Interview with the wonderful Angeli + Brandon:
HOW DID YOU MEET? Technically, we met on Match.com. However, the full story is that Brandon saw my profile where I had photos of myself along with one of my best guy friends, Brian, who he had coincidentally gone to college with. When Brandon first contacted me, he told me he knew Brian, so I immediately called up Brian who gave Brandon a pretty great review. We set up a date shortly after and now here we are!
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU THE MOST TO YOUR HUSBAND/WIFE?
Brandon: Our ease together – she was very easy to talk to and just fit in with my friends and family from the beginning.
Angeli: His genuineness. He can be sarcastic and witty, but he doesn’t put on an act with anyone – what you see is what you get, and that’s pretty awesome.
HOW DID HE PROPOSE? He went far above and beyond. We were getting ready to move from Minneapolis from San Francisco, and were heading out to Minnesota for a week to find a place to live. As we were about to leave for the airport, Brandon made me sit down on the couch to look at something “important” online. He directed me a website he’d created with photos of us, and pulled out a ring. Once I realized what was happening, I said yes and then we went outside where he had all of our closest friends waiting in a limo with champagne to send us off to the airport. I thought that was it, but when we landed in Minneapolis, we immediately went to a bar to meet my sister for a drink, and I was surprised with yet another group of our closest friends in Minneapolis all gathered to celebrate our engagement. It was pretty unforgettable.
WHAT INSPIRED YOUR VISION FOR YOUR WEDDING? We have both moved around a bit in our adult life, but because of that are lucky to have groups of friends from all over. Our dream was to bring them all together for a whole weekend long event – selfishly, one night just didn’t seem like enough. Brandon wanted to basically re-create his summer camp days, and I was on-board. So that really influenced all aspects of how we planned the wedding – we were thinking about how we could really bring our community of family and friends together.
TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR VENUE: Brandon is from New Jersey, I’m from Minnesota, and we met while living in San Francisco, so our wedding would be “destination” for most people no matter where we had it. We knew we wanted to get married in Florida near Brandon’s grandmother, and had an amazing time at a friend’s wedding in Islamorada a few years earlier. We took a trip down to the Keys to find a venue, and loved the setup at Chesapeake Resort. We were able to reserve the entire resort for just our wedding guests and hold all the events there so it totally fit our vision for a weekend-long celebration.
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST PLANNING CHALLENGE? Probably just planning long-distance. We made a couple trips down to the Keys (which was a nice perk) during the process, but mostly relied on our coordinator, Julia, from Blue Water Weddings. I’m not sure how we would have done it without her.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE DESIGN ELEMENT OF YOUR WEDDING? The paper flowers. I work in sustainability and liked the idea of using décor that could be used again after the wedding. I decided to do all paper flowers for the centerpieces, bouquets, everything. Originally I planned to buy them on Etsy, but found an easy DIY to make them from coffee filters, and decided to do them all myself. My friends were a huge help – my bridal shower was a “Crafternoon” of paper flower making where my closest women friends made the flowers that decorated our ceremony area. I loved having that personal touch that was so meaningful. Now I have a big bouquet at home and guests also took some home as favors.
DID YOU HAVE ANY DIY DETAILS? The paper flowers were the most ambitious, but there were quite a few. I really enjoy making things, so it was a fun process for me to do that for the wedding. The other special one was making our invitations. Brandon and I found Leg Up Studio in Minneapolis that offers classes on how to print letterpress. We took the class, and then worked with the teacher, Paul, on designing and actually printing the invitations. It was a fun project to do together!
WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF YOUR WEDDING DAY? Standing under the Chuppah as we got married. We had a circular seating arrangement, so we were in the center of all our friends and family. The weather was perfect, the setting was beautiful, and we just felt so loved and supported as we got to read our vows to each other and get married in front of all the important people in our lives.
DESCRIBE YOUR CAKE: Being in the keys, it was an easy choice – key lime cake with fudge filling and key lime buttercream frosting. Pretty delicious.
