Josh & Emily's Lake of the Isles Wedding

ASTRAY PHOTOGRAPHY WEDDING AT LAKE OF THE ISLES STONINGTON, CONNECTICUT

TELL US ABOUT YOUR WEDDING! I have dreamt of what my wedding was going to be like since I was a little girl. not just the look of the room or the dresses and the flowers but the feeling of not only myself but my guests were going to have. I wanted a warm romantic feeling. A lot of candles! The fireplaces in the main entry way and cocktail hour definitely helped me with that. I didn’t want things to match too much and I wanted it to all have this simple elegance about it. The church was most important to me leading up to this day, the first time I would see Josh; where we would exchange our vows, first kiss... that all was really going to set the tone I feel like leading into the evening at the reception. I knew I wanted a violinist and cello player to play music at the church and the cocktail hour since I played the violin myself thanks to my wonderful Dad. With our priest, Fr. Michael Najim, I knew the ceremony was going to be amazing.

LET’S TALK WEDDING DECOR. A lot was DIY! I was a bride on a budget! I designed and made all my glass flower pedestals ! I also became a thrift store shopper... looking for different style glass votives, mirrors, etc. I also was able to you a sihlouette machine to help design some lettering for my signs, and card box. I used a local print shop in town to help create my wedding menu placards and seating chart. I created personal wooden stirrers for cocktail hour that had a gold C paint on the ends. Thanks to Etsy I was able to work with a great shop to create personalized napkins as well.I wanted gold/bonze pops color for the decorations to go with the candle light and beautiful ballroom where the reception was held . For having a December wedding, one thing I wanted to make sure of was that just because it was in the winter and just because it was right before Christmas , it was not Christmas themed. I also did not want to take away from the beauty of the rooms with the beautiful wooden ceilings, giant windows overlooking the lake, fireplaces and such.

WHAT WERE THE FLORALS LIKE? Flowers can be expensive. Working with Shelbie at Whole Foods was amazing. I was able to really show her ideas, styles and color palates I loved and she helped me come up with the recipes for the flowers. I knew I wanted this organic look for the bridesmaid bouquets. I wanted to make sure people looked at them and commented them before they commented their bouquet! I went with a mix of different eucalyptus tied with a grey silk ribbon. I wanted the florals to look ”wintery”, but stay simple and unstructured. For my bouquet we added some white garden roses, blue thistle which I thought paired great with the grey suits the men wore, some privet berries and white goosenecks to add some height , wide airy design. For the reception, I had two different height glass pedestals that incorporated the airy, unstructured organic look as well with some dark red black baccara roses too! I also loved curly willow, its like tree branches, but just added a nice feeling to the wintery romantic look I had in my head.For Josh we incorporated the privet berries and a beautiful anemone flower and the boys, just a dusty miller accented with berried and thistle.

HOW DID YOU PERSONALIZE YOUR DAY? We love donuts, preferably Allies Donuts from Rhode Island. When planning the night I knew we had to incorporate a donut bar and it was a hit! We had ordered 18 dozen of white sprinkled allies donuts.. and trust me I still am not sick of them! We also had beautiful Italian pastries given to each table ranging from different cakes to eclairs!Favorite parts of the wedding? Gosh, that is so hard to decide. The food was fantastic, the service Lake of Isles was amazing.. but I don’t know, maybe the dancing? I love when everyone lets loose! At the end of the night Josh and I stepped away with our videographer to go outside and as I looked back at the dance floor I was like WOW! everyone is having a great time, everyone was dancing. I loved it!I just remember sitting at our sweetheart table , as the night began in the ballroom and Josh and I turned to each other and could not believe it was OUR wedding. IT WAS HAPPENING, IT WAS HERE! We did it, and I couldn’t have been happier to be surrounded that day by so many amazing, loving people.

HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING DAY LOOKS? It was only a few months after being engaged, maybe 3, when I decided I wanted to look for my dream dress. I chose Spark Bridal in Cranston, RI. I wanted to make sure when looking for my dream dress that I did not try to go with anything too trendy, I wanted classic. I also wanted to be able to be comfortable in my dress and be able to move on the dance floor. I remember trying on every type of dress... ballgowns, mermaid fit, strapless, halter.. you name it , I tried it on. I was open to trying on anything. As we got down to the last few dresses that day I think the woman helping me could see that I wasn’t too thrilled about any of the ones I tried on. As she unzipped the most beautiful strapless almond colored dress that I thought ”Hm, yeah I think maybe I could wear this?” she pulled out THE DRESS. Its was the Alana dress by Pronovias. She said ”I know on the hanger it doesn’t look much but just from this short amount of time talking to you, I feel like this is your dress”. Welp, she was right. I slipped into the dress... the accents/ details on the sleeve, the crepe material, low back with and extremely long train.. it was perfect. I walked out of the dressing room and I looked into the mirror as I stepped up on the pedestal in front of my mother, grandmother, two aunts and their daughters and said ”This is me”. I never felt so good in a dress before! Because of the simplicity of the dress I knew I wanted the most amazing veil. During bridal week, Laura from Spark Bridal picked the most beautiful veil for me to wear. It was beaded and had these flower appliqués on it, which complemented the details on the sleeves of my dress. A cathedral veil, it was perfect. I loved my look. For Josh, he loves that slim fit look. He’s extremely handsome and stylish and he knew exactly what he wanted. A beautiful Italian grey suit, slim fit.. that he paired with a black velvet tie! I remember seeing him all dressed up as I walked down the isle and was like, ”woah, I’m marrying him!?” so handsome!

WHAT WAS THE MOST SPECIAL MOMENT OF THE DAY? The church. Oh boy, I was so nervous. I just wanted to see Josh. I knew once I saw him all my nerves would go away.. and thats exactly what happened. as the church doors opened and I saw him at the end of the isle.. a smile grew from cheek to cheek. ”Thats my husband, my best friend”. I was so proud to be marrying Josh that day in such a beautiful catholic ceremony.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES? Be true to yourself. Your wedding reflects you and who you and your spouse are! The most important things to me was to have great food, awesome drinks, and AMAZING music. Have fun! You have one time to experience this all try to soak it all up! You may argue time to time while planning but know that this is YOU AND YOUR Spouses day.One of the best tips I received from previous brides was to at some point in the night, take a step back with you spouse.... alone.. away from everyone and just take it all in. Look at all your hard work, the happy faces, listen to the laughter, the music, everything. This will be like your snapshot of your wedding in your mind that will last forever.