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From the bride… We are lovers of the great outdoors and knew that we wanted to get married outside — somewhere beautiful and serene. We found our perfect spot at Spohr Gardens in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where I grew up. It holds a special place in my heart as my grandmother used to come down every spring when I was young to take a trip to these gardens to look at the thousands of daffodils that bloom there every year. She is long gone, but she was there with us on our wedding day. We got married on a dock overlooking the pond. It was warm, but there was a breeze and it was just perfect. Once everyone had left to go the reception, Stacey had Jim and I walk around the grounds, and snapped photos. These are some of my very favorites! It was all as magical and sweet as it looks, and we are so very lucky to have found each other. We are excited for all that lies ahead for our growing business and are enjoying time with each other before taking the next step to expand our family! Wedding Photography: Stacey Hedman / Ceremony: Spohr Gardens in Falmouth, Massachusetts / Reception: Osteria la Civetta in Falmouth, Massachusetts / Flowers: Astrid of Windfall Market / Wedding Cake: Windfall Market / Wedding Dress: BCBG / Hair: Angela at Belleza Day Spa / Makeup: Kimberly Richard / Pearls: A Gift from the Bride’s Aunt / Groom’s Suit: H&M / Groom’s Shirt: Brooks Brothers / Groom’s Tie: Barneys

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Post tags: Barneys, BCBG, Belleza Day Spa, Brooks Brothers, Cape Cod, Falmouth, Green, H&M, Kimberly Richard, Massachusetts, Osteria la Civetta, Spohr Gardens, Stacey Hedman, Tan, Taupe, Windfall Market
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings

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From Lauren of Lauren Methia Photography… Christina and Paul were married October 15, 2011 at the gorgeous Wequassett Inn on Cape Cod. Family and friends traveled near and far to join them on their special day. Christina grew up visiting her grandparents on Cape Cod so it holds a special place in her heart. She wore her grandmother’s brooch on her dress and designed many of the details herself, including the welcome bags/gifts, menu cards, invitations and more. The ceremony took place on the lawn overlooking the water at sunset. Everything was perfectly orchestrated by the couple, making for a beautiful fall Cape Cod wedding. Christina and Paul were amazing to work, and I’m happy to now call them friends!

Photography: Lauren Methia Photography / Venue: Wequassett Inn / Jazz Band: Stage Door Canteen / DJ: Dave Donato / Flowers: Karen Taddei of Lilacs / Cake: Konditor Meister / Videographer: Ian Travis Barnard / Wedding Gown: Jim Hjelm / Designer: Hagopian Ink (owned the bride) / Hair: Cee Cee Politano / Makeup: Ivy Vahanian

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Post tags: Cape Cod, Christina Hagopian, Dave Donato, Do-It-Yourself Inspired, East Harwich, Ian Travis Barnard, Konditor Meister, Lauren Methia Photography, Massachusetts, Stage Door Canteen, Wequassett Inn
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings, Traditional Elegance

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From the bride… I dreamed, long before I got engaged, that someday I could be married on Cape Cod. To me, it’s more than a summer vacation destination, more than a sunny beach day, it was my permanent home for 22 years, and in some ways, it will always be my home. I was fortunate enough to find a husband who shared the same love for the Cape as I and was as set on being married there. We wasted no time finding the perfect Cape Cod location immediately after getting engaged. When we visited The Sea View in Dennisport, MA, my hometown, we both knew it was it. It was simple, fresh, bright, elegant, and had just that Cape Cod touch.  

The inspiration for our wedding day was the colors of Cape Cod in the fall. We wanted to blend the image of fall in New England with the end of the summer season on Cape Cod. I chose navy for the bridesmaid’s dresses and tan for the men’s suits to represent the colors of the sand and the ocean.  In fall, the ocean turns a deep blue, and will always remind me of the end of summer. I also wanted to save most of the colors for our flowers. Our florist was the most wonderful woman on earth. The flowers were simply stunning and were my favorite detail of the day, especially because they were not typical Cape Cod colors or arrangements but fit just perfectly into our vision. I wanted to preserve them forever! Pinks and oranges have always been my favorite colors and I am so happy at how they worked into the day. I even worked in our fraternity and sorority pins on my bouquet. Our flowers definitely put a touch of “us” in the wedding décor.  

