Massachusetts Weddings

With intimate weddings on the rise, couples are making the most of their very own backyards to create the wedding of their dreams! Today’s gorgeous Bride and Groom tied the knot at the Bride’s waterfront childhood home in Plymouth, MA. With some magic from Flair Floral and Event Design, their backyard transformed into a fairytale – complete with floral adorned trees, a waterfront ceremony spot, and a jaw-dropping tented reception! So, if you’re looking for some major backyard wedding inspo that would put Father of The Bride to shame… head on over to the full gallery of photos – all taken by Meredith Jane Photography!

From Meredith Jane Photography… This couple has fought through thick and thin and made the most of every challenge their way. Alyse from Boston and Hunter from Mississippi first met at a group brunch with mutual friends in Washington, DC in 2015 and loved each other so much that they had a long distance relationship from DC to Boston for two of their five years together! Hunter even flew in for their surprise proposal and Alyse had no idea until she walked into her Charlestown apartment to him down on one knee. When their original plans had to change because of Covid-19, they didn’t skip a beat before putting together a floral and southern inspired soiree at Alyse’s waterfront childhood home in Plymouth, MA. All the way down to the details, they thought of everything they could to embrace the redirection they were given. 

The couple’s photographer, Meredith Jane Photography, and florist, Flair Floral and Event Design, went above and beyond and worked together to design the best way to add floral touches to allow for the tree and boulder filled sloped backyard to transform seamlessly into a perfect ceremony space leading up to the water. This included a tent entrance that overlooked the ceremony space and adding the perfect floral accents to trees to help them add to the ceremony space rather than detract. Hunter’s father, a retired minister, came out of retirement to perform their ceremony and the participation of both sides weaved the two families together in such a special way.

Despite the many adjustments made to ensure everyone’s health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reception felt intimate and personal and allowed for them to spend time with every guest and really savor the day. Each guest was given a personalized hand sanitizer bottle at their place setting. The smaller guest list allowed for additional special details like individual painted clam shells as place cards, collected from the beach behind our house by my mother and hand-painted by me. The clam shell place cards paid homage to a lifetime of family memories living on Cape Cod Bay and gave their guests a little piece of their private beach to take home with them.

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Photography: Meredith Jane Photography | Floral Design: Flair! Floral | Gown: Legends by Romona Keveza | Cake: Guilty Bakers | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Birdy Grey | Catering: The Catered Affair | Makeup: The Doll Face Duo | Hair Stylist: Rachel Jack Beauty | Tux: Domenic's Tux | Bridal Shop: Musette Bridal | Film Print Lab: PhotoVision Prints | Rentals: Fugazzi Tent Rentals

Listen up, loves. Whatever you have planned for Sunday, February 12th, cancel it… now. Because The Wedding Day Expositions South Shore – Cape and Islands Bridal Show is happening from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm and it’s a day of inspo you just can’t miss. From fabulous vendors to live music to yummy eats, it’s a must for planning your dream wedding. Scroll for all of the deets.

Whether you are knee-deep in planning or have just started your wedding journey, The Wedding Day Expositions South Shore – Cape and Islands Bridal Show is exactly the event you need to throw that celebration of a lifetime. Think a strolling fashion show by La Reine Bridal, cake tastings, live music, a hair and beauty trends showcase (+ free temporary lashes!)  and one amazing wedding professional after another all in one gorgeous locale. Not to mention the fab prizes that will be given throughout the showcase, plus your chance to really tour the Pine Hills Pavilion, a venue that gives new meaning to the words warm and rustic. Your going to love it.

Ready to really, truly plan that wedding of your dreams? Then grab your besties + your one true love and make plans to attend The Wedding Day Expositions South Shore – Cape and Islands Bridal Show on February 12th. You’ll love the Pine Hills Pavilion (lunch on premise at the clubhouse is an absolute must) and meeting all of the amazing vendors that will help make those visions a reality. Click here to get your tickets ($10 at the door and $5 online) and head to The Wedding Day Expositions’ Facebook and Instagram for even more inspiration. Have fun!

I’m a total sucker for romance, so this sweet Plymouth affair?  Right up my alley.  Filled to the brim with soft pink hues, lush florals from Flair! Floral and those smile-inducing details that really make your heart sing (hello fab paper products from Papela), it’s the kind of day that romance lovers like me can’t get enough of… and it’s sooo pretty.  See it all captured by Melissa Deschamp in the full gallery.

