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Allison and Drew at Bay Head Yacht Club

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Allison and Drew at Bay Head Yacht Club

How did you meet?
We met on Hinge! We were both living in NYC and to our surprise had quite a few mutual friends. Our first date was at a cozy little pub on the Upper East Side called the Penrose. There was live jazz music and it was so romantic! We had instant chemistry – our first date was around 4 hours and we had our second date the very next night!

How did you get engaged?
It was Thanksgiving weekend 2020. Because of Covid we were doing the holiday separately with our respective families (mine in NJ and Drew’s in Connecticut). Saturday of that weekend my cousins and sister asked to get a drink at Natirar 90 acres (a really nice bar at the top of a beautiful lookout). Before heading inside the restaurant, my sister asked me to quickly check out the sunset. MUCH to my surprise, Drew was standing there!! He proposed with the most beautiful view and my family was waiting inside the restaurant for celebrations!

Details of the day!
With our amazing florist, Alyssa, we used three adjectives to focus our wedding day vision: Nautical, Romantic, and Elegant. Because our venue was a waterfront boat house and yacht club in New Jersey, we wanted to highlight the landscape and keep the decor at a minimum. We really leaned into a “less-is-more” mentality. Our signage was minimalistic, with a simple, navy cursive font consistent from our welcome sign to the signature cocktail list. I looked for soft shades of blue for the girl’s bridesmaid dresses, chose a classic, clean floral design, and installed cozy, white drapery that hung low in the ballroom. To add to the romantic vibe, we used lots of candles, both tall and tea-light, and added a thirty-four-foot garland of eucalyptus down the head table. Along with our simplistic design, it was important to keep things simple for our guests. We loved having a venue with adjacent ceremony and reception sites and had a first look to streamline the flow of events (of course, the first look helped ease my nerves, too!).

We didn’t go overboard on little details and kept a warm, welcoming, beautiful environment and some great music at the top of our priority list. Our color palette was light blue, navy, white, and eucalyptus green. I will admit – I went a bit crazy picking the shade of blue for the bridesmaid dresses!! I had such a clear vision and really took the time to find my favorite color. Some swatches were so light the girls would be washed out, while others were too dark and would clash against the navy accents. Ultimately, Show Me Your Mumu’s Steel Blue Chiffon was the winner and I absolutely love it in our photos. It’s a breezy, soft color that looked gorgeous against the water and wood at our venue. What unique elements or DIY details did you include? We did not use a wedding planner so at times the entire planning process felt like a DIY. I’m extremely organized, so GSuite was my best friend throughout our engagement – we used spreadsheets to budget, design seating charts, create day-of timelines, everything. We also were very picky about our wedding vendors! Spreadsheets helped us compare the styles and vibe of every hire along with their pricing and packages. It was time-consuming and a lot of work doing it this way, but in the end I was grateful to have been hands-on with the process. I felt super comfortable with every vendor we selected and learned an incredible amount about wedding planning (plus my sister is in luck now when she gets married!).

I DIY’ed some of the gifts for the bridal party. Having been a bridesmaid in a few weddings, I’ve found monogrammed bags to be very helpful. It can be very easy to lose track of personal items when moms, friends, and sisters are in the same room all morning! I purchased black cloth tote bags online and iron-on cursive name decals from Etsy. It was a fun, girly look, and I filled the bags with the getting-ready PJs, slippers, and the bridesmaid gift, which was a monogrammed navy travel jewelry box from Mark & Graham. We had a unique guest book from a company called Fetefone. We rented a vintage black telephone so that guests could leave an audio recording rather than writing their name. This was such a personal touch and guests loved hearing our voicemail after the ring. We decorated the guestbook table with a family tree with photos of parents and all four sets of grandparents – all at their weddings. I loved this aspect because it was very celebratory and gave our guests an opportunity to see some of our favorite family members on their big days too. Our signature cocktails were definitely classic crowd-pleasers – we had the Married Man Mule and Mrs. Margarita. Because two of my bridesmaids were pregnant during our wedding, we added a third signature cocktail, the Hangover-Free Paloma. I purchased a zero-proof tequila alternative called Ritual and our guests loved it. I think it’s a nice option, not only for non-drinkers but for anyone wanting an alternative or a break from booze and still have to have something unique and tasty to sip on. I fell in love with a signage template from Marry Me Paper Boutique on Etsy. The full downloadable suite was such an elegant navy cursive font and extremely affordable. It was easy to update the template on my computer and I was able to print all signage at home – this includes escort cards for our head table, signature cocktail menus, gift table signage, and guest book signage. I easily purchased thick paper and escort card paper on Amazon. The larger items like our welcome sign, seating chart, and programs all were ordered off of Staples’ website and shipped to us within a week.

Why did you choose your venue?
I grew up every summer in Normandy Beach. My dad’s side of the family has a house there and it has always been associated with fun memories. Bay Head is such a beautiful, quaint town only 10 minutes away from Normandy Beach. The second we saw the Bay Head Yacht Club we fell in love and knew it was our dream to have our wedding there!

What was on your menu?
Our menu consisted of Filet Mignon with a red wine Demi glaze, miso-marinated sea bass, and roasted quinoa stuffed peppers. We purchased our delicious cake from the famous Mueller’s Bakery of Bay Head, New Jersey. It was a vanilla cake with vanilla chiffon frosting and a raspberry filling. I have celiac disease so I was thrilled to find this bakery was able to provide us with a gluten-free cake. Our cake had simple, horizontal iced stripes and was decorated with beautiful, fresh flowers that matched our floral design. Interestingly enough, the cake was so tasty that not one guest realized it was gluten-free!

All about your gown!
I found my dress at Kleinfeld with my mom, sister, mother-in-law, and grandmother about a year before the wedding. As some had told me before – the dress you choose may look nothing like what you had in mind. This was certainly the case for me, as I had tried on about a dozen dresses that were detailed and tight-fitted. My wedding dress was minimalist, with an A-line silhouette and v-neckline. At first, it felt too simple, but I added large, dangly earrings (a staple for me) and a silver, sparkly halo that elevated the look enough for me to say “yes”.

What was your favorite moment?
My favorite moment was the big getaway. Immediately following the ceremony, Drew and I left the boat house… by boat! Our friends and family waved us goodbye as we both experienced an indescribable high – our first few moments as husband and wife on the open water with sunshine, two beaming smiles, and of course, a few sips of champagne! We felt so full and happy and are so grateful to have had time privately on such an eventful day.

One detail you couldn’t live without?
I was in love with our flowers! I almost cried when our florist, Alyssa, dropped off my bouquet. It was incredible to see a design we had worked so hard on together come to life. Our flowers were white Tibet and white lady spray roses with blue hydrangeas and delphinium for a pop of color. The arrangements, centerpieces, and bouquets were filled with silver dollar and gunni eucalyptus, rounding out the clean, timeless look we had hoped for. Flowers were an incredible part of my learning experience during the wedding planning process. In the beginning, I didn’t give them a ton of thought, but as I researched more and worked with our florist, I realized flowers were the backbone of the event design. In fact, my sister’s wedding gift to me was to have my bouquet preserved, and I could not be more excited to have the final product on display in our home forever!

Did anything go wrong?
Unfortunately, the transportation made a big mistake and picked up the boys when they were supposed to pick up the ladies. It was an incredibly stressful day of.

First dance song?
Just the way you are by Billy Joel

Any advice for future brides?
Try to be as present as possible on the big day. It’s easy to focus on little mishaps when you have spent so much time planning and want everything to be perfect. The day will be beautiful no matter what so don’t sweat the small stuff. It flies by!