This Sunlit Newfields Wedding Started at a Bakery Counter

Bride and groom lean in close on the curved garden staircase, framed by yellow roses and blue delphinium spilling over the white iron railing.

Most love stories start at a party or a bar. Emily and Michael’s started behind a bakery counter in Broad Ripple, which is why their Newfields wedding felt less like an event we designed and more like a story we got to finish.

They married on Saturday, June 20, 2026, at Newfields, the night before the summer solstice. Emily asked for a sunshine yellow wedding, and she got one. She also got high seventies and blue sky in the middle of an Indiana June, which is its own kind of luck.

A quick hello if we haven’t met. We’re Mon Amie Events, and we plan and design weddings across Indianapolis and beyond. We handle the design, the vendor team, and the thousand small decisions in between, so you get to be a guest at your own wedding. If you’re starting to think through your own day, come say hello.

Yellow and blue Newfields wedding invitation suite on stone pavers with navy script, butterfly stamp save the date, yellow reply card, ranunculus, delphinium and peach garden roses.

Strapless wedding gown with tonal floral appliqué and a full skirt, hanging in a sunlit window on the morning of an Indianapolis Newfields wedding.

Chocolate chip cookies in cellophane bags tied with navy striped ribbon, each sealed with a navy crest sticker featuring a Labrador, the couple's monogram and their wedding date.

Emily and Michael, and a Bakery Called Cake Bake

Michael and Emily were high school sweethearts. They’ve been together most of their lives.

Around the same time, Michael became the first employee at The Cake Bake Shop who wasn’t a family member. His best friend is the owner’s son, and what started as a favor (help move some boxes before the doors open) turned into a real job, pink French uniform and all. He was there at the very beginning, back when Gwendolyn Rogers was opening one shop on Carrollton Avenue. It’s now a name people travel for, with a location at Walt Disney World.

So when Michael was fifteen or sixteen, he prom-posed to Emily at Cake Bake. Years later, when he proposed for real, that’s where everyone gathered to celebrate.

There was never a question about who was making the cake. Cake Bake built the cake and a full dessert display of pies, tarts, and pastries. We also asked for something they don’t make anymore. Michael’s favorite is their icebox cake, retired from the menu years ago, and they made one just for him as a surprise. Guests got a Cake Bake box in their welcome bags with scones, jams, and butters, so the first taste of the weekend was already his.

One more thing, quietly. Cake Bake once did a beer collaboration with a local brewery that’s only poured at the shop now. We reached out to Sun King, explained the story, and talked them into releasing just enough for the welcome bags. We didn’t tell Emily and Michael. Sometimes the best surprises are the ones nobody asked for.

By the time we got to their Newfields wedding, Cake Bake wasn’t a vendor on a list. It was part of the story.

Sunshine Yellow, and the Pattern That Made It

A lot of couples are asking for butter yellow right now. Emily wasn’t. She’s a summer solstice bride and she wanted the color to say so, with pale blue as the second note, which is exactly right for a Newfields wedding set in a garden.

Here’s the design problem with a yellow wedding. Pure yellow flattens. With nothing to measure it against, the whole room goes washed out. So we layered in butter and cream to give the bright yellow something to push against, then added coral and pink for warmth. That’s what makes yellow read as yellow. (It’s also my mother’s favorite color, and I was a yellow bride myself, so this one was a good day for me too.)

Then there’s pattern, which is the thing we’re known for. Michael’s mother, Julie, told me so at the tasting, and she’d know. She’s an interior designer here in the city, and she shaped the look of Cake Bake.

Emily was more cautious about pattern. She decided the blue and white chinoiserie was too much and picked something safer. Michael brought it back. He told her nobody remembers a yellow wedding, but everybody remembers a wedding with pattern. He didn’t push, he just kept returning to the one he knew was right.

And he was correct. Those linens are the reason the whole thing looks the way it does. The night before the wedding I told Julie her son is cut from her cloth, that he learned her eye just by growing up in her house. She teared up. Mothers of grooms don’t get told those things often enough.

Choosing the Spaces for Their Newfields Wedding

We’ve planned a lot of weddings on this campus, and part of why we keep coming back is how flexible Newfields is willing to be. For this one, we used spaces that had never hosted a wedding before.

