1. Real Weddings

A Rustic Vineyard Wedding at Chaumette Vineyards and Winery in Sainte Genevive, Missouri

Elizabeth Nolan, 51, a project manager and interior designer for NIS Construction Services, and Deborah Purvis, 54, a consultant and real estate devel

Elizabeth Nolan, 51, a project manager and interior designer for NIS Construction Services, and Deborah Purvis, 54, a consultant and real estate developer, met through a mutual friend. The couple used their favorite colors -- orange for Deborah and apple green for Elizabeth -- and burlap accents to create rustic, but chic, vineyard wedding.

Elizabeth and Deborah’s invitation suite was custom made on Etsy. “This invitation had the feel of comfort, easiness, and fun,” Elizabeth says. “It seemed both vintage and current and the subtle changes we made in color and layout made it our own.” They tied the group of invitations and cards with striped package string, and Elizabeth hand addressed the envelopes.
Elizabeth wore a round-cut diamond ring from JB Star in New York City. “It is platinum with a 1.7 karat round diamond,” Elizabeth says. It has 16 princess-cut diamonds and 20 tapered baguettes. I love what they call the headlights and taillights at the top and bottom of the ring.” Debi's ring was purchased through Diamonds International on a trip to St. Thomas. Her ring has princess cut and baguette cut diamonds in an invisible setting.
Since Deborah is a huge baseball fan, Elizabeth found hearts made out of old baseballs on Etsy, and had them wired to the bouquets. “Debi loved them,” Elizabeth says. “Right now the two hearts sit on her desk.”
“We both love Napa Valley and the beach,” Elizabeth says. “We had long been considering a destination wedding. Sitting on the front porch having a wonderful dinner at Chaumette, we were discussing such plans for a wedding with family, when they asked ‘why would you go to Napa when it looks like Napa in your own backyard?’ So a close-by destination wedding is what we ended up doing!”
“Debi surprised me by building the chuppah in the weeks leading up to the wedding,” Elizabeth says. The supporting poles were tree trunks from trees they had at their first house together. She added cascading sunflowers, ribbons and a burlap top.
The ring bearer wore khaki shorts and a white button-down shirt with a custom orange bow tie and suspenders from Etsy. Wanting something a little more vintage for the girls, the couple found someone on Etsy who made dresses from vintage handkerchiefs and lace.
At the end of the ceremony, Elizabeth and Deborah stomped on two glasses, a usual Jewish tradition. But, Elizabeth’s rolled and wouldn’t break. “Debi did it for me,” Elizabeth says. “She’s always got my back!”
The brown paper, DIY escort cards hung clothesline style on pieces of twine.
The brown paper, DIY escort cards hung clothesline style on pieces of twine.
Elizabeth made craft-paper letters for both her and Deborah’s initials, and made an ampersand out of wine corks to decorate the reception. It was completed with sunflowers in mason jars. “We wanted sunshine, so we used sunflowers,” Elizabeth says.
After it started poring rain, the couple had to move their ceremony inside. Fortunately, they loved the interior of the barn. “It was very warm and bright,” Elizabeth says.
“We just loved the interior of the barn,” Elizabeth says. “Very warm and bright. We wanted minimized decoration to enhance the warmth of the space.”
Since the wedding was at a vineyard, Elizabeth and Deborah used numbered wine bottles to show our guests where to sit.
Green, yellow and pink flowers were displayed in mason jars adorned with burlap for the centerpieces.
Instead of a traditional wedding cake, Elizabeth and Deborah served the three children’s favorite desserts. “We had iced shortbread cookies in our wedding colors for Ella, cupcakes for our son Zack and mini pies for our daughter Jacq,” Elizabeth says. “We put a photo of each of the children alongside their favorite dessert pick.”
Elizabeth and Deborah served each of their three children’s favorite desserts. Their daughter Ella chose iced shortbread cookies, which were done in green and orange to match the wedding colors and were topped with the couple’s initials.
“When we walked back into the party the band announced us and Debi turned to me and broke into song,” Elizabeth says. “I was a bit shocked, and loving it. Then, she turned to all our guests and 30 of them started singing along in groups! I can’t believe she did that for me! It was a process, I found out later, that involved many conference calls and rehearsals to coordinate.”
Elizabeth and Deborah left token Mazeltov bags of mints at each place setting.