We put a lot of focus into the “nautical” part of the Cape Cod theme. Guest table names were boat names from the harbor where my parents dock their boat in the summer. Our table name was “Shoal Mate” with our chairs adorned with hand painted “Mr”. and “Mrs.” buoys. Some of our guests even got to sit at tables of their own boats. For favors, each guest was given a gift certificate for a cone of ice cream at Sundae School Ice Cream Parlor, a local landmark where both myself and my sister, my maid of honor, have worked/work. I know they got put to good use on the warm, sunny, fall Cape Cod day. Finally, our guestbook was a framed antique map of the Cape that our guests could sign. We knew this would be the perfect way for us to remember our guests and the place that will always hold a special place in our hearts. The night ended with a candy bar for our guests to fill the late night snack cravings. The candy jars and bags were all DIY. I couldn’t have done all of this without the help of my mom. She made the beautiful 4 tier, 4 flavor wedding cake, helped with making programs, name cards (she printed them all while I punched hundreds of anchors), addressing the invitations, and more!   She made 35 lobster lollipops for our rehearsal dinner as well, and they were a hit!

Wedding Photography: Katie Pietrowski Photography / Wedding Flowers: Meredith Fancy of Fancy Flowers / Wedding Ceremony Venue: Christ the King Parish / Wedding Reception Venue: The Sea View / Wedding Shoes: Nina / Wedding Dress: Anjolique / Bridesmaid Dresses: Bill Levkoff / Hair: Ashley Bigda / Makeup: Maura McSharry / Music: DJ Danny Walsh / Transportation: Cape Destinations

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Post tags: Anjolique, Ashley Bigda, Bill Levkoff, Cape Cod, Cape Destinations, Christ the King Parish, DJ Danny Walsh, Fancy Flowers, Katie Pietrowski Photography, Massachusetts, Maura McSharry, Meredith Fancy, Nina, The Sea View
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings

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From the bride… Cape Cod was the perfect wedding location for many reasons, one being it is pretty close to mid-way between our two homes, as I grew up in California and Andreas is from Germany, which is where we live now.  Also, my family has a long history on Cape Cod and I have always felt a deep connection to the area.  We got engaged in Cape Cod during a trip in 2010 and both knew right away that we wanted to get married there as well.  We always knew we would have a small wedding, we wanted the wedding to feel more like a great dinner party with good food and good wine and to just be surrounded by love and laughter.  We found the perfect venue, a grouping of lakeside cottages, where we could not only throw a great party, but also house our guests.  It made for a laid back long weekend for our friends to get to know each other and enjoy all of the things we love about Cape Cod.  

The Monique Lhuillier dress I wore was found at a store my friend managed after it had somehow been lost in the warehouse and been continually marked down.  I had emailed her almost the exact same dress from Monique’s runway show as an inspiration for my wedding dress, knowing it was way out of my price range.  When she stumbled upon the dress in her warehouse, she immediately sent me an email saying “I found your dress!!!!”.  As soon as I read her mail, I called her right away with my credit card number after only seeing a blurry picture she had snapped on her phone.  It was bridal fashion fate.  It fit almost perfectly and was practically free (in wedding dress terms, that is).

We switched the day around a bit and started the wedding afternoon off with cocktails, appetizers and some lawn games, rather than leading with the ceremony.  It gave us a chance to take more photos and mingle with our friends and family before we became mr and mrs.  I walked with both of my parents “down the aisle” to our favorite song, “Heartbeats” preformed by a fabulous local musician.  My uncle preformed the ceremony and incorporated a literal “tying of the knot” activity, and had each of our guests write their name on a rope and then tied each together, tying not only Andreas and me together, but our friends and family together as well.  It was a beautiful addition to our short and sweet ceremony, with our handwritten vows bringing a bit of laughter.  After the ceremony, we spent our first few moments together as husband and wife in my boat rowing around the lake and were blessed with the most amazing Cape Cod sunset ever and it was magical as the grey sky turned vibrant hues of pink and red.  We left out many wedding traditions (bouquet toss, cake cutting, first dance) because they didn’t feel like “us” and focused on what we found most important- spending the day with the people we love.   Having creative friends and family was an enormous help, as planning a wedding from another continent is not exactly an easy task, but thanks to the internet and a very helpful wedding planner (aka my mama) the weekend was a great success and certainly one of the greatest days of our lives so far.

Venue: Gibson’s on the Pond / Caterer: Sumptuous Catering / Photographers: davina + daniel / Bride’s Dresses: Monique Lhuillier + Antik Batik / Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Flowers: Flowers by Mary / Groom’s Suit: J.Crew / Groom’s Shoes: H by Hudson / Hair: TJ Hazzard / Rings: Kevin Main Jewelry / Wedding Pies:  Cottage Street Bakery + Marion’s Pie Shop / Ceremony Musician:  Fred Fried

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Post tags: Antik Batik, Badgley Mischka, Cape Cod, Cottage Street Bakery, Davina + Daniel, Flowers by Mary, Fred Fried, Gibson's on the Pond, H by Hudson, J. Crew, Kevin Main Jewelry, Marion's Pie Shop, Massachusetts, Monique Lhuillier, Sumptuous Catering
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings

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From the Bride…Eric Laurtis took the most beautiful pictures of our wedding July 24th, 2011 at the Wequassett Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts.  

