Coral & Gold Terrace Wedding at the Hyatt House: Jo & Mike

When it came time to choose wedding colors, Jo followed one piece of advice: “Choose a color that makes you happy.” After realizing that most of her own wardrobe was coral, she thought that color obviously must make her smile a lot; why else would she have so much of it in her closet? Coral it was! By adding metallic gold and ivory, Jo and Mike settled on a wedding color palette that was bright, festive, and downright perfect for their June 11th wedding. In keeping with the summery vibe, the couple choose The Terrace at the Hyatt House to host their big day. The patio allowed for a beautiful view of the river and city skyline during the ceremony, which was followed by al fresco dinner and dancing under the terrace’s resident tent. A plethora of coral, pink, and white paper lanterns, tissue pom poms, bistro lights, tons of cute DIY decor, and a healthy dose of glitter just because all added up to a beautiful wedding day that I just loved. Some of my favorite details?

Jo and Mike’s shoes. This bride and groom wore matching Vans with a fun flamingo print as a way to bring some coral to their attire and let their personalities shine through!
The wedding invites. Gold foil. Gold and white stripes. Clean lines. Simple wording. Need I say more? The design of this suite from Vistaprint has my heart all aflutter.
The ceremony officiant. With the help of the internet, Jo’s cousin became an ordained minister three weeks before the wedding just so he could perform the ceremony for her and Mike! Just when you thought these this day couldn’t get any sweeter…
Spoke too soon. “Donut” forget the dessert at this wedding! (Ha! See what I did there?) Rather than a cookie table, Jo and Mike served their guests their favorite Strip District treat…Peace, Love, and Little Donuts!
Those florals! The bouquets from this wedding at utterly show-stopping! Lush, colorful, and oh-so-romantic, they’ll be sure to catch your eye and keep it for more than a few seconds. The Blue Daisy Floral Designs totally outside herself with these!

Madeline Jane Photography perfectly documented this adorable wedding day that just might have you reconsidering that basic color palette…or that fall date…or that indoor venue…or anything else that isn’t THIS!

From the bride…

When and how did you two meet?
Mike and I met in our hometown of Erie, PA through a mutual friend. He became the roommate of one my good friends at the time and we stayed friends for a few months before we started actually dating.

Juicy details on the proposal, please! Where, when, how?
He proposed on Valentine’s Day on Mt. Washington, right by where we had our first apartment together. We had some time to kill before our dinner reservations at one of our favorite restaurants and he suggested that we go to Mt. Washington to take some pictures since it was actually a really nice night for February. I started taking pictures of the downtown skyline and I turned around to talk to him and he was down on one knee!

Describe the wedding. The look, theme, color, styles, etc.
Our wedding was very modern and personal to us! The colors were coral, gold, and ivory with a lot of matching decor. We wanted everything to be reflective of us because we had been together for so long and this was such a special day! We wrote our own ceremony together, which was officiated by my cousin, Pete, who we had ordained online about three weeks prior to the wedding. I had a lot of DIY decorations (courtesy of Pinterest and the help of my mom!) but also a lot of details that were very personal. We had Peace, Love, and Little Donuts instead of cake (because we love going to the Strip on Saturdays mornings and can’t leave without them!). We chose to get married in the South Side because we both lived there when we first started dating and we had a lot of fun memories there! Because we were together for 10 years before getting married, I walked down the aisle to “At Last” by Etta James and those words were our cake topper too!

What inspired your vision?
While researching everything when I started planning, I read somewhere to choose a color that makes you happy and that if you are having trouble deciding, go to your closet and determine what color you see the most! So I chose a bright coral and then accents of gold and ivory! I also got a lot of help from Pinterest! I think the venue itself helped to inspire the vision too. I wanted it to be bright, summery, classic, modern, and romantic all rolled into one…which seemed hard to do at first, but once I got started everything fell into place!

What made your wedding unique?
For us, everything was very reflective of our personalities and our love for each other! We even had matching Vans sneakers with a flamingo print on them to incorporate the coral colors of our wedding! We both are nontraditional people so I think that was definitely incorporated into every aspect of our wedding!

What was your favorite moment of the day?
My favorite moment was walking down the aisle and seeing the look on his face! I think that was closely followed by hearing “Mr. & Mrs. Massey” for the first time too!

Bride to Bride

What advice would you give to other Burgh Brides planning their big day?
I know everyone says this, but seriously take the time to step back and enjoy everything! It’s really hard to do, especially during all of the craziness of planning everything, but the time really does fly. Soak in every minute of it! Also, take some time in between the planning to make time for just the two of you and promise not to talk about the wedding at all! It’s super stressful to plan everything so I think it’s very important to still find time for the two of you and decompress doing something that you both love!

Any must haves, must dos, or can’t live withouts? Anything you would do differently?
I honestly wouldn’t do much differently! I really thought everything turned out perfectly for us! I think it’s very important to stay true to the two of you and to make your special day as personal as you can! For me, surrounding myself constantly with friends and family and taking some time out to actually enjoy the planning process kept me sane! Also, I am a big fan of checklists, and “The Knot Book of Wedding Lists” was a life-saver!