The whole wedding weekend we spent in Boston, at the Boston Harbor Hotel where the event was taking place. The wedding was Sunday at 2pm. After getting a manicure and pedicure on Saturday morning, I went into Boston to have my final meeting with the catering coordinator and made some last minute requests and changes. This was about 1pm. Ben and my parents (who also had rooms at the hotel) weren't meeting me there until 3pm, so I took a seat at the bar and had drinks and dessert. The bartender was cute, and kept pouring me the extras from various martinis and bloody marys he was making so that I could try them. There was a young guy sitting next to me who was supposed to meet his friends for some sort of birthday dinner cruise and kept trying to convince me not to get married the next day, and to come cruise with him and his friends instead. Yikes. I think he was pretty drunk.
Finally, my parents and Ben arrived and we could check into the room, which was on the 9th floor and had a lovely view of the harbor and Logan Airport. It was a mini-suite, so it had a really cute little sitting room and a huge dressing room and bathroom. Since it overlooked the harbor, it also overlooked Foster's Pavilion, the glass domed room which was our venue. This came in handy the next morning as we could look down upon it and watch them set up for our wedding.
Foster's Pavilion and the outside of the hotel:
The rehearsal dinner was Saturday night at Maggiano's, and this was about the time my shyness, anxiety and annoyance kicked in. There was nothing to rehearse really, but since our families had never met, we figured it would be a good thing to do before the actual wedding day. Although the rehearsal dinner was very lovely - in this little curtained-off private room at the restaurant - and the food was fabulous, I just really wanted to get out of there the whole time. It had nothing to do with the people or the event, I just really wanted to be alone. The Ativan was really not helping, and I was choking down lots of pain killers to get rid of my impending migraine. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that event. I guess I should have hired my photographer for that, too!But - lo and behold - the next morning my anxiety (and migraine) had disappeared. We had room service for breakfast and pretty much sat around doing nothing until about 11am. We did go down to the venue once to watch the staff set up and make table placement suggestions. But other than that, nothing happened until my hairdresser arrived at 11 and then everything after that is a blur.
Some shots of the details of my clothing and accessories:
I absolutely loved my bouquet. It turned out even better than I had planned. When talking to my floral designer, we went over a bunch of ideas. I wanted calla lilies, but I wasn't sure what kind or color. At first, I wanted just yellow calla lilies, but I also wanted Ben to be wearing a red shirt and a red rose, so I needed to find a way to tie that in. I was going for Fall-ish colors (reds, oranges, yellows, browns), and I wanted sort of a broad palette. My final request for my bouquet ended up being yellow and orange calla lilies and miniature red roses. We weren't sure that was going to work right, so I gave the designer free reign to do whatever was needed. Ultimately, she made it work spectacularly with full-sized red roses instead of miniatures. It was really chic and sculpted and lovely.
My hairdresser, Nicole, was great, and did my mom's hair and then did my hair exactly how I wanted it: simple and elegant. All the activity started picking up right as she was leaving. I needed to get my make-up on, and the florist arrived with everything, and Shannon (my photographer arrived. We still needed to take the favors (boxed chocolate truffles from Puopolo's Candies in Hingham) down to the venue and set them out on the tables.
Some shots of our rings (one in my bouquet and one next to my veil):
At about 1:15pm, we went down and saw the final set-up, and put the favors out. I had to rush back upstairs to finish my make-up and get my dress on. People were already arriving, so I basically stood by the window and watched them arrive until about 1:58, and then I went downstairs to wait by the doors.The walk from the hotel doors to the venue room was really long, and involved walking through a bunch of tourists on the boardwalk who kept stopping me to offer congratulations. While I was walking in my processional. Really, guys? The processional song was Pachelbel's Canon in D.
The walk:
The ceremony was very short. We pretty much had some filler sappy stuff, Ben's brother Matt did a reading, we exchanged vows, and exchanged rings. That was all. I think it ran maybe 15 minutes max? I really don't remember much of it. Everything was kind of blurry.
Photos of the ceremony, including Ben waiting for me at the "altar", my best friend Hunter accepting my bouquet to hold for the duration, Matt doing his reading, the ring exchange, the kiss and us running the hell away when it ended:
Our music for the ceremony and the reception was provided by our friend Mackenzie, who is a professional violist. You can see her in the background of the ceremony pictures. I only remember hearing a little of what she played, actually (as said before, it was all a blur). That actually reminds me of one thing I wish I could've done: taken more time to actually enjoy my wedding. I wolfed down the food, didn't spend too much time with any one person or group, and rushed around coordinating things and taking pictures. It was the biggest event of my life and I essentially missed it. Another reason I wanted to elope: hopefully would've been less stress. I could focus on myself (and Ben) and not have to worry about everyone else.
After the ceremony, we went with Shannon to do our personal formal shots of just me and Ben. It was really stress-free. The big weight of "getting everything right" for the ceremony part was lifted. Now everyone was being fed and gotten drunk while we unwound doing our photos. All of them came out really nice. I love Boston, and I loved that we had a nice urban setting for our photos.
The venue was amazing. The staff did an awesome job of setting up the tables and food displays with all this cream, gold and brown linen. The flowers and favors fit in perfectly, and it was very simple and not over-decorated. The food was very good, or so I think I remember. We had passed hor d'oeuvres: lamb ribs, potato knishes, vegetable spring rolls, chicken satay, quesadillas, and risotto cakes. We also had a selection of desserts and fruit, and a cake from Flour Bakery. Oh, my god, it's my favorite cake in the world - lemon raspberry - and they did a great job decorating it. Don't forget the open bar (you don't want to know the bill for that one).
Here are some shots of the details of the food and venue, including the centerpieces, cake, and drinks:
All I can really say about the reception is that I've heard it was very good. No, really, I barely remember anything that happened. I remember talking to everyone and laughing, but I don't remember what I said, or what I was laughing at. I vaguely remember it all looking pretty (and the pictures confirm), but I didn't really get a chance to focus on anything. I only tried the food and the cake because the servers reserved plates of it for me and Ben, and I didn't try any of the cool drinks, like whoever got that martini pictured above. There was just too much to do and not enough time. Before I knew it, it was 4:30pm and the bartender was doing a last call. Really, the whole thing was crazy. By the time we said goodbye to everyone and went back up to our room, I literally had to peel my feet out of my shoes - heels are evil.
And then it was over. It's sort of funny how anticlimactic it all felt. I mean, the next day everything was life as usual, except that there was nothing in the fridge to eat for once ever and I was pretty tired and now I have a wedding dress that I'll never use again. I know everyone expects newlyweds to be gushing about rainbows and bunnies and whatever other sappy things, but essentially nothing has changed in our lives. I guess we can file taxes once together instead of separately - that's sort of nice. I guess I'm too practical to let weddings get to me - even my own.