Buzzie and I met six years ago, and fell in love during our first summer spent together in Cape Cod.  Our families both have homes in Cape Cod, so when we got engaged it was a no-brainer that we would want to be getting married in the Cape.  My wedding was planned by me in New York city, with the help of my family with all the details. The Wequassett Inn was the most beautiful colorful, and perfect backdrop for our wedding, so I wanted to keep the flowers and the rest of the wedding all shades of white.  

My Aunt, Diane Valle had owned a flower store in Boston growing up, and though she retired from that she so generously offered to do my wedding flowers.  We spent countless hours looking at magazines for inspiration, and also wanted to celebrate the natural beauty and flowers that are at the Cape.  

I am a buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, so I was obsessed with finding the perfect dress and bridesmaid dresses. My dress was Oscar de la Renta, I tried on the runway sample, 1 week after the spring 2011 collections walked, and ordered that dress immediately.  I scoured the marketplace for the perfect bridesmaid dresses, and finally picked those amazing Notte by Marchesa bridesmaid dresses off the rack. I then searched for the perfect mother of the bride dress for my mother and found the most amazing green Monique Lhuillier dress. 

My grandmother painted small paintings of flowers to give away as wedding gifts as people left.   My wedding couldn’t have come out more perfectly, and we had the most amazingly beautiful evening of celebrating love and family!

Wedding Photography: :e: - Eric Laurits / Floral Design: Diane Valle / Ceremony + Reception Location: Wequassett Resort and Golf Club / Invitations: Ceci New York / Bride’s Shoes: Jimmy Choo / Wedding Dress: Oscar de la Renta / Bridesmaid Dresses: Notte by Marchesa / Mother of the Bride: Monique Lhuillier / Wedding Cake: Konditor Meister /Makeup: Dani Wagener

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Post tags: Cape Cod, Ceci New York, Daine Valle, Eric Laurits, Jimmy Choo, Konditor Meister, Massachusetts Weddings, Monique Lhuillier, Notte by Marchesa, Oscar De La Renta, Wequassett Inn and Resort
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Casual Elegance, Massachusetts Weddings

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From the Bride…Planning a wedding from across the country was no easy task, but thanks to the internet and an initial scouting trip I was able to find a great location and put together a wonderful team.  As a stylist, I am always creating crafty moments for my clients, so it was hard for me not to want to do the same for my own wedding.  With so little time, I had to curb my desire to create everything myself and enlist the help of family and some crafty vendors.  I looked to Etsy for some of the handcrafted details, hired a florist, determined what could be delegated to (my amazing) family and friends, and then chose a few projects to create myself.

I started off designing our save the date and invitations – a great way to begin the creative process of choosing a color palette and overall look and feel.   I wanted our wedding to feel elegant and to be an authentic expression of us as a couple.  As I perused countless magazines and blogs for ideas, I kept seeing seaside weddings that felt very “preppy-nautical,” but this just didn’t feel like the right fit for us.  I wanted to give the seaside theme a different twist, so I chose a soft romantic color palette based on my shell collection and a few old sea glass bottles I found at the flea market – shades of aqua and shell pink – and then punctuated it with navy accents.

The seahorse theme was inspired by a trip we’d taken to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I fell in love with their graceful elegance and the way they seem to dance effortlessly together – a sweet metaphor that we wove throughout our ceremony and reception.  A pair of white chocolate sea horses graced the top of our cake, we had custom seahorse wine stoppers made out of pewter for our favors, and for the sand ritual in our ceremony we poured sand from a large nautilus shell into a glass vessel etched with the sea horse artwork I created for our invitations. My vision for a romantic seaside wedding really started to come together when I decided to look to the beautiful intricacy of 19th century Sailors’ Valentines  for inspiration. These mosaic-like masterpieces composed entirely of small sea shells were originally brought home from a sailor’s voyage as a souvenir for a loved one.  Many contain examples of tiny shell flowers and intricate symmetrical patterns which inspired many elements of our wedding, including the design for our cake – a delicious mango cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, covered in tiny pastel sugar shells.

