This Merrimon-Wynne House Wedding in North Carolina Had Nods to the Couple's Multicultural Roots

At first, Diana and Steve were focused on throwing an elegant Southern wedding befitting their venue, an 1876 mansion. “But as we continued to plan, things became more personal,” Diana says. They pair ended up celebrating the union of their two cultures— Diana is Native American and Southern, Steve’s an Italian New Yorker—and honoring loved ones who had passed away. The ceremony included a tribute to Steve’s late father, while bridesmaids carried flowers in Diana’s late grandmother’s baskets. Diana and Steve incorporated an American-Indian vase ceremony, in which each drinks from opposite ends of a double-spouted vase separately and then together. Diana lined the envelopes with an image of the venue and created wax seals in the shape of rosemary as a nod to Steve’s Italian heritage. Decor was intentional, too. The couple displayed Steve’s late father’s guitar on a mantel alongside a picture of him playing it. “This was the last guitar he owned, and I remember him playing it when I was a child,” Steve says. “It was a perfect symbol of his presence.” The seating chart, calligraphed on glass, hung in front of a blanket intricately hand-sewn by Diana’s late grandmother. “It won first prize at the North Carolina State Fair,” Diana says. A neon sign brought a touch of Brooklyn, where Diana and Steve live, to North Carolina. Diana's colorful mix of dahlias, delphiniums, garden roses, ranunculus, thistle, lisianthus was replicated alongside lanterns and taper candles to mark the couple’s seats. Guests waved sparklers as the newlyweds made their way to a red rickshaw, which pedaled them to the after-party.