Real Wedding: Ida & Nick

March 7, 2024

Snowpine Lodge, Alta

August 13

THE COUPLE

When bride Ida was an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, her cousin recruited her to work in a lab, in order to help Ida get experience for dental school applications. After Ida joined the lab, she began noticing photos of another student in the PhD program and asked who he was. Her cousin shared that Nick, a fellow bioengineering PhD candidate, was researching in Paris and was scheduled to return the following semester. Ida was holding out for the right guy, and finally met Nick upon his return at a grad student night out. “As he walked up to me, I just knew this guy was different,” says Ida. “I thought he could be the one!”

THE PROPOSAL

Ida and Nick began dating in March of 2015. Fast forward to 2021, when Nick decided to treat Ida to the trip of a lifetime. Ever since childhood, she had wanted to go to Africa to see wild elephants, and Nick had developed a dream proposal in tandem with this dream trip. Nick and Ida traveled across Tanzania for two weeks, along with a photographer and videographer. At the end of the safari, everyone took a sunset drive through the Serengeti. To Ida’s surprise, Nick had hired trackers to look for elephants. They drove over a hill, and found a herd of hundreds of elephants waiting for them. Ida jumped from the car to watch them migrate across the field, and she turned around to find Nick on one knee. Her dream vacation ended in the perfect engagement story.

THE WEDDING

Drawing from her Persian roots, Ida envisioned her wedding as a luxury middle-eastern celebration that would make her feel like a Persian princess. After a venue hunt, the couple decided on Snowpine Lodge to host their intimate wedding. “We loved that it was up in the mountains, but also was slightly modern in its decor,” says Ida. “Nowhere else has a backdrop like they do, and the hotel was the perfect size.”

The couple also desired a timeless design, so their wedding memories would feel glamorous and refined for years to come. To accomplish this, Braelynn Tuitupou of Belle Bodas Events created a stunning palette of cream, blush and other neutral hues that contrasted with the mountain and achieved the elegance the couple craved.

THE CEREMONY

The ceremony’s backdrop was a breathtaking cream arch, laden with a wide variety of textured blooms that helped the arrangement stand out against the picture-perfect backdrop. The union began with a traditional Persian ceremony which includes sitting behind a sofreh aghd displaying symbolic items and reading Persian poetry by Hafez. Meanwhile, happily married women ground sugar over the heads of the couple while Ida and Nick fed each other honey to signify sweetening their lives together. Then, the couple exchanged traditional Western vows and rings and Nick surprised his bride by reciting part of his vows in Farsi.

During these festivities, Ida donned a strapless Karoza Bridal ball gown with enough floral detail to equal the show-stopping wedding design. Her jewelry and accessories included a custom diamond set, which Ida’s mother flew to Iran to design and bring to the wedding per Persian tradition. Ida’s parents also gifted Nick a Versace watch to wear with his sleek black attire.

THE PARTY

Back inside the lodge, guests prepared for dinner, hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and dancing. The menu included Utah favorites including bison and elk meatballs and smoked trout blinis, alongside more unique courses such as cauliflower falafel, vegetarian lasagna and a spread of traditional Persian pastries baked with love by the mother of the bride. A palette of light neutrals graced the design, with gray linens, blush (or gold) monograms and vine details adorning signage throughout the space. Every table showcased equally stunning blush-and-cream florals performing as the ceremony centerpieces.

After dinner, the couple’s culture came out in full swing. The duo hired both a DJ and a Persian drummer to play at their reception, and the newlyweds performed a variety of western and Persian dances for their guests. Following a first dance to “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” Ida and her father danced to both “This Dance” by Scott Thomas Laughbridge and to “Sattar” by Aroosi. The groom and his mother danced to “Close Your Eyes” by Michael Bublé, and then guests watched the bridal party perform a Persian knife dance, in which the bridesmaids take the cake knife “hostage,” teasing the groom to get money out of him. Once they’ve gotten enough money, they hand the knife over and allow the happy couple to cut their cake—in this case, a lemon poppyseed confection with strawberry icing.