Sam & Adam’s
Destination Wedding in the Mountains
St. Moritz, Switzerland
When we think about our very favorite weddings, Sam and Adam’s romantic wedding in the mountains is one we could never leave out. Between the breathtaking backdrop of the Swiss Alps and the cozy, romantic feel of their ceremony, Sam and Adam’s wedding was as intimate as it was grand.
The Couple
Samantha and Adam own Gardenias Floral, Metuchen’s stylish flower shop at the corner of Amboy and Main. Adam’s mother is from Switzerland, and Sam and Adam have visited Switzerland together several times — in fact, Adam proposed to Sam on one of the hiking trails that spiral through the mountains surrounding St. Moritz. So, naturally, they decided to have a destination wedding in Switzerland.
The Day
Where do we begin? Besides the fact that the setting was gorgeous, Samantha looked stunning and guests came from near and far to celebrate- even the weather cooperated with crystal blue skies and fluffy, gusting clouds. And they had the two cutest flower girls EVER! We just can’t stop smiling when we look at these pictures.
One of the most charming aspects of this wedding is something you can’t see in the pictures: the music. Sam told us that the Swiss pastor who officiated at their wedding was incredibly helpful, and made special efforts to choose English songs for guests to sing during the service, so everyone would feel at home.
However, Sam told us, there was a little glitch with the music that ended up being one of her favorite memories of the day:
“The pastor was wonderful. Even though he had only met us shortly before, he really tried to get to know us and personalize the service. However, working with the pastor also resulted in the kind of miscommunication that is probably inevitable when you are planning your wedding halfway around the world with people who speak a different language.
The pastor organized all the musicians at our ceremony. We wanted alphorn players to play as our guests arrived at the church, and I wanted the organist to play “The Sound of Music” as I was walking down the aisle. The pastor asked me if we wanted the bells to ring before the ceremony, or afterwards, and I told him afterwards.
Somehow our signals crossed, though, and in the end everything happened at once at the end of our ceremony! The bells were ringing, the organist was playing “The Sound of Music,” and the alphorns were blowing. It was VERY LOUD. But very happy. It was a beautiful wedding.”
The Details
For the wedding decor, Sam wanted to capture the lush, green feeling of the Swiss Alps. Light, natural colors and lots of greenery perfectly accented their beautiful surroundings. Little succulents and pops of bright green added a little whimsy and fun. As Sam explained to us,
“I wanted a rustic mountain look, so we used a lot of birch, tree branches, and succulents, in addition to many white flowers, because I love white. We used white roses,
lilies, hydrangeas, agapanthus, orchids, lots of moss branches, and of course, edelweiss. I couldn’t buy any wholesale gardenias, which is my favorite flower and the name of my flower shop, so I bought a gardenia plant from a greenhouse and cut flowers off the plant to make Adam’s boutonniere.”
The Day After
Since Samantha and Adam had travelled so far to such a special place for their wedding, they wanted to make the most of the photography. They decided to have a Trash the Dress session on a hike to an Alpine dairy farm the day after their wedding.
So, the day after the wedding, Kyo met them at the train station — Sam dressed in her wedding gown, Adam in his wedding day suit — and they took a local train to a tiny station near the start of a picturesque hiking trail. And from there, they hiked!
Sam and Adam love animals, and their main goal was to reach the meadows where big herds of Swiss dairy cows were peacefully munching grass. With no trouble at all, they wandered off the path and hung out with the cows, who seemed perfectly content to have their pictures taken with the happy couple.
Being an intrepid kind of person, Sam decided that if this was a “trash the dress” session, she knew the perfect way to trash her dress: by stomping through a pile of cow dung. Kyo took the shot, and it’s still one of his favorite wedding photos ever.
