June 30, 2023, Emily Lent & Alexander Kerr: Summer Garden Party

An “elevated garden party” was the vision Emily and Alec devised for their wedding that took place on a beautiful summer’s day at Moonstone Manor in Elizabethtown.

Moonstone Manor provided the perfect setting for Emily and Alec’s garden party-themed wedding.

On The Cover: Emily Lent and Alec Kerr, who met as students at Saint Joseph’s University, held their garden party-themed June 30 wedding at Moonstone Manor, where Lauren E. Bliss photographed them on the porch of the manor house.

Emily, who is from Lancaster, met Alec, who hails from Broomall, Delaware County, while both were students at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. As Emily recalls of their first encounter, she was sitting at a table with friends in Merion Hall, when Alec walked by after class. He stopped at the table to say hello to her friends whom he knew. Emily remembers being “immediately drawn to him.”

It seems that Alec had an ulterior motive and admits he purposely stopped by the table, perceiving it as the “perfect opportunity” to introduce himself to Emily. After becoming better acquainted, they soon began dating. When Alec asked Emily to marry him on March 5, 2022, the setting was the spot where they initially met.

The Kerrs now live in the Boston area, where Emily is a special education teacher and Alec works in football operations for the New England Patriots.

First look, as captured by photographer Lauren Bliss, who celebrated her own wedding in November.

Let the Planning Begin!

“We knew we wanted an outdoor wedding and for everything to feel fresh and organic,” Emily recalls. “Once we stepped foot on the grounds of Moonstone Manor, we knew it was the perfect spot for the wedding,” she says of spying beautiful flowers growing throughout the immaculately landscaped, tree-shrouded, creekside property that dates to 1742, when Samuel Smith, a miller and trader, became its first owner after securing a deed from the family of William Penn. Since then, the property has served several purposes and had undergone extensive renovations prior to it becoming a full-scale events venue.

One color, differing styles: an array of pink dresses complemented the color scheme and added to the garden party vibe.

Emily and Alec also wanted to make the wedding uniquely theirs. “I feel like with weddings, there is a lot of pressure for everything to be perfect,” she says. “There seems to be a lot of ‘rules’ people expect you to follow. But Alec and I knew that we just wanted this day to feel like a party where we would be surrounded by our favorite people.”

One rule that was broken involved the tradition of the couple not seeing each other until the ceremony. Emily says she “never fancied that rule,” so she and Alec broke it by having breakfast together. “We even had lunch together while I was getting my hair and makeup done,” she shares. “In my opinion, this eliminated a lot of anxiety that I definitely would have been feeling. Alec is my favorite person, so I thought it was just so silly to spend a big part of the day apart.”

Breaking tradition: the groom was escorted down the aisle by his parents.

Other “rules” that were bent extended to the dresses Emily’s attendants wore: each donned a different style dress that carried out the pink color scheme and complemented the garden party vibe. The ceremony also entailed a change in format as Alec didn’t suddenly appear at the spot where he and Emily would exchange vows. Instead, his parents walked him down the aisle.

Since Emily lives out of the area, it fell to her mother, Kim Lent, to help with the planning. “I think from the start, the most important thing was to communicate,” Kim relates. “We tried to work around Emily’s schedule, which can be difficult since she’s a special education teacher, but we made it work.”

Emily and Alec exchange vows. In this moment, Emily says she felt as if she and Alec were the only people in the room. Alec’s father, Patrick, officiated the ceremony.

Helping to plan the wedding was also a learning process for Kim. “I had to be open to different ideas,” she recalls. “Today’s weddings are so different from the traditional wedding I had 33 years ago.”

Emily and Alec with their parents (l-r) Kim and Dale Lent and Elena Timofeeva and Patrick Kerr.

Most importantly, Kim says she had to “remember at all times that this was Emily and Alec’s wedding and not mine. Some compromises were made but I feel they had the wedding of their dreams. I was happy to share in the planning. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget,” she reminisces. “I just wish I could relive it again!”

Emily’s Favorite Memory

“The day was filled with amazing memories that will last a lifetime, but the memory that is at the top was the reading of the vows,” says Emily. “All eyes were on us, but at that very moment I thought it was only the two of us. It was as if we were the only people at Moonstone Manor at that moment in time. The feeling of true love and connection was exemplified right then and there.”

The newlyweds’ first dance was to Hold My Girl by George Ezra.

Advice

According to Emily, “Don’t stress over the small things. The most important part of the day is the fact that you are surrounded by the people you love. Everything else will fall into place.”