A Whimsical Garden Wedding at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio

Nicole Savoy (37 and a fashion photographer) and Derek Schultz (30 and an IT specialist) met through an online gaming community and bonded through video games. They were friends before going through a rough year, finding solace in each other and falling in love. Derek proposed with a 5-karat Swiss blue topaz and diamond-studded white gold band, quoting a romantic line from "Pride and Prejudice" (“I had always referred to him as my Mr. Darcy,” Nicole says) under the stars next to a bay in Texas, where Nicole enjoyed countless fishing trips with her dad and uncle. “It was perfect,” Nicole says. When they started talking about their wedding (it was Nicole’s second wedding and Derek’s first—and the courthouse was out of the question), Derek challenged Nicole with the question: “If you could have any wedding you wanted, what would it be?” He had two requests—that it be hosted at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio, and that the attire be formal. The challenge kept Nicole up at night, who finally decided she wanted a fantasy wedding built around her favorite childhood book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," with romantic influences from "Pride and Prejudice." The couple knew it would be tough to pull this off on their own, so they brought in the professionals, who were happy to work with such a creative theme. Nicole and Derek’s vision came to life, from the garden-inspired pastels to the whimsical hanging floral parasols to the black-and-white-checkered dance floor to the decadent dessert display and mazelike boxwood hedges, taking guests down the rabbit hole in the most amazing way possible. —Chrissy Sorenson