When Trent Bailey sends a wedding our way, I get a little extra excited. Because not only does he attract the world’s coolest clients, but always works alongside top-notch vendors like Rock Paper Scissors Events, Swiss Cottage Designs, La Boheme Event Planning and Generation Events, who I’m certain make his job about a million times more fun. And today, my dears, Trent sent along what has to be the prettiest, peppiest Cape May wedding on the planet. And if this full gallery doesn’t scream “Happy Friday!” I don’t know what does.
From the Bride…What a day! June 9th 2012 was the day that Sean and I got married in Cape May, New Jersey surrounded by our closest friends and family. Over our relationship, Cape May became a really special place for us and it was the perfect place for us to host our family and friends for the weekend long celebration. My husband’s mom is 1 of 9 children and has about 45 first cousins and every summer the families would come to Cape May and take over the town for a week. So…when Sean and I started dating he decided to introduce me to this place (I am originally from Southern California and had never even heard of it). We visited each and every summer and were even engaged on the beach in Cape May while staying at Congress Hall.
When it was time to start wedding planning I think we both assumed that we head back to Southern California to where I grew up and have the wedding there so Sean was absolutely shocked when I brought up the idea of Cape May (as were my parents). But…when we thought about what we wanted out of the day and our weekend it completely made sense. We wanted to get married in a place that would always be special to us and that we could continue coming to each year as our family grew over time. Additionally we wanted to bring our family and friends together in a place that felt small and had activities for all to enjoy and this was exactly that.
So – once we made the decision on location it was time to start thinking about the wedding details. It all started with the paper and the save the date. How to we portray what Cape May is all about and the weekend that we were planning to get our guests excited about traveling all the way from California to New Jersey? We worked with Swiss Cottage Designs to create hand drawn icons of a few of our favorite things in Cape May and it came out perfectly! We then carried that theme all the way through the wedding with the invite suite (inclusive of a schedule of events with the custom icons and a map of Cape May) and with the welcome gifts.
The weekend itself was magical – it’s so hard to explain the feeling that we had. I’ve never in my life been surrounded by so much love. I really feel like it was the perfect way to enter in to marriage. We planned 3 nights of activities for guests that were making a vacation out of the trip…
Night 1 – Mini-Golf (classic Jersey Shore activity) followed by a pub crawl around town to the various bars. We left a schedule in guests rooms for those arriving that night who were able to meet us along the way. It was so exciting as we entered a new bar greeting a new group of friends who had just gotten to town!
Night 2 – We hosted our rehearsal dinner at The Rusty Nail – super casual outside bar where your feet are in sand and there is acoustic music playing. About 2 hours later all of our guests joined us there for a Welcome Reception. It was the perfect way to welcome people to a beach and fun filled weekend!
Night 3 – The Big Event…our wedding. We hosted everything outside and it could not have been more beautiful. From the gorgeous sperry tent to the personalized decor it felt like the perfect dinner party with a mix of lanters, loose pieces of driftwood and multiples small vases throughout on the tables. Our wedding team also did such a great job that we were really able to enjoy every second and not worry about a thing! If we could, we would do it every year!
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Photographers: Trent + Dara, Trent Bailey Photography | Event Design: Rock Paper Scissors Events | Event Planner: La Boheme Event Planning | Floral Design: Beautiful Blooms | Location: Congress Hall, Cape May NJ | DJ: DJ Jason Fioto of Generation Events | Stationery: Swiss Cottage Designs | Linens: La Tavola Linen | Wedding Dress: Kenneth Pool | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Bridesmaids: Amsale via Bella Bridesmaid | Formalwear: Brooks Brothers | Tent Rental: Sperry Tents