Belle Turned Bride: Choosing A Location

It is safe to say that I live for the summer sunshine. Spencer and I spend most weekends in the summer sprawled out on the beach playing horseshoes, reading countless books and cruising around on the boat. The toughest thing I need to do on any given summer weekend is bait lobster pots (gross)!

Luckily for both of us Spencer’s parents have a beautiful home right on the water in Duxbury, MA. Most summer evenings you can find us in their backyard sipping a glass of wine and watching the boats pull back into the harbor after a day on the water.

There truly is nothing better. When it came to deciding on the location of our wedding, his childhood backyard seemed like the obvious choice. However, there were a few major concerns. The first two were uniquely concerns for his property:

•Although the yard is very long, it is also relatively narrow. We weren’t sure that a tent would fit (for the amount of guests we wanted).

•The lawn is on a slight incline. Would we need a floor?

On top of that there were other concerns that are valid when planning many outdoor events.

•Did we really want to burden his parents with having an event of that magnitude in their backyard? The amount of landscaping, gardening, cleaning that they would need to do would be so time-consuming and tedious. We wanted them to enjoy themselves too.

•Would we care if it rained? If it POURED?

What was the tide schedule? We didn’t want guests walking in at dead low (stinky) tide.

•We started to find that the weekends were limited most by the tide schedule. There were only a handful of Saturdays when the tides were ideal. That handful was limited further because other couples in town had already scheduled their weddings on some of those dates.

Enter Leslie Barbini (wedding planning extraordinaire). Was it possible? Yes. Would it be expensive? Yes. Would we need a floor? Yes. Was it more than we wanted to spend? Yes. Were there other options that we liked as much? Yes.

Ultimately after much discussion we decided that the cons outweighed the pros in this situation. And although it was a tough decision to make, we got over it quickly enough. Our biggest concern was that we wanted our wedding to be uniquely ours, and although a backyard wedding is very personal, there was no doubt that we could make another venue equally as special. So Leslie, Spencer and I hopped in the car and headed to Cohasset, MA to check out the one venue I had made an appointment at. A spot with so much character and charm that I knew we just had to see it…

Needless to say we signed our contract the next day. Tune in next week to find out where!

Spring Table Design for Wentworth Hotel Tasting

Below is a Q&A session with Leslie about her latest table design:

What first inspired this table design?

SPRING! For most of New England, it has been a very long and snowy winter…I felt it was time to let a little sunshine and happiness in! Anything to bring about positive energy is the way to go.

Other than “Spring”, does this table design have any particular theme or purpose?

Of course! Having had the privilege of working at the Wentworth Hotel now for several years I have really gotten to know the Wentworth Bride. She tends to be an extremely modern and savvy bride that also has a love for the “old world” traditions. So with the Wentworth’s traditional feel and the bride’s modern sense of style, I wanted to show that you can bridge that gap.

Can you explain the different detail elements and how they accomplish this purpose?

For the most traditional element I chose the china....

The yellow invokes the spring feeling but the gold pattern and delicate edging definitely drives home the traditional feel. Also, choosing the Gold Flatware to accent the china pattern gives the table a sense of royalty, which every bride wants to feel on her wedding day! I wanted to pull green from the carpet in the Wentworth Ballroom to invoke that touch of spring. I was able to do so by utilizing green glassware which the table a sense of balance in the room.

The green glassware has a wonderful pattern involving circles and diamonds, which gives it a much more modern feel than the china and brings in the modern style of the bride. Bridging that style gap are the personalized menus. I designed the menus to tie everything on the table together. I chose the diamond shape to enhance the pattern of the glassware and by adding in the delicate and ornate border, it incorporates the pattern of the china. A perfect combination!

Given the Gold in your design, why did you choose a darker guest chair at the table?

I chose the Fruitwood Ballroom chair to ground the table. I felt that gold would have been too much alongside the gold in the china pattern. The trick is always having just enough but not too much. I also wanted to use the chairs to show that you can pull in many types of decorative accents to highlight them. Treatments on the chairs really tend to finish the table and let everyone know that no detail went overlooked. At this table I did four different treatments (two chairs of each design). Four of the chairs use two tones of yellow and four of the chairs use only one. I like using the different tones of yellow since it is such a vibrant color. Using the lighter shades doesn’t overwhelm the eye as sometimes too much vibrant yellow can simply take over!

The floral centerpiece is gorgeous! How does this finish off your design?

Traditionally at the Wentworth, all tall centerpieces tend be a round or ball type of centerpiece. This time, I wanted an asymmetric feel to this traditional ball. Obviously I wanted spring branches to invoke that spring feeling but I also wanted non-traditional touches to bring in that modern, asymmetric feel.

Hydrangeas and Roses bring in the tradition and the Bells of Ireland pull in the modern feel. I also requested my favorite color be included in the floral design, eggplant! It is a great pop of color, but I said that it could only be put in if it was a spectacular touch since it would be the only touch of eggplant on the table! The Eggplant Calla Lily fits this purpose beautifully!

In the end this is table is all about Spring, lightheartedness, happiness, celebration and a start of a new day, a new life! Thank you to BBJ Linen; Jardinere; Signed, Sealed and Delivered; and Be Our Guest for helping me bring my vision to life and providing all of the details of my table. Last but not least, Thank You to the Wentworth Hotel for allowing me to be a preferred vendor and to use your space as my imagination’s playground! No two designs are ever the same.