What is black, white, and pink all over? This Pittsburgh Opera wedding that is sure to be every girl’s dream. Allison and Mike wanted an elegant wedding day that contrasted nicely with their chosen Pittsburgh wedding venue. The exposed brick and ductwork of The Pittsburgh Opera played nicely with silver mercury glass and textured metallic linens from Mosaic. Neutral black and white kept things chic and sophisticated, while pops of bright pink were just the feminine touch the day needed. Pittsburgh wedding florist Blossoms by Jilliann combined coral charm peonies with black and white anemones for a look that was picture perfect. Em and E Events helped all of the pretty details – like a whimsical canopy of paper lanterns and a silver wedding cake from Bella Christie – come together beautifully. If you consider yourself a girly girl who loves tradition and all things pink, today’s featured wedding is for you! Enjoy these photos from Steven Dray Photography!
About the Couple
We met accidentally on a fateful Friday night in the Southside in January 2013, brought together by a mutual acquaintance. Neither of us were in any position to start a relationship; Mike was going into a busy accounting season full of long hours and 7-day work weeks and I was days away from starting grad school while working full time. Yet somehow, through texts, emails, and many hours at The Cheesecake Factory, we made it work.
We moved in together in June 2015 when life as a couple really took off. In March 2017, just one day after my birthday, Mike got down on one knee after a perfect evening downtown. He distracted me with my two favorite things (tacos and margaritas) so I had no idea it was coming (even though we had been talking about marriage for months and had even toured a few venues in December!). The proposal was shared privately at our apartment. However, it was quickly followed by a surprise engagement party hosted by Mike that included our their closest friends and family, many of which were secretly in town from out-of-state. Mike had raided my Pinterest to create my dream ring, inside of which he had engraved our initials and the date of our engagement.
About the Wedding
We loved every moment of the planning and realized that we had very similar visions. We wanted something timeless and elegant that still included fun details to show our personalities. We opted for black and white with the exception of flowers and silver metals. By making the flowers the only color, it allowed them to be a focal point of the decorations, which was important to me. Jilliann, our florist, absolutely understood our vision and brought it to life better than we could have ever imagined. Small touches of metals allowed us to pay respect to the industrial feel of the Opera while still keeping an elegant feeling to the wedding overall. The festive lights and lanterns were an absolute must to feature the innate beauty of the Opera while still showing a bit of our personalities. Both our church and reception venue had a lot of history and character, so all of our choices were made to enhance and respect those elements.
Favorite Moment
Our absolute favorite moment of the day was during cocktail hour. While every moment with our guests was precious, ultimately the day was about us! Once we finished pictures, we spent the rest of the cocktail hour as just the two of us in a back room enjoying hors’doeuvres and our signature cocktail while catching each other up on the events and memories of the day up until that point. There is so much going on that the day can become overwhelming. This gave us a chance to slow down, focus on the other person, and share details we might otherwise have forgotten later.