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER? Amazing. We had a blast doing our engagement photos with Jason, Dave, and Sara, so we had no doubts that they’d do an amazing job at the wedding. Jason and Dave were a pretty awesome team – super laid back and calm, but totally on top of it. Our photos before the ceremony went great, and honestly, from the ceremony on, I barely remember seeing them – which is impressive since they’re not small guys! They just let us do our thing and enjoy it all while they captured the experience.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND AS A COUPLE? For the near future, just enjoying being married ☺ And planning our honeymoon to Southeast Asia!

CAN YOU PLEASE LIST YOUR VENDORS:
Venue: Chesapeake Beach Resort
Planner: Blue Water Weddings
Photographer: Concept Photography
Caterer: Caribbean Catering
Dress: Sarah Seven
Bride and Bridesmaids Jewelry: SoAlla
Groom’s Outfit: Bash by Barry Wishnow
Lighting/Chuppah: Floral Fantasy Weddings
Bakery: Bob’s Bunz
Videographer: Michael Burgos Films
DJ: Visualize Entertainment

A special thank you to Dave Thomas from Love Meets Life Photography for shooting this beautiful wedding with Jason 🙂

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Thank you so very much to Candice Hyder from Couture House of Imagery for shooting this gorgeous wedding with me!
Interview with the wonderful Tara + Michele:
HOW DID YOU MEET? We met at work 6 years ago.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU THE MOST TO YOUR HUSBAND/WIFE?
Tara: His sarcasm and dry sense of humor.
Michele: Her smile and laugh.
HOW DID HE PROPOSE? He hid the ring in my stocking and had me open it on Christmas Eve.
WHAT INSPIRED YOUR VISION FOR YOUR WEDDING? Nostalgia. The smell of fall always brings back fond memories of our lives. I wanted that to be portrayed at our wedding. The smell of fall from now on will always remind us of the greatest day of our lives.
TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR VENUE: Venue was easy to find. The Brownstone has been a place I have wanted to have my wedding at for years.
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST PLANNING CHALLENGE? The guest list.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE DESIGN ELEMENT OF YOUR WEDDING? The entire design of the wedding was stunning so we have narrowed it down to 3. Our aisle runner, place settings, and guest book.
WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF YOUR WEDDING DAY? Seeing each other for the first time!
DESCRIBE YOUR CAKE: Autumn sweetness! Apple spice cake with a cream cheese frosting.
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER? Wonderful. So wonderful that on our honeymoon Michael felt that a picture is almost not worth taking when Sara, Jason, or Candace are not there to take it.. we tried our best anyway… ☺
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND AS A COUPLE? Starting a family.
CAN YOU PLEASE LIST YOUR VENDORS:
Venue/Caterer/Cake: The Brownstone, Paterson, NJ
Church: St. Lucy’s Church, Newark, NJ
Planner: Jenny Orsini Events
Dress: Reflections Bridal, Manhattan
Morning Suit/Tuxedo: Brooks Brothers/Valentino
Hair: I Do Hair and Makeup
Makeup: Jillyan Scarpa
Photographers: Concept Photography
Florist: A Touch of Elegance
Invitations: The Little Black Dress Paperie
Save the Dates: Pear Tree Greetings
Calligrapher: Dani Writes
DJ: Majestic Entertainment
Ceremony Music: Harp Cat
Videographer: dp Studio
Transportation: Santos VIP
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Interview with our favorite Irish bride, Ciara:
How did you meet? We are from the same town, with Patsy’s aunt living next door to me. We knew one another growing up – Patsy was a friend of my brothers but it wasn’t until we were 16 when we grew close. We were both at a formal (prom) and he asked me to dance, from that day on there was flirtation here and there, until he just came out and said “I really like you” and we have been together ever since!
What attracted you most to your husband? Definitely his smile! He has one of the nicest smiles I have ever seen! He never cared about following the crowd so he sort of stood out to me, he hasn’t changed a bit since – if Patsy believes in something he sticks to it and he is so honest – I love that about him.
