Small Intimate Wedding in Finger Lakes NY | Kate and Brian
Last fall, Kate and Brian planned a small, intimate wedding in the Finger Lakes, NY, and the elegant minimalism that they pulled off was simply a chef’s kiss.
Their indoor/outdoor wedding focused on the beauty of simplicity, which organically spotlighted the real priority of their celebration: their marriage. Set against the naturally stunning backdrop of Upstate NY, their small, intimate wedding was the perfect hybrid of timelessness and tastefulness, and I’m so overjoyed that I was able to play such a special role in their beautiful union!
Some background on Kate and Brian – they have known each other since middle school, and are actually high school sweethearts!
They dated long distance throughout college, and in total, have been together 12 years! When envisioning their wedding, they pictured an aesthetically pleasing, high-impact micro wedding near Brian’s alma mater, Cornell University (a location that holds so many memories for both of them!), and they landed on a small, intimate wedding in the Finger Lakes, NY.
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If there were a “theme” for Kate and Brian’s day, I feel like it could be best summed up by elegant minimalism.
It was a classic wedding, evoking all the feels of sophistication and romance, and when planning for a minimalist style, that generally is the emphasis – clarity, simplicity, and intentionality. Brides explains it as a wedding theme that “prioritizes a no-frills look with neutral hues and clean lines—often with a hint of greenery.” I know that was definitely Kate’s vision, who was so meticulous with every detail of her day, and she 1,000% nailed the less-is-more concept.
From her venue, to wedding attire, to jewelry, to stationery suite design, everything about Kate’s wedding choices were elegant and classic. She focused on minimalist details, a polished aesthetic, and fine accents that spoke to her personal style, which is honestly the goal when curating a timeless wedding aesthetic. A consistent and cohesive style was her MO, and she was able to achieve that ten times over in her bridal attire alone.
Kate was radiant at her wedding – a true beauty and, hands down, the real belle of the ball.
Between her a-line ball gown, cathedral-length veil, refined-luxe makeup, and modern slick-back bun, she was the picture of a minimalist bride, and her entire style was sleek, sophisticated, and elegant. When trying to design a fashion-forward wedding, Brides explains how, “It's less about your specific outfit and more about how your entire look comes together.” Kated slayed this concept.
She included traditional elements like her a-line gown (which she sourced from the incredible body positive bridal store, Brides by Young) and embraced a clean, modern appearance. Her gown included off-the-shoulder sleeves, a ruched bodice, gentle draping, and buttoned back detailing that extended into her train, and the graceful sway of her skirt gave her a formal, regal look. Complete with a matte finish and subtle sheen, her dress was classic and romantic, and the intentional absence of embellishments like lace or beading (which is common when searching for classically beautiful wedding dresses, not to mention swoonworthy!) emphasized her very theme of elegant minimalism.
Yet, for all her elegance, Kate also achieved a very modern, “chic” look with her hair and makeup.
She rocked the cool girl middle part with a classic chignon and accessorized with a pearl cluster hairpin. The low slick-back bun was twisted with precision, giving an iconic, vintage-inspired touch, and when paired with her luxe lash, defined brow, and glowing skin, everything about her appearance was soft, natural, and refined.
Kate included another traditional element – a cathedral-length, sheer tulle veil – which resulted in not just a formal, but an ethereal effect. The veil extended beyond the train of her gown and it was decorated with delicate, scattered pearls. These complemented her other use of pearls, including her vintage hairpin and her Dolce Vita pointed-mules – which were a classic ivory, slip-on pair of shoes with a decorative strap, oversized pearls, and crystal-like beads – all of which epitomized a sleek, luxurious, timeless aesthetic.
Completing this look was her gorgeous, oval-cut diamond engagement ring – set in a delicate, white gold pavé band with smaller, surrounding, engraved diamonds – and a gifted bracelet from Brian as a beautiful wedding keepsake.
Wedding gifts, sometimes shared during a first look or private vow exchange, tend to be a special way of commemorating a wedding day and/or honoring your bride- or groom-to-be. I love the unique way that Brian did this for Kate. His classic tennis-style bracelet was set in yellow gold, and it sparkled on her wrist with its symmetrical, round-cut gemstones and its timeless glamour.
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Keep scrolling to see more images from Kate and Brian’s special day. ↓
In the spirit of a small, intimate wedding, Kate and Brian opted for a micro wedding with only 25 guests.
As is common with micro weddings, they ditched the large bridal party and just had their three closest friends stand next to them. They also opted to be married by a family member, Kate’s aunt. So many of their wedding decisions were made in the name of intimacy and intentionality – including their wish to do family photos at their ceremony location so they could squeeze all of their guests into one, tight-knit photo! I loved these concepts, and highly recommend any brides considering a micro wedding to check out this comprehensive guide, which includes helpful tidbits, watchouts, and do’s and don’t’s for planning a small, intimate wedding celebration!
