Weddingbee Blog

Venue(s): Old South Church & Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston
Wedding Date: 9/19/09
Bridal Gown Designer: Pnina Tornai
Florist: Rachel Heikkila - RCH Designs
Photographer: Dorie Hamm & Assistant – Dorie Lynn Photography
Videographer: Mike Henriques from Artistic Wedding Video Group
Cake: Cakes to Remember - Ellen Bartlett
Bridesmaid Dresses: 2107 from Saison Blanche - Purchased at Solutions Bridal in Winter Park, FL
Honeymoon: Italy, Greece, and Turkey - AMAZING trip!

Other Vendors:

DJ: Jeff Mader (aka DJ Shyne) - E.C.F. Entertainment
Lighting: RCUplighting
Rentals: Rentals Unlimited
Hair: Jennifer Guerriero
Make Up: Brea Cherne

My dress and cathedral length veil are by Pnina Tornai (Kleinfeld’s). I fell in love with it the minute I put it on and knew no other dress would ever compare. I had to go up to NYC for 3 fittings in the last 6 weeks before our wedding, but it was all worth it in the end.

The flower in my hair was also made by Pnina to match those that are attached to my dress.

My wedding day handbag was a beautiful minaudiere custom designed by Etsy seller Leighannkline.

My wedding day earrings were from Tejani Bridal Jewelry and my bracelet was custom made by Regina B.

The ivory dupioni silk flower girl dresses were made by Etsy seller BklynDoll and accented by a pink pettiskirt.

The Story

Our wedding took place on September 19, 2009 in downtown Boston at Old South Church and the reception took place at Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. We fell in love with the “Old Boston Glamour” feel of Fairmont Copley as soon as we walked in, and knew it was the perfect venue to celebrate with our 150 guests from all over the nation. Old South Church was a logical choice as it’s right across Copley Square from the hotel, and we love the Gothic architecture and history associated with the church (Sam Adams & Mother Goose were both members!). These two venues set a beautiful stage for our wedding day.

The ceremony felt so surreal to me. Some of our family & friends had been in for the entire week before the wedding, but walking down that aisle was the first time I saw the full sea of faces that had traveled from everywhere to support us. I walked alone, as my Dad passed away last September, but I had his wedding band tied to my bouquet so I know he was there with me.

The entire wedding night had such a magical & special feel to it. My new husband and I discussed during dinner at our sweetheart table just how strange it was to be on the “other side” after attending so many weddings. It was so nice to finally have our day, and it was just how I had always imagined it would be.

The Details

I would describe the overall look & feel we were going for with decor as “Glamorous Romance”. Our very classic color palette of ivory, blush pink, and gold was accented with lots of candles, roses, feathers, and crystals to really glam things up.

I love texture, so I chose romance crushed taffeta linens for the dinner tables. Our menus & place cards were placed on dupioni silk backings created by Revelry Invitations. Our invitations were also backed by dupioni silk with lace belly bands. Unfortunately, I don’t have any professional photos of them.

The end result was a classic & elegant look with just a few modern touches to make things current. We rented gold rimmed hammered glass chargers, gold Chivari chairs, and gold rimmed water glasses for each place setting. There was a baby pink rose tucked into each napkin with the menu as well as a spray rose sitting on top of each champagne glass.

By the end of the evening, all of our guests were wearing feathers and roses in their hair & pockets which was so much fun to see.

I’m a huge fan of champagne and I love how it represents a celebration, so we let that be a theme throughout our wedding.

We had a specialty champagne bar, champagne cork escort cards, and mini champagne bottle favors.

My husband’s wedding gift to me was a gorgeous right hand ring made of champagne and clear diamonds that I wore on our wedding day - it was such a special and thoughtful gift.

One of my favorite parts of our wedding (and many of our guests’ favorite as well!) was our Champagne Bar. We decided to upgrade the signature drink idea a bit by creating a signature bar with 4 special champagne cocktails: Perfect Pear, Diamond Fizz, Blushing Bride, and Something Blue. The bar was open during Cocktail Hour and then remained open through the rest of the night. Our guests had a lot of fun sampling the different cocktails that all featured fun garnishes such as fresh fruit or rock candy swizzle sticks.

