Teri, who is the best ally you could ever ask for — and the best photographer!”