Dawn at Soiree Floral is basically a floral genius: we all know that. But pair her insane talents with the camera expertise of Zofia & Co. and it’s a one-two knockout of pure awesome set against the breathtaking setting also known as the Nantucket Yacht Club. In other words, this is a wedding that will elicit the most swoon-worthy of reactions, and you can see it all in the full gallery.
And a sweet film from September Productions? Yes, please.
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From the Bride… Paul and I met four years ago at a party at my apartment for a mutual friends birthday. Surprisingly, our paths had never crossed until that night even though we both often hung out with the same people. We hit it off instantly. We spent the entire night talking, went on our first official date a week later, and the rest is history.
It wasn’t long before I wanted to introduce Paul to my favorite place in the world, Nantucket. I had grown up spending summers on Nantucket, and it only took one visit for Paul to fall in love with the island as much as I had. From then on, any chance we had, we would make the trip from New York, even if only for a day or two.
On a random Wednesday in January of 2012, Paul called me at work and asked me if I wanted to go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Manhattan, Stanton Social. I, of course, said yes. He picked me up in a cab and we headed to the restaurant. On the way, the cab stopped at a red light at the corner of Houston and Elizabeth Streets, right across from old apartment where we had first met. Paul immediately jumped out of the cab and told me to get out and walk with him from there to dinner. Confused, I said no; it was freezing outside, it was far from the restaurant and I was in heels! But undeterred, Paul continued to jog across the street. When I begrudgingly followed him to where he had stopped at the front of my old apartment building Paul got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Laughing, crying, and in complete shock I, of course, said yes.
When we started thinking about what sort of wedding we wanted we both quickly agreed that the place we really wanted to get married was on Nantucket. We tried to be open-minded to places in New York and New Jersey that would be closer to home, but none felt as perfect as when we walked into the Nantucket Yacht Club on a cold February day when we were on the island looking at venue options. We instantly knew that was where we were going to get married. The Nantucket Yacht Club embodied the classic Nantucket feel, but was the ideal blank canvas which would allow us to add in all the unique details that would make it our wedding. The people at the Yacht club were a dream to work with. They were so helpful and professional throughout the planning process up to and including the day of the wedding.
After the venue was booked it was time to start thinking about all the details and how the entire wedding weekend would unfold. Growing up in New York and New Jersey we had very few friends or family who had ever made the trip to Nantucket, so it was important to us that everyone coming to the wedding understand why we love this island so much. We wanted our wedding to have a bit of a traditional Nantucket feel, but with intricate details and surprises that were unique to Paul and me.
Being a creative person, from the moment we finalized the location the ideas started streaming in as to how we would make it our wedding. We first hired Nicole Wheldan, a wedding planner with Unique Nantucket Events. She was so helpful throughout the entire planning process and kept us calm whenever we needed it. Lucky for us, Nicole shares an office space with Zofia and Mark of Zofia & Co. From the minute we walked into their office and saw the incredible photographs hanging we knew we wanted to have them photograph our wedding. They have an amazing talent for capturing the actual emotion and moment in a picture. Our engagement session with Zofia was when we first experienced their talent. We took pictures in areas all over Nantucket and also got the ones we needed for our special save the date card. It consisted of four separate photographs of us in various poses holding up a different sign in each, reading: save, the, date, 6-15-2013. It was perfect and kicked off the unique feeling we wanted for the entire wedding: classic, fun, loving and full of surprises. The save the date and so many other custom details were made by the very talented Nico and Lala. They tailored everything so beautifully to reflect us and the feel of the wedding. From the custom cups and koozies, to the napkins, menus and of course the invitations, everything was done with so much thought and detail to make sure it was exactly what we wanted.
After we booked Zofia & Co, it was on to the flowers and dcor. After looking through photo books in Nicole’s office I knew the only person I wanted to work with was Dawn from Soiree Floral. Not only did she put together gorgeous arrangements, but she thought about the big picture as well as the intricate details. She understood how important the little details were to making the wedding feel the way we wanted it to. When we met, we immediately clicked and fed off of each other’s ideas, and little by little everything was figured out. I had decided that the color scheme would be mostly whites, creams, and blushes with pops of coral and aqua throughout and wanted the overall feel of the dcor to be a little rustic, yet still formal and classic. To do this we rented long rectangular farm tables to mix in with the traditional round tables, with high arrangements on the round tables and low centerpieces with driftwood on the farm tables. Both types of tables were covered in beautiful flowers and tons of candles which were also spread out throughout the room to give it an overall glow and romantic feel. The dcor on the day of the wedding was absolutely beautiful and captured all of the ideas, pictures, and conversations wed had about how I wanted it to look, and the feel I wanted to give to our guests.
