Weddingbee Blog

Kelly (aka KellyV) and Matt met at work in March of 2006 in McLean, VA. They both were living in a new place where they knew very few people and their friendship quickly developed into a relationship. They eventually moved to New York City, and Matt planned a surprise engagement to Kelly with an elaborate plan involving several of their mutual friends. He proposed to her on the steps of his old townhouse in Virginia… the same place where they first kissed!

Venue(s): The First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles (ceremony), The Lodge at Welch Allyn (reception)
Wedding Date: September 12, 2009
Bridal Gown Designer: Amsale, style Tyler
Florist: Laxton’s Florist
Photographer: Rebekah J. Murray (out of Virginia)
Cake: Wedding cake from Patisserie, Groom’s cake from Dina at Savoir Fare Specialty Baking
Bridesmaid Dresses: Jim Hjelm 5881
Honeymoon: Zihuatanejo, Mexico

The Story

After some deliberation, we decided to marry in my hometown rather than the DC area where we met - and we are so thankful we made that decision.

Our Church was The First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles. My brother was married there, which made it more special. The original church was organized in 1801, and the building was erected in 1809. Because the church had so much history and was over 200 years old, we didn’t feel the need to decorate the church - we wanted that classic beauty to shine through. We used the church’s oriental carpet runner that is in place every day, and we only had 2 altar arrangements - huge vases full of white and Dutch hydrangeas, which we donated to the church afterward.

I had asked the reverend to include a portion about my engagement ring during the ceremony. He read, “The engagement ring is a symbol of promise and intention. Now the intention is realized and the promise fulfilled. Please place the engagement ring on Kelly’s finger over her wedding band to symbolize that the love that brought you together will always protect and sustain your marriage.”

When Matt took the engagement ring from the reverend to place on my finger, he got down on
one knee so we would have a proper photo of him placing that ring on my finger - the only photo we didn’t get from our actual engagement. He didn’t tell me beforehand that he was going to do that (he discussed it with the reverend at the rehearsal) but the second he did it I knew why. I fell in love with him all over again at that moment.

The exterior of the building is a gorgeous red brick with two heavy arched mahogany doors - all we did to the exterior was add moss letters. I made them out of some foam core craft board I found at Michaels. I painted the letters with the green paint (to eliminate the chance of any thin spots showing through, strung blue organza ribbon through each, then drizzled hot glue on the face of the letters and stuck the moss on firmly to the entire front before I moved on to filling in the thin spots and the outside/inside edges. The end results were beautiful. I love those letters.

I knew my dress was only going to be worn once, so I didn’t want to be prissy about it. I wanted to wear the heck out of it! We were hiking through the woods, sitting on logs and rocks, standing on the edge of a pond, etc. I had it unbustled for the entire day until the reception. We walked around downtown in my hometown, out on to the docks, on to a dinner cruise boat, into an ice cream shop, and walked half a mile down main street to the church, and I played with our dogs, all with my bustle undone. I am so glad we did it, because the photos were incredible. We got to the church, I kissed Matt goodbye, went to do a quick steaming to attempt to undo any wrinkles, then saw him again about ten minutes later at the end of the aisle. There was no time to be nervous!

I would strongly recommend a first look to anyone considering it, as it was some of the only time we had alone together all day, and it was such a special moment we shared between just the two of us when he saw me for the first time in my dress.

I wanted the day to feel special so we included as much family as possible. All kids were involved as flower girls or handing out programs, or our “bubble fairies” who handed out our bubbles. My younger and musically gifted cousin played all of our church music (including our recessional to “Crazy Train!”). I walked down to the most beautiful version of Canon in D I had ever heard. He taught himself to play it when he heard I was getting married, and the first time he played it for me I cried. There was no other option after that. My bridesmaids walked down to song from the Phantom of the Opera.

The steeple still has the church bell in it, complete with a long heavy rope hanging down to the ground floor. At the conclusion of the ceremony as guests are exiting, they are encouraged to pull the rope and ring the bell for the village to hear. Cars will honk, people will cheer, and strangers will give you hugs—it’s wonderful.

The reception was held at the gorgeous venue, The Lodge at Welch Allyn. It is set on a huge amount of land, right on a pond stocked with fish and turtles and visiting ducks and geese. I always knew I never wanted a ballroom wedding, but I didn’t want an outdoor tented wedding - this place was the PERFECT compromise. The staff there, especially the wedding coordinator, were outstanding - we couldn’t have asked for more. Also, every guest we spoke to said it was hands down the best wedding food they’d ever had - I agreed, it was FANTASTIC. Everyone there went above and beyond to be sure we had the best experience we could.

We were originally going for a traditional preppy nautical vibe, but that kind of transformed into a still traditional, elegant, preppy garden party vibe in a non-outdoors but non-ballroom setting. Our colors were navy, white, and touches of yellow (we changed the colors after the invitations were ordered, so our invitation suite did not match the theme of the reception. Nobody noticed!).

The Details

My cousin (whom I call my sister) was my Maid of Honor. We both got blue Louboutins (as my “something blue” and to match her dress) that we plan on wearing for her wedding in the future as well. I also wore her Tiffany 3 strand pearl bracelet. I borrowed a friend’s beautiful cathedral length custom veil.