For my bouquet, I created some shell flowers by adhering small pink petal-shaped shells to pearl bead centers and then mounted each one to a separate wire to make it easy for our florist, Katie McConnell, to incorporate them into the feather- fringed fresh floral bouquet.  For my tiara, I glued small shells in symmetrical patterns to a metal head band wrapped with satin ribbon, and for my bridesmaids I created small pink shell flowers attached to hair pins.  My flower girl looked like a little sea shell princess, wearing a crinkled shell pink and gold satin dress, and a mini tiara and fashioned out of shells and small fabric flowers.  My ring bearer carried our rings tied onto a little satin pillow that I glued inside the opening of a large nautilus shell.

It was truly a memorable day!  Although we had to hold our ceremony inside because of wind and rain, Katie’s flower arrangements were so gorgeous that we almost didn’t notice.  Our chuppah was constructed of white branches draped with orchids, carnations, and crystals, and encrusted with shells, and sweet white carnation kissing balls lined the aisles. White manzanita branches dripping with orchids, crystals and hanging glass votives, set in mercury glass vases graced the center of our reception tables. Some of our family and friends weren’t able to be with us that day, so we chose to honor their “presence in spirit” by placing  pink and white feather butterflies throughout all the bouquets, flower arrangements, and boutonnieres.  They perched on the branches and the kissing balls, and floated from the orchid-draped chandelier above us on the dance floor as we did the fox-trot to Dancing Cheek to Cheek played by the amazing White Heat Swing Orchestra!

As I look back on it all I can’t say enough great things about our photographer, Ned Jackson.  He captured every moment, and all of the details with tireless enthusiasm and patience.  We couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out!

Wedding Photography: Ned Jackson Photography / Floral Design: Katie McConnell of Wild Bunch Studio / Event Design + Planning: Kelli Ronci / Ceremony + Reception Location: Wychmere Beach Club / Invitations: Kelli Ronci / Menus + Programs: Lilia Kay / Calligraphy: Barbara Callow Calligraphy / Shell Flowers + Tiaras: Kelli Ronci / Feather Butterflies: Floraltrims / Silver + Gold Shell Holders/Escort Cards: Gallery 360 / Starfish Place Cards: Timeless Paper / Sailors Valentine Cake: Michael’s Creative Baking / Etched Sand Ceremony Vessel: The Cutting Etch / Sea Horse Wine-Stopper Favors: Faro Products / Linens: BBJ Linens / Bride’s Gown: Romona Keveza / Bridesmaid + Flower Girl Dresses: J.Crew + Crewcuts / Swing Band: White Heat Swing Orchestra / Hair + Makeup: Lisa George

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Post tags: Barbara Callow, BBJ Linens, Cape Cod, Creative Baking, crewcuts, Faro Products, Floraltrims, Gallery 360, J. Crew, Kelli Ronci, Lilia Kay, Massachusetts Weddings, Ned Jackson Photography, Romona Keveza, The Cutting Etch, Timeless Paper, White Heat Swing Orchestra, Wild Bunch Studio, Wychmere Harbor Club
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings

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And while you’re here, don’t miss out on this adorable stop motion video by Katie Pietrowski Photography!

From the Bride…Steve and I wanted to have a small wedding, that felt personal and true to who we are.  We decided to have the wedding at my parent’s restaurant, in the building where I grew up.  My grandfather and dad started the restaurant and it felt like the perfect place to have our wedding.  Having grown up in a restaurant, I love food, as does Steve.  We both felt that the food was an important part of the evening- and knew it would be amazing at the restaurant.  The big thing was making sure my dad wouldn’t be in the kitchen, and would be enjoying the night!  We had a raw bar during cocktail hour with delicious Cape Cod oysters.

As a textile and home product designer, I wanted to add a few small touches to the night.  I travel to India for my work, and the people I work with there are really amazing.  They all wanted to help me in any way they could.  I decided to have napkins made on a cotton-slub fabric in 3 shades of coral, each with a different hemstitch detail.  I was also able to have mercury glass votives made, which worked really well with the small vases of flowers. My mom helped track down lots of vintage hollow stem wine glasses for the flowers.  She found them at thrift stores, and it was really an affordable option as none of them cost more than $1 a piece.  My mom grew a lot of flowers in her garden, and we supplemented those with loose dahlia flowers from Meredith Fancy. We wanted to keep things fairly simple, and easy to put together the day before the wedding.  We added in table number to some of the vases that were purchased from BHLDN.  We also got my bouquet from Meredith Fancy.  I had found inspiration images for my bouquet on design sponge’s ‘we like it wild’ posts by studio choo.  Overall I wanted the flowers to feel like wild flowers.

