The Perfect Winter Wedding

Genevieve Cortese & Jared Padalecki

Bride and groom overjoyed after their snowy ceremony.

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The fan’s online comment said it all: “genevieve is a beautiful woman and Jared Padalecki is a god!!!”

That bit of blogged adulation is the sort of thing Genevieve Cortese and her husband have grown accustomed to. Last February, when they were ushered into wedded life in a fantasy Sun Valley winter wedding, the beloved young TV stars wondered if some of their more devout fans would crash the party.

Genevieve Cortese grew up in Sun Valley before she headed off to New York City for college and a career on the stage and screen. She starred in the popular ABC series “Wildfire,” before joining the cast of the network’s “Flash Forward.” Jared Padalecki, if not a god, is at least a very tall (six-foot-four-or-more) superstar, who finished high school in San Antonio and immediately became one of those handsome young men who attract hordes of young female viewers to shows like “Gilmore Girls,” where he played a recurring role. Today, he has a starring role as Sam Winchester on the CW’s “Supernatural.”

Cortese got the acting bug early, said her mother Camille Batt, who raised her four children in the Valley. “I had just finished getting all the kids into car seats one morning when Gen, then seven years old, announced, ‘Mom, you know we have to move. We have to move to Hollywood, because I am an ACTOR!’” She was always performing, her mother said.

Her senior year, Cortese decided to go to a boarding school in California with her brother, a decision she immediately regretted. But her mom laid down the law: “I’ve paid—you’re staying,” Batt said.

From there, Cortese enrolled in New York University and was accepted into the famed Tisch School of Arts. Her mom insisted on a double major for her daughter (Cortese chose English and acting). Batt didn’t want to finance the expensive education, “so my daughter could be a waitress.” (She need not have worried.)

Padalecki started taking acting lessons at age 12, won some national attention before he even finished high school, then won a recurring role on “Gilmore Girls,” the same year he graduated.

When they were planning their wedding, the couple made one big choice: a Sun Valley winter wedding. Most stylish Valley weddings are in the summer, allowing for various mountaintop rituals and barefoot bridesmaids. But a winter wedding is indoors, with snow (hopefully) falling silently outside as candles and crystals refract warm glowing light inside. A winter wedding in Sun Valley is, in a word, classic.

Having worked since they were kids, you can forgive them if they opted to skip the sometimes agonizing process of planning the endless details of their wedding. The couple called on a family friend to do it for them. It was a good choice. Cortese chose the colors—silver, light blue and navy—and event planner Taylor Sturges (Taylor’D Events) took it from there.

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All photos are property of Kirsten Shultz and may not be copied, reproduced or distributed in any manner not pre-approved by the photographer.

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