Our cocktail hour took place in a separate room where live jazz was played by Saxophonist Jeff Bacon and Guitarist Mark Michaels. Guests were greeted by passed wine & champagne, passed hors d’oeuvres, and 3 open bars.

An escort card display was in the center of the room with the escort cards supported by champagne corks and a large feather floral arrangement in the middle.

All of our calligraphy work (invitation envelopes, escort cards, place cards) was done by Katrina Centeno of Calligraphy Katrina & Maison du Papier. She was just amazing to work with and our guests had so many compliments for the calligraphy.

We decided to do something a little different in place of a guestbook. We loved the idea of a Wedding Certificate created with our specific vows and space for each of our guests to sign as part of the marriage covenant. It is such a great keepsake for the home and a wonderful reminder that each of these individuals in attendance are part of your commitment to each other. Our wedding certificate was created by Sharon Hanse at Toucan Calligraphy and our guests really enjoyed signing it.

I arranged for Live Event Artist Gail Fitzpatrick to paint our reception as a surprise gift to my new husband.

The scene she painted depicts us during our first dance and also features our bridal party, family members, and many other guests as well. Our guests were all really interested in the painting as it came along and kept checking back during the evening to see if Gail had included them in the painting.

I’ve always been a very crafty person and early on during the wedding planning process I was inspired to take on a few DIY projects after seeing the Knottie bios of a few different brides. By the time our planning was over, I had taken on way more as DIY projects than I ever anticipated but it made things feel so special as I put a lot of love & care into the little details of our wedding day.

I screen printed our wedding invitations, programs, menus, candy buffet bags, and cocktail napkins using a Gocco printer and lots of gold ink.

I used a metal stand, wood lettering, and glass “bubbles” from CB2 to create the sign for our Champagne Bar.

I created kid’s “Play Buckets” for our flower girls that were waiting for them at their place settings.

A memory table was set up along the side of the room to honor those who could not be there to celebrate with us that day. I made the memory candles to honor our loved ones who have passed.

I also used wood letters and pearl beads to create “We Do” letters to accent our Wedding Certificate table, and spray-painted various frames gold to create our Italian table numbers.

Our cake was created by Ellen Bartlett from Cakes to Remember in Brookline and was made up of two different flavors: Black & White and Caramel Tiramisu.

There were a few Italian touches in our wedding as my husband’s family is full-blooded Italian. The table numbers were numbers 1 through 20 in Italian and we had a separate pasta course added to our menu which made for an amazing 5 course meal. Italian cookies from Mike’s Pastry in Boston’s North End were also served to each table during dessert.

A Candy Buffet full of ivory, gold, and pink candies was displayed after dinner as part of our dessert offerings.

We also had butler passed “Fenway Favorites” (mini hamburgers & cheeseburgers, fries served in mini boxes, Mini Fenway Franks in a puff pastry, and jumbo warm pretzels) served at 11:30PM as late night snacks.

Baskets of flip flops were brought out at 10:30PM for the ladies who immediately changed out of their heels and into dancing shoes for the rest of the party.

We hired RCUplighting for our event and the lighting added so much to the room. During dinner, each window was lit with Amber lighting for a more subdued effect. After our first dance, the lights switched over to bright pink which really added to the party atmosphere. RCUplighting also placed a “C” monogram on our dance floor using a gobo.

DJ Jeff Mader really kept the party going all night with a great mix of music. Our first dance was set to “True Companion” by Marc Cohen. We had an anniversary dance and I awarded by bouquet to the couple who had been married the longest. Our last dance was to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra which was followed by a surprise encore dance - “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. Everyone went crazy and starting singing on the dance floor during the encore, and that is a moment I will never forget. At the end of the song, we had arranged for a confetti bomb full of pink & gold confetti to go off and it was the perfect way to end the evening.

~~~

Amber also has her own Etsy shop, Bella Bride Designs, where a lot of the details you see here are customizable and available for sale.

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