|
The wedding of Kimberly Conrad in 2006 was a lovely combination of mother-daughter masterminds! Mother-of-the-bride Layne Conrad, an interior decorator in Chester, New Jersey, brought her amazing attention to detail as well as her savvy design eye to the planning of Kimberly’s mountain top wedding. And Kimberly, an art history major and owner of a recently opened art gallery in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, brought her love for the big sky country and the grand beauty of art mixed with nature.
| ...like so many brides when they’re following their artistic intuition—Kimberly fell in love with the first dress she tried on. |
Kimberly already knew she wanted a gown by designer Monique Lhuillier and when Layne and Kimberly shopped together for the wedding gown—and like so many brides when they’re following their artistic intuition—Kimberly fell in love with the first dress she tried on. “‘Please let me at least see you in another dress!’, I said to Kimberly,” Layne shared. “So to appease me, she tried on two more!” But the bride stayed with her first choice—a white lace sleeveless bodice cinched with French satin ribbon over a billowy and draped rosy-beige silk charmeuse skirt.
Nashville designer Jeanne Dudley Smith made Kimberly’s double tier fingertip veil—tulle with a lace border—that acted like a frothy shawl as the wind twirled it around her bare shoulders during the ceremony.
Layne and Kimberly chose colors of coral, lime green and white for the flowers and chocolate brown and ivory for the attendants. Layne wore a soft cocoa brown beaded lace gown and satin wrap—with strappy metallic flats for ease in walking over the grassy mountain top as she and her husband Rick escorted their only daughter down the white rose petal aisle.
| “As we were all walking down the aisle together, I had the thought that this time could not be real,” Layne shared. |
“As we were all walking down the aisle together, I had the thought that this time could not be real,” Layne shared. “She was our little girl and yet she had found her soul mate and I know how that feels because Rick and I have been together for 36 years, so for that I was so happy for her.”
Not only stimulated by their artistry, but both mother and daughter were also inspired to create such a glorious wedding celebration—with a little help from Mother Nature—by the ongoing love story of Kimberly and Ben. “He was already in our family,” Layne told me. “They met eight or nine years ago on family Christmas holidays in Colorado Springs, then Ben found her again years later at Virginia Commonwealth University where Kimberly was working on her masters’ degree.”
The search for love comes in all sorts of adventures with enduring stories to tell of its many degrees of separation and reconnection. Including the love stories of mothers and daughters—especially those whose relationships consist of planning a wedding together and then stay happily in love with each other! 
| PHOTOGRAPHS by Cheryl B. Wiles of artist i
TEXT by Cornelia Powell
|
 |
|
|
Mothers & Daughters
|
|
|
