Real Long Island Wedding: Michelle and Jason

Our wedding was an amazing day and traditional in so many ways. But it was also very unique.

I wanted a beach theme, but kept the wedding black tie formal. Everyone told me it was a contradiction and that I should choose between the beach and black tie, but my mom and I made it come together beautifully.

Jason and I chose Lands End because a reception on the water was truly us. We love to eat and drink at restaurants on the water, he proposed after dinner at our favorite waterfront tiki bar, and we knew right away that Lands End was a formal version of our perfect place.

Three themes ran through the wedding

The first was the color. I chose pool blue, long dresses with ivory ribbons down the front from Alfred Angelo and accented them with bright pink bouquets. The whole wedding was turquoise and ivory, with pink brought into the wedding only in all of the flowers (and salt water taffy).

Shells ran through the wedding but were done in a formal way, with beautiful shell designs on the invitations (by Fat Cat Paperie) and on the menus, fan programs and OOT bag welcome letters all designed by my own mother.

My gorgeous Pronovias dress had a bow across it and my first choice bridesmaid dresses imitated that, so the third theme was ribbons. We added ribbons to the hand wrapped favors and ribbons adorned the cake along with gumpaste flowers, pink roses and lilys. (Cake by Audreys)

The ceremony was a traditional Catholic ceremony at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Shore. My 102 year old great grandmother and my 86 year old grandfather were the first to come down the aisle.

After the ceremony we headed to Lands End for our pictures. The bridal party headed off in an Escalade while we made the trip in the Austin Princess, provided by New York Style Limos.

Then we left Lands End and headed back to my parents house. This is where the wedding got truly unique. In my backyard was a 58 foot bridge boat, a gift on loan from a family friend, manager of Surfside 3 Marina in Lindenhurst. On the back of the boat was the writing, “Just Married 8-8-09” Boating is the thing that brought Jason and I together, our most common interest. The minute we booked Lands End we knew we wanted to come in by boat, but we had to arrange it ourselves. With places like Chateau Le Mer, many brides arrive by boat on Long Island, but how many brides arrive with their entire bridal party on a 58 foot bridge boat? The highlight of my day was the 45 minutes spent in the boat traveling from my parents house to Lands End. As we made our entrance the crowd was greeted first by the bridal party and then on the back of the boat, there was Jason and I waving to the crowd. We felt like celebrities.

We arrived at the dock and were greeted by our bridal attendant, servers and our chosen drinks, the drinks all guests were greeted with… pina colodas, apple martinis and cosmopolitans. The cocktail hour was serenaded by the cool stylings of Steel Sensations, giving the outdoor cocktail hour a real Caribbean flavor.

My mom created our escort cards which were names written on sand dollars and all our tables were named after beach towns in NY, NJ, FL and HI.

Our reception room was a sea of pink flowers and turquoise shell details, including shell shaped tea candles and complete with salt water taffy on the tables. My mom sat down with Melissa at Lovin Oven and designed how she wanted the flowers and lanterns to be lit, so in essence the lighting was designed by my mom and yet most people thought we hired a lighting director. The Chinese lanterns over the dance floor were lit with turquoise and white lights and the centerpieces were lit from the bottom and pin lighted from the top. Flowers were from Lovin Oven Florist.

But the best part of the wedding was the amazing band. I have never been to a wedding where people danced before appetizers were even served. We had people on the dance floor from beginning to end and that was thanks to A Current Affair. Our choreographed first dance was thanks to John from Ballroom Dance LI.

Photographer was North Island Photography.
Videographer was Wild Rose Video.