We met through the dating site Plenty Of Fish. We began talking around when Hurricane Sandy happened and had to postpone our first date a few times. We finally met for coffee at a Starbucks in my hometown of Union, NJ and every year we go back on that date to reminisce.
Angelo suggested going for coffee that night on March 2, 2017 at Starbucks, the same one where we had our first date. He surprised me by proposing with my family waiting outside to congratulate us.
Our colors were aubergine, gold, and ivory. We wanted an elegant and romantic fall wedding. Our centerpieces were brushed gold lanterns containing a candle surrounded by purple glitter pine cones, gold painted acorns, and string lights. Our table numbers were on small white pumpkins. We also had a large faux white pumpkin for guests to sign and another one for our card box. Our signature drink was an Apple Cider Bellini. For favors we had a to-go station of apple cider donuts, soft pretzels, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider. Our invites were custom designed by Lindsay’s Custom DeZigns. They were all-in-one invitations with hand drawn gold skeleton leaves on ice white gold metallic paper with aubergine background color and writing. I absolutely loved them.
We loved it’s elegant, but rustic feel. We thought the grounds were just as beautiful as the inside of the venue.
My dress was a white, satin, A-line gown with swirling Swarovski bead-work on top by Allure Couture. It had everything I was looking for and I couldn’t imagine myself in any other dress! Same also goes for my veil which was a cathedral length embroidered veil by Maritza Bridal Veils.
My favorite moment was when my husband and I went into the ballroom during cocktail hour. It was nice to have a quiet moment to take everything in before the reception began. We went onto the dance floor and started to dance and when the DJ noticed he began playing our wedding song. Even though we were not alone in the room, it still felt like a sweet private moment. My second favorite moment was seeing my husbands reaction when I surprised him by having the groomsmen hold up lightsabers to the bridesmaid bouquets for us to walk through as the DJ announced us into the reception with the Imperial March playing. As planned, the DJ initially began playing “Let’s Get Married” by Jagged Edge and suddenly switched it to the Imperial March as we hit the dance floor- my husband was floored, since I am not a Star Wars fan at all.
We displayed photos of our immediate family at their weddings in cocktail hour. We thought it was a romantic touch and our guests loved looking at the photos.
A few things definitely went wrong at the reception, but the day as a whole was amazing.
Any advice for future brides?
Try to enjoy each moment. It does go by so quickly. I would suggest going over important details like photos you want to take or a song you want played with someone like your maid of honor so they can remind you or help make it happen on the day. You will most likely forget everything on your mental checklist the day of your wedding. Don’t stress too much though, you will also probably not miss any of those forgotten things because they will be overshadowed by the other countless things that went perfectly like marrying your best friend.
Honeymoon Location
We went on a seven night Cuba & Western Caribbean Cruise with Royal Caribbean. Our ports included the Bahamas, Key West, Cuba, and Cayman Islands. It was the perfect amount of relaxing and exploring.