Pink Seaside Garden Wedding with at Bonnet Island Estate

Melissa Baran
January 3, 2019
Categories: Real Weddings, Romantic

It takes a village… to plan a wedding! Every pretty photo you pin, every detail that inspires you—they each have a wedding-loving heart and brand behind them that made that moment possible. Like today’s fete captured by Holtz Photography: the blooms from Faye + Renee in a perfect medley of pink, the mauve ‘maids in Jenny Yoo, a Bride beautifully wrapped in Sarah Seven from Lovely Bride and fancied up by Grace Loves Lace and Make Me Up Eva, a dinner toasted over by Merri-Makers… whatever detail you fall for, there’s a whole lotta love behind it. See it all here.

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From the Bride… Harrison and I have been together for almost 6 years, and we’ve lived together for the majority of our relationship. We are best friends and have always felt like soulmates, so when planning our wedding, we wanted to make sure that our unique style as a couple would shine through and that we would make every decision as a team. Before we got engaged, I had dreamt of my wedding day, but the style, decor and vision was always left blank. Once we got into planning, I started to think about the key elements that made us unique and those were: our love of live music, Harrison’s love of the beach (he is a surfer and he feels most at home near the ocean), and my dreams of a garden wedding, surrounded by specialty flowers.

We took all of this into consideration when looking for the perfect venue, and after seeing a number of places in NJ that didn’t fit our vision, we came across Bonnet Island Estate in Manahawkin, NJ (Long Beach Island). A friend told me about the venue when she heard of my wedding vision and it could not have been more perfect. Bonnet Island Estate is a private estate on the bay with a rose garden onsite and beachy decor throughout the entire place. It was the perfect combination of garden and beach, which is perfect for us.

As our wedding was in the end of September in the middle of ‘local summer’ (as we call it), the weather was still very much in line with summer, so we chose a palette that would be light and airy, but would carry nicely into fall. The overall color palette was one of mauve, peach tones, creams, greenery and slate blue. All the floral designs had an emphasis on textural florals and foliage. I’ve always loved garden roses and unique flowers, as my mother always made flower arrangements growing up, so my florists came up with a stunning freeform bouquet composed entirely of specialty flowers such as garden roses, ranunculus, dahlias and anemones with textural berries and foliage throughout.

We wanted to allow the bridesmaids to show their personalities with their dresses, so I gave my girls a color to use (mauve / dusty rose) and they all selected different styles of dresses and crop top/skirt combos to wear. The groomsmen all wore navy suits, while Harrison had a navy tux. A special touch for him was his shoe choice: he actually made custom Vans sneakers to wear with his tux! This really shows his surfer/skater personality, which was special. I chose a Sarah Seven gown from Lovely Bride that was simple and lacy, but with a few details that really made it stand out. I paired this with a short lacy veil with some white flowers and simple white heels from Lulu’s! I wanted my look to feel laid back but elegant, so I had my hair down in waves with simple earrings as my jewelry of choice.

There were many elements of the wedding that we hand-picked and one was our photo booth. We chose a vintage-inspired VW bus from Metro Photo Bus for our guests to take photos in. We love the 60’s and 70’s eras, especially music + style, so this fit perfectly. For our ceremony, we got married onsite at the venue in their quaint boathouse chapel, and decorated the space with flowers everywhere. From a display at the alter to rose petals down the aisle, we wanted it to feel like a floral wonderland.

As live music is a big part of our lives, we chose three different bands to perform throughout our wedding day. For the ceremony: a string trio with classical music; for the cocktail hour: a jazz band with some bossa nova tunes, and finally for the reception a 5-piece rock band (who are friends of ours) who played original songs and classic rock covers that made it a party to never forget.

A special item that I surprised my husband with was a custom ‘Mrs. Hughes’ jean jacket that I had made from Bash Calligraphy. It was gorgeous + I loved wearing it on our honeymoon.

Our signature drinks were inspired by cocktails we’ve had at our favorite bar in our hometown of Asbury Park, NJ – Pascal and Sabine. Mine was called “The French Blonde” (as my family is from Bordeaux) and his was called “The Local Summer” (he made a twist of a Manhattan with rum!).

There were some very touching moments throughout my wedding day that made it so amazing, to name a few:

– My grandfather (at age 92!) officiated our ceremony, as he is a minister. He has married everyone in our family and he also baptized me as a child.

– My twin sister donated her kidney to my father last year, and it was because of her that he was able to be healthy enough to walk me down the aisle and give a speech. They are both doing wonderfully and fully recovered, so it was very emotional for all of us. My in-laws actually invited my Dad to live with them during his recovery, and it brought both families closer together.

– My mother passed away from breast cancer in 2004, and her sister (my aunt) decided to make me a handbag that was made out of my mom’s wedding dress. I carried it around the whole day and it made me feel as if she was with me. She also gave me my mother’s blue wedding garter as my ‘something blue’.

If I could give any advice it would be this: Choose your vendors carefully and make sure you find people who you can communicate your vision with and who you generally vibe with. Each and every person who worked with me on my wedding was a creative genius and I couldn’t be happier with every element.

Also – in the midst of planning craziness, try to remember what it’s all about: your LOVE for each other. Whenever I would have a stressful day, I would remind myself that regardless of how the wedding day turned out, we would be together forever + happy.