Weddingbee Blog

Hilary and John are self-proclaimed bookworms who met and fell in love at Harvard. Their library-styled wedding integrated their personalities and history just beautifully!

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The Details

1. Bride’s Name: Hilary
2. Groom’s Name: John
3. Venue(s): The Memorial Church in Harvard Yard; Reception- The Charles Hotel
4. Wedding Date: May 15, 2010
5. Bridal Gown Designer(s): Priscilla of Boston and Jovani
6. Florist: Spruce Florals
7. Photographer: Michael O’Bryon
8. Music: Music Management (especially DJ Denise LaCarruba)
9. Transportation: Brewster Trolley
10. Stationery and paper products: Gordon Bond Designs and RSVP Mindy
11. Decor: Be Our Guest
12. Hair and makeup: Luz Beauty
13. Bridesmaid Dresses: Aria
14. Honeymoon: The Tides in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

The Story

We threw a party that truly reflected our personalities and style. John and I are bookworms—but we also can have a lot of fun.

We both graduated from Harvard, and we both work there now, so we married in The Memorial Church in Harvard Yard, where a college classmate officiated. [Sidenote on how we met: Despite living 400 yards apart our freshman year, we did not meet until we had graduated from college. After college we both studied in England, where we met. But our timing was never quite right... To quote "When Harry Met Sally: "We were friends for a long time, and then we weren’t." Of course, there is much more to the story than that, including lots of red roses, 3000 miles of distance, and late night phone calls!]

Many special people in our lives contributed to our ceremony. We had three readings, and each reflected our pasts and our future. John’s aunt and uncle read the Sheva Brachot in Hebrew and English respectively to signify our Jewish backgrounds. One of my high school history teachers did a reading from Corinthians, as I was raised Catholic. Finally, my dissertation advisor read selections from economist Gary Becker’s seminal articles on an economic theory and model of marriage; John is an economist, and I’m a sociologist, so this symbolized the two disciplines coming together in our household. I’m not sure anyone has ever had a reading like that at their wedding before, but it definitely reflected us.

We also were honored to have one of my high school friends, and her fiancé, sing at our wedding—both are professional opera singers.

When guests arrived at The Charles Hotel they were greeted with another “very us” item. Instead of a traditional escort card table, we used a library card catalog. Each guest had a card that mimicked the old Dewey Decimal system cards; on the back of each guest’s card we wrote personal notes.

For our Save the Dates I had a graphic designer use childhood photos to create an image that looked like the old Little Golden Book covers. On the inside of the Save the Dates it looked like a library book (on the left side is a bookplate with our names and on the right side is a library card pocket. Inside the card pocket was an old-style check-out slip with our wedding date stamped on, along with other significant dates in our relationship.

Continuing the library theme, our favors were bookmarks, using the same image as our Save the Date book cover.

Inside the ballroom I had the hotel use conference tables, and place them on a diagonal, to give the sense of a library, but create a more intimate setting.

Our table numbers were also books, and each numbered “Volume” had two pictures—one of me and one of John on each side at the same age as the volume number.

Inside the ballroom, we used a palate of periwinkle, lavender, and plum for our flowers, linens, and lighting.

Each guest had a personalized menu card at his or her place, which had been hand calligraphied.

At the end of the cocktail hour I changed into a shorter dress, because I LOVE to dance. We started the night off with our first dance, which was choreographed to “It Had to Be You.”

We had an amazing night filled with amazing food and dancing (like the Hora, but also heavy on the Lady GaGa and Madonna), and we felt completely surrounded by friendship and love!

I did not have a wedding planner or coordinator and discovered a creative side that I didn’t know I had!

All photography by Michael O’Bryon Photography

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