A Love Story in Full Bloom: Wedding at Omni Severin

Some couples make you smile from the very first meeting. Sally and Zack are that couple. They met at Princeton, where Zack played football and Sally found her place on the stage as a thespian. She’s a Princeton legacy and a triplet (two girls and a boy, if you’re keeping track), and she is every bit as brilliant as that sounds. Zack is a six-foot-five offensive lineman who’s now in law school at Indiana, on his way to becoming a constitutional lawyer. So yes, they’re wonderfully geeky, deeply sentimental, and two of the smartest people we’ve had the joy of working with.

Their wedding at Omni Severin was a love letter to everything that makes them them. Books, board games, spring flowers, and a whole lot of heart. Let us walk you through the day.

A little about us. We’re Mon Amie Events, an Indianapolis wedding and event planning and design team led by Monica Richard. We take on a small number of weddings each year so we can pour everything into each one. If you’re dreaming up your own wedding at Omni Severin, or anywhere in Indianapolis, we’d love to hear your story. Get in touch with our team.

Navy letterpress wedding invitation with a blue toile envelope liner, an "05 16 26" date card, perfume, and jewelry styled with spring roses

A Welcome Box Built for Two Bookworms

The celebration started before anyone reached the church. Sally and Zack are readers and gamers at heart, so their welcome boxes looked nothing like the usual snack bag.

One of Sally’s friends designs crossword puzzles for the New York Times, so we surprised her with a custom crossword tucked inside the welcome note (with a QR code, so guests could solve it on their phones). It was hard. You really had to know Sally and Zack to crack some of those clues.

Inside each box, guests also found a sheet of stickers, a deck of cards, and pencils in soft pastel shades that matched the wedding colors. We added tiny travel games too, the kind you can toss in a suitcase, like a forbidden-words game and a true-or-false history timeline. Because the peony is Indiana’s state flower, everyone went home with a peony candle (and it smelled incredible). There was one little bag of their favorite candy, and that was the only food in the box. So very them.

Our favorite touch might have been the book-shaped lens cleaners. Fifteen different book covers, so no two guests got the same one. Open it up and the inside looks like real printed pages. For a couple this bookish, it was just right.

welcome boxes for wedding at omni severin hotel

A Morning of Board Games

On the wedding morning, the whole wedding party gathered at Trinity Church and simply hung out. While photos happened around them, everyone played board games, dice games, and cards. It was relaxed and happy and completely on brand for these two. (A calm morning has a way of setting the tone for the entire day, and this was proof.)

Saying I Do at Trinity Church

Trinity Episcopal Church is one of the prettiest spots in our city. It looks like an English country garden church, all stone and arches, and it felt made for Sally and Zack. The church is on the smaller side, so with Zack’s teammates and friends filling the pews, it was packed wall to wall (those football guys take up a little room).

We lined the aisle with greenery, white hydrangea, and trailing white ribbon, and set tall candles along the way. At the altar, lush pink and peach arrangements from Pomp & Bloom glowed against the painted gold backdrop.

Now, the bouquet. Sally carried Lily of the Valley, which is delicate and only around for a short stretch each spring. We made a second bouquet as a backup, just in case it didn’t hold up. Then the sweetest thing happened. Sally’s grandmother, also named Sally, had carried Lily of the Valley at her own wedding. So Sally handed her grandma the Lily of the Valley to hold during the ceremony and carried the backup herself. (Those are the moments we hold onto for years.)

After the vows, guests sent them into married life under a cloud of flower petals outside the church doors. Then a vintage car from Antique Limousine of Indianapolis carried the family downtown for the party.

Antique 1912 British silver sixpence with leaves resting among white Lily of the Valley blooms

Cushion-cut solitaire engagement ring nestled in a cluster of white Lily of the Valley flowers

Black and white of Cushion-cut solitaire engagement ring nestled in a cluster of white Lily of the Valley flowers

outside shot of trinity episcopal church

wedding ceremony at Trinity Episcopal Church

Their Wedding at Omni Severin

The Omni Severin Hotel is a downtown Indianapolis classic, and it’s one of our favorite places to design a reception. For a wedding at Omni Severin, that grand marble staircase is the gift that keeps giving. We covered it in spring flowers in every shade we could find, peach, blush, blue, lavender, marigold, and deep burgundy. The whole room smelled like a garden in May.

The tables carried that same palette. We layered blush patterned linens with deep teal velvet napkins, gold-rimmed china, and pink glassware, then topped each one with candelabras and low, loose florals. The cane-back chairs and warm candlelight gave the Severin Ballroom an Edwardian, romantic feel. Sally wanted romance over anything princessy, a little Bridgerton and a little grown-up, and that’s exactly where we landed.

