Drew & Kelly at the Mansion at Mountain Lakes

Details like personalized vows and a choreographed first dance made Drew and Kelly’s Mansion at Mountain Lakes wedding extra special.

Their Story

“Our love story is one of fate,” says Kelly. “My best friend from high school and Drew were in the same extended group of friends. The very first time I walked into the bar where Drew was on St. Paddy’s day 2019, he said to our mutual friend, ‘who the hell is that!’ He asked how his friends could be hiding a girl so beautiful from him all this time. While circumstances didn’t allow us to officially meet or get to know each other that night, it set something in motion. Drew continued to check in with his friends about me and talk about wanting to get a chance to meet me for real. That chance came a few months later when we both made very last minute decisions to go to a mutual friends birthday party. We both came very close to not being there that night but it was fate! Drew was getting ready to travel to Dallas for work and debated whether or not to go since he would be flying out early the next morning. Little did he know I was also invited to that same party the day before when I ran into my friend from high school on the bus home from work. As soon as we started talking, we hit it off. Drew told me I was the kind of girl he would want to date, I gave him my phone number, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”

Their Engagement

“After two years of dating, we moved in together,” says Kelly. “Then, a few months later came Valentine’s Day 2022. We had plans to get dinner in the city to celebrate but little did I know what he was planning! I should have known something was up when he told me the day of that he moved dinner reservations to 4:30pm, but for some reason I was clueless. After dinner we went for a surprise horse carriage ride through Central Park where Drew presented me with a custom book. The book was illustrated with characters that looked like us (similar to a book he gave me on our first anniversary) and recounted all the important memories of our relationship. The last few pages talked about that Valentine’s dinner, with the last page showing Drew down on one knee. When I looked up he was on his knee with the ring. It was perfect. His dad also proposed to his mom on a horse carriage ride so this was very meaningful.”

About Their Mansion at Mountain Lakes Wedding

“We had both really only been to one wedding before so didn’t have much to go by— we decided to just do what made us happy and I loved all the personal touches we had,” says Kelly. For their August 4, 2023 ceremony, the couple told their love story and we wrote their own vows, “which had all our family and friends raving the rest of the night,” says Kelly. “We love watching The Bachelor (ironically, of course) so at the end of each of our vows we asked if the other would accept our final rose and handed each other a red rose. It was awesome! We also walked back out to a string quartet version of ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber (Drew’s aunt, uncle and cousins are professional players so they played live for us! All the processional songs were personalized, too). For our bridal party info’s we had little jokes about each person. The walkout songs were really funny too. When we walked out, we had our roses from the ceremony—we walked around the audience and I handed mine to Drew’s Nana. Drew used his in our dance.”

“For our first dance, neither of us are very good dancers, but we actually got lessons and had a big choreographed dance to surprise everyone. Drew put the rose in his mouth and dipped me and transferred to my mouth, then I got up and threw it to the crowd. We had lifts, dips, spins and it was so cool. Our parent dances were also very customized and cute, with Drew lifting his mom up like dirty dancing. The crowd went wild. Later in the night, Drew asked the DJ to give me the mic so I could rap ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem and again everyone lost it. The whole night was just an absolute blast, more perfect than I could have ever imagined. So many people have told us it was one of the best weddings they’ve been to. I know people probably say that a lot but either way we were so happy with how personal everything felt and how much fun we all had.”

“Also Drew’s dad is a graphic artist so he designed a cute logo to be displayed in the ballroom that said ‘Tweet-hearts’ with two little chicks in wedding outfits. His family usually uses a similar chick logo for family reunions where the motto is ‘Life is Tweet!’ We’re using the logo on our thank you cards too. Honestly the most special part was hearing the vows, and also the moments right after we were officially married when it started to sink in we had finally made it.”

“Our main colors was dusty blue with various shades of blue and mauves as well. The groomsmen wore navy. Our favors were decks of cards that said ‘Two of a kind’ and ‘Mr and Mrs Tweeten.’ We had a beautiful flower arch at the ceremony that we brought behind our sweetheart table in the ballroom.”

Why Mansion at Mountain Lakes?

“When I first saw our venue in-person, I could just picture us having a beautiful wedding there,” says Kelly. “The ballroom was stunning and exactly what we pictured for the reception. We loved the open space, high ceilings, elegant staircase entrance, beautiful bar, just everything. The cocktail hour area was also gorgeous, just so full of light and open. Even when you walk in you are greeted by a grand piano and it is a very impressive feeling. Not to mention the absolutely spectacular bridal suite that was everything I would have dreamed of. With salon chairs and mirrors, it felt like the perfect place to get ready for the most important day of my life. All that aside, we also loved the team there, and could tell they would take very good care of us. They blew us away, they were so amazing!”

Menu

“The cocktail hour food was so good that people thought that was the main event,” says Kelly. “There were so many delicious stations—pasta, carving, oriental, tavern, gourmet Mac and cheese, calamari, and so much more! The passed hor d’oeuvres were great too—mini beef Wellington, buffalo chicken spring rolls, sliders, chicken satay, filet mignon crostini, and more. I wish I could relive the cocktail hour and try even more of the food everyone raved about.”

