80 Colorful Silk Lanterns Set the Scene at This Enchanting Terrain Wedding

The couple: Maximian Held’s suit was by Hive & Colony; Nguyên Phạm’s gown was a modified áo dài, a Vietnamese garment she designed with a dressmaker in Indonesia. / Photography by Connie Chen Photography

While the romance of Nguyên Phạm and Maximian Held may have begun in conventional fashion (they met on a dating app in 2022), the rest of their love story was anything but. The couple, who now live in Springfield, privately married before two witnesses at a courthouse in Media in May of 2024 — but didn’t get formally engaged until five months later. “It felt perfectly fitting for a relationship that has never followed the expected script,” says Nguyên. To wit: Instead of keeping it light on their first date, they spent three hours arguing about worldviews and deal-breakers, and they honeymooned before their October celebration, a trip to Japan where they sourced a regional orange juice and a special orange liqueur called mikanshu to serve at the reception.

The wedding itself — held at Terrain at Styer’s in Glen Mills — took inspiration from Nguyên’s cultural background. “I am Vietnamese, with some Korean and Japanese heritage, and we intentionally wove those influences into the dress, the decor, and the traditions we incorporated throughout the wedding,” she says.

Nguyên and Maximian exchanged vows beneath a temple bedecked with Vietnamese silk lanterns and flowers.

Terrain’s rustic Garden Shed was set aglow with 80 colorful silk lanterns, and tables were topped with taper candles and ikebana-inspired arrangements in an earthy, saturated palette of shades like scarlet, oxblood, coral, saffron, gold, and plum.

“Max’s vision was a celebration set beneath the branches of a silk-lantern-lit forest,” says Nguyên. She sourced the silk lanterns from Hoi An, Vietnam, through a maker on Etsy.

Nguyên tied table assignments to a Chinese wooden bird cage filled with paper cranes, in the style of Japanese tanzaku, strips of paper that hang from Japanese wind chimes.

Together, the couple folded 1,000 paper cranes in the Japanese senbazuru tradition, which is meant to grant a wish or blessing. Some were placed in glass boxes along with special origami paper, so friends and family could write notes for the newlyweds.

“For much of my life, I had not always felt that I fully belonged or had been given the space to express my culture as freely and joyfully as I wanted to, so it was deeply important to Max that our wedding become a true celebration of that.”

THE DETAILS
Photography: Connie Chen Photography | Venue & Catering: Terrain at Styer’s | Florals: A Cottage Gardener | Dessert: Highland Orchards | Gown: Gabriella Vania Couture | Suit: Hive & Colony | Rings: The Natural Sapphire Company and Brilliant Earth | Accessories: Noma | Hair & Makeup: Sarah Ahn of Brides by SB | Invitations: Diego Novanim Zúñiga

Published as “Nguyên & Maximian” in the Summer/Fall 2026 issue of Philadelphia Wedding.

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