This Belgian high-school sweetheart couple's garden wedding is so beautiful

Light and Airy Belgium Garden Wedding – Elisabeth Van Lent 54

Ooh, we live for a good love story paired with stunning wedding photos, don’t we?! These two high-school sweethearts from Belgium tied the knot after thirteen years and oh the romance is spilling through Elisabeth Van Lent‘s light & airy film photos.

In a delightful garden setting, Stefanie & Ayo put together an intimate day to celebrate their long-lived romance. White roses, green accents, long candles & blush details fill the scene befitting the bride’s standard: perfection. Not only was the couple’s stylist Stories by Mabel so intuitive with all of their design wishes, but she performed a ceremony so worthy of the high school sweethearts that guests thought she was a friend of the bride & groom.

Of our favorite details found in this stunning day is the bride’s own calligraphy splashed across signs, invitations, name cards and more. Working with her dream wedding planner she was able to take charge and create exactly what she wanted, and we couldn’t be more impressed!

Our Love Story

Ayo and I got to know each other in high school at the age of fourteen. Yes, we are highschool sweethearts! It certainly was love at first sight, but I haven’t made it easy on him. Thinking he would give up when I would play hard to get, he only got more interested in me. But Ayo wouldn’t be Ayo if he didn’t make the same move. So when he gave me the wrong phone, he was having fun when I sent him and MSN message saying my SMS didn’t come through.

Twelve years later, he wanted to ask me to marry him during our trip to the Dominican Republic, but the engagement ring wasn’t ready in time. So, he asked me on my birthday, at home, with just the two of us – with hundreds of candles, snacks, champagne and sugarfree pralines (I get migraines from sugar). It was just the two of us because he knows that I don’t like too much going on and too much attention.

The Photography

I met Elisabeth at a wedding fair in Belgium and knew that she would be my photographer right away. I don’t like the classic, cheesy Belgian photography of posing on the wedding car or hanging on a lamppost. I have an eye for details and so does Elisabeth, I saw that in her images. Her photos are just right: she uses natural light, they are beautiful yet spontaneous and they show how you lived the moment. Elisabeth has the natural gift for not being present while not missing anything, such that you can enjoy your time as a couple, which is so important! Before the wedding, we had an engagement shoot, with gorgeous photos as a result.

Light and Airy Belgium Garden Wedding – Elisabeth Van Lent 52

Light and Airy Belgium Garden Wedding – Elisabeth Van Lent 53

The Ceremony

We chose Stories by Mabel to lead our ceremony. On the day of our wedding, we were a couple for exactly thirteen years. Being together for that amount of time, we had so many stories who makes us ‘us’. A standard ceremony wouldn’t be enough, that was for sure. We wanted to make sure our story about who we are as a couple ànd as individuals was told in the right way, and nobody in the world is better at that than Lieke. From the moment I met her, I knew she would be perfect for us. Lieke dives completely into your story. After the ceremony, many asked us if Lieke was a friend since she was that into our story.

The Styling & Decor

Stories by Mabel was not only our celebrant but also our stylist. I’m a perfectionist, everything had to be perfect, but I didn’t want to do everything by myself. Lieke didn’t need any words to understand completely what I wanted.

I was looking for something unique for our save the date and invitations, but couldn’t really find what I was looking for. So I bought a calligraphy pen and worked my way through the invitations, vow booklets, name cards, welcome boards and so on. It was an incredible experience to put it all together with Lieke.

Looking back at it, we worked only with people with an enormous passion for their job, and you could feel that and see that through our entire day.

The Music

Ger Savelkoul took care of the live music, which he did wonderfully, especially because we gave him some Nigerian songs (from Ayo’s country of birth) and he played them on his piano like he had played them a hundred times before. The combination of his music and Lieke’s words made the ceremony by far the most beautiful moment of our wedding day.