From SMP... No matter how many weddings I see on the pages of SMP, there’s still those few affairs that manage to really take my breath away. And when it’s a wedding as off-the-charts wonderful as this, you can pretty much guarantee I’ll be holding my breath from start to finish. Think seaside gorgeousness, sun-soaked images, and a gown so beautiful it deserves a post all its own. Details With Love dreamt up the modern design with floral loveliness thanks to Greenlion. And there’s a whole gallery of Steve DePino’s beautiful captures, which I promise is more than worth a visit.
From the Bride… Jason and I met freshman year at college in California. We quickly became good friends, uniting over our love of sports and hatred of country music. Two years later as juniors, our friendship developed into something more (to no one’s surprise but ours). We then stayed together as Jason pursued his career all over the country and I went off to grad school in Atlanta. After two years of a long distance relationship, we settled together in Houston, where we purchased our first home and adopted our puppy Rollie. Every year for our anniversary, we take a weekend trip up to Napa Valley. Together we taste wine and purchase a bottle for celebrating our next year’s anniversary. Then we go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary and drink the wine we purchased on our trip the year before. On our third anniversary, Jason planned the day of wine tasting and surprised me by making a reservation for the night at The Carneros Inn, a beautiful resort that I had always wanted to go to. We grabbed a bottle of champagne from the room and went for a walk around the resort. After sitting down in the apple orchard to toast our anniversary, Jason got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. What else he said…I have no recollection of!
We decided on a long engagement and had 2 years to plan our special day. We decided to have the wedding near my home in Rhode Island, and fell in love with Belle Mer in Newport. We researched and put together a team of vendors that we knew would make the day extra special and flawless. Our planner Kristin Love (Details with Love) made planning a breeze. And working with our florist Kim Lamothe (Greenlion) was incredible, she was able to take our vision and add her creativity to it to create decor that was out of this world. I fell in love with a Monique Lhuillier gown at a trunk show in Houston and paired it with four pieces of jewelery which served as my something old, new, borrowed, and blue. I purchased diamond drop earrings to be my something new and a gorgeous diamond and aquamarine cocktail ring to be my something blue. I wore my great-grandmother’s diamond broach in my hair as my something old. And borrowed a diamond bracelet from my best friend’s grandmother. Diamonds are a girls best friend, right?
Our wedding had lots of special touches that our photographer Steve Depino and videographer Jeff Brouillet captured beautifully. Before the ceremony, our parents and officiants each wrote a letter to us, and Jason and I wrote one to each other. During the ceremony we sealed these notes in a box with a bottle of wine (picked out on a tasting in Napa). We will open this box on our tenth anniversary, share the wine and read the notes, before writing new ones to each other and re-sealing the box. We drank the same wine at our rehearsal dinner with our friends and family and used a magnum bottle of it as our guest book. I was married with my great-great grandmother’s wedding band, which is a tradition in my family–my great-grandmother, grandma, mother, aunt, and sister have all done the same, and each marriage has been a successful one. My grandfather unfortunately passed away two years ago, but had he been there he would have worn a signature bow tie. To have him be a part of the day I wrapped my bouquet, and my sisters’ bouquets, in one of his bow ties. I later gave my grandmother the bouquet and let her know that Jason and I strived to have the type of marriage that they had.
After the ceremony, Jason and I chose to have a private dinner instead of attending the cocktail hour, so that we would actually be able to enjoy the food! We ate in a private room on a table set with a beautiful lace table cloth that my grandfather gave to my grandmother as a wedding gift. We then toasted our marriage with a glass of the champagne we toasted our engagement with in Napa. We had an amazing time with friends and family dancing the night away at the reception and then the after-party at a local pub. It was without a doubt the best day of both of our lives!
