More from Naomi at GENERATIONS videostories!
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Chad, from the previous featured wedding, was also the designer/planner of the absolutely stunning wedding of Elena and John in Little Compton RI. Spread across both Elena’s parents’ and their neighbors waterfront properties, three tents and endless arrays of orchid plants contained the festivities for a grand celebration.
Elena and John’s marriage had a most romantic story: Elena was a very successful Boston doctor who was so dedicated to her career that she (according to her doting father) had invested little time or interest in finding an appropriate mate. Elena’s father not only adored his daughter, but so adored his own wife, that he felt that life without a suitable marriage partner was far less than ideal. Upon reading about an author who had written a book advising women on how to attract an appropriate partner, the father immediately called the author and prevailed upon her to take his daughter on as a client. With a twinkle in his eye, the father presented a pair of tickets to his wife and daughter to a Colorado spa where he had prearranged a meeting with this world class marriage consultant. Happy to indulge her doting dad, Elena joined her mom on the Big Adventure. Elena and the dating consultant clicked, Elena began wearing bright colors and jewelry, and soon a sweet man appeared on an internet dating service. When John (the Man) was asked about his favorite holidays, he answered Elena: “Valentine’s Day and your birthday.” It didn’t take long before love had blossomed, a proposal was offered and accepted, and wedding plans were being made.
The bride’s first dress (yes, there were two!) had been designed for HER mother by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ couturier in Harlem NYC. The bride’s grandmother had taken her mother to the couturier to have her wedding dress made some 30 years earlier, and recently Elena had taken the dress to a tailor to have it updated and refitted for her own wedding. Wearing that sentimental wedding dress, Elena was escorted by her dad across a rose-petal strewn meadow to a tented floral-draped chuppah under which she exchanged vows and was pronounced married by John’s minister father.
Mini-vans escorted the wedding party and guests back to the house where the bride quickly changed into a 1920’s inspired silk charmeuse gown while the guests enjoyed cocktails. The rest of the night was spent dancing to two bands – one Latin, one pop – and toasting each others’ happiness. The tent was gorgeous with lights and flowers climbing high up the tent posts. While the Elena and John laughed their way through a first dance – “Fly Me To The Moon” set to a waltz beat – it was Elena’s parents gracefully gliding across the dance floor together that inspired me to think of why Elena’s dad had taken the first step toward finding his own daughter a loving partner of her own.