I think destination weddings are so beautiful.  There is just something about wedding vows set against such a natural (and breathtaking) backdrop.  Honestly, how lovely is the circle that Allison and Scott stood it for their ceremony.  Truly, no other decor was needed.

Allison & Scott | June 18, 2010 | Maui, Hawaii

How he proposed
Scott and I had a very long courtship.  After several years together, we were living in NYC  (now living in Portland, OR) and he surprised me with a beautiful ring one snowy evening in at home.  I was in my pajamas and was a total wreck, but he loved me anyway.

The ceremony
We were married in Hana, HI at the Hotel Hana Maui.  The ceremony took place on the afternoon of June 18, 2010 with about 35 of our closest family and friends in attendance.  The ceremony site was on the bluff area overlooking the Pacific ocean and was along side a beautiful horse pasture.  We had a fairly traditional wedding ceremony with small pieces of Hawaiian culture mixed in.

The moment Allison will never forget
One of my favorite moments at our reception was when my father gave a very moving speech.  He is not much of a public speaker, so it really meant a lot to me that he got up there and spoke from his heart.  He had everyone in tears!!

I also very much enjoyed our first dance.  It was unexpected because it was not the song or the time we had planned for it, but it turned out beautifully and was truly memorable.

Splurges and Savings
The biggest splurge was definitely my dress and our reception.  We saved by cutting down on the amount of flowers at the ceremony and also a few DIY items like our welcome bags, guest gifts, and family history boards.  We also didn’t have a DJ which saved us quite a bit.  We just hooked up an ipod to a stereo system.

Why she decided to sell her wedding dress?
I decided to sell the wedding dress because I know it can be difficult to keep a dress preserved and I am often moving around the country.  I also know how expensive weddings are and no matter how much you save and cut back, you always end up spending more in areas than you expected.  If I could go back in time, I would seriously consider buying a pre-owned wedding gown.  You save so much money and can often get the same exact dress you would find in the bridal salon for much much less.  You have to alter a new dress to fit you anyway, so why not buy used and save that money for your honeymoon or a downpayment on a home?!

Her advice for other brides
My biggest tip is to enjoy your day and if you’re a destination bride (like I was), enjoy the extended time with your family and friends.  And try not to sweat the small stuff.  I know it’s hard…trust me.

Allison’s Wedding Dress: Lela Rose The Barn
Photography: Punam Bean

I just can’t get enough of this beautiful wedding.  First the utterly romantic elopement.  Then the super chic NYC reception with the jaw dropping dress.  AMAZING.

Laura & Jason | April 3rd & April 17th 2010 | Turks and Caicos and New York City

How he proposed
He proposed during an excursion (to a secluded island for a picnic)while in Turks and Caicos. He wrote “will you marry me” in the sand and was down on one knee with the ring sparkling in the sun.

The ceremony
We had the ceremony on the beach (1 1/2 years later) at the Grace Bay Club in Turks and Caicos with just our immediate family (16 people including us)
we returned to NYC to have the reception with 100 of our closest friends and family.

The moment Laura will never forget
The most memorable moment for me was when my husband (by his point for an entire hour) sliced his toe open on conch shell on the sand and had to be rushed to the hospital. I was thankful that he ended up getting a bunch of stitches and was okay but also that it happened right after we were finished with the pictures. So we have all of those beautiful shots. There are even some great pictures with that shell in them.

The reception
It was at raw loft space called the Xchange in Manhattan.
We brought in everything, divided the space up so that we can have a cocktail hour in one area and then open up the seating and dance/lounge area afterwards. We had a buffet style dinner with an open bar all night. During the cocktail we had a slideshow (to music) played for all of our guests to view the actual wedding in Turks and Caicos.

I believe having the wedding and ceremony the way we did was the best way. We were able to share a very intimate moment with our family members in a more secluded quiet ceremony which allowed us to really appreciate the moment. Returning to have the post wedding reception made for such excitement to share with all of our friends….and just have a huge party with no worries, ( or least less worries, ha)

How she knew her wedding dress(es)! were “The Ones”
The wedding dress for the ceremony was easy. It was the fist one I tried on. It was by Morgane Le Fay. I passed by her store in downtown Manhattan and knew she would have the perfect island getaway , beachy wedding dress and she did.

For the reception I tried on two different dress. I knew that The Vera Wang was the one. I actually saw it online and made an appointment specifically because of the Deirdre dress. I think I had a moment of hesitation because it felt so magnificent on and while walking around in it, and the color (natural) was just absolutely amazing. But it only took me about an hour to know that it was the one. It just felt too right. I wanted a dress that was more extravagant because the beach dress was light and airy with sheer layers….the Vera Wang wedding dress was completely the opposite.

Her advice for other brides
I think for all those brides you have to go with your what your gut instinct tells you. Don’t doubt it. I think woman are so dead on with their instincts but we sometimes doubt them..just go with it and everything will fall into place.