I wore my aunt’s tanzanite ring on my right hand, and my bouquet was wrapped in lace taken off of my mother’s veil from her wedding. My Nona, who is no longer with us, loved cameos, so I had a blue cameo attached to my bouquet handle. I had some hidden guinea feathers in my dress, and my dad had them on his boutonnière. Matt had them as well, to join him to our family (Guinea = joke for us Italians).

We asked friends and family to save all of their wine corks and didn’t tell them why - it was to hold the place cards. We had a thank you sign on the place card table explaining where they all came from. My amazing and patient father sanded and cut over 200 wine corks for us. Guests repeatedly came to us and said how it was the most included they’d ever felt at a wedding.

Matt and most of his family were graduates of THE Ohio State University (emphasis on THE if you are a graduate!) so as a surprise, I had our florist make the boutonnières out of Buckeyes (their mascot) with lemon leaf. His groom’s cake was a model of their beloved stadium, “The Horseshoe”. we were announced at the reception to The Buckeye Battle Cry, and we got EVERYONE involved in “Hang on Sloopy”, an OSU tradition. Our dog, who was our ring bearer, is named Brutus (as in Brutus the Buckeye) and since there was a huge rivalry game that evening against USC, we had a separate Football Room where we projected the game on to a large screen so those that wanted to watch the game had access. That was a huge hit.

I DIYed a few things for our wedding. I loved the look of the hand drawn maps, so I set off on my own quest to make one. I did half of it on the computer and drew the other half by hand and scanned it into Photoshop.I was pretty proud of the end result! After I printed them all out, I went back with a liquid ink pen and traced over the computer print so it would look more hand drawn. It took hours.

I was also dead set on doing my own calligraphy, or rather, faux-ligraphy. I printed each envelope out on a computer in light grey ink, and traced over it with a calligraphy pen. If I could go back, I’d have just gone and hired Laura Hooper! I designed and made all of the paper products - menus, seating cards, programs, etc. based off of a template I found online.

I actually made the seating cards (All 145 of them) and many of our paper products based off of a template I found on Style Me Pretty. We enlarged them for the wine bottle label table names (locations in Italy and one in Ireland to honor my heritage) and also for our menus, place card table thank you notes, the reader’s readings, etc.

Our centerpieces were very simple and beautiful, however they were not what I was expecting. One word of advice - REQUEST A MOCK UP! I didn’t, because I had given my florist a specific photograph including blue hydrangeas, ivory spray roses, and baby’s breath. Unfortunately they didn’t turn out like my vision. I saw them and was disappointed, but I couldn’t do anything about it after the fact, so I said, “oh well,” and partied on!

Our bouquets, though, were gorgeous. My Maid of Honor and I had cream peonies (I had a single yellow flower in mine that Matt picked for me during our first look shots), and my bridesmaids had a beautiful mix of hydrangea, yellow spray roses, and blue delphinium. I bought the ribbon for the handles in the Garment District of NYC.

The candy buffet was AWESOME. I went to Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC to get some specialty candy - rock candy, peppermint sticks, cotton candy, and large swirly lollipops. I was also gifted 5lbs of white M&Ms from the M&M store in Times Square. The rest of it I purchased at BJs the day before the wedding - I walked in, saw what looked good, grabbed and ran in about 15 minutes. We ended up with about 110lbs of candy plus 100 blow pops. The guests were floored - while candy buffets are a huge trend right now, but it hasn’t quite made its way up to my hometown area, so they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

There was a line for the photo booth ALL NIGHT LONG! Some brides on the boards had expressed concern that a photobooth would keep guests off the dance floor. It won’t (or didn’t, in my case).

Matt and I are very fun loving, outgoing, and laid back. We didn’t want everyone in the wedding party feeling stuffy all night but still wanted a traditional look and feel during the ceremony and start of reception. While the ladies LOVED their dresses and were thrilled to wear them all night, the boys didn’t exactly feel the same way about their tuxes. So, we ordered tuxedo print t-shirts as a part of their gifts, and the day before the wedding I ironed on all of the groomsmen’s last names on the t-shirts. They all brought them to the reception, and later in the reception, all the guys changed into their shirts. The guests got a huge kick out of it, and we were happy that all the guys were comfortable! A majority of the guests were there dancing like maniacs until the very end at midnight. I was shocked to see that so many stayed until the very end!

As for our photography, I cannot sing Becka enough praise if I were to scream her name from rooftops. She was absolutely incredible. She made us feel so comfortable and at ease, and our photographs very much reflect that. She is truly a good friend after that experience. We opted to do a first look 3 hours before the ceremony, then did all bridal party photos beforehand so we had plenty of time to get the photos we wanted, while also being able to join our guests during the cocktail hour.

Kelly’s advice for future brides

RELAX. The day should be fun, not stressful. In the end just remember that it is about the marriage, and if something goes wrong, chances are you will be the only one to notice. Things went wrong with our wedding, and 99% of people wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t mentioned it. You don’t want to look back on your wedding day with regrets or distaste because a centerpiece was wrong or the special thingamabob you made by hand didn’t end up where it should have been.

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