Jenny and Keith's Andover Country Club Wedding

On Saturday, April 14th, 2012, I had the honor of coordinating Jenny and Keith's wedding at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall and the Andover Country Club.  It was an absolutely gorgeous warm and sunny day, which was a pleasant surprise for April in New England!  The day started out with hair at Indra Salon in Andover, followed by makeup on-site at the country club by Claudia Moriel.  Jenny's five bridesmaids wore strapless pewter dresses from Priscilla of Boston paired with pink heels.  The bride wore a stunning lace strapless gown from Priscilla of Boston, and carried a lush bouquet of hydrangea, peonies, and roses created by Jennifer Cahill of The Tangled Web, who provided all of the florals for the wedding day.

The bridal party was driven by Black Tie Limo in a white stretch limousine to the ceremony venue, Methuen Memorial Music Hall.  It was there that the bride and groom met for a "first look" on the wooded grounds of the venue.  The ceremony for 117 guests was held shortly afterwards, with white bows decorating the aisle, and two large floral arrangements flanking the altar.  It was beautifully officiated by Tom Welch, and the venue was really unique with its incredibly high ceilings and organ pipes as the main focal point.

Following the ceremony, guests made their way to the Trumpeter's Room in the Andover Country Club for cocktail hour.  Guests picked up escort cards from a table decorated with a large display of cherry blossom branches.  Hors d'oeuvres included little bites such as cocktail shrimp, scallops wrapped in bacon, miniature vegetable spring rolls, and mozzarella, tomato and pesto crostini.  There were also two stationary displays of antipasto and vegetable crudite.  During cocktail hour, the bride and groom took a few portraits outside and here is a little teaser from their photographer, Jen Ing of Jen Ing Photography.

Photo by Jen Ing Photography

In the reception area, guest tables were topped with white, blush, and spring green hydrangea.  In the pocketfold napkin, the inserted card had the menu on one side, and a description of the traditional Korean Paebaek ceremony on the other.  Favors of individually wrapped chocolate covered pretzels were set at each place setting, and blush pink uplighting created a soft glow to the ballroom.  Guests enjoyed a four course dinner of butternut squash soup, club salad, entrée choice of prime rib or baked stuffed shrimp, and wedding cake served with chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert.  The wedding cake from Dessert Works was a three tier round cake decorated with intricate blush pink and white flowers made of rolled chocolate.

After dinner, guests watched the Korean Paebaek ceremony, where the bride and groom changed into ceremonial hanbok, and bowed to both sets of families.  During this ceremony, families impart words of wisdom to the couple, as well as throw dates (symbolizing girls), and chestnuts (symbolizing boys) that the bride and groom have to catch in the bride's skirt.  Legend says that the number of dates and chestnuts caught will represent the number of children that they will have together.  Ari from Beat Train Productions was the DJ for the evening and also provided the uplighting for the reception.  He kept everyone on the dance floor until the very end, including a few Portuguese songs for the groom's family.  Everyone had an amazing time, and here are handful of detail shots from the wedding that I took.

Jenny and Keith, it was so nice working with you, and you are definitely one of the most organized couples I have ever met :) I hope you are having an incredible time on your honeymoon in New Zealand!

~Emilie