Laura’s reception dress: Vera Wang Diedre
Photography: Cindy Johnson Photography

Mona and Tom crafted their wedding to include the traditions and rituals that were most meaningful to them. Held at the school where they live and work, their wedding was a perfect reflection of who they are and their commitment to each other. It was exactly what a wedding should be.

Mona & Tom | June 26, 2010 | Darrow School New Lebanon, New York

How SHE proposed
I proposed to him in front of the whole school community where we live and work, during Friday lunch announcements. Tom and I had already decided to get married and found the perfect rings, but I wanted to let the small community know in a way that surprised Tom and let everyone know (instead of having them find out through rumors). I shared the story of having met Tom (after surrendering the matchmaking to God), and then had the students help me ask the question by rushing in, in a row, holding the painted letters on paper. I held the ME, just to keep it clear, and gave him his diamond eternity ring.
The ceremony
The ceremony was very unique and meaningful, as we had already been legally married (in Maui on Thanksgiving eve)

and could focus on the spiritual, familial, and social aspects of our union. I researched and created a family tree project showing our lineages coming together,

and we made a chuppah (Jewish structure representing the home) out of branches and ivory chiffon.

We hired a female officiant who weaved our ceremony together beautifully. It included a Shinto sake ceremony, where we drank out of three cups of ascending size,

readings of beautiful excepts read by my two sisters and Tom’s two brothers, prayers for our deceased relatives and for equality in marriage rights, our own vows, and a Celtic hand-fasting ritual. At the end, our family and friends were asked to make two concentric circles around us and offer their blessings and hopes for us as a couple, Quaker-style.

The reception
The reception included dinner in a hexagon tent nearby, decorated in our theme colors of chocolate brown, grass green, and ivory, and a trip to a small
family-run bowling alley for cosmic bowling (Tom is a competitive bowler). We had organic, local food served family-style (mixed greens and strawberries salad with a maple balsamic vinagrette, cedar-grilled salmon with a blueberry-mango salsa, filet mignon with garlic herbed butter, grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes. For dessert, we had a chocolate fountain with various dipping choices and flourless chocolate cake. I showed a PowerPoint of the two of us growing up in pictures, and invited everyone to join us for bowling, with the option of riding a school bus (driven by our colleague and friend) to the bowling alley. Everyone had a blast bowling to a CD mixed by a friend of mine, disco lights, and old-school scoring sheets (pencil and paper).

Splurges and Savings
We saved a lot on most things, using the campus where we live and work and met as the venue (my family stayed in the dorm where we have an apartment), making the invitations and centerpieces and chuppah myself, leaving the tent before dark (saving on lighting, dance floor, DJ, etc), using the school bus as transportation, using the school caterer for the food and borrowing their tables and other items, and having a chocolate fountain rather than a wedding cake.

I splurged on my wedding dress (gift from my mom, otherwise I would have spent $300 max), my appointments for the day (manicure, pedicure, hair and makeup), the tent and decor, and mineral baths for our family the day before at Saratoga Springs.

How she knew her wedding dress was “THE ONE”
I poured through tons of wedding magazines and websites, visited several wedding dress stores, including a rental service in Los Angeles, and probably tried on more than thirty dresses before finding the perfect one. Since I wanted the wedding to be “green/sustainable”, I went to a store in Saratoga Springs that sold eco-friendly dresses. I came away with pictures of five dresses that I liked, and emailed them to my family for review (since they live half the world away.) Their selections confirmed my choice, and I went with the one that spoke to me as a person and flattered my figure (even though it wasn’t made of fair-trade cotton).

Her advice for other brides
My advice for other brides is to choose only the elements and traditions that speak to you, and make decisions based on what feels right to you. It is a wonderful opportunity to express who you are as a person and a couple, and what marriage/love means to you, and you can toss out outdated, sexist, or expensive traditions while designing a ceremony and event that comes from your heart and soul.

The moments Mona will never forget
There are so many moments that were memorable from our day, from the drizzle that threatened to move the ceremony inside but stopped just in time, to drinking sake from the biggest cup which represents having children and seeing Tom grin wide, to my father and mother speaking up at the family circle at the end of the ceremony, to enjoying a wonderful dinner and seeing all our closest friends and family in the same place under the tent around us, to the amazing sunset we saw before heading off to bowl, to finding out that there was a full moon and lunar eclipse on the day we had scheduled months before for practical reasons, to Tom and me bowling side-by-side and getting the same score on the first round of bowling (91, good for me and uncharacteristically low for him), to dancing with him while bowling in my dress and him in his suit.