From the Bride… My husband-to-be sweetly obliged to blush pinks, champagne gold, and cream accents throughout our late summer, early fall wedding in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth is a quaint beach town on the South Shore of Massachusetts – not yet the Cape but just close enough to the bridge that its visitors still enjoy salt water harbor views, mom-and-pop ice cream shoppes, and seaside restaurants. We knew we wanted our bridal party to soak in Plymouth’s appeal, so we started our wedding weekend with golfing, the spa, and a dinner at East Bay Grille – right in downtown Plymouth harbor. Our guests staying over with us for the weekend had Plymouth-themed Welcome gifts waiting for them at their arrival: a lobster ornament, bottle of champagne, some salt water taffy, and a penny for wishing on Plymouth Rock. The morning of the wedding, some of our groomsmen went fishing off the Jetti while the girls gathered at a local salon for hair and makeup. Because of the beautiful, late September weather and close proximity of the church to the hotel & downtown Plymouth, some of our wedding party and guests were able to walk to St. Peter’s for our wedding ceremony.

My romantic, candlelit-themed wedding was played out in our details. My girls wore long, blush chiffon dresses, while I wore a fitted, lace wedding gown and my late mother’s cathedral wedding veil. I had my mother’s engagement diamond made into a drop necklace that I also wore on my wedding day, along with my late grandmother’s gold wedding band on my left ring finger for good luck. My new husband’s wedding band was made from a gold wedding band of my mother’s that we had fitted for him, reminding us of the love surrounding us.

We took care at our reception to make our guests feel welcome and appreciated. Guests’ names and table numbers were printed on miniature blush flags and fashioned to paper drinking straws, serving as their seating number as they entered our cocktail space and were handed our signature pink cocktail: a Seabreeze. Another table at cocktail hour was adorned with wedding photos of our parents and grandparents and gold, glittered letters declaring “L-O-V-E” spread throughout the photos. Our hand-painted chevron photobooth “wall” that was such a hit with our guests was built from scratch by my husband who spent his summer weekends perfecting it.

Within the room, tables were filled with lush flowers, candles burning in gold mercury glass vases, and a pile of hand-tied stationery on which our guests could write us wedding advice and “mail” it to us in a mailbox we fashioned on another table at the reception. My husband and I, sitting at a sweetheart table, were toasted by our dearest friends as we sat with signs adorning the backs of our chairs: “I do” and “Me too”. We danced to an old favorite of my mom’s: “You’re In My Heart” by Rod Stewart. Our gold, cream and blush striped wedding cake was topped with miniature blush hearts made by hand.

At the end of the night, it wasn’t all of the small details that I spent our engagement prepping for that made our wedding day feel so romantic and full of love – it was the love of all of our friends and family who spent the weekend with us. Our dance floor was filled with our guests before dinner was even served. The little details will be forgotten over the years, but the energy of our friends and family is one of the details of the day we will never forget.

Photography: Melissa Deschamp | Flowers: Flair! Floral | Wedding Dress: Vows | Church: St. Peter's Parish | Reception Venue: Pinehills Pavilion | Catering: East Bay Grille | Hair & Makeup: Aristocracy Salon | Bed & Breakfast: Jesse Harlow House | Invitations, Wedding Signage: Papela

Love works in mysterious ways and for this darling duo it was chance 10 minute meeting and a 5 hour first date (!) that led to a lifetime of romance.  So, when choosing the perfect spot for their engagement session, it was a total no-brainer… Main Street in Plymouth, the location of that very first date and an uber-gorgeous backdrop to boot.  Thankfully for us, Ruth Eileen Photography was on hand to snap up all of the lovely… and the gallery?  One fabulous way to spend a Monday.  See it all here.

Click here for the FULL engagement session!

From the Bride-to-Be… Justin and I chose Main Street in Plymouth because Sam Diegos was the spot of our first date, and we had such a great time together there. It was actually a pretty big date for more than just your usual reasons. We’d met about eight months prior when he was the ICU nurse taking care of my grandmother at a local hospital. She was actually our matchmaker and told him he had to meet her granddaughter. She was even able to get his number later for me. But unfortunately, we had trouble meeting up at first; life got in the way and we each had a lot going on. I thought it was never going to happen and actually deleted his number. Then in late September he reached out again via Facebook and we were finally able to set a date at Sam Diegos for dinner on October 16, 2008. I think we were both pretty nervous when that night rolled around (I know he had a drink or two before I met him there). We’d talked on the phone several times but we hadn’t actually seen each other since mid-January that same year — and that was only for 10 minutes! But luckily, as fate would have it, the date went very smoothly, and we hit it off immediately. Justin was so easy to talk to and dinner expanded to drinks at a bar across the street. The whole thing lasted 5 hours! And that was that. We’ve been happy ever since and can’t wait to get married next August. I love going back to Sam Diegos because we always remember how it’s where everything started for us. Plus the food is delicious! We felt it was only right to have our photos taken at the spot where our journey began.

