On the opening night, the couple donned traditional Austrian tracht, brushed-wool jackets with ornamental buttons made of deer antler, which are often worn for formal events including weddings. They had them made at Vienna’s oldest traditional clothing store, Loden-Plankl, which has occupied its corner location since 1830. Ever focused on the music, Ian hired Minetti Quartett, an accomplished Austrian string quartet who have performed together for over 20 years, to play during the ceremony and cocktail hour.
Go for an intimate style of ceremony
The couple’s devotion to local tradition carried over to their ceremony, in which they sat side by side in chairs facing the officiant. “It made it very private between me and Ian, because we weren’t looking at our guests—as opposed to American weddings,” John says. “I didn’t really see our guests the whole ceremony, which made it private and emotional and personal.”
What might have been a touch more American was the outsized emotional reaction displayed throughout. “Ian just completely fell apart when he walked into the room. I saw him sobbing, so I started crying, and then our guests were crying, and we basically spent the entire hour almost convulsing from how much we were sobbing,” John laughs.
Celebrate yourselves, too, with a taste of home
Thorough as the couple’s Viennese vision was, they still found ways to celebrate their own style. While the welcome dinner, ceremony, and cocktail hour had all featured classical music, it became a party once they transitioned to John’s favorite genre, which he says “skews more toward hyper pop, with Charli XCX, Slayyyter, Cobrah, and that kind of stuff,” thanks to DJ Robert Klimo. The signature cocktail for their party also came straight from the heart. “Margaritas were the drink of the night, because we basically exclusively drink margaritas,” John says.
Something they were unable to borrow from home was American-style air conditioning. “We had visited the museum when it was much cooler, and it got pretty hot, considering there were dozens of people dancing around,” John says. “But you felt like you were at a club with your friends. Everyone was super sweaty and singing along, and it was so fun.”
Create an unforgettable keepsake (or two)
In case the photos of their favorite people dancing against the backdrop of priceless art weren’t enough to seal the memories, the couple also planned very special favors for the guests and for themselves. Their loved ones each took home a small bowl produced at the 500-year-old ceramics foundry Gmundner Keramik, which is known for its white pottery with slim green bands. “You can only get it here, and it’s culturally important to Austria,” Ian says. “We wanted everyone to be able to take a piece of that home.”
As for the couple’s own memento, they got an idea while touring venues with their planner. The Hotel Sacher has a decades-old tradition of having famous guests sign their tablecloths, then embroidering over their signatures and displaying the cloth along its corridors. The couple decided to have their guests sign a tablecloth as a kind of guestbook, and then sent the fabric off to an Austrian artisan to have the signatures set in thread. When it’s done, they are planning to display it in John’s parents’ home. “We’ll have that as a wedding keepsake,” says John. That, and the memories of ugly-crying and wiener schnitzel, of course.