To that end, one of the beauties of a micro wedding is being able to splurge on wedding details that really matter to you!
One such area for Kate and Brian was a string quartet. They hired Lykander Music for both their ceremony and reception music, and the result was a timeless wedding soundtrack that fostered a close, intimate atmosphere. When spotlighting their top string quartet songs, Brides explains how string quartets are especially lovely for “small, quiet gatherings like a woodland wedding or ethereal garden ceremony,” and that fit the bill perfectly for Kate and Brian’s day.
See Kate and Brian’s full team of New York wedding vendors below:
Venue: Inn at Taughannock Falls
Florals: Arnold’s Flower Shop
Wedding Gown: Brides by Young
Hair: Morgan Oreeda
Makeup: PASTEL Makeup and Style
Specialty Signage: Rose Signage Co and Signed with Love
String Quartet: Lykander Music
Kate and Brian chose an outdoor ceremony at the Inn at Taughannock Falls in the Finger Lakes, NY, and the scenery of their wedding day was a juxtaposition of natural beauty and striking fall foliage.
No matter the occasion, Upstate NY has a way of dialing up beauty with its rolling hills, glittering finger lakes, canopies of trees, and rugged bluffs – but for Kate and Brian’s wedding in particular, where the aesthetic was understated simplicity and quiet elegance, an outdoor wedding achieved the perfect nod to subtle, simple, yet highly impactful beauty. From the Victorian Inn in the foreground, engulfed in fierce color and buttery yellows of the nearby Ginko tree’s changing leaves, and the placid waters of Cayuga Lake in the background, the scene of their wedding ceremony was one of tranquility, beauty, and serenity.
This was a natural byproduct of their waterfall wedding photos, too, which we took after their ceremony at Taughannock Falls’ overview.
Following their family portraits, Kate, Brian, their wedding party, and I made the five-minute drive from their ceremony site to Taughannock Falls’ overview, where we scored the most majestic vista of the plunging 215 foot waterfall. These falls are well known in Upstate NY, among the many other stunning waterfalls in New York State, and are commonly visited alongside other tourist destinations like Niagara Falls, Letchworth State Park, and Watkins Glen State Park.
However, Taughannock Falls is especially unique in the fall with its cathedral-like grandeur and its 400 ft. gorge that was aflame with fierce, fall foliage color.
Blazing with a mosaic of saffron and amber, Taughannock Falls was a striking location for their waterfall wedding photos. The birds sang sweetly overhead and the waterfall towered beyond us, painting the most peaceful, enchanting backdrop that glowed with autumnal hues.
For any bride-to-be’s looking for similar natural beauty on their wedding day, check out these 7 Fairytale-Worthy Finger Lakes Wedding Venues, or similarly, these Western New York Wedding Venues because you honestly can’t go wrong with a Finger Lakes wedding. Beyond the natural beauty of its surrounding landscape, including the rural farmlands, open skies, and dense woodlands, there are so many practical reasons that make Upstate NY a great choice for a destination wedding, or even for popping the question!
Consider just these five advantages of hosting a wedding in the Finger Lakes, NY, including the fun activities you can enjoy leading up to your wedding day:
Spa treatments: Spas are smattered throughout much of the Finger Lakes region – including Inns of Aurora Spa (Cayuga Lake), The Lakehouse on Canandaigua’s Willowbrook Spa (Canandaigua Lake), Mirbeau Inn & Spa (Skaneateles Lake), and Belhurst Castle’s Isabella Spa & Salon (Seneca Lake) – and make for great relaxation prior to your wedding day!
Wine and Craft Beverage Trails: Known as the largest wine-producing region on the East Coast, the Finger Lakes area is home to an abundance of wineries, tasting rooms, breweries, distilleries, and cider houses! As a starting point, consider Seneca Lake Wine Trail, Cayuga Lake Wine Trail, and Keuka Lake Wine Trail for a lakefront dinner, wine tasting, or a special sunset.
Water activities: I have had sooo many of my couples take advantage of boat tours for their wedding welcome party, and I especially loved how Sydney and Brady booked Ithaca Boat Tours for a bridal party outing the night before their wedding! Boat tours aside, you can also enjoy kayaking, paddle boarding, and swimming on any of the Finger Lakes.
Outdoors activities: Beyond water activities, there are a plethora of hiking and biking trails in the Finger Lakes region, all of which teem with the natural beauty of Upstate NY.
Restaurants: There are plenty of delicious restaurants, ranging from fine dining, to Mom and Pop, to take out and delivery, to lakefront, to farm-to-table, to local specialties – including dining at Kate and Brian’s very own venue, Inn at Taughannock Falls.