Photography: Ruth Eileen Photography / Location: Plymouth, Massachusetts / Hair + Makeup: Beehive the Salon

As a self-admitted sucker for anything yellow + peach (and striped straws + mason jars, for that matter) this sunny wedding by Rachel Kate Photography is seriously pulling at my heartstrings! The bride hoped to recreate the feeling of laid-back backyard cocktail parties held by her parents when she was a kid, and with the help of Simply Inviting Weddings, her dream became full-blown wedding reality! This one’s not even close to over…the summery goodness continues right here!

Click here for the FULL wedding!

From the Bride… I have such fond memories of parties that my parents have thrown throughout the years, especially the backyard gatherings in the summer where as kids, we would run around barefoot in the yard and play games while parents would sip cocktails as the sun set. Friends were treated like family and family was treated like friends, and Brett and I both knew that we wanted our wedding to feel just like one of those happy times and reflect our family traditions.

Our simple and sweet ceremony took place in my hometown of Scituate, Massachusetts, in the church that I grew up in. When an actual backyard wedding reception at my parent’s house was ruled out due to logistics, we happily decided on having our reception on the lawn of the Daniel Webster Estate in Marshfield, Massachusetts. It was the perfect location as the historic home reminded me of my grandmother’s house, which I grew up next door to. We picked our colors of yellow, peach and some touches of orange — we felt they set a romantic tone while still being bright, cheerful, and fun. Our family traditions were evident throughout the day, starting with our invitations by Lynne Johnson of Inviting Company, who designed our invitations to include drawings of  the horseshoes that are used to play at an annual competition at Brett’s family BBQ and a toy cannon that my family shoots off every Fourth of July. I wore a lace and tulle gown by Monique Lhuillier and was the seventh bride to wear my great-grandmother’s cathedral-length veil from 1911. Jen Cahill from the Tangled Web did an amazing job fulfilling my vision of natural, full, lush floral arrangements of garden roses, dahlias and peonies in containers I collected at flea markets. She even found a way to include out-of-season blue hyacinths in my bouquet, whose scent reminds me of my grandmother.

Cocktail hour took place on the porch and throughout the house — guests sipped Brett’s favorite Arnold Palmer from mason jars and collected their pinwheel table cards. Dinner was alfresco under a white tent strung with twinkle lights and paper lanterns that matched our colors. Our amazing caterer, The Silent Chef, presented trays of food to each guest at the table and guests served themselves as often as they wanted. Having a band was especially important to Brett and me, and First Class Band did not disappoint. They kept the party rocking all night! As per family tradition, we cut our wedding cake with an antique sword from the Revolutionary War. In addition to cake, we had a large table with different cookies prepared by friends and family members in advance of the reception, a wedding tradition said to originate in my mother’s home state of Pennsylvania. I love surprises, both giving and receiving them,so a highlight of the evening was when we surprised our guests with the arrival of an ice cream truck pulling up the estate’s drive for a mid-evening treat!

Though we created many of the details of our wedding — the wooden table numbers, menu cards and programs and ribbon wands — and collected antique tins for cookies, we could not have done it all without our amazing wedding planner, Heather Minicucci of Simply Inviting Weddings. She only made our day more perfect by introducing us to amazing vendors and managing the flow of the whole event. Because of her, Brett and I were able to enjoy our day without a care. She enabled us to have our lasting memory of standing together among the mason jar luminaria, looking back at the warmly lit tent filled with so many people we loved and cared about and realizing our vision had turned into a reality.

Wedding Photography: Rachel Kate Photography / Wedding Venue: Daniel Webster Estate in Marshfield, Massachusetts / Wedding Planning: Simply Inviting Weddings / Floral Design: The Tangled Web / Catering: The Silent Chef / Wedding Cake: Veronica’s Sweetcakes / Ice Cream Truck: Dylan and Pete’s Ice Cream / Wedding Invitations + Paper Goods: Inviting Company / Band: First Class Band / Tent: BCTent / Linens: Rentals Unlimited / Transportation: Extreme Limo & Shuttle Service + A Joyride Limousine / Wedding Dress: Monique Lhuillier / Hair: Justin Robey / Makeup: Jillian Harwich

It only makes sense that this darling couple, who met and fell in love in high school, would choose a hometown wedding to celebrate their sweet love and commitment for one another.  They even chose a venue that they, and many of their guests, had stayed at during school field trips making the whole day that much more meaningful.  The rustic, woodsy details they incorporated into their charming day, like the tree stump escort cards and cake stand, are perfect for this Plymouth, lakeside setting.  See it all in the full gallery!

