It was an elegant black-tie affair for GiGi Welsh and Stephen Kisgen when they married this past February in Sun Valley. GiGi and Stephen exchanged vows at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in the glow of candlelight and surrounded by 140 friends and family members.
GiGi, who works at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Stephen, who works for Matsuda Eyewear, met in GiGi’s hometown of Ketchum during the summer of 2015. Flash forward to Santa Monica, Calif., nearly two years later, when Stephen presented GiGi with one of their favorite pastimes––The New York Times crossword puzzle. The grid spelled out a message this time: “Will you marry me?”
The engagement ring––a 1930s Art Deco design––once belonged to Stephen’s grandmother and was the inspiration for the theme of the wedding: traditional elegance. “There is something about winter in Sun Valley that we find so romantic and almost magical,” says GiGi. The wedding was steeped in old Sun Valley charm, and it was a whirlwind of winter activities and socializing. The welcome party was a quintessential Main Street affair at Whiskey Jacques’, complete with cocktails, dancing, and live music. Rehearsal dinner guests enjoyed classic Idaho fare at the Grill at Knob Hill Inn. Following the ceremony, gondolas whisked the guests, champagne flutes in hand, up the mountain to The Roundhouse while city lights twinkled in the nightscape.
“We wanted to celebrate the timelessness of Sun Valley and create an atmosphere that would transport us all to a different era,” says Stephen.
The Team
Wedding Coordinator
Amanda Seaward
Photographer
Kirsten Shultz
Second Photographer
Thia Konig
Dress
Monique Lhuillier
Flowers
Tara Matteson, Tara Bella Flowers