Harry Potter Wedding | Carriage House Stable | 100 guests
Welcome to the wizarding world of Harry Potter! We loved working with Ashley + Spencer to piece together all the magical wizarding antics – like golden snitches, chocolate frogs, wands, magic potions and the couple’s nuptials on the front page of the Daily Prophet – for their dream wedding. We solemnly swear, this celebration is unlike any other you have seen here before. As always, A + S gave us an inside look into their inspiration, vision, and overall personal style for their unforgettable event captured by Rad Red Creative.
Contact us for more information regarding our Carriage House Stable weddings. Call us at 813.651.0934 or email us at info@crosscreekranchfl.com.
Tell us a little bit more about the deciding factors that led you to book your day with us?
What ultimately drew us to Cross Creek Ranch was how beautiful the venue is and that it is all inclusive! When we started looking at venues, we had just recently moved to California from Florida and we knew right off the bat that it would be very difficult to plan a wedding from across the entire country! The fact that Cross Creek Ranch basically had everything planned and laid out for us gave us the ability to focus solely on our design and theme, which was amazing. We had discussed that our theme was going to be Harry Potter and knew that we either wanted something that had the feeling of a castle or something that was more on the rustic side, because honestly when you break down the aesthetic of Harry Potter it has somewhat of a rustic feeling because of all of the exposed wood and antique items. We also couldn’t pass up on getting married in a location called the Enchanted Forest, which was just so magical!
What was your inspiration for your wedding style?
We drew our inspiration from both the style of the Harry Potter books and movies, but also by looking into how others had accomplished and incorporated Harry Potter into the theme of their wedding. After talking over how we felt we could capture the magic of Harry Potter, we sat down and talked over how we could kind of rework the Great Hall in Hogwarts into a wedding venue.
What was your inspiration for the colors you picked out?
Because we were creating a Harry Potter theme we wanted everyone to have the feeling of being within Hogwarts and enjoying your time among other witches and wizards in the Great Hall. At first we were thinking of pulling our colors straight from the houses themselves (red, green, yellow and blue) but soon realized the color scheme was too much. Ultimately after re-watching the movies and much discussion we went with chardonnay and grey/silver because we felt that those colors mixed with any gold accents and Harry Potter items, it just felt right. Sometimes when picking things out for the wedding, whether it was accents or even bigger items, we kind of both just knew what felt right and what would look the best within the theme.
How did you feel about your design meeting?
The design meeting was phenomenal! It was so nice to be able to gather our thoughts and ideas prior to the meeting and then show it our designer. Watching them take what we brought and bring it to life was incredible! It took so much pressure off of us and allowed us to enjoy the process of picking out the design aspects. It took a lot of frustration out of the process because we were able to know ahead of time what the venue offered and how we could tie it into what we were looking for with the design. We loved that we were given this quality time to meet with our designer and go over EVERYTHING! We spent time going over which flowers would look good on the tables mixed with the colors of the chargers, and we loved getting to design our sweetheart table just the way we wanted it.
What were some of your must-haves for your wedding day?
Some of our must-haves for the wedding day were our favors because they helped so much to tie in the theme, but also who couldn’t say no to a chocolate frog! Our favors included the chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott’s every flavored jelly beans and Ferrero Rocher with gold wings making them look like Golden Snitches. Our other must-haves were all of the small touches of Harry Potter throughout the event, such as props from the movies. We also had to have exposed wood and the greenery everywhere, such as our eucalyptus table runners and greenery chandeliers. One of the biggest must-haves was our custom wands we had made and allowed guests to use in the photo booth!
How did you make the day feel personal to you?
Honestly, we are such big Harry Potter fans; it was something that we both connected over early on in our relationship. We used to have annual passes to Universal Studios and would go to just get Butterbeer. We even went to the grand opening of Diagon Alley at 4 in the morning just so we could be some of the first few in the newest area. By making the theme based off of something that we both truly enjoy and have loved throughout our relationship is what made the day feel personal to us. We designed our wedding to encompass our love and geekiness and that is what made it special and truly our big day. We also made sure to put touches of ourselves throughout the venue, such as our Hogwarts houses, our custom wands, and even the little star confetti was created from pages of our two favorite Harry Potter books.
What was your inspiration behind your wedding attire? What about your wedding party attire?
For the groom and the groomsmen, we wanted to have a nice sleek style that would help to complement the bridesmaid dresses. This lead us to getting the slim fit suits from Men’s Wearhouse which looked phenomenal next to the bridesmaids.
For the Bridesmaids, I knew I wanted cabernet as the color, but for the style of the dresses I wanted to allow my girls to pick a dress that helped complement them as well as made them feel comfortable. I went to Azazie and picked out about 20 dresses that I thought looked elegant, and had my bridesmaids choose from that selection. For my maid of honor, because she was wearing the exact same color as the bridesmaids, I wanted to let her pick out a dress that helped her stand out a little bit more. So we went to Azazie and looked over the dresses and had her pick out a dress that had lace on it which helped her stand out a little next to the other girls.
For my wedding dress I wanted to feel magical and also princess-like, and that’s what led me to my large puffy skirt that almost gave Yule Ball vibes. I got my dress from a boutique in West Palm Beach called Bacio Bacio.
Where did you go to customize your wedding stationery?
For the programs, I personally made them in Adobe Illustrator to look like the Daily Prophet. Our Save the Dates were from Minted, and our Wedding Invitations were from Paper Truly.
What was your favorite moment of the day?
For the two of us, we have two moments of the day that were our favorite. Our first moment was after we got married and after the family and portrait pictures, we got to go back to the Cottage and just sit for five minutes taking it all in. Not to mention we got to stuff our faces with some REALLY good appetizers. That moment was so blissful, we got to just talk and giggle over our vows and truly realize we were husband and wife. Our other favorite moment was hanging out around the bonfire with our friends and family and making s’mores.
What helped inspire you as you were planning your Harry Potter Wedding?
We did a lot of research into how others had handled Harry Potter themed weddings and took inspiration from them. We also re-watched the movies and went to Harry Potter world to help us draw ideas of how to handle certain decoration choices.
Anything else you would like to mention about your wedding day?
We both absolutely adored the setting of the enchanted forest; it was so beautiful it felt unreal at times. We’re both big nature lovers so it was a perfect fit to be married outside in nature.
Harry Potter Wedding at Cross Creek Ranch. Florida Wedding Venue. All-Inclusive Wedding Package at the Carriage House Stable. Planning, Decor, Floral, Coordination & Venue by Cross Creek Ranch. Image by Rad Red Creative. Bouquet, Boutonniere by Alta Fleura. Entertainment & DJ Services by Grant Hemond & Associates. Hair and Makeup by Femme Akoi. Cake and Desserts by Alessi Bakeries.