“Dinner was also great. We had Caesar salad, choice of lemon chicken Romano, filet mignon, and salmon. Along with our wedding cake we also had yummy homemade pastries. Our wedding cake from Calandra’s was soooo good. Our bottom tier was chocolate cake with caramel dulce de leche filing, which was to die for. The middle tier had vanilla cake with Italian custard filling, and our top tier was vanilla with classic buttercream. It was so moist and delicious, that is another thing I wish I could eat all over again. Also loved our signature drinks—we love aperol spritz and espresso martinis. We did a play on our last names (my maiden name is Streaser) and made them aperol streaz and espresso mar-tweet-i. So good!”

Bridal Style

“My gown was a fit and flare, mermaid style dress with delicate floral lace and a bit of sparkle that really comes out in low lighting,” says Kelly. “It has a slight illusion around the bust area as well as the back. The back was really low so I decided to wear my hair up, which I never would have guessed for myself but it was perfect. The flare part was just what I wanted—not too poofy but the right amount of pizzazz to set it apart from anything I have ever worn before. It had some really beautiful lacework on it as well, and flowed so beautifully when I moved/spun around.”

“When I was looking for my wedding dress, I wanted something that really let me shine. I wanted it to be delicate and beautiful with detail, but not too over the top that it wore me instead of the other way around. I wanted to feel glamorous and elegant like I was walking a red carpet and all eyes would be on me. I didn’t want the big princess ballgown, but definitely wanted a flare! I wanted to show off my curves, but still look classy and timeless. When I put on my dress I felt like it was made especially for me. It fit like a glove and put together all the various important aspects I was searching for. I have never felt so confident, beautiful, and just altogether ecstatic as I did on my wedding day. I wanted something that would feel like the most amazing garment I would ever wear, and boy did this dress deliver.”

Favorite Moment

“I have to say there are two moments tied for my favorite,” says Kelly. “One was the vows. Drew is really good at writing cards that make me cry—he has a way with words. I was looking forward to hearing what he had to say and he didn’t disappoint. It was so personal and made me feel so special. Plus I think it was really cool for my family to see up close and personal how amazing of a love we share. I had a lot of fun writing my vows too and was really happy with how they came out. I got some laughs but still made it very genuine and again personal to our relationship. I feel we gave everyone a good glimpse of our relationship, and I don’t think any of our family and friends expected them to be so personal to each other. The rose exchange was also really special and fun for us and the audience.”

“My other favorite moment was our first dance. Luckily, we did a practice run at the end of cocktail hour since we hadn’t done it in the ballroom or with me in my dress. The practice went about as comically bad as you can imagine, with Drew stepping on my dress and me accidentally whacking him in the head on a turn. We were getting really thrown off and nervous. Our photographer and DJ coached us a bit to help get out the nerves, and my bridal attendant helped pin my dress a bit more to help, but we still didn’t know how the big moment would go. Our official first dance went better than any practice we ever had. We had so much fun and could tell the crowd appreciated it too. The feeling of pure accomplishment and joy during that dance is hard to beat.”

One Detail They Couldn’t Live Without

“Definitely our dances,” says Kelly. “First dance and parent dances felt very special and we were really happy we didn’t just sway back and forth the whole time. It felt like we were putting on a show for our guests and we loved it!”

Advice

“My advice would be to think about the aspects that will make the day special for you and your fiancé and focus on making the most of that over anything else,” says Kelly. ‘You get pulled in so many different directions with planning and it can get overwhelming trying to prioritize. People will tell you different things about what is most important, but I think you have to really decide yourself the things that will be most special to you. Definitely having awesome vendors (especially venue, DJ, and photographer) helps a lot too.”

Honeymoon

“We went to Maui, arriving two days before the fires,” says Kelly. “We got to test out the whole “in good times and in bad” pretty immediately because we found ourselves driving through Lahaina as it started to burn down. Since little was known about the situation the day things started, we had been advised to look for food away from our hotel since there was no power or food. We decided to try to drive a few towns over where they still had power, but were quickly met with downed power lines and trees. Winds started to pick up and we realized we may not be able to get through. While trying to navigate our way home, we were driving uphill and caught in bumper to bumper traffic. Suddenly some smoke started to appear, getting very thick. Then a strong wind blew the smoke aside and we saw a line of fire about 20 feet from our car. There was a side street to our left and a gap in traffic opened for a moment, just long enough for us to floor it out of there. For a few days we were stranded in the hotel with no power, cell signal, or real food. But we had each other and shelter! We eventually evacuated to Honolulu and subsequently California for the second leg of our honeymoon. I feel so lucky that we were not hurt and didn’t loose anything. It was devastating to see the destruction and horror, but made us grateful to have each other. So maybe one day we will have a take two of our honeymoon.”