Our Wedding

I cannot tell you how many times friends and family jokingly asked me if I would be photographing my own wedding. Others wondered who a wedding photographer would hire to photograph their own wedding or if I was super nervous about the photography. The answer was VO Photographers (Visual Obsession Photographers who work right here in Connecticut). I trusted VO so completely with every moment of my wedding day so I was able to live in the moment and not worry about memories being missed. There are so many great photographers in Connecticut and Matthew helped me pick VO out of a lineup I made of my personal favorites. We both love VO for their fun moments, pops of color, candids, and attention to detail. They were with us from start to finish, making sure that every moment of our day was archived in beautiful detail. I also personally loved VO’s style for being so different from my own. Without further ado I am going to share with you all of our favorites images, moments, and details from our wedding day. If you have a chance, visit VOphotographers.com to see more of their incredible work.

When choosing a place to stay the night before our wedding and the night of, we looked at numerous Inns in the area near the CT shoreline. Unfortunately, many rooms were already booked far in advance and others were out of our budget. We found this incredible home in East Lyme on Airbnb. We had the entire third floor apartment all to ourselves, complete with a kitchen, dining room, master bedroom and bath, two guest rooms, another bathroom, and a living room. It was a perfect place for our bridesmaids to sleep the night before, a beautiful location for getting ready in the morning, and a romantic retreat for our wedding night. If you love Hallmark holiday movies, look out for this house this holiday season as it was being used as a movie set for a Hallmark Original during our stay!

The day before our wedding was cold and rainy so we feared the worst for our wedding day and outdoor ceremony. When I woke up, it was to beautiful sunlight streaming into my bedroom window. It was the most perfect day.

I used this blue ribbon as my “something blue.” I made these charms with a photograph of my grandfather and a photograph of Matthew’s mother to tie to my bouquet for the wedding. My amazing makeup artist was Angelina from Beauty Marked Studios. She made me feel and look glamorous. No bridal look is complete without hair. I usually don’t like my hair overdone and the only person I truly trust to do an incredible job is Meghan, the owner of Rebel Studios in New Haven. She just opened a new salon that you should check out when you get a chance. My bride tribe. I am so thankful for this lovely group of women in my life. My sisters were my maid and matron of honors and my bridesmaids are my beautiful cousins. I always pictured having a bridal party with only my family by my side. As much as I love and adore all of my friends, my cousins have been by my side me entire life. I am so grateful for each and every one of them. Meanwhile, Matthew and his crew were getting ready in a Holiday Inn across town. I love this moment of Matthew with his dad: We wrote each other private letters before the wedding day. Instead of hiring a limo driver, I asked my dad to drive me to the wedding. We listened to David Bowie the whole way to Harkness. After much debate, we decided to do a first look! A quiet moment in the garden before the ceremony. This is Matthew favorite photo from the day: A special detail of our wedding day is that this lovely young lady, Melanie, played viola music. Not only did she play beautifully, she played a custom rendition of one of my favorite songs, “For Me and My Gal,” from the movie of the same name starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, as the song I walked down the aisle to and the song we walked off together. It is a sweet and happy song and the lyrics are about getting married. It was without a doubt, one of the most special hidden details of our wedding day. Having an unplugged wedding ceremony was deeply important to the both of us, but especially to Matthew. We wanted our guests to enjoy the moment without the distraction of a screen and we wanted to see their loving faces as we shared our vows. Because Matthew saw me at the first look before the ceremony, I switched up my look by wearing a lace wedding bolero (jacket) over my dress and a long veil with a blusher. Matthew was indeed surprised! The bolero was custom made by Tifary, a talented designer in Poland that I met through Etsy. I truly wanted a long sleeved bolero with a cap color at the neck and buttons going down the front like the famous bolero worn by Grace Kelly at her wedding. After looking everywhere with no luck, I found Slaw’s beautiful online shop. When it arrived it fit my measurements perfectly. The veil was the Royal length by NoonOnTheMoon, another talented Etsy shop. You can learn more about my dress and accessories here.

During the ceremony, I needed help getting around corners and through the garden. My handsome little nephew, Benjamin, was the perfect page boy for our ceremony. When he asked to be in the wedding I told him he could be an usher. He thought I meant “shusher.” “You mean I get to shush people?!” He was so excited that he started practicing his shushing for the ceremony. I didn’t have the heart to correct him. We were married in the gardens at Harkness Memorial State Park. Harkness also has an amphitheater were most couples get married close to the ocean, but the crowds in the summer and the long walk from Eolia Mansion made it less than ideal. Although it had more seating, it just wasn’t a beautiful setting. We knew right away that the garden was were we needed to be. We had two readings during our wedding. My niece, Jada, read a poem by my favorite poet Pablo Neruda and Matthew’s brother, Chad, read a passage from Matthew’s favorite book, The Alchemist. We wrote our own vows. I will never forget how Matthew’s vows made me feel. The night Matthew asked me out almost ten years ago, he jokingly gave me a paper ring he made at a Denny’s and told me it was a promise ring. “When we get married, I want to see it on her finger,” he joked. I kept the paper ring. A couple months before the wedding he mentioned it and asked if I still had it. “I have no idea,” I told him. When he held my hand during the ceremony the first thing he did was laugh and tell me he loved my ring; I was wearing the paper one that I had kept all of these years. I was not expecting the dip, but I loved it all the same. Classic Matthew. One of the most amazing moments of the entire day was walking through the pergola lined with all of our loved ones. This photograph is one of my absolute favorites: Dinner was held inside Eolia Mansion. The ballrooms inside are stunning. We were a little disappointed that our flower order was messed up (the garlands were supposed to be simple and lovely seedless eucalyptus, but the florist made the mistake of using thick bushy fern instead and they were almost as wide as the tables in some places). No wedding goes perfectly to plan. Despite the mix up, we loved every moment of our dinner with our caterer, A Thyme To Cook. We chose A Thyme To Cook because their food was incredible, it was a great value, and most of all they are the only certified green caterers in New England. All of our food came from local organic farms. The environment was a great concern of ours when planning this large family wedding, which is also why we chose to host our day at a state park. The sunroom is perhaps one of my favorite rooms in the entire house. Our cake and tea tables were set up in here for guests, overlooking the ocean. Simple and lovely. A Thyme To Cook made our cake. We knew we couldn’t afford a cake large enough to feed all of our guests, so we did a small one for cutting (chocolate with a top layer of Amarillo almond) and a dessert table with numerous other goodies as well as a s’mores station and an ice cream cone bar. A tent was set up on the back patio for dancing and mocktails. Wine was served with dinner, featuring a red and white wine from our favorite Maryland vineyard, Boordy and a red and a white from a local Connecticut vineyard, Sunset Meadows. Inside we had a memorial table with photographs of loved ones who have passed to honor their memory. The tea station was something I worked hard on during the two years before our wedding. I collected each and every one of these vintage tea cups for an eclectic collection. Thank you to my friends and family who helped me find them! After the wedding I kept my absolute favorites and donated the extras. Our first dance was to the Tracy Chapman version of “Stand By Me.” During our ceremony, our very talented live event painter, Mark DeSilva, captured every beautiful detail and painted throughout the evening for guests to watch. I surprised my mom with a special dance just for her to a song that meant a lot to both of us when I was a kid. In honor of Matthew’s mother, we did a group dance to a song that Matthew shared great memories with his mom; “Yellow Submarine,” by The Beatles. Enjoying our s’mores station, custom created by our caterer, A Thyme To Cook. Our planner, Krystie, knew how s’mores played into our first dating anniversary and came up with this unique idea for the reception. Then we danced the night away.