Guests married at Lilly House, where couples marry often, except we flipped it. Instead of walking out of the house, Emily and Michael faced it. Newfields could only recall one other wedding doing that, many years ago.

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The Ceremony

Five o’clock, full sun, arched French doors behind them.

We built a floral arch straight up the doorway in yellow roses, coral garden roses, and blue delphinium, then ran low florals along the front row and up the aisle. The groomsmen wore black tuxedos with yellow boutonnieres. Emily’s bridesmaids wore navy in mismatched necklines, with one standing out in a navy and green floral print, and every bouquet was yellow with blue running through it.

Emily’s gown was strapless with a tonal appliqué pattern and a long train, with a cathedral veil. Her bouquet was yellow roses, ranunculus, delphinium, and yellow orchids, tied with a wide yellow ribbon.

Because the sun sits low at five, we set out white paper parasols on the welcome table next to the guest book. Guests figured them out immediately, and the ceremony photos are full of them.

Wide view of the Newfields wedding ceremony setup with white chairs facing Lilly House and a yellow floral arch framed by the arched French doors.

Aisle at a Newfields wedding lined with yellow, peach and blue floral clusters, leading to a floral arch set against the white facade of Lilly House.

Yellow, peach and blue floral arch built into the arched French doors of Lilly House before guests arrive for a Newfields wedding ceremony.

Groomsman leading a yellow Labrador down the grass aisle while a black Labrador follows, part of the processional at a Newfields wedding.

Bride and groom beneath a yellow floral arch outside Lilly House.

Bride and groom kissing beneath a yellow floral arch as their officiant, groomsmen and bridesmaids look on outside Lilly House.

Newly married couple cheer with arms raised as they walk back up the grass aisle past applauding guests, a yellow and peach floral arch behind them at their Newfields wedding.

Overhead view of the bride's long train trailing across sunlit lawn as she and her groom exit past guests and low yellow and blue aisle arrangements.

Wedding party in navy gowns and black tuxedos line up outside the white Lilly House while the couple embraces at center, holding yellow bouquets at this Newfields wedding.

A black Labrador and a yellow Labrador standing together on a garden path with their handler, waiting to walk down the aisle.

Bride with eight bridesmaids in navy gowns, one in a navy floral print, holding yellow and blue bouquets on a shaded path at this Newfields wedding.

Full wedding party in navy gowns and black tuxedos gathered in front of the arched entrance of Lilly House at Newfields in Indianapolis.

Bride and groom sitting together on a curved stone bench in the gardens at Newfields, her gown spread across the seat between them.

Cocktails by the Fountain

From the lawn, guests walked a path to a fountain that had been at Newfields less than a year. Those walks between spaces are one of the real pleasures of a Newfields wedding, and this one ended somewhere lovely to stand with a drink.

The signature cocktails were The Gus, a skinny margarita, and The Theo, a Zipper. The sign read “Cheers to the Bova Pups,” with both dogs drawn underneath. Guests understood the joke instantly, because Emily and Michael take those dogs everywhere.

A watercolor artist was working the whole time. She photographed guests during cocktails, painted through dinner, and handed out finished pieces at the end of the night.

The brick Garden Terrace at Newfields seen across the reflecting pool fountain, with a yellow and blue floral installation draped across its twin curved staircases.

Symmetrical double staircase of the brick Garden Terrace decorated with a yellow, peach and blue floral arch and trailing greenery for this Newfields wedding.

Lounge seating under a large tree with teal sofas, cane chairs and chinoiserie linens set up for cocktail hour in the gardens at Newfields.

Guests gathered at a white cocktail bar on the lawn at Newfields, with Lilly House visible through the trees and yellow and blue arrangements on either end.

signage for live illustrator table at newfields wedding

The Reveal, With Both Moms

I walked Emily and Michael from the fountain to dinner, and Michael’s reaction is one I’ll keep. He’d been involved in these choices from the beginning, so seeing them assembled hit him hard.

Then I asked if they wanted to bring their mothers in. Normally I just walk moms in with their eyes open. This time they asked me to do it properly, so I took a hand in each of mine and led them in with their eyes shut while Emily and Michael told them to trust it.