How did he propose? We live in New York and planned a day trip to the City, which we normally do in the Winter. We planned to go to the cinema to watch a movie (can’t remember which one) but we missed it and saw something else instead. Then we were supposed to go ice skating at Bryant Park, but it was like a two hour wait, so we were heading home. We were at the corner of 42nd St and 5th Ave when I said “let’s go for a walk down to Central Park”, but half way down we saw Rockefeller Center wasn’t busy, so we ended up ice skating there. When we finished we were walking up the center (and this is no exaggeration) there was not another person there – which is very strange for NYC! Patsy mentioned something about the Lego store and I looked over, and when I turned back he was down on one knee. I was so surprised.. I did think that day that it would be lovely if it happened, but because he was just going with the flow and things weren’t exactly planned, I never thought it was actually going to happen. What’s funny is that Rockefeller Center is my favorite spot in the City, and a few years previous I had said to him if we are to get engaged, let it be there!
What inspired the vision for your wedding? Family – especially our nieces and nephews. We moved to New York five years ago and in that time between both families, there was nine new children born along with the two nephews we already had, so it was a big deal for us to have a huge family holiday. Orlando was the perfect place to do this. The colors were easy because I love purple uplighting and knew I wanted draping in the marquee. So it was easy to keep everything white and up lighting do its work.
Tell us about finding your venue: April from The Dtales found us The Ever After Estate which was perfect for what we were looking for, somewhere cool for the kids but we could also party until late which is hard to get in a hotel.
What was your biggest planning challenge? The fact that everything had to be chosen from scratch which we didn’t expect. From simple things like what walls you wanted to what carpet? Never in a million years did we think we would have to choose that stuff but obviously we had to so it was little time consuming and with us being in New York it was little bit difficult also.
What was your favorite design element of your wedding? The draping of the tent! It was so elegant and pretty and along with the color scheme. Patsy loved the layout as he was able to design it himself.
Did you have any DIY details? Yes. There were a few but not the typical DIY things.. Patsy and his groomsman Kevin were up hanging three chandeliers at 10pm the night before the wedding. Patsy and I made directional signs – we hated that..I always start things get bored and never finish them so he was there to really do them while I watched until he cut himself badly and it ended up with me finishing them. Needless to say they definitely weren’t perfect but it’s a funny memory.
What was the most memorable moment of your wedding day? Well there are quite a few!lol! There’s three competing moments:
My dad losing the keys to the car that we were taking to the church – at the time is was truly awful and I wanted to kill him but thinking about it now just a few weeks later it’s already making me laugh because anyone that knows my family would say that could only happen to us. This lead to the second which was just the moment I saw Patsy walking up the aisle..I felt so stressed arriving at the church but as soon as I saw his face, I forgot all about it and felt such relief – I knew he would laugh at what had happened so I knew I should too.
Or…
The moment we saw the marquee and the DJ played our first song with just us there..Patsy doesn’t like to be in the spotlight but because no one was there watching he could relax and we could enjoy the moment with just us two together.
Describe your cake: I was very lucky to have my mam make our cake. We had many disagreements about the design because she is very good at what she does so she wanted to make something elaborate while I wanted to have something more simple, so thanks to Pinterest we found a happy medium and the outcome was fantastic! She is so talented and put a lot of hard work into it. It tasted amazing and I couldn’t have asked for any better.
How was your experience with your photographer: One word – AMAZING!!! They truly were a pleasure to work with. A lot of our family and friends commented how great they were at not being noticed and not in our faces the whole day but also at how friendly they were. We dealt with a lot of different vendors while planning our wedding but Sara and Jason were one of a favorites! We actually had them booked before anything else for our wedding because we were so confident that they could capture our day the way we wanted.
What’s next for you and your husband as a couple? Just to enjoy married life and enjoy the first year by relaxing and traveling more.
Can you please list your vendors:
Planner: The Dtales
Ceremony: Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Celebration
Reception: The Ever After Estate, Clermont Fl
Flowers: Atmospheres Floral and Decor
Catering: Creations Catering and Events
Chairs, Tables and Marquee: Orlando Wedding and Party Rentals
DJ/Uplighting: Al Dee Productions
Hair: Hair by Kels – Kelsie Boyle
Make up: Faces by Shannon
Video: Voila Cinematic
Stationary:
Invitations: Susan Cunningham Personalised Wedding Stationary
Save the Date: Natty Michelle Paperie

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