Erin and Dan's Harvard Memorial Hall Wedding!

On Saturday, August 14th, I was the coordinator for Erin and Dan's wedding. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, which started out at the Charles Hotel, where the bridal party got ready with hair and makeup. The bridemaids wore Calvin Klein dresses, and the bride's gown was by Paloma Blanca. Not only was Erin's dress stunning, but her cathedral length veil with lace trim from Etsy really completed the look. Nellie's Wildflowers provided all of the bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, and nosegays for the wedding. The bride and groom are both Harvard alums, and decided to do a first look before their ceremony so they would have plenty of time to go to some of their favorite photo locations, like Harvard Stadium.

The ceremony for 250 guests was held at St. Catherine of Genoa Church in Somerville, then everyone traveled a short distance to Harvard's Memorial Hall for the cocktail hour and reception. The cocktail hour was held in the Transept, which is a long corridor with large stained glass windows on both ends and incredibly high ceilings. Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and had a lot of fun with Erin and Dan's unique guestbook. The guestbook was a thumbprint tree, where guests picked their favorite shade of green stamp, and used their thumb to add leaves to a large tree. Then, they would clean off their thumb with provided wipes, and then sign their name underneath their thumbprint.

After cocktail hour, doors opened to Annenberg Hall for the reception. This room is spectacular, and reminds me of the Hogwartz dining hall from Harry Potter. Erin and Dan had a lot of fond memories here because it's Harvard's freshman dining hall, and they chose their wedding date in August because it is the one of, if not the only weekend of the year when there are no students on campus. The bride herself created all of the centerpieces for the guest tables. The low centerpieces were made of ivy leaves and roses. The tall centerpieces were a mix of branches with tied roses and hanging votives. Tons of votives candles were scattered on each table, and along the sides of the room. After a first course of salad, Crimson Catering served filet mignon with shrimp scampi as the main entrée.

The wedding cake from Lyndell's Bakery was decorated with ivy, and two little lovebirds on the top. However, the best part of the cake was the cake cutter: the groom's sword from the Marines. I had never held a sword before in my life, and so it was quite fun even just putting it on the cake table. Erin and Dan cut the cake with the sword, with the Marines' Hymm, "The Halls of Montezuma" playing in the background. Afterwards, I took the icing covered sword into the kitchen, and got a lot of "woah!!"s from the staff who didn't know about sword until then. My awesome assistant, Rachel, ended up washing the sword in the kitchen sink and told me later on that it was definitely a unique wedding experience!

Flip flop baskets were made available to guests as dancing got underway, and soon afterwards, Rachel and I went to go pick up around 16 pizza pies from Pinocchio's Pizza to prepare for the late night snack buffet, which also included Blue Bell Ice Cream. The pizza was for all of the Harvard alums, who survived on Pinocchio's during school. The ice cream was a tribute to Texas, where the groom is from and a lot of guests were from as well. Blue Bell Ice Cream was scooped into cones, and also was part of a sundae bar, complete with servers wearing Blue Bell hats! The professional photos from Eric Laurits will be coming later on, but for now, here are some photos that I took of the night!

Erin and Dan, you both were so fun to work with, and I hope you had an amazing honeymoon in Italy. I wish you nothing but the best in your marriage together, and thank you for allowing me to be part of your wedding day!

~Emilie

Boston Park Plaza Wedding Photos from Joyelle West!

This past April, Fiona and I were the day-of coordinators for Mark and Rhonda's gorgeous wedding the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. It was a wedding full of lush florals designed by John LaRoche of blueGuava, and amazing lighting from Advanced Lighting & Production Services. Guests were in awe of tree projections on the wall, and there were little blue lights on the ceiling to make it seem like they were dancing under the stars. I blogged about all of the details of the wedding here, and now I'm really excited to show you some of the professional photos from Joyelle West!

I loved everything about the wedding, and had a really hard time choosing my favorites. Click on any image for a larger view!

Photos by Joyelle West Photography

I absolutely loved working with Joyelle, and would highly recommend her as photographer to any bride and groom! This wedding was honestly one of those dream weddings that any coordinator would love to be a part of. All of the vendors really came together and produced a spectacular event, including MJ Audio for sound, DJ Kristin Korpos, Konditor Meister for the wedding cake, Michelle Arruda DeVoe of Demiche Beaute', and videography by Boston Wedding Films.