A custom bar with their monogram anchored the room, and a flowering tree in a stone planter brought a bit of garden magic indoors. (We will never turn down a reason to put a tree inside a ballroom.)

Designing a wedding at Omni Severin is one of our favorite things to do. If that’s on your heart, let’s talk.

Overhead view of reception tables dressed in patterned linens with pastel spring centerpieces in the Severin Ballroom

Round tables, spring centerpieces, and a crystal chandelier fill the ballroom for the wedding at Omni Severin

Round reception table with a candelabra, spring centerpiece, cane-back chairs, and table number nine

Printed dinner menu on gold-rimmed china with a teal velvet napkin and a white floral napkin ring

Printed dinner menu on gold-rimmed china with a purple velvet napkin and a white floral napkin ring

Candlelit reception table with the flower-covered grand staircase glowing softly in the background

Spring flowers in peach, pink, blue, and burgundy cascading down the marble staircase at the wedding at Omni Severin

Custom white bar with the couple's monogram, flanked by colorful florals, at the wedding at Omni Severin

reception details for wedding at omni severin hotel wedding

A Library Built From Their Love Story

The heart of their wedding at Omni Severin was a library shelf we built just for them. A local craftsman made the shelf by hand, and we filled it with books that tell their story. There was a copy of the U.S. Constitution (a nod to Zack’s future as a constitutional lawyer). There was poetry, Sherlock Holmes for Sally’s sister Charlotte, and Little Women and Swan Lake for Sally the thespian, plus titles the two of them had read and loved over the years.

Those books were the favors. Each guest took one home, assigned at random. And here’s the happy accident we still can’t get over. A former client of ours, who once performed on Broadway, ended up with the Phantom of the Opera book. Nobody planned it. We caught each other’s eye across the room and just grinned.

The shelf did double duty all night. It started out holding wedding photos of Sally and Zack’s parents and grandparents, along with the couple’s engagement picture. As guests pulled books off the shelf, we added more photos, graduation pictures, a shot with their dog, and childhood snapshots. By the end of the night, their whole life story was sitting on that shelf.

Custom library escort display at the wedding at Omni Severin, with a framed church painting, a "It's a Love Story, Sally Just Said Yes" sign, spring florals, family photos, and rows of book-spine escort cards naming each guest and table

Bride and groom reaction to custom library escort display at the wedding at Omni Severin, with a framed church painting, a "It's a Love Story, Sally Just Said Yes" sign, spring florals, family photos, and rows of book-spine escort cards naming each guest and table

Cake on the Romeo and Juliet Balcony

Sally is a proud Swiftie, and a quiet Love Story thread ran through the day (the song, the Romeo and Juliet of it all, the part where they said yes). So it felt right that they cut their cake on the little Romeo and Juliet balcony above the ballroom. The cake itself was simple and white, from No Label at the Table, finished with the same bright spring blooms we used everywhere else.

Ballroom entrance at the wedding at Omni Severin, framed by two flowering trees and a teal-draped welcome table beneath a crystal chandelier

Balcony railing draped in peach, blush, burgundy, and purple spring florals beneath a crystal chandelier at the Omni Severin

Bride and groom kiss on balcony draped in peach, blush, burgundy, and purple spring florals beneath a crystal chandelier at the Omni Severin

The Dance Floor Was the Party

After dinner, the dancing took over. The dance floor carried a custom pattern pulled straight from their wedding branding by La Papeterie Design, the same look that ran through all of their paper.

Here’s something you might not guess about a six-foot-five offensive lineman. Zack can move. He’s from Miami, his family is Latin, and the second the salsa music came on, he grabbed anyone he could and spun them around the floor. With Jim Cerone, The Perfect Host keeping the music going, that floor stayed packed.

There’s an old saying that the party is wherever the couple is. Sally and Zack never left the dance floor, so that’s exactly where everyone stayed.

bride and groom dancing at omni severin hotel wedding

You’re Next

For the bouquet toss, we tied a little surprise to the flowers. Sally and Zack love the brand Little Words Project, so we had a custom bracelet made that read You’re Next. They tossed the bouquet (and the bracelet) from the balcony, and the guest who caught it, a fellow Swiftie, completely lost it. She’s planning to tie that bracelet into her own wedding one day. Each Little Words Project bracelet carries a QR code you register and pass along, so a small piece of Sally and Zack’s night will keep traveling for years.

With Love and Thanks

Sally and Zack, thank you for trusting us with a day this full of meaning, from the first board game to the last salsa. Planning your wedding at Omni Severin was pure joy. We can’t wait to watch the two of you go make the world smarter and kinder, exactly like we know you will.

Dreaming up your own wedding at Omni Severin? We’d love to help you build a day that feels like you. Reach out to our team and let’s start with your story.