Laurel & Elm

Love a good ceremony backdrop turned reception backdrop Swipe to see! Photos by @jessicamannsphotography Floral by @belovely_co

Thank you all for all of your sweet words and messages for our little family! I’m officially back to my emails today with my favorite girl by my side and looking forward to (hopefully) safely executing lots of beautiful weddings this year! Photos by my good friend @tinajayphoto

Introducing our beautiful rainbow baby, Audrey Madeleine Horst Born on Saturday, November 21, 2020 at exactly 6:00 AM. 7 pounds, 3.4 ounces and 20 inches long with a full head of hair! She is so incredibly loved

I am officially on maternity leave for the rest of 2020 Today is my due date but this baby seems comfy I’m super grateful for my clients who let me work our wedding plans months ahead of schedule so that I could enjoy some quality time with her through the holidays! Thanks to Covid, a lot of those weddings have been about a year ahead of (re)schedule for a while now Thanks so much for your patience while I’m out of office everyone! Photo by @veronikapaluchphotography

Love seeing so many voters in my feed today. If you haven’t already, PLEASE go vote today. Especially in PA, your vote is so so important for a better world for us all. I dropped off my ballot for Biden a couple weeks ago, but if you are voting in person today, check out our stories for resources while you’re in line. And if you are in line to vote before 8 PM, STAY THERE until your vote is counted, no matter what anyone tells you! Go vote! Photo by @asya_photography_philly Flowers @freshdesignsflorist

It’s looking like events are staying small for a while! I, for one, don’t hate it! You know all those pretty Pinterest detail photos that function well for a styled shoot set for 10, but logistically don’t function so well for 200+ guests? Now we can incorporate more of THAT into your day, like these escort cards we collaborated on with the talented @papertreestudio Photo @emilywrenphoto

I hope it is abundantly clear that Laurel & Elm as a business and I (Lora, the owner) stand in solidarity with the #blacklivesmatter movement. Throughout the next week, I’ll be joining other creatives in muting my own normal wedding content, an initiative started by @blackandembodied and @jessicawilson.msrd to #mutethewhitenoise and #amplifymelanatedvoices . There are so many more important things to be shared than pretty wedding details right now, and we will be taking the time to listen, learn and find more proactive ways to help moving forward.

A bright and sunny L&E couple for an upcoming bright and sunny weekend! Hope everyone is getting outside time and smiling like these two! It’s been quiet around here but we are still here, plugging away with rescheduled weddings and designing beautiful days with anti- bacterial stations galore Photo by @emilywrenphoto

My heart goes out to all of the couples in the stressful situation of having to postpone their wedding right now This is certainly a busy moment in time to be a wedding planner, but I’m lucky to be working with clients who are keeping their guests’ health and attendance in mind as their first priority over ideal wedding season or date. Also sending love to my fellow rapidly responding, around the clock working wedding vendors right now who are in uncharted waters with shifted payment dates and unknown income for the year. Laurel & Elm is here to help or be a listening ear! Photo by @peachplumpearphoto

Working on design plans for one of my favorite venues today, @cairnwood Such a beautiful venue to design around and somehow all of my past and present Cairnwood couples are some of my all time sweetest Photo by @emilywrenphoto

The prettiest little garden ceremony at the Rodin Museum Love how intimate this space is, yet easy to have those motorcoaches lined up on the Parkway just steps away to get guests to cocktail hour ASAP Photo by @redfieldphoto

Pretty little details Photo by @alexschon

One of our favorite venues in the city - the Kimmel Center! Where else can you get pictures like this?! Photo by @redfieldphoto

Apparently lots of you got engaged over the holidays! I’ve been loving chatting with potential 2020 and 2021 clients all week. If you are still on the fence about planning and design services for 2020, now is the time to reach out! Photo by @the.real.m2photo

And here’s the pretty couple those pretty staircase flowers belong to photo by @asya_photography_philly

Going to be sharing LOTS of this wedding - one of my favorites from 2019! Isn’t this staircase by @freshdesignsflorist amazing? I think every one of Alyson & Scott’s guests took a photo in front of it Photo by @asya_photography_philly

Happy 2020 everyone I am officially back in the office and grateful for the time and space away throughout December. Thank you all for your love and thoughts. I heard from SO many clients and vendors during my time away and it meant so much. Laurel & Elm hit 5 years of business a couple weeks ago while I was off and while building a business has taken a LOT of hard work and hustle over the years, I’m so grateful to be my own boss and be in a position to press pause on work when I really needed it, mostly because of the understanding relationships with past and present clients. Love you all and excited for what 2020 brings Photo by Tina Jay Photography

I am heartbroken to announce the loss of my beautiful son, Owen Benjamin Horst, who passed away at 25 weeks. During his 20-week checkup, we discovered that Owen had a moderate, but manageable heart defect and we planned to deliver him at CHOP, mostly as a precautionary measure. Unfortunately, at my 25 week appointment this past Wednesday morning, the doctors discovered that Owen no longer had a heartbeat and would have to be delivered stillborn. Owen was delivered at Bryn... Mawr Hospital this Saturday November 30, 2019 at 2:13 p.m. He was 13 inches, 2 pounds and 2.7 ounces. He was surrounded by his parents who love him very much and got the chance to meet his family. My husband and I are both devastated and grieving together. I will be taking some much needed time away from work through the holidays. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause any current Laurel & Elm clients and vendors and I sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding during this very difficult time for our family.

2019 has been good to me! Lots of really great clients and weddings with great friendors! Thanks @sweetwaterportraits for this awesome shot as we get caught up on getting photos of this year’s weddings!

Last weekend was TOO good. Other wedding vendors will know what I’m talking about when I explain but this was a trifecta client for me. Alyson, Scott & families 1. Had AMAZING style and hired great vendors accordingly 2. Trusted all of their vendors to do what they do best! I always tell my clients that this is when everyone does their best work, and it showed I mean, @freshdesignsflorist florals were insane. And 3. (By far my favorite of the trifecta at this point in my b...usiness) the WHOLE family was so unbelievably nice and were all genuinely good people. The type of people you just want to keep hanging out with after the wedding is completely planned and over. I’m lucky to have a bunch of those through Laurel & Elm and the McGonigle fam definitely added another! More photos to come on this wedding but just wanted to brag about the *extra* good ones today See more