Jessica and Vincent at The Park Savoy

How did you meet?
Vinnie and I grew up in the same town, but never actually met until after high school. He moved away during middle school, but grew up next door to one of my best friends that I met in high school. During my freshman year of college, I went out with my high school friend to a club in Jersey and she ran into Vinnie and that’s how we met! The funny part is that neither of us actually like going to clubs, we’d much rather a more relaxed bar scene with our friends.

How did you get engaged?
Vinnie knows how close I am with my whole family so when he began to think of how he wanted to propose, he knew it had to involve my family somehow. With my birthday coming up, he figured it was the perfect time to pop the question since my family was already going to be together celebrating, he knew I wouldn’t suspect a thing. The weekend of my birthday we all got together at my mom’s house with my whole family along with a couple of my closest friends. After singing happy birthday and blowing out my candles, I turned around and Vinnie was down on one knee asking me to marry him. It was one of the most special moments and it meant so much to have my family and friends right there to experience it with me. The best part was that only my parents and my two best friends were the only ones who knew, everyone else was completely surprised along with myself!

Details of the day!
Every detail of our wedding day was absolutely perfect. Our colors were navy and silver which we included throughout the ballroom. My bridesmaids all wore navy floor length dresses by Bill Levkoff with rose gold jewelry. The groomsmen wore charcoal suits with navy ties to match the bridesmaids. Flowers by Maggie put together the most beautiful bouquets for the girls with baby’s-breath and white garden roses with just a touch of pink at the center giving them the perfect pop of color to match my dress, which was a blush ivory mermaid gown by Maggie Sottero. My bouquet had a variety of different cream and blush colored garden roses, peonies, greenery and some echeveria succulents and eucalyptus. For the centerpieces, we chose to go with some high and low centerpieces to give the ballroom some dimension. The tall centerpieces included white peonies with some tall branches while the low centerpieces were beautiful clusters of white peonies.

Our guest “book” was one of my favorite pieces from our wedding, because we decided to go with something different than just your typical book. Instead, we chose with a wooden sign with our last name and wedding date. Guests were able to sign our board throughout the night and now we have it hanging in our living room. I love waking up every day and being able to look at all of our guest “book” and think back to the best day ever.

Why did you choose your venue?
I didn’t even have to visit The Park Savoy before knowing that was where I wanted to have our wedding. I eventually made an appointment to go see the venue with my mom, grandmother and one of my closest friends and ended up booking right away – without my fiancé even seeing it first! After booking The Park Savoy, I took my fiancé, now husband, to see the venue for himself and he fell in love with it just like I had, especially after seeing the downstairs, which he named the Man Cave for him and the boys. I absolutely loved how beautiful The Park Savoy with its simple and elegant decor. From the second I met with Melanie, I felt like family and knew we would be taken care of without any problems, and I was right. Our wedding day went off without a hitch.

What was on your menu?
Cocktail hour was unbelievable with a wide variety of options ranging from and pasta and risotto station to a boardwalk station, mac and cheese bar as well as a tex-mex station. For dinner we started off with the Estate Signature Salad with cranberries. As for entrees, we had Salmon Oscar, Chateaubriand with Gorgonzola Sauce & Caramelized Shallots and Chicken Saltimbocca. Our wedding cake was made up of red velvet and chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. We also had the amazing Viennese hour for dessert, which was unbelievable! The chocolate fresh fried oreos were definitely a crows pleaser. It’s been almost a month and people are still raving about the food.

All about your gown!
I wore a blush ivory mermaid strapless gown by Maggie Sottero, which I added some detachable straps to. I went to Send Couture in Fanwood, NJ and had the most amazing experience. I loved being able to walk through their inventory myself and being able to pull my own dresses that I would be trying on. Right before I went into the fitting room, I stopped to look at one dress and almost put it back. but my bridal attendant insisted that I tried it on, because you just never know. Well, that was the first dress I tried on and immediately fell in love. I decided to try on a bunch more, but just couldn’t get the first dress out of my mind. So, after trying on all of the dresses, I put the first one back on and just knew that was the one for me. It’s crazy, because if you had asked me before I would have said you wouldn’t catch me in a mermaid style dress in a million years. I had always imaged myself in a ballgown, and I ended up with the complete opposite and loved it.

What was your favorite moment?
One of my favorite moments from the day was a really special moment that I had with one of my brothers and my husband had with his grandmother. My father and his mother passed away when we were both young and we really wanted to include something special in their memory so we decided to do a dance in their honor to Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. I got to dance with one of my brothers and my husband got to dance with his grandmother. It was definitely one of the most emotional moments of the day, not only for us but for everyone in the room. I don’t think there was one dry eye in the room at that moment, but it was one of the most special moments of the night for us.

One detail you couldn’t live without?
The charm of my father on my bouquet. It added the perfect touch to my bouquet and it meant I had him right there with me throughout the day, especially as I walked down the aisle.

Did anything go wrong?
Nothing! and if something did, the staff and The Park Savoy did an amazing job and I had no idea and still don’t until this day.

First dance song?
In Case You Didn’t Know by Brett Young

Any advice for future brides?
Don’t sweat the small stuff. The day is about you, your future husband and being able to enjoy it with family and friends. Everything will turn out beautiful in the end and the day will fly by, seriously. Don’t even waste one second stressing, because it’s going to turn out perfect.

Where are you going on your honeymoon?
We are going to Italy in May and making stops in Rome, Florence and Venice.