The Details
Location: Blantyre
Ceremony: St. Ann Parish
Dress & Necklace: Galia Lahav
Faux Fur: Ramy Brook
Photography: Dani Fine Photography
Videography: Summer Wind Wedding Films
Florals: Daisy Stone Studio
Hair: Natalie Salerno Hair
Makeup: Alycia Nicole Makeup Artistry
How We Met
Bishir and I met in college in Boston. We were both interns at the same company while at Northeastern University. We soon realized we lived two doors down from one another and both started to secretly time our commutes down so we could take the “T” (Boston’s subway) together to work each day.
Cut to 8 years later…a few big career changes for each of us, several moves, a few years doing long distance (tens of thousands of miles on each of our cars just to see each other on the weekends), graduate school, and even a trip across the world, I couldn’t imagine my life without Bishir.
Wedding Plans
When we got engaged in August 2019, we had a few plans in the pipeline for a big wedding and even toyed with the idea of a destination wedding. Those early planning days were some of the most stressful and least enjoyable. We had such a hard time picking a venue. Nothing felt right. Then the world shut down. We decided we’d wait until things got back to “normal” to continue planning.
Until…. we just didn’t want to wait any longer. Suddenly, getting married just felt urgent. We wanted to move on with our lives, start the next chapter, buy our first home together, plan for our future. We started planning. We wanted to do it soon. We had waited long enough, and there’s just no way of knowing when Covid would be over and it would be safe to have a big wedding again. Honestly, it was a blessing in disguise. It took the weight off our shoulders.
The Berkshires & Blantyre: A Refuge from Covid-19
Bishir moved back to the Berkshires (two hours from Boston) shortly after college to take over his family’s restaurant businesses. I followed him out to the Berkshires last winter just before the Covid-19 shut-down. Although I was sad to leave Boston, the Berkshires felt like the perfect refuge, and I didn’t even miss the city. We used to love Bar Boloud in Boston (and were devastated when it closed due to Covid), so when we heard Daniel Boloud was opening a summer popup at Blantyre in the Berkshires, we knew we had to give it a shot. It felt like our Boston and Berkshires worlds were colliding. When we heard the Café Boloud popup was so successful they were extending it through the winter, we knew Blantyre and Café Boloud would be the perfect setting for a micro-wedding.
The Dress
When we set the date for a January wedding in September, I had already been scouring the web for a dress. There were so many options, but nothing felt like me. I had tried on wedding dresses before for a work project, but I never truly loved any of them. I also knew I didn’t have time for a long lead time. I only ever saw one dress online that felt like “me,” and it was from Galia Lahav’s ready-to-wear collection with only two weeks to ship. I knew I wanted a long-sleeved dress, and a winter wedding seemed like just the right occasion. I loved how the deep V and the high slit added a little bit of edge and sexiness to contrast the otherwise conservative dress. I felt it matched the vintage glamor and casual elegance of our venue perfectly.
Since I wasn’t able to try the dress on before purchasing, I knew I was taking a major risk. Luckily I work for a luxury fashion boutique in Boston and have access to an amazing tailor. It was the first and only dress I tried on, and after a few minor alterations, it was the dress of my dreams.
The Pearl Choker
Galia Lahav’s full bridal look for this dress includes a pearl choker. As soon as I saw the necklace with the dress, I knew it was meant to be. The dress and this pearl choker were the easiest decisions I made about this whole wedding (aside from choosing my groom, of course)! This major glamour moment was probably one of the aspects I was most excited about for my wedding.
Beauty
Working for a hair salon and fashion boutique gives me some great insight into trends of the moment as well as access to some of the top professionals in the industry. My hairstylist came out from Boston, and we ultimately decided on vintage glamour waves over a more modern loose wave to stay true to the aesthetic I had chosen for the wedding overall. I wanted to be myself, but with a twist, and a deep side part with vintage waves was just the look.
The Accessories
I had to splurge on a modern-day “glass slipper” – need I say more? These Christian Louboutin shoes were meant for my wedding. I went through a couple of pairs to find ones that didn’t catch on the lining of my dress (glitter CAN actually be a bad thing – who knew?). I also wanted a faux fur jacket to keep warm. I wanted to make a statement but didn’t want it to look too stuffy or too untamed. The first faux fur I ordered made me look as if I were headed North of the Wall (if the GoT fans know what I mean) and was too “yeti-like.” Luckily, Ramy Brook came in with the perfect cream, super soft faux fur.
Just Keep Going
Through all the stress of planning a wedding, my dad had kept telling me to “just keep going” to make this wedding a reality. After semi-planing several iterations of the day, we started this micro-wedding concept with a list of close to 30 guests, but with state restrictions, we had to scale back to 15 guests, and then with even further state restrictions, we had to scale back to 10. In late 2020, I lost my grandfather and my grandparents on the other side came down with Covid. Although we were completely devastated, it felt more important than ever to go through with our wedding – even if it just meant having our parents and siblings with us. Also in late 2020, our quarantine puppy was brutally attacked and had his neck torn open by a neighbor’s dog and needed round-the-clock care (he’s fully recovered now)! When we learned we could have our pup with us at Blantyre (since we didn’t want to leave him with another caretaker after such a recent traumatic event), we knew everything was falling into place.
We all got tested – even though it meant waiting in the car for over four hours just to ensure we wouldn’t be putting our loved ones at risk. I would wait four more hours if I had to. Luckily my brother and dad had already been vaccinated as healthcare workers.
We just kept telling ourselves that nothing short of us both getting Covid would stop us from getting married. And, as it turned out we were blessed to have the most magical intimate winter wedding we could have ever imagined.
SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I am obsessed with what you wrote and the amazing pictures!