This West Palm Beach wedding was so chic I was blown away in a display of gorgeous images from Jonathan Connolly Photography. The soiree, planned with buckets full of love by the bride and her mother, was everything dreams are made of. A sweet ambiance, a beautiful bride, and details so sweet, there is a slight danger of a toothache. When I read that the entire wedding was almost blown away, literally, I couldn’t believe it. Everything was perfect – including the hurricane that almost crashed the party. Click here for the rest!
When Marc and I got engaged, the words that kept circulating about the feel of our wedding were, “about us” and “a big party”. We wrote down a list of everything that we felt we liked… long meals and our favorite foods, cupcakes, intimate and cozy, great drinks, outdoors, music everyone would enjoy, a blending of his european traditions, and my [american] traditions.
Most importantly, we wanted our guests to come to a place that was us. Somewhere we had made memories together, and place we both loved with every ounce of our beings. We both went to Rollins College, and spent every weekend we could visiting his father and stepmother’s home on the intercostal waterway in West Palm Beach, FL. We loved lazy lunch outside under the palapa with his family, bike riding along the lake trail, spending afternoons on the boat, bringing our dog to dinner with us at our favorite al fresco pizza place, and visiting the beach just in time to catch the sunset. So when his father and stepmom offered up the very house that we had spent so much time falling in love at, we couldn’t have been more excited.
By the time we stopped dreaming, and started planning, my mom and I had a little less that four months to go. My mom and I alone had worked so tirelessly on every detail of this wedding. I worked closely with Ashley to design my save the date and wedding suite, and designed all of the other wedding literature. My mom spent hours on the phone communicating exactly what I wanted to the florist despite being 2,500 miles away. I sat at the dining table for what felt like 10 days straight cutting, tying, assembling… You can imagine how I felt when I woke up the morning of the wedding, and all I could hear was the wind shuttering the hurricane doors in our bedroom. My mom came up stairs and asked why I wasn’t out of bed yet, I told her I had lived in Florida for five years and had never heard wind like that and that I didn’t want to get out of bed and see what the situation really was. Everyone had as casually as possible talked me into a tent the night before the wedding – but I still didn’t have one for the ceremony area.
She opened the curtains and together we opened the hurricane doors onto the patio, we pretty much were blown back inside. There were even waves on the pool. I had never in all my time there seen something like it, I kept thinking “just yesterday we were sunbathing on the bow of the boat”.
Memories from the night before and our beyond lovely and sweet grooms dinner in the courtyard our favorite little pizza place reminded me that the day might be ok. The rain started coming down right after everyone finished dessert – but everyone throughly enjoyed themselves, as did we.
With that, my bridesmaids, aunts, and friends who had flown in the wedding were all off to the salon. I loved that every moment of the wedding weekend was filled with so many people I loved. The fact that my mom and sister, all my girlfriends (even the ones who weren’t in the wedding party), my aunts, cousins, and serious girlfriends of my cousins were there with me. “The more the merrier” is a phrase you often hear in our family, and it couldn’t have been truer that day. The salon had prepared goodies and champagne for us – it was the ultimate girls morning. My stylist was so funny because large potted trees kept blowing over outside and she would say “Oh, I think the landscapers are doing some work”
When I got home, I overheard my dad showing my mom and picture of the weather radar. At that point, they had no other choice than to tell us that the eye of the tropical depression was set to blow through about the same time our ceremony was starting. The decision was made to go ahead as planned despite the 10-12 inches of rain and high winds headed our way.
Our photographer, his assistant, and his wife were beyond amazing – without them, the day wouldn’t have been the same. Looking back, they made our day look so beautiful and serene, even though the sky overhead was gray and dreary.
By some miracle, the eye of the storm fell exactly over us, and not a single drop of rain fell until midnight. Our friends are still talking about the vision of my veil flying behind me down the aisle. The wind kept everyone cool while dancing the night away on what would have been a normally humid florida evening. What really matters today is that Marc and I had the best time. Our appetizers were mini servings of our favorite food. Our parents had the best time dancing to classics from the 70’s, we got to speak to every single person at our wedding, the cupcakes were a variety of six of our favorite flavors, and every single person we talk to says how much fun they had that weekend.
Photographer: Jonathan Connolly Photography / Flowers: Vince at Heaven and Earth Floral / Venue: Private Family Home in West Palm Beach / Event Planning and Design: The Bride and her mother / Catering: Catering Concepts and Concessions / Cupcakes: Sweet! by Good Golly Miss Holly / Wedding and Bridesmaids Dresses: Melissa Sweet for Priscilla of Boston / Veil: Custom made by Patricia Dressen / Women’s Shoes: Steve Madden / Groom + Groomsmen Suits: Brooks Brothers / Men’s Shoes: Crocs / Save the Date + Invitations: Lemon and Lavender / Hair: Edmund James Salon / Makeup: Melinda Santi / Bridesmaids Gifts: Kate Spade / Groomsmen Gifts: Michael Kors
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