Real Wedding: Elizabeth & Lawson
As Elizabeth Ferguson looked around The Sagamore Resort’s Shelving Rock Terrace at the friends and family who had come to watch her marry Lawson Stillman Parker II, she knew she was looking at the people who had seen her through both the best and the hardest times of her life.
When Elizabeth met Lawson in the summer of 2007, they were both starry-eyed dreamers who found that they had an instant connection. Lawson was managing an indoor swimming pool in Syracuse, New York, while he studied for his law school entrance exams and was ready to begin realizing his dream of becoming a lawyer, while Elizabeth was coaching a high school girls’ swim team that used Lawson’s pool as she worked on finishing a novel. When the two met, it was as though the stars were perfectly aligned: They had their dreams, and they had each other. What could have been more perfect?
Life, however, threw Elizabeth and Lawson a curve — a gorgeous, exhausting, sometimes difficult, always extraordinary curve, in the form of a son, Lawson Stillman Parker III, who entered the world on January 31, 2009, turning his parents’ world upside down and making them question their plans for the future. Lawson was engrossed in challenging first-year studies at the Syracuse College of Law, while Elizabeth was working as a legal assistant to help cover the costs for their young family. They were too tired to think about what to make for dinner many nights, much less about planning a wedding. But as they muddled through that first, exhausting year of parenthood, they realized that they were right where they belonged: together. The vision of their shared life began to re-form — it was changed, but just as charged with destiny as it had been when they first met. When Lawson proposed to Elizabeth that Christmas, it was 5:30 in the morning, and they were snuggling with their son, still in
their pajamas.
Elizabeth and Lawson wanted to introduce their friends and family to their adopted hometown, so they knew they wanted their wedding celebration to take place in Upstate New York. “We wanted a location that was classy and elegant and very ‘New York,’” says Elizabeth. “The Sagamore fit every requirement.” Elizabeth envisioned a chic, elegant wedding — “kind of Old Hollywood glamour meets New York modern,” she explains. Her event designer achieved the look Elizabeth wanted by transforming the space with crystal chandeliers, custom lighting, and plenty of Elizabeth’s favorite color, pink. When she saw the reception tent for the first time, she had tears in her eyes. “After the baby was born, I wasn’t sure if we’d ever have the fairy-tale, but our wedding day was completely magical,” she says. “It exceeded my every expectation.”
Elizabeth and Lawson also wanted a wedding that included the people who had seen them through the phases of their relationship. They toyed with the idea of a big wedding — after all, their life had brought them a lot to celebrate — but in the end, they decided that a big wedding wouldn’t give them what they wanted: a warm, personal celebration with the people who had supported them through it all and could fully appreciate the joy of the day. In the end, they invited 36 guests to share their wedding day with them.
As Elizabeth and her father walked onto The Sagamore’s terrace and began the long walk down the stairs to the wedding site, the hotel guests on the terrace — all complete strangers — began clapping for the bride-to-be. For Elizabeth and Lawson, who had almost given up on the idea of a fairy-tale wedding, the applause was a
much-welcomed reminder that real life comes with happy endings, too — sometimes, you just have to work a little harder to get there.
Elizabeth & Lawson's Advice
1) Let your vendors do their jobs. I told our floral designer what I was looking for and let him run with it. He came up with things I totally didn’t expect, like my bouquet, but they were perfect.
2) Don’t feel like you have to invite everyone you know. We loved having a wedding with just the people who knew us the best.
{Other professionals}
Coordination: Wedding Planning Plus
Hair: Liz Lanza Salon
Makeup: Amy Elizabeth