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Nicole and Michael’s Amazingly Fun Wedding at Park Savoy Estate

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Nicole and Michael’s Amazingly Fun Wedding at Park Savoy Estate

Posted on September 19, 2017 by New Jersey Bride

How did you meet: My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We have been together since we were 16 years old (we are now 28). Although this is a rarity, my parents are also high school sweethearts—so my husband and I feel that it’s pretty amazing that we followed down this path! Will you marry me? As you can probably tell by our last name (O’Donnell), my husband is Irish! We got engaged in none other than Ireland. While hiking the Gap of Dunloe in County Kerry, Ireland, Mike proposed. Even though we’ve been together since we were 16, I was SHOCKED (I think I almost backed off a cliff). This was one of the most special moments of my life. Details of your day: Every bride knows her wedding day is special, and I feel the same way about my wedding day. We have so much fun together, and we wanted our wedding day to be a representation of how fun love can be! This factor was really what inspired our wedding style – when looking for location, vendors, decor, etc., we consistently asked ourselves, “does this represent us?” If the answer wasn’t a whole-hearted YES, then we kept looking. Overall, our wedding day was a success and was filled with so much love, happiness, and fun (emphasis on the FUN). Here are some unique details from our wedding day: 1. We had Fireball shots for every guest in lieu of a champagne toast—CHEERS! 2. My Maid of Honors (there were three because I couldn’t choose just one) surprised us with a reception-wide flash mob to “our” song, “Holiday” by Madonna. All of our guests participated! 3. My husband and I exchanged gifts before the ceremony by standing on separate levels of our venue’s decks and using a basket and string. 4. While my father and I had our first dance, I surprised everyone by showing a video of me and him dancing at my communion. 5. Monogrammed corn hole was set up in the back of our venue for guests to play—even the hole was lit up! 6. Instead of a guest book, we had guests sign a wooden bench (made my by father). 7. I’m OBSESSED with Friends (the TV show), so we had a lot of Friends-related items. For example, the bridal party walkout song was “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts, our cake topper was “You’re My Lobster,” and our wedding hashtag was #TheOneWithTheODonnells. 8. I’m also a huge Winnie-the-Pooh fan. I spent the entire reception drinking out of a Winnie-the-Pooh tumbler (gift from my grandmother), and it turned out to be quite a talking point. I could list details forever… so I will stop now before I start to ramble 🙂 Why did you choose your venue? When looking for a venue, we really wanted a space where we would be the only wedding of the day, where we would be able to utilize the space the entire day, had great food, and has indoor and outdoor space. The Park Savoy went above and beyond all of our wants. From the minute we stepped into The Park Savor for our first showing, we were treated like family…figuratively and literally catered to. The staff at The Park Savoy makes you feel like family, and that factor alone had us hooked (not to mention the entire venue inside and out is absolutely gorgeous). Wedding menu: I can’t even begin to describe the cocktail hour that we had—guests STILL talk about how amazing it was. Our cocktail house consisted of ten passed items, five chafing stations, and ten captains stations, which included maple-glazed scallops wrapped in bacon, mini beef Wellingtons with wasabi cream sauce, veal meatballs with spicy chorizo, pan-fried potato and onion pirogues, a boardwalk station, pecking duck station, and an ice luge martini bar…to name a few. Our dinner menu consisted of Chilean sea bass in a soy-ginger glaze, Chateaubriand in a cabernet sauce, chicken saltimbocca, and an eggplant tower. Our cake (which was delicious) from Palermo’s Bakery was a dulche de leche cake —yum! Your gown: My gown was an Eve of Milady and it was everything I could have ever wanted. It had the perfect amount of flare and class, mixed with gorgeous unique details (like draping beaded cap sleeves). I’m not a highly emotional person, but when I first saw myself in this dress, I felt it in my gut…I just knew it was the one. A piece of my mother’s wedding dress and a pair of blessed rosary beads (from my grandmothers) were wrapped around my bouquet. Your favorite moment: This is such a hard question…the entire day was perfect. If I had to choose one favorite moment of the day, it would be when my husband and I ate together during cocktail hour. After pictures and during cocktail hour, my bridal attendant and maitre d pulled my husband and I aside and led up upstairs to the bridal suite. They sat us down on the couch, tucked napkins onto our laps, and brought us tastings of literally EVERY SINGLE ITEM from cocktail hour. The food filled up an entire table. They left us alone, and my husband and I had this beautiful moment where we were able to really take in what was happening. We spent the next 20 minutes pigging out and enjoying each others company—I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything. One detail you couldn’t live without? Another tough question—the Fireball shots toast was definitely a highlight for me. My husband and I are known to many as “the fun couple,” so it was only fitting that every guest take a Fireball shot (in a customized shot glass) in place of a champagne toast. Still to this day guests are talking about those shots! Did anything go wrong? As with any major event, things are bound to go wrong. Of course things went wrong…but we didn’t care. A meteor could have hit the venue and it still would have been the most perfect day (ok…that might be a slight exaggeration). To name one thing that went wrong…one of the employees at The Park Savoy dropped our wedding cake! Whoops! Luckily, this happened after we cut the cake, and they were able to salvage most of the cake so no guest was left without a piece. The staff at The Park Savoy are such pros—we had NO IDEA the cake was even dropped until the next day when our friends told us (they were direct witnesses). It should be said, The Park Savoy offered to buy us a new top tier—they’re the best! First dance song: “I’ll Be,” by Edwin McCain. Advice for other brides: Breathe, relax, and have fun. This day comes around once and no matter what happens…it will be perfect. Your veil rips, your guestbook gets lost, the limo is late, someone DROPS THE CAKE…who cares?! Nothing will ruin this day. And remember, if and when something goes wrong, it will always make a good story in the future! Honeymoon: We went to San Francisco, Oahu, Kauai, and Maui.