KELLY & DOUG

Photos by
JP Elario Photography

Our Story...

Doug and I met on our company's soccer team.  I had just started a new job in Boston, and so I joined the team to meet new people in the office.  As fate would have it, I was also meeting my teammate for life.

Doug and I developed a fast friendship on and off the soccer field since we both also had a habit of working long hours.  Doug would "casually” pass my desk when we were working late, and we sometimes talked for hours.  After a year of soccer games and getting to know one another, I accepted a new job.  Doug asked me on a date before I left (finally!), and three years later, he asked me to marry him.  The proposal was under a beautifully lit archway in Boston called "The Tunnel of Love." 

I always knew I wanted to go back to my hometown to get married – specifically the Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs, where my parents were married 36 years earlier.  While we looked at Boston venues before touring in Saratoga, it came as no surprise when Doug was equally enchanted by the Canfield Casino's beautiful ceilings and historical relevance.

Our wedding weekend was truly magical, and we loved introducing our guests to Saratoga during the best time of year (track season!).  We are so grateful to our wonderful vendors who helped us celebrate with all the people we love most.  Just as Taylor Swift sang for our reception entrance, "Today was a fairytale!"

Advice to pass along...  

Work together as a team.  Wedding planning can be the ultimate group project with your partner, so try to make it fun and enjoy the journey leading up to your special day.

Stay true to who you are; we focused on choices and experiences that reflect who we are both as individuals and as a couple - which made it feel so much more special to us and our guests.

Mentally prepare yourself to enjoy your day, regardless of the curveballs that are thrown your way.  It started pouring rain right when we were supposed to take photos, but we ended up getting some photos inside and then some post-storm photos outside - so it totally worked out.  When you remind yourself that it's your wedding day and that you get to marry your best friend, truly nothing can bring you down.

Special Touches 

Rehearsal Dinner followed by Welcome Party: The 408 Event and Occasion

After party: Henry Street Taproom with Esperanto's Doughboys

Day after the wedding: Saratoga Race Course - Day at the Track, catering by Spring Street Deli and Pizzeria

Bridal Party "Getting Ready Suites": Saratoga Casino Hotel

My parents were also married at the Canfield Casino, so it was incredibly special for me to celebrate my wedding with them at the Canfield Casino 36 years later.  We included wedding photos from both sides of our family in the Parlor Room as cocktail hour décor, including photos from their 1987 Casino wedding. 

We wanted to impress our guests with a "true Saratoga experience," because most of them were from out of town.  We started with the rehearsal dinner and welcome drinks at The 408, where they were able to view Broadway on a lively Friday night.  We then took them to the heart of downtown Saratoga for our Saturday wedding at the Canfield Casino and Congress Park, followed by the after party at Henry Street Taproom.  Before we said goodbye, we hosted a "Day at the Track" on Sunday, where many of our guests enjoyed watching (and betting on!) their very first horse race at the Historic Saratoga Race Course.  We loved that it gave us more time to celebrate with our family and friends!

Our welcome bags for the guests included tourist-friendly maps of Saratoga, where we circled the location for each wedding weekend event.  We also included an array of Saratoga signature goodies, such as Saratoga water and Saratoga chips.

We wanted our signature drinks to reflect our personalities and our love of fun cocktails. The "Bride Barbie's Bubbly" included edible glitter and pink cotton candy, while the groom's "Marry Me Margarita" had jalapeños and a spicy kick!

We found some fun ways to incorporate my love of the color pink after everyone had moved to the dance floor.  We turned the Casino lights pink, our band members changed into pink dresses and tuxedos, and I changed into a rose-gold sequined dress with sparkly sneakers - it was so much fun!

For our rehearsal dinner and welcome drinks, the cocktail napkins included fun facts about us and our relationship. The guests loved trying to find all the different facts and using the facts to spark conversation.

Instead of a traditional guest book, we asked our guests to sign the the mat frame of a Canfield Casino print that we found at Crafter’s Gallery Saratoga. We now have a beautiful, personalized keepsake of our special day to hang on our wall.

For our church exit, we used wedding wands with streamers in our wedding colors for all our guests to wave.  It was so much fun to walk past our family and friends cheering and waving their wands as we got on our trolley!