Marcel was living in Poughkeepsie, working as a lacrosse coach at Bard College. I was in my senior year of college at Marist completing my semester of student teaching. We met just before Christmas in 2015 through my best friend and his friend on his college lacrosse team (they had dated since middle school!) My family lived in Hawaii when I graduated college, so I traveled to live on the island for a while. Marcel and I knew we had something special. We visited each other often while we did long distance and we finally decided to move in together when he was offered a lacrosse coaching job at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, which brought us here permanently! Marcel proposed on a walk through the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club. It was during the height of COVID quarantine in April of 2020, so the golf course was empty. We walked to this bridge with a pond, and I accidentally felt the ring in his pocket right before it happened. (My hands were cold, so I reached in his jacket pockets to keep warm. Oops!)
Before I left for Hawaii, I gave Marcel a pouch of crystals that meant special things to us and our relationship. He has kept it ever since. When planning our wedding, we wanted a special way for our guests to participate during the ceremony that we could all remember. We decided to leave a rose quartz crystal on everyone's chair. During the ceremony, our officiant (Marcel's friend) asked everyone to hold their crystal and think of one wish, a piece of advice or just think of our love and put it in the stone. After the ceremony, we had everyone put their crystals into a large holder with candles. Now, we keep everyone's love and well wishes with us every day!
Planning a wedding during COVID has been a unique experience. It made our special day even more fulfilling. Just being with the people that mean the most to us and celebrating love and togetherness was all we wanted. Especially after being in quarantine and not seeing some friends and family for years, it was just perfect having everyone together to eat, dance and celebrate love.
DETAILS:
Wedding Date September 5
Location The Mansion Inn
Photographer Niki Rossi Photography
Wedding Gown Something Bleu
Bridesmaids' Dresses Revelry - in Terracotta & Dusty Rose
Hair Hair Extensions from Luxyhair.com
Groom's Attire Mr. Formal Wear
Rings Lily & David Fine Jewelers
Flowers Everwood Flowers
Stationery Suite Minted
Event Decorator The Bride & her mom
Arbor Weathered Wood
Caterer & Cake The Mansion Inn, Chef Rick Bieber
Transportation Algonquin Buses
DJ or Band The New York Players
First Dance "Coming Home" by Leon Bridges
Wedding Favors Cider Belly Doughnuts, Personalized Yetis
Special Touches...
- Rehearsal Dinner at 408 Event Space
- Wedding Night Stay at The Gideon Putnam
- After wedding brunch at Farmers' Hardware
- My husband tore his achilles a week before the wedding so we got him a cool cane!
- My florist went on a wild goose chase to find toffee roses for me - she was amazing and the flowers were so unique!
- My mom found a beautiful mirror at a flea market in Saratoga and used wax seals to hand write and glue everyone's individual escort cards to the mirror. It was a showstopper!
- My mom hand painted our table numbers on gold and glass frames I found. Then, we put fresh eucalyptus and greenery inside to make unique table numbers.
- For our guest book, we used Polaroid cameras and I ordered a personalized leather book on Etsy for people to tape their picture in and sign - everyone loved it!
- Rose Quartz crystals at ceremony.
- Our dog was part of the ceremony and had a cute leather bow tie!
- We really wanted local charm - locally sourced farm to table food at our wedding. Our chef was amazing about accommodating this. We also had local craft beers at the reception.
Advice to pass along...
- Don't save things until the last minute.
- Enjoy the little moments and savor the food.
- Get the pictures you really want and vocalize what you imagined to your photographer. Make sure the details of the wedding represent YOU and have fun with it!!
- Try to make your wedding an experience. Because we were married on labor day weekend, all our guests came for the whole weekend and went to the track.
- Stick to the plan you want. On our wedding day, it rained all morning RIGHT up until the ceremony. Instead of changing the plan to an indoor ceremony, my dad said "Do what YOU want. If you get rained on, it'll be even more romantic!" So, we had the ceremony outside and it stopped raining just in time.
