April Hamlin and Christopher Lautenschlager shared a vision that was so strong they decided it would be best to take on all the planning themselves, from beginning to end. Christopher chose The Depot, a repurposed train station in Minneapolis, for their ceremony and reception site, and the couple conceptualized a décor that would be “Asian-inspired and spare, but not too stylized,” April says. She has always been a fan of sticks and rocks as a design element, and hired Pam McCarthy-Kern at Fleurissima to create centerpieces with a stick-rock motif.
McCarthy-Kern painted manzanita branches with a high-gloss black and attached white Cymbidium orchids and clusters of pearls and rhinestones. She placed the arrangement in a black cylindrical vase set into a larger square ceramic vase. A mix of votive candles, black river rock and iridescent clear glass stones added sparkle at the base of the arrangement. Altar flowers contained curly willow branches, also painted black, with peonies, roses, tulips and orchids mixed with monstera, aspidistra and sand palm leaves.
The striking place cards were created by the couple with images shot by Christopher, an adept photographer, at sites around town that had meaning for the couple. To create an emblem, the couple asked printing company Lavish to place their names inside a circular pattern from the Emily collection by Abby Jean Press. The emblem was used on all printed materials, as well as on the cupcakes in the form of edible rice paper. Baker Gretchen Sieleni’s cake was distinguished by Swiss dots and bordered by black satin ribbons, Cymbidium orchids and lemon leaves. For tableware, Hamlin and Lautenschlager chose rhinestone-studded black chargers, black napkins and white chair covers with black satin sashes from Linen Effects. “Black and white can be kind of dead,” April points out. “You need sparkle or embellishment to deliver that sense of celebration.”
Get the Look:
Ceremony and reception: The Depot
Flowers: Fleurissima Design Studio
Emblem printers: Lavish Inc.
Cake and cupcakes: Gretchen Sieleni
Linens and tableware: Linen Effects
Photographer: Lace/Hanky Photography
