Eventi Planning & Coordination

Cheryl and Ryan's Bohemian Beach Wedding

8/3/2016

The last weekend in July, at a Massachusetts beach, I had the pleasure of coordinating the large, lively wedding of Cheryl and Ryan Jones on what turned out to be a beautiful, breezy summer day.

Bride Cheryl wanted a wedding with bold, vibrant colors and an Indian soiree feel to reflect her love for the region and cultures of Asia and South Asia.

The couple took a Bohemian approach to the wedding, not only by unconventionally mixing and matching colors and decor from various Asian countries, but also by eschewing conventional wedding customs in favor of those that better reflected who they are as a couple.

The Couple

I met Cheryl as a client, but she immediately felt like a friend. She is warm, funny, and unpretentious. After our first meeting, I took to calling her The Mayor, because she knows everyone. Everyone. And, from what I've seen these past 6 months, her constituents love her, always having a nice word to say or funny story to relate about her. She works at an insurance company.

The groom, Ryan, is low-key, easygoing, and quieter than his outgoing partner. He works as a Health and Safety Technician doing contracting work for nuclear power plants.

The Location

The couple chose a location for their nuptials that held special meaning for them; the bride had previously worked at the Salisbury Beach State Reservation and the Pavilion and recreation area at the park were named after her late uncle, John Currier, local baseball player and longtime supervisor and employee of the Salisbury Beach State Reservation.

A decorative arch and the ocean were the only backdrop needed for the ceremony site, which was at the sea wall adjacent to the Pavilion. On the other side of the Pavilion, a large tent was set up for the reception.

The Wedding Party

Wanting to incorporate her many friends into the wedding party, the bride asked a number of them - ten to be exact - to be adult flower girls. They wore floral print dresses and carried oversized daisies.

The bride was attended by her cousins and aunt as her bridesmaids, while the groom had cousins and friends standing in as groomsmen.

The niece and nephew of the groom served as junior flower girl and ring bearer.

The Ceremony

The ceremony was performed by their friend, Kristen; although a brief ceremony, it was beautiful and full of meaning.

Photo credit: Casey LaPlante Photography

Chronicling the day was photographer John LoConte of 617 Weddings, whose photographs are some of those featured in this post.

The Reception

After the ceremony, guests made their way from the beach to the Pavilion where the bar was set up as well as stationary hors d'oeuvres and crudite. Heading into the tent area for cocktail hour, guests were treated to Irish music and passed hors d'eouvres as they found their seats and mingled.

Photo credit: Casey LaPlante Photography

Cocktail hour music was provided by Irish singer, Tom O'Carroll.

Guests played on custom-made monogrammed cornhole games given to the couple as a wedding gift.

Food, Drinks & Sweets

Photo credit: Casey LaPlante Photography

Photo credit: Eventi

Serving up delicious barbecue fare were the staff of one of my favorite caterers, The Wooden Spoon Catering Company.

Once again, they did not disappoint with their pulled pork with spicy or sweet barbecue sauce, grilled chicken, loaded baked potato salad, homemade baked beans, and apple cider brown sugar coleslaw.

The Wooden Spoon Catering Company includes Krisztina Perron and her professional staff (pictured above).

Photo Credit: Casey LaPlante Photography

The couple decided to forego the traditional wedding cake and, instead, opted for dessert shooters in four different flavors. Served chilled, they were the perfect size and capable of satisfying any sweet tooth.

Photo credit: John LoConte for 617 Weddings

Made by Dianne's Fine Desserts, guests could choose a decadent chocolate mousse or a rich tiramisu or try a refreshing strawberry or blueberry cheesecake.

Bartenders Nicole, James, and Stephanie provided by The Wooden Spoon Catering Company.

Flowers

Make them big and make them bright!

Those were the bride's instructions to floral designer, Melissa Keyes of Free Range Floral. And Melissa delivered on both.

Photo credit: Eventi

The bride wanted a large colorful bridal bouquet as well as vibrant colors throughout the wedding and venue.

Photo credit: Eventi

Hanging amaranthus gave the bouquets and centerpieces a cascading appearance.

Among traditional wedding flowers like roses, peonies, zinnias, and ranunculus, the arrangements also contained lisianthus, yellow mimosa, and pink poker flowers among others.

The orange, pink, and fuchsia flowers popped against the ferns and fresh greenery.

Photo credit: Casey LaPlante Photography

The team coordinating vendors and keeping things running smoothly throughout the day was Rena Dandurant, Coordinator and Owner of Eventi Planning & Coordination and Assistant Coordinator, Casey LaPlante.
A big thank you to Casey for working tirelessly, anticipating needs, and taking some of the lovely photographs included in this post.
Eventi would also like to thank the energetic and upbeat Bianca for all her help!

Decor & Details

Photo Credit: Free Range Floral

The bridal party-and special family members not included in the bridal party-wore vibrant boutonnières and wrist corsages tied with ribbons.

The bride herself made the floral hair adornment worn by her bridesmaid.

Photo Credit: Eventi

A painted globe with the new couples' name served as a unique take on a guest book and nod to their love of travel.

The couple provided two favors to guests; the first were custom koozies with their names and wedding date on them, the second were brightly-colored mini lanterns with tealights at each place setting.

The bride wore a custom silver bangle bracelet with latitude and longitude coordinates for Newburyport, copies of which she also gave her bridesmaids as gifts, enclosed in jewelry bags bought by the bride in Thailand.

Perfect Day

Clearly, one of the 200 guests brought beautiful weather as their "plus 1" because the day was sunny and warm with an ocean breeze that kept wedding-goers comfortable.

As the day progressed, the scene-stealing peach and rose sunset slowly deepened throughout the evening to magenta and indigo as the guests danced into the night.

National Dance Day!

It was completely appropriate that this couple got married on National Dance Day, because, as the sun went down, the party heated up with DJ services provided by Meritage.