Beaver Stadium Wedding

I love me a wedding at an unconventional venue. So when this Beaver Stadium wedding shot by The Melideos fell on my lap, I couldn’t share it soon enough. Of course a stadium wedding wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for a ridiculously fashionable couple. Kristin’s wedding gown was a black and white Oscar de La Renta, paired with a pair of fuchsia booties by Christian Louboutin. She followed this up with her mother’s altered wedding dress which she used as a party dress. See the full monty here.

When we chose Beaver Stadium’s Mt. Nittany Club at Penn State as the venue for our reception, I didn’t want to compete with it’s industrial feel. Were were at the 4th largest football stadium in the world, afterall, so there is NO covering that up. I needed designs to to enhance the space, so I came up with a vintage theme that would capture nostalgia and be soft and romantic, with a funky twist to incorporate an element of our personalities. The bar was served from the stadium’s concession stand, so I enhanced that by creating a Farmer’s Market with vintage fruit crates, vintage mason jars, veggies and floral. If you know us, no one expected tradition. Fashion and style is what guests were expecting. My favorite aspect, which shined through more than I originally thought it would, was the sentimentality in reception which really made the room warm with love. For instance- Jon’s mom had given me a colorful butterfly pin that Jon had given her when he was seven years old. I held on to it for years and surprised them both by having my florist pin it in my bouquet. Everytime I looked at it it drew present in my mind the love I have for his family and the beauty of Jon’s love for his mom.

My mom had a boyfriend in high school that had collected apothecary medicine bottles from excavation digs he found for her. She of course saved them and we used them in little vignettes throughout the room. Our dear friend from Japan gave us a traditional Japanese wedding gift from his parents when they visited us (two small cups to share a drink from to symbolize the bond between a husband a wife)that we sat on our sweetheart table. The beauty was that no one but Jon and I knew about these meaningful additions, so it was as if we were sharing little secrets throughout the night.




My key words to get inspired were vintage, antique, fashion-forward and non-traditional. I eventually upped the ante with “rustic chic”. I have a lucky pair of yellow ballet flats that I was wearing when Jon and I decided on our venue. The moment that happened I knew I had to have yellow in our wedding. Besides, how can yellow not make you smile from ear to ear? I knew even a formal color scheme was too traditional for me, so in keeping with my vintage theme, I antiqued the yellow and ended up w/ mustard yellow as the common color throughout the look. This was also true for my flowers. I love the ethereal look of wildflowers, I wanted something carefree and whimsical- I think I have an inner hippie dying to come out.


It was DIY projects galore! I collected, bargained and hoarded all things vintage. More was more. Each guest received a hand-selected vintage plate to take home as a memory of our day. My mom and I turned over every antique store in the area to find those plates! 120 mason jars, 125 vintage postcards (most with actual notes on the back, stamped and sent!) 33 Prohibition Era wine bottles, 8 vintage fruit crates, shutters, antique mailboxes… I collected ’em! It was a labor of love, that’s for sure, but it paid off.

As a student at Penn State I would walk by the All-Faith Chapel on campus and think to myself, “I am going to get married there one day”. Well who knew, seven years later, it would all come true with the boy (Jon!) I pined away for all.four.years. of college! So fast-forward to 2011…being that we are an inter-faith couple, we wanted a ceremony location that was nondenominational. We didn’t religion so much as we wanted tradition. It all just fit. As for the football stadium reception, I had searched high and low between New York and Philadelphia for a reception location that was original and significant to both of us. The last thing we wanted was a venue that hosted multiple weddings on any given day, insert bride and groom here. In the beginning, as a HUGE sports fan and Penn State grad, Jon had asked me as a joke “how about Beaver Stadium??” knowing my immediate response would be “not with THIS bride”! But after months of venue searching to no avail, I decided to throw him a bone and find out if Beaver Stadium does weddings. To our surprise they do about 4-5 weddings a year (perfect for my non-insert bride/groom here criteria) and to our (read: MY) even bigger surprise the venue was UH-mayzing. Views for days of Mt. Nittany on one side and access to the stadium on the other. Almost like a wedding mullet- business in the front, party in the back. And who am I told hold my man back from his dreams of getting married in Beaver Stadium?? So I said let’s do it!…and at that very moment I think I won fiancee of the year.

Sweet Little Photographs fell on my lap, I couldn’t share it soon enough. Of course a stadium wedding wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for a ridiculously fashionable couple. Kristin’s wedding gown was a black and white Oscar de La Renta, paired with a pair of fuchsia booties by Christian Louboutin. She followed this up with her mother’s altered wedding dress which she used as a party dress.

Wedding Songs:

The processional music is the ONE thing I went traditional on. Seasons played Canon in D. Spiced it up for the recessional and all danced back down the aisle to Jennifer Hudson’s “All Dressed Up in Love” blasting from my iPod. First dance was “Little Moments” by Brad Paisley.

Wedding Venue and Vendors (University Park, PA + New York, NY):

Ceremony: Eisenhower All Faith Chapel / Reception: Beaver Stadium / Florist: Daniel Vaughn / Photographer: The Melideos / Wedding Dress: Oscar de la Renta from Spring 2010 / Wedding Shoes: fuschia suede Christian Louboutin booties / Reception dress: bride’s mom’s altered wedding dress bloused out over a vintage black beaded belt / Veil: black birdcage veil / Hair and Makeup: Billie Jo at J. Stephens Salon / Bridesmaid Dresses: Quail Bridal / Groom’s suit: Brooks Brothers / Musicians: Seasons by Mary Kate Spring Lee / Caterer: The Penn State Hospitality Services / Wedding Cake: Chevron print fondant cake, The Penn State Hospitality Services / Wedding invitations: handmade/ Transportation: Penn State blue and white school buses