One of the most important decisions for the wedding was finding the right band; one that knew how to make the room party and dance all night. Paul and I really wanted our wedding to be an evening where no one would want to leave the dance-floor. When else were we going to have our nearest and dearest together in our favorite place? We researched, talked to friends from Boston and found the most amazing band: Eye 2 Eye. They were amazing to work with and on the night of the party they did exactly what we wanted: they gave us a party that not one person wanted to end.
One of the last decisions we made was booking our videographer, and we were so fortunate Dan Driscoll of September productions was still available. He and his team were absolutely incredible and we were so glad that they were there to capture all the special moments throughout the weekend. The video is unbelievable and still makes me cry every time we watch it.
As we received wedding responses we sent the guests a welcome packet designed by Ellie Gottwald that included all the details of the wedding weekend events. It also gave suggestions on where to eat, shop and play, and all of the information to make the wedding weekend more than just a celebration, but also a vacation. We wanted our guests to experience some of our favorite places on Nantucket during their stay, so we had a kick-off party on the Thursday before the wedding at the Cisco Brewery, where we gave out our custom koozies for everyone to enjoy the amazing Cisco drinks and atmosphere. Here, they could get a feel for where we like to go to relax at the end of a beautiful Nantucket beach day. We also wanted part of the wedding weekend to have a truly authentic Nantucket feeling, so we held our rehearsal dinner and Dessert and Cocktails at Cru, a new restaurant with very nautical Nantucket dcor, great food, and an incredible view of the boats in the Nantucket harbor.
From beginning to end on our wedding day, there were little details that were parts of our Nantucket that we shared with our family and friends. We wanted the wedding to be formal but with a rustic Nantucket feel, so the groomsmen wore black tuxes with a beautiful aqua blue printed bowtie. We had a basket of pashminas available for the women in case they got cold during the ceremony which was held on the Yacht Club lawn by the harbor. The ceremony was so beautiful by the water under the Chuppah, which was covered with billowy white fabric and beautiful flowers adorning the four posts. I gave Paul a special surprise and had the local Nantucket A cappella group The Cobbletones break out into Forever by Chris Brown at a certain point towards the end of the ceremony. His face and everyone elses reactions were priceless.
The cocktail hour on the patio was incredible, from a customized grilled cheese station to a raw bar in a boat with a Lindsay and Paul plaque out front, all under an amazing Nantucket sunset. We shot off the cannon at the end of the cocktail hour to signal everyone in to the reception, and the band immediately got the party going. The night was filled with laughter and dancing from beginning to end and one of our favorite things are all of the photos we now have from the photo-booth we had brought in. Towards the end of the night we passed out mini ice cream cones on the dance floor filled with our favorite Green Monster ice cream from the Juice Bar, and gave out our favorite mini cookies from Something Natural for everyone to take home. When the party came to an end Paul and I left through a sparkler send off by our friends and family and got into a boat that took us to our hotel for the night. There are so many little things that made it so special to us, but the best part of it was how unique it felt simply because of it being in Nantucket.
In the end the vision I had in my head came to life perfectly. All of the details and planning added up into the perfect weekend for everyone and made it a weekend that we will never forget. Our friends and family now understand why we love Nantucket so much, how special and unique it is and fell in love with the island, too. It was so special to have all our friends and our families together in a place that we love so much as Paul and I started the next chapter of our lives together. We are so thankful to everyone that was a part of making the day so special, we couldn’t have asked for a better group of people. My words of advice to brides out there is to never lose sight of why you are putting in all of this effort and time in to one day of your life. It is one of the few times in life that you are surrounded by so much love in one place and it just doesnt get better than marrying your one and only surrounded by all of your loved ones on your favorite place on earth.
Photography: Zofia & Co. Photography | Videographer: September Productions | Wedding Planner: Unique Nantucket | Dress: Ines Di Santo | Cake: Jodi's Cakes | Bride's Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Hair: RJ Miller | Band: Wilson Stevens | Venue: Nantucket Yacht Club | Cookies: Something Natural | Flowers & Decor: Soiree Floral | Groom's Bowties: J. McLaughlin | Invitations & Paper Goods: Nico & Lala | Photobooth: Nantucket Photobooth | Welcome Packet: Ellie Gottwald