Their reactions were louder with their Moms, and those are my favorite photographs of the entire day.

Bride and groom holding hands with wedding planner as she reveals the reception setup on the Garden Terrace patio for the first time.

Dinner on the Garden Terrace

Dinner was on the patio at the Garden Terrace. The patio itself was lawn until recently. Now it’s paved, and it’s a beautiful place to eat outside.

We dressed it in the chinoiserie linens with periwinkle chargers, powder blue napkins with a white blossom at each place, gold-rimmed glassware, and little scalloped table lamps. Cane back chairs, cream scalloped umbrellas, potted citrus trees, and centerpieces of white hydrangea, blue delphinium, yellow roses, and peach garden roses. A long yellow and blue installation ran the length of the terrace railing.

Then something unusual happened. Dinner just kept going. Guests ate quickly, and my team was ready to move them along, but nobody wanted to move. They stayed at the tables, drifted to the couches, refilled their wine, and sat there while the light went gold and the sun went down behind the evergreens.

Reception tables in blue and white chinoiserie linens with cane back chairs, delphinium and hydrangea centerpieces, and cream scalloped umbrellas overhead.

Round reception table with blue and gold chargers, powder blue napkins and a centerpiece of blue delphinium, white hydrangea and yellow roses under scalloped umbrellas.

Cascading bridal bouquet of yellow roses, peach garden roses, white lisianthus and blue delphinium rests on a cocktail table during cocktail hour.

Chalkboard beer and food menu above brass taps at the teal-tiled Beer Garden bar, an outdoor drink station for this Newfields wedding.

Guests dine at round tables under cream patio umbrellas on the terrace outside the brick Beer Garden at this open-air Newfields wedding reception.

Inside, and the Cake

Getting everyone indoors took a second line. The sound of horns started up and brought the whole party into the museum, which is a much better way to move a big group of people than an announcement.

MixTape played, and they did not let up all night. We banked the ceremony florals across the front of the stage, so every flower did two shifts.

We cut the cake in front of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture with floral columns on either side. Emily changed into a short dress and white platforms.

The cake knife belonged to her grandmother. Emily was the twenty-seventh family member to use it, and her grandmother helped her cut. I have never put anything away faster in my life.

Guests in tuxedos and gowns follow a saxophonist and tambourine player down a brick walkway toward the reception at this Newfields wedding.

Bride and guests parade along a garden path past ferns and flowering borders while a saxophonist leads the way at this Newfields wedding.

Bride and groom walk toward their tiered cake, flanked by tall yellow, peach and blue floral columns at the LOVE sculpture inside this Newfields wedding reception.

Coffee station and dessert display of cupcakes, mousse cups and pastries on pale blue linens along a gallery wall.

Live band Mixtape performs behind a low garden-style arrangement of yellow, pink and blue blooms on the reception stage.

Guests in navy gowns and tuxedos cheer and film with phones beside a blue gingham cocktail table during the Newfields wedding reception.

Groom lifts the bride outside Newfields wedding.

Take a Bouquet on Your Way

Guests never went back to the dinner tables after they came inside. So while everyone danced, our florist spent two hours turning every dinner centerpiece into hand-tied bouquets.

We built a wall for them in the lobby with black paper sleeves and a sign reading “Take a bouquet on your way.” Some were all yellow, some were full summer color.

Event designer in black adjusts the sconce on the bouquet bar wall of wrapped yellow and blue posies while setting up for this Newfields wedding.

Bouquet bar display of wrapped yellow, pink and blue posies on a white wall beside a calligraphy sign reading Take a Bouquet on Your Way at this Newfields wedding.

What It Actually Took: Planning Your Own Newfields Wedding

I’ll say the quiet part. It looked effortless. It was not.

When we walked the guest route with our team beforehand, it came out to 5,500 steps. Our guests walked that far across the campus, in June, in formalwear, and the transitions had to be seamless or the whole thing would fall apart.

A Newfields wedding rewards precision. You have to respect the campus, protect the gardens, and plan the movement of every guest down to the minute. Do that, and it gives you a day that looks like it simply happened.

Emily and Michael, thank you for trusting us with all of it. And Michael, thank you for the linens.

Planning a Newfields wedding, or anything else in Indianapolis? Let’s talk.