Hello Lovelies!!
I am so pumped for today’s Wedding Wednesday post! We just got back all the photos and are already re-living all the fun 🙂
For this blog post I wanted to answer some big questions while also offering inspo for future weddings!! First let’s break down how this all started! Con proposed July 25th 2021 (THIS YEAR!!) and in the first week or two weeks of being happily engaged and thinking about a wedding I quickly became very stressed over the location, guest count, and venue. The location and guest count obviously have to be decided with the venue, but for us we ran into the issue of too many location options. Con and I live in Cincinnati, my family is in Virginia Beach, his family is in New York, and we have vacation spots in the mountains of Virginia and Nantucket respectively. I had a hard time finding venues I liked – I knew I wanted something different and not like the typical church/banquet hall type setting, so we looked at different options in the areas mentioned. We also faced the issue of trying to decide location based on the guest list, but for us literally any location would be a destination wedding for the majority of our guests so then the ideas of how to make it work became more and more wild. At one point I was absolutely sold on the idea of a remote mountain location but how do we get 100 people up a mountain and also where does everyone stay (in this scenario lodging and food were definitely tricky) – so we had all those questions to answer!
Next, the venue issue – again I was not interested in doing a typical venue for starters. I was picky, but I also loved the idea of an elaborate backyard party and cutting out the venue cost. Another stress (and this was big) with this part of the process was the fear of putting money into a large event and losing it to covid. That exact week was when the delta variant started to change everything, venues were freezing their books, and the idea of even long term planning seemed unreliable.
Con and I originally thought of early 2022 for the date, but with all these questions and no clear ideas, we decided to just elope and MAYBE plan something far ahead. The date was August 12th and we initially thought we would elope just the two of us in Cincinnati. When we told our families the idea of getting married on Nantucket came up! We were already planning a family trip to celebrate our engagement so we said “Sure! Why not!” And that’s how our last second island wedding started!
We had exactly 3 weeks and started from scratch! Thank God our mothers spent every day calling and planning all the vendors. Yes, we thought we would just elope, but a week into the planning we realized we could pull off a micro wedding and again thought, why not!
Our Vendors
Con and I wanted a morning wedding and we also were willing to do a non-Saturday wedding which really helped us to plan and find vendors! Here’s a brief list of who we found and when!
The Chanticleer – one of the first things we locked down was a reception venue for our lunch after the ceremony. This also made for a great photo spot! We had a menu we planned ahead and the cake was delivered to the restaurant that morning.
Deb Lilly – our florist turned ceremony host! She was able to arrange all our flowers, create the wildflower vibe I requested AND she even offered her garden for our ceremony! Certainly made it easier to use that location and we had plenty of photo backdrops! The crazy forecast that week and complicated floral shipping certainly didn’t stop her from creating a perfect atmosphere! She also took those adorable shots of the flowers in the sink – isn’t that darling??
Emily Elisabeth Photography – our photographer who normally is crazy booked but lucky for us had availability right when we needed her! We also were able to find her early in the process so that definitely gave us peace of mind – it also helped that my sister in law follows the photography scene on the island and knew who was the best option. We had some lighting issues with how bright that day was and she was able to compensate for all that!
The Cake – We were able to find ONE cake shop to do the job, Nantucket Bake Shop, and luckily they were able to copy the aesthetic from some photo inspiration I sent them! We did a white almond cake with lemon filling and buttercream frosting for an end of summer vibe.
The Dress – This was definitely the hardest task for me – I went to several shops but anything I could get off the rack I would have to really alter, and that can take 3 MONTHS. Very quickly I was on a mission to find something ONLINE that somehow perfectly fit my body. Also the bridal sizing vs vanity sizing vs normal sizing bs was a nightmare on top of everything! Finally, the day before we flew to Nantucket, I rush ordered THE DRESS. It was a Mac Duggal gown from their latest summer collection. A white background with wildflowers, butterflies, and stars all around and SOMEHOW it fit perfectly when I was convinced it would be too small! I had it quickly hemmed and stuffed it in my suitcase!
The Music – my mother-in-law met Tim Perry at another event on the island and after many phone calls – and debates with our parents over classical vs modern music – we got a live musician!
Our Videographer – this was probably the craziest story of all! The day before the wedding I am sitting with my in-laws and mention “if we had video this would be perfect” that day they all scrambled texting everyone they knew on the island to see if someone they knew could at least hold an iPhone for our wedding (lol) and that evening my mother-in-law sent me the info for Andrew Cromartie – I texted him during dinner and that night, at 9:00 PM when the ceremony and everything would start at 9:00 AM the next morning, we hired our videographer!o
Through the whole process I was dumbfounded at how we pulled this off. I kept thinking “only crazy people call wedding vendors and say ‘no not next year, this week!’” And then I remember we really are that crazy!
So that is how this all happened and I can’t believe it worked! Thank you for reading our story and I hope this inspired you to have an atypical wedding!
xx,
A