Mona’s Wedding Dress: Rosa Clara 109
Photography: Jane Feldman

This wedding is such a perfect reflection of the bride and groom.  Everything from the significance of the church to each of them, to the charmingly executed library theme, to the fun choreography of the first dance. And I love how the bride coordinated it all herself – and found a hidden talent she didn’t know – but very obviously -  has.

Hilary & John | May 15, 2010 | Cambridge, Massachusetts

How he proposed
John and I were the same class in college, but we never met! We met the year after our graduation when we both studied in Cambridge, England at the University of Cambridge. This was the fall of 2002… We were friends for a long time, and then we weren’t. We started dating in January 2008 and we were engaged March 2, 2009 in Napa Valley. We had both just gotten job offers together back in Boston, and we went away for the weekend to celebrate. The last night, when we got in the car for dinner, he said he left his wallet upstairs. After waiting in the car for some time, he finally called me to say he needed help looking. I was suspicious, but went… As I approached our room I saw rose petals outside the door. He has transformed our room in that time– covered in candles and two dozen roses and lots of rose petals.  He proposed with his grandmother’s ring, which he had flown to Louisville, KY to get a few weeks before (unbeknownst to me!).
The ceremony & reception
We threw a party that truly reflected our personalities and style.  John and I are bookworms—but we also can have a lot of fun.  We both graduated from Harvard, and we both work there now, so we married in The Memorial Church in Harvard Yard, where a college classmate officiated.  Many special people in our lives contributed to our ceremony.  We had three reading, each reflected our pasts and our future.  John’s aunt and uncle read the Sheva Brachot in Hebrew and English respectively to signify our Jewish backgrounds.  One of my high school history teachers did a reading from Corinthians, as I was raised Catholic.  Finally, my dissertation advisor read selections from economist Gary Becker’s seminal articles on an economic theory and model of marriage; John is an economist, and I’m a sociologist, so this symbolized the two disciplines coming together in our household. I’m not sure anyone has ever had a reading like that at their wedding before, but it definitely reflected us.

We also were honored to have one of my high school friends, and her fiancé, sing at our wedding—both are professional opera singers.

When guests arrived at The Charles Hotel they were greeted with another “very us” item. Instead of a traditional escort card table, we used a library card catalog.  Each guest had a card that mimicked the old Dewey Decimal system cards; on the back of each guest’s card we wrote personal notes.

[For our Save the Dates I had a graphic designer use childhood photos to create an image that looked like the old Little Golden Book covers.  On the inside of the Save the Dates it looked like a library book (on the left side is a bookplate with our names and on the right side is a library card pocket).  Inside the card pocket in an old-style check-out slip with our wedding date stamped on, along with other significant dates in our relationship.] Continuing the library theme, our favors were bookmarks, using the same image as our Save the Date book cover.

Inside the ballroom I had the hotel use conference tables, and place them on a diagonal, to give the sense of a library, but create a more intimate setting.

Our table numbers were also books, and each numbered “Volume” had two pictures—one of me and one of John on each side at the same age as the volume number.  Inside the ballroom, we used a palate of periwinkle, lavender, and plum for our flowers, linens, and lighting.  Each guest had a personalized menu card at his or her place, which had been hand calligraphied.

At the end of the cocktail hour I changed into a shorter dress, because I LOVE to dance.  We started the night off with our first dance, which was choreagraphed to “It Had to Be You.”

We had an amazing night filled with amazing food and dancing (like the Hora, but also heavy on the Lady GaGa and Madonna), and we felt completely surrounded by friendship and love!  I did not have a wedding planner or coordinator and discovered a creative side that I hope to make use of in the future!

The moments Hilary will never forget
Dancing with the girls to Like a Prayer (classic!) and Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls), which was a total moment with my girlfriends.

Favorite moment though was our last song, which was These Are Days by 10,000 Maniacs. Everyone who was still there (it was about 12:30 am), made a big circle on the dance floor and by the end, John and I were in the middle of the circle completely surrounded by love!

Splurges & Savings
Saved by not having a videographer! We also used a DJ, who was AMAZING. I splurged on my dress and on our photographer, who we flew in (but who was more than worth it!).

Why she decided to sell her wedding dress
When my husband and I committed to buying it, he made me promise I would so it wouldn’t be “wasted money sitting in a closet.” I was initially reluctant, but after two months, I realized I would never wear it again and I have many, many pictures in it, so I should help make someone else happy!

Her advice for other brides
Just think of the wedding as a big party!

Get fun shoes.

Figure out what you really care about and don’t worry about the rest.

Make it personal.

My philosophy with vendors and everything was to see up to three and then make a decision (and I often did after one). In the end, it’s just one day, so don’t stress too much!

Invest in an amazing photographer.

Surround yourself with the people who really love you. I’ve decided weddings bring out the true nature of relationships, so remember who is there for you, for always!

Hilary’s Wedding Dress: Priscilla of Boston 4509

Photography: Michael O’Bryon