Complete with balloons, plenty of champagne, various New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world, and dancing that went well into the night, Zac and Lucas’s wedding at Laube Hall was quite the party. A color palette of emerald green, black, and gold set the stage for a celebration that was one part chic and one part moody. The chosen Pittsburgh wedding venue was filled to the brim with glowing candlelight, which created a romantic ambiance that was most certainly a vibe. Tables featured greenery runners and satin linens while the peaked ceiling were accentuated by a cloud-like 40’x40′ balloon installation from Party on Butler. After an evening ceremony, guests were treated to signature drinks named after the couple’s three dogs, an entire room devoted to the Pittsburgh cookie table, 12 different flavors of wedding cake from Moio’s, a champagne fountain, and a dog treat bar where friends and family could pack bags of goodies to take home to their own fur babies. Thanks to fun party gear, New Year’s pretzels, marzipan pigs, and a serving of pork and sauerkraut at midnight, the newlyweds were able to ring in the new year in style and with plenty of good luck on their side. Let’s raise a glass and toast to these images from Connor Hochbein Photography.
About the Couple
We met online like everyone these days. Lucas had just moved back to the area after being away for years for work. We went to the movies as a first date and have been together ever since!
Lucas proposed at home by having the ring tied onto the collar of my dog, Elliott. The ring had been on the collar for hours and I didn’t notice. We were even laying on the couch watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Lucas kept making hints towards the dog but I never noticed. At almost midnight, I finally saw the ring after letting the dogs outside. When they came back in, I saw the string on his collar with the ring of my dreams attached!
About the Wedding
The wedding was NYE so I wanted a more elegant, chic, moody, party! The colors were emerald, black, and gold. For the most part, the decorations were just greenery, brass candlesticks, taper candles, pillar candles in jars, and balloons. The venue has the most beautiful tall, peaked ceilings so we used the balloons to draw the attention up and really take advantage of the height of the room. We didn’t have assigned seating because we wanted it to feel very casual and more of a party then a formal sit-down event. Since it was NYE, the wedding didn’t start until 7:30 p.m. and went until 1 a.m. so everyone could ring in the New Year together. We had a dog treat bar for guests to take home a treat bag for their furry friends. We did have our dogs there for the ceremony so they could be a part of it. We had a table filled with New Years gear, such as necklaces and glasses, so everyone was able to get into the spirit to ring in the new year. We also had different New Years traditions from around the world that guests could partake in, such as the New Years Pretzel, coins to put in your shoes, and Marzipan pigs to eat at midnight! Pork and sauerkraut was also served at midnight for good luck. We had three signature drinks, one to represent each of our dogs. The colors of the drinks matched the colors of their fur! We also had a champagne wall with a champagne fountain beside it to keep the bubbly flowing all night long. We are both sweets people. Like BIG sweets people. So we knew we wanted to go big with our cookie table. So we had a whole cookie room. We had over 10,000 cookies and sweets made by family and friends. When it came to the wedding cake, I knew I wanted to do old school look, with a modern twist. And who said you should be limited to one flavor?!? We had 12 different flavors of cakes! We wanted an installation of balloons to be over the dance floor to almost look like a floating cloud to dance under. Party on Butler was absolutely amazing and created one that was a show-stopper!
Favorite Moment
Our favorite moment was having our grandmas as our flower girls. We each only have our maternal grandmothers still with us, so we knew we wanted to include them in a more special way than just walking down the aisle. The petals they dropped were dried petals from flowers Lucas had given me since we started dating, which also was a super special touch.