The finishing touch for decorating the restaurant was papel picado banners.  I had seen them in the lovely bridal boutique, and my boss’s daughter had ordered them for her wedding as well.  I loved that they could be personalized, and added a light airy feeling to the restaurant. I designed the save the dates, invitations, and place cards.  I hand-painted some of the text and scanned it into the computer.  Steve helped me cut everything, and my mom helped me assemble.  My older sister Grace is very crafty (she has a blog stripesandsequins.com) and taught me how to use a glue gun for sealing wax.  We used baker’s twine around a piece of craft paper and sealed it all with gold wax embossed with an A.  The most time consuming part was hand painting all of the addresses, but I love how it all came out in the end.

I wanted a wedding dress where I still felt like myself- romantic, yet modern.  We wanted a somewhat casual wedding, and I found the perfect dress at Tibi, and then found an amazing pair of Miu Miu shoes.  My amazing friend Sarah Laskow made my headpiece and sash.  She is a very talented embellishment designer currently working at Alice and Olivia.

Our wedding, despite being threatened by Hurricane Irene, was a perfect day.  It had the personal touches we had hoped for, and the things we hadn’t gotten to we didn’t notice.  We felt so happy to celebrate our relationship with our friends and family, and we knew those that couldn’t make it were there in spirit.

Wedding Photography: Katie Pietrowski Photography / Wedding Cinematography: Katie & Hillary of Katie Pietrowski Photography / Flowers: Meredith Fancy / Ceremony + Reception Location: The Red Pheasant / Invitations: DIY / Bride’s Shoes: Miu Miu / Wedding Dress: Tibi / Rings: Sam Abbay of New York Wedding Ring / Band: Jeff Lowe Band / Paper Banners: Mexican Sugar Skull

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Post tags: Cape Cod, Jeff Lowe Band, Katie Pietrowski, Massachusetts Weddings, Meredith Fancy, Mexican Sugar Skull, Miu Miu, New York Wedding Ring, The Red Pheasant, Tibi
Post categories: Casual Elegance

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From the Bride…Our goal in our wedding was to be as laid back as possible. We decided to go on the smaller side, inviting only our close friends and family. We also decided to forego a wedding party since our wedding was only 75 people. I grew up in Cape Cod, so naturally I wanted to have my special day there. Jason’s family was from Florida, so many of them stayed for the weekend and made a vacation out of it (and a break from the FL heat).

The wedding began in the house I grew up in. We put together some of the final details for the day, including making my bouquet. I just used an arrangement of pastel colored roses (my favorite) and wrapped them with burlap. I also put up my hair and did my own makeup.

The ceremony location was a teeny little church just down the street from the reception venue. I loved the white walls and big windows. We put a bucket floral arrangement in each window and then also used ladders with flowers on them as a decor at the front of the stage. Jason and I also wrote our own vows to share during the ceremony. It was the highlight! The reception venue was just down the street from the ocean (in Cape Cod… the ocean is pretty close no matter what). It was such a nice day, we decided to stop and grab a few shots with Jenny, our photographer.

Once we arrived at the reception, our guests were already enjoying cocktails and snacks. The reception was in the vineyard’s outdoor pavilion area. It was a very relaxed set up. We didn’t have assigned seating… and we had an open buffet for our guests to eat. Other details in the reception included pictures from our childhood and our relationship together pinned up on strings of twine. This was nice for our guests to view and reminisce. We also had a guest box instead of a guest book. People could write a little note, word of advice, etc to us and drop it on the box. We plan on opening those throughout our first year of marriage. We had a candy bar since I love sweets. Our guests could fill a bag and bring it home.

My aunt made our cake. And my family helped with all of the lanterns and floral arrangements at the reception. Our dog Lucy was at our reception too! My father and his friends played music for us all night. We were able to dance under a full moon and just enjoy being outside at the vineyard. The weather was so pleasant too! It was such a great night.

Wedding Photography: Captured Photography by Jenny / Ceremony Venue: Chapel on the Pond / Reception Venue: Truro Vineyards / Caterer: Adrians / Flowers, Event Design, Make-up + Cake: DIY / Wedding Dress: WToo / Bride’s Shoes: Nine West / Band: Friends + Father of the Bride

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Post tags: Adrians, Cape Cod, Captured Photography by Jenny, Chapel on the Pond, Do-It-Yourself Inspired, Massachusetts Weddings, Nine West, Truro Vineyards, WToo
Post categories: Cape Cod Weddings, Casual Elegance, Massachusetts Weddings