Click here for the FULL wedding!

From the Bride… Brett and I met in high school during my freshman year. It was that “football player meets cheerleader” kind of love story. We dated throughout school then went our separate ways for college. A few years later, we found ourselves back in each others arms again — until becoming united in marriage!

Brett had arranged a birthday cookout for me on the weekend he planned to propose. The night before the party, we went to our favorite fried clam shack on the north shore of Massachusetts, Farnham’s of Essex. This was our special something that we had shared together on warm summer nights since getting our driver’s license in high school! In keeping with tradition, we went to Singing Beach in Manchester by the Sea to take a walk in the sand. Brett seemed more indecisive than usual, not knowing which way he wanted to walk. Suddenly, he dropped to one knee, sharing his love for me with a ring in hand. Of course, I said “Yes!” and as we were hugging each other I heard this “clicking” sound in the background. Brett spun me around to reveal hidden photographers who had caught the entire proposal on film! The excitement of the proposal carried into the following day at my birthday celebration turned impromptu engagement party!

After opting not to fly away to Hawaii to wed in a small celebration, we decided to host a hometown wedding with our best friends and family! The venue we chose was actually an overnight field trip location that we attended during fifth grade, along with many of the invited wedding guests. We knew it would be a “blast from the past.” Guests were invited to sleep over in cabins that lined the lakeside. Our wedding had a destination feel to it while remaining in our home state of Massachusetts. Since we were at a campsite by the lake, we went with a rustic, woodsy, camp theme: s’mores, birch vases, logs and a tree stump cake stand. Following the lakeside ceremony was a party in the lodge. The night ended with a bonfire on the beach, where we listened to music and roasted marshmallows. Some guests found themselves in kayaks on the lake as well! We were inspired by the talents of our friends and were able to make our wedding personable by including many of them in the ceremony music, first dance song, DJ, photography and cinematography.

Wedding Photography: Jesse Vuona + Sarah Kate Vuona / Wedding Venue: Bournedale Function Facility “Camp Bournedale” in Plymouth, Massachusetts / Floral Design: Karen Keough / Wedding Cinematography: John Graziano / Catering: Bournedale Function Facility / Wedding Cake: D’Amicis Bakery / Wedding Stationery: Rhonda Kaloutas of Peek-A-Boo Invitations / Photo Booth Props: PartyGoodies / “Love is Sweet” Banner for Dessert Table: LazyCaterpillar / Country Wedding Fabric Bunting: AFeteBeckons / “Thank You” Wooden Heart Sign Chalkboards: Save on Crafts / Escort Card Table Display, Ribbon Curtain Dessert Display Backdrop, Burlap Signage + Dessert Table Cake Stands: DIY / Painting of Bride & Groom Over Fireplace: Jen Guertin of Anchor Steam Tattoo Gallery / DJ: Evan Kenney of Bodega Girls / Wedding Dress: Pronovias “Fauna” / Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka “Kiwi” / Bride’s Feathered Hair Clips, Earrings + Bracelet: Handmade / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: David’s Bridal / Bridesmaids’ Jewelry: madebysam2 / Hair: Catie Michaud + Jillian Carbone of Vanity Hair Salon / Makeup: Stephanie Acciacca / Groom’s Tuxedo: Calvin Klein / Photo Booth: Enjoy Photobooth

The DIY detail and love that went into this wedding is beyond precious. I’m totally loving the bright color palette of the tablescapes and how the bride mixed in adorable paper pin-wheel like florals with the Gerbera daisies in milk glass. And how cute are those shoes?! Cordele Photography was there to capture all the sweet details and there’s so much more in the gallery!

Click here to see the entire gallery of images!

From Cordele Photography…Aja took DIY to an entirely new level. She made EVERYTHING from hand.  It was amazing. From the paper flowers in the vases, to the hand stamped “wish cards” for her wishing tree.  She didn’t miss a detail.  She even had twirly straws to have the look and feel she wanted from her wedding day.  He candy bar was named after songs with the lyrics changed to fit the candy.  She made the mason jars with twine and votive candles. She created the place cards from scratch.

Cake Topper: Lynn’s Little Creations / Reception + Ceremony Location: Pine HIlls Country Club / Flowers + Place Cards: DIY / Cupcakes: Cupcake Charlie’s / Wedding Photography: Cordele Photography