Dog-friendly: Last, but not least, the Finger Lakes region is extremely pet-friendly! Whether in a wide open space or a restaurant, winery, brewery, or hotel, many places within Upstate NY welcome furry, four-legged members, too. 🥰
This last point made a huge impact for Kate and Brian, as wedding portraits with their miniature goldendoodle, Olive, were extremely important to them.
They brought Olive to Taughannock Falls with the rest of their bridal party for their waterfall wedding portraits, and we were sure to include her in their wedding photos there. NGL – these photos are def a favorite of mine because she is the most precious girl ever! 🥹
This theme – including and honoring their loved ones throughout their wedding – was a huge priority for Kate and Brian, and while photos with Olive were a must, so were candids throughout the day, including their reception. Kate and Brian planned for an intimate first dance under the moonlight, soundtracked by the string quartet, and enveloped beneath a canopy of fierce fall foliage. Following this, they and all their guests moved indoors to the Inn at Taughannock Falls’ Jones Room.
Accommodating up to 30 guests, the Jones Room is a vintage-modern fusion of Victorian Gothic romanticism.
It features elements like black-and-white damask wallpaper, glossy black trim, portrait art in gilded frames, and velvet drapes that pool at the floor. It also has elegant architectural details like ornate fireplace mantels, carved moldings, and arched doorways. The entire room gives off old-world sophistication and has a style that balances opulence with intimacy. When paired with the soft, ambient lighting from the tapered candles and antique-style lamps, the ambiance of Kate and Brian’s reception whispered timeless intimacy, like they were dining in a historic manor.
Leaning into 19th-century, English interior vibes, the Jones room was a great vintage touch to their otherwise elegant minimalist day.
It added an ornamental, stately feel to their small, intimate wedding – in a way, doubling the room as a boutique château – and the gilded mirrors, brass sconces, and vintage accents gave a sense of privacy, coziness, and visual richness to their wedding aesthetic.
There, Kate, Brian, and their guests were able to dine family-style (which is another great trend when hosting a small, intimate wedding!) and they leaned into this ambiance of ‘storybook mansion meets candlelit dinner party’ vibes. They leveraged tall taper candles, floating candles, and greenery accents, and the result was a magical, candlelit reception. Amid the soft, flickering glow of candlelight, they and their guests shared toasts, recalled memories, and laughed until they cried as they all celebrated Kate and Brian’s marriage.
It was such a heartfelt celebration – one that I was overjoyed to be a part of – and the use of candles only served to enhance the warmth of the space.
For any brides looking to recreate a similar cozy wedding aesthetic through candlelight, consider this article on reception centerpieces or this blog on general wedding decor inspiration. It is such a dreamy approach, and one that many of my past couples have taken, too – peep Anna and Matt’s Elegant Taughannock Falls Microwedding and Lindsey and TJ’s Modern Wedding Under String Lights!
Being that Kate and Brian were crafting a small, intimate wedding, personalization was top of mind for them. One way that they achieved this was through their wedding favors. They gifted each guest with sparkling apple cider – that which was actually handcrafted by Brian’s family’s winery! They also leaned into beautiful custom specialty signage, which was a great way of weaving their wedding theme into their printed materials.
It’s not uncommon for couples to consider a neon electric sign, mirror sign, or any other number of calligraphy-forward signs for their wedding day, but Kate and Brian did so in an especially tasteful way.
They leveraged their elegant minimalist aesthetic, creating signage with modern lettering, clean lines, neutral colors, and geometric shapes, and they cascaded this sleek design across their wedding welcome sign, signature cocktail sign, and table signage. For more gorgeous wedding sign inspiration, check out more ideas at Minted, Etsy, and Zazzle!
From start to finish, Kate and Brian’s small, intimate wedding in the Finger Lakes, NY, was lovely in the absolute purest sense, and I will forever be thankful that I was able to create a visual narrative of their love story.
Some of Kate’s earliest words to me were: “I feel as if your pictures tell a story from the beginning to end.” From that point, I knew that their wedding day, let alone my approach to storytelling, would be heightened in every way. I honestly don’t think I’ll recover from the art that was their wedding – the art that is their photo gallery – for a long, long time. 🥹
What Kate put words to – my heart to tell stories through my photography – is honestly what I aspire to deliver to every couple. Where I create not just photos, but visual narratives that drip with beautiful meaning and heartfelt expression. I’m so thankful for this “job” – the gift of celebrating marriage and creating beautiful, meaningful art – and that I have the opportunity to do so with couples as wonderful as Kate and Brian.
Cheers to the Tomasello’s! 🥂