~Emilie

Manivone and John's Wedding at China Pearl

On Saturday, August 7th, I was the day-of coordinator for Manivone and John's wedding. Their ceremony was held at Babson College, and immediately afterwards, guests traveled into the city for a banquet reception at China Pearl.

I assembled the favors a couple of days before the wedding, which included chocolate drizzled fortune cookies in a white box, personalized with double happiness tags and tied together with double-faced green and fuchsia satin ribbon, which alternated on each place setting.

Crate & Barrel memo clips held the table numbers for each guest table, little pink and green flower pomanders were hung on the railings, and a table for a traditional Laotian ceremony was set up near the dance floor. The wedding cake was made by Eldo Cake House, and I decorated the cake layers with a mix of light and dark pink flowers. The custom cake toppers were two of the cutest birds I've ever seen, created and hand-painted by Red Light Studio to match the bride and groom's color scheme. Other items in the set up included the card box, guestbook, menu cards, and escort cards.

For this particular wedding, I was the day-of coordinator (DOC) for only part of the day. Instead of the usual blush package, I created a custom package for Manivone and John because they only needed assistance with the setup of decor at China Pearl, vendor coordination at the reception, and the first hour of programming (introductions, toasts, etc). It's definitely a change for me to only be involved for a few hours on the wedding day instead of the typical 12-18 hours, but it's great to be able to help out even just for a little bit!

Manivone and John, you were such a nice couple to work with, and your maid of honor, Jay Jay, was the sweetest! I wish you two the very best in your marriage together!

~Emilie

Rachel and Steve's Commandant's House Wedding!

On Saturday, July 31st, I was the coordinator for Rachel and Steve's wedding at the Commandant's House in Charlestown. This historic home has been host to presidents and royalty, and sits on top of a hill overlooking the Boston harbor and the USS Constitution. It was an absolutely perfect day - sunny and cool, which was great because the ceremony and reception were both held outside on the front lawns of the house.

The bridal party had their hair styled at Salon Acote, and then finished getting ready in the upstairs rooms of the Commandant's House, with makeup by Chris Lewis. The outdoor ceremony had white garden chairs in curved rows facing a beautiful chuppah with white hydrangea and white draping, created by Michelle Rose of Blooms Flower Shoppe. Michelle and her assistant, Jasmine, really went above and beyond on the day of the wedding. Not only did they provide gorgeous bouquets, ceremony decor, and reception decor, but they even pruned the flowers that were growing in front of the Commandant's House! Some of the hydrangea bushes had a few wilting flowers, so they cut those out so everything looked fresh. There were also some planter boxes of white, blue, purple, and red geraniums, but they knew that red was nowhere in the color scheme of the wedding, so they cut all of the red geraniums (about 4 or 5) knowing that they would quickly grow back.

Steve saw Rachel for the first time that day as she walked down the aisle, and after a beautiful interfaith ceremony, guests enjoyed cocktail hour inside the Commandant's House. The reception tent was on larger of the two front lawns, and was decorated with white paper lanterns in a variety of sizes along the perimeter. The low centerpieces were a compact grouping of white gerbera daisies inside a galvanized container of wheat grass. The tall centerpieces were also filled with wheat grass, but included purple larkspur in the center.

All of the tables were named after historic Boston landmarks or areas like Old North Church, Freedom Trail, and Old Ironsides. A unique touch to the bar inside the tent was the addition of a row boat full of ice and beer. There were two pails added on both ends with bottle openers attached where guests placed all of their bottle caps for the night.

Guests enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner of steak tips and grilled salmon by Caper's Catering, and cupcakes from Lyndell's Bakery for dessert. The frosting for each cupcake looked like lavender and dark purple hydrangea flowers! DJ Lee Wilson from C-Zone Entertainment kept everyone dancing until the very end of the night, and California-based, Jodye Alcon, was their wedding photographer. Professional photos will be coming later, but for now, here are some that I took on the day of!

The day went really smoothly, and it is always so nice to be able to interact with families and a great team of vendors. A special thanks to Lucy at the Commandant's House for being so accommodating! Rachel and Steve, it was such a joy working with both of you, and I hope you had a wonderful time on your honeymoon in Italy!

~Emilie