A Romantic Boheme Wedding at the Jersey Shore

Mike and I got married in August. It was probably the happiest day of my life. I can’t believe it’s already been two months! It feels like I was just planning it last week – but I’m happy I wasn’t. (stress was  level 100)

Mike and I got engaged October 9th, 2014. (three years ago). We planned on getting married the following year (2015) but it ended up not working out because of timing and finances. It was just very overwhelming. It just didn’t feel like the right time and I’m glad it ended up not working out that year because Wanderland on the Bay was perfect for us.

I married my best friend on August 11th, 2017 – this is our wedding story.

*all photos by Ciara Perrone*

We got married in Highlands, New Jersey at Wanderland on the Bay.

It’s an outdoor space right on the Marina, which had me a little worried about the weather. I just left that up to the universe because I knew I had no control. I did check the weather every single day for like 15 days before the wedding though. There was a nor’easter the weekend of our engagement party… so that’s our luck. Fortunately the weather was BEAUTIFUL. We were worried about the heat because hello, mid august but it was between 70-80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It did rain for about 5 minutes during dinner. Thankfully we were all under the tent.

When it started to rain, everyone started putting the plastic sides down on the tent and I instantly started to worry. Then the music went off! I’m not joking. The music went off because one of the wires got pulled while moving a table. When people tell you something is going to go wrong they aren’t lying. Our DJ, Ryan was awesome though. He had it back up in a few minutes.

GETTING READY

This whole day was magical starting with waking up. I was wondering how I would feel the morning of my wedding. I didn’t know if I would feel crazy or anxious or what. If you can remember what it felt like to wake up on Christmas as a kid.. that’s what it felt like. My mom, sister in law and niece slept over the night before– Mike slept at his mother’s house. My sister in law and I woke up at the same time and ran into the guest room where my mom was sleeping. We were all giddy like little kids. It was honestly so fun. I think we should have sleepovers more often actually.

Crystal hair piece by DyNaModuo on Etsy. It was perfect! I was deciding between a couple and I’m so happy I went with this one!

My wedding dress by Made With Love — It’s the Sasha dress. I found the dress at Lovely Bride in NYC. You can read all about the experience here. There were other AMAZING dresses there too and you can see them all in the blog post.

I changed into a second dress towards the end of the night. The second dress is the star one. That one is by Love and Lemons on REVOLVE.

I kinda wish I was joking but my bridesmaids are gluing my wedding dress to my skin with super glue. Like I said.. I wish I was joking. The limo was waiting outside and my fashion tape wasn’t working with the mesh on the dress! We were running around the house looking for super glue! I finally had to call Mike to ask him where the super glue was. His reaction was priceless an hour before we were supposed to be getting married.

In the mix of things I forgot to take a photo with my girls. I did catch one with Roux on the way out.

Speaking of on the way out… this is a good one. ALL the dogs got out!
Picture all of us in dresses and heels leaving the house and my pitbull and two french bulldogs get out of the house. My pitbull Mya jumped in the Limo!! My neighbor came to help us!

The first and basically only time I touched my phone the entire night.

THE GUYS!

Everyone kept asking us who the twins were at the wedding! Everyone thought our newphews were twins. I think it was the glasses and the bow ties.

How cute are they in their bow ties by the way?

Wedding time!

One of my favorite parts of the wedding was our photo booth and our food truck!

We used VW Booth Bus and Nettuno truck and they were both AMAZING.

**See all the photobooth photos HERE.**

 

We made our own little background for the photo booth bus– all of the materials are from Michaels! I think fake flowers can be really tacky BUT I loved them for the bus! I think it came out so cool and it made for such fun photos!

We also made DIY cutouts of our dogs faces! We had to include our girls somehow!

Have you ever seen a more beautiful food truck? The food was amazing and so are Jocelyn and Joe, the owners! Some of the guests were so confused when they heard we were going to have a food truck at the wedding for the reason of waiting in line for food. Hot foods were served out of the truck for cocktail hour and cold hors d’oeuvres were passed by servers. For dinner it was a sit down family style dinner. I’m telling you it was seriously amazing!

The shrimp was one of the things we heard about from guests for weeks after the wedding!

Everything is passed family style too! That was one of my favorite parts about it. It made for wonderful family photos and a more relaxed time. It was absolutely wonderful.

No shame! The food was so good! I took time out of our pictures to keep eating! Wifey likes to eat!

We had an unplugged ceremony. Our guests didn’t use their phones during our ceremony. Moms were not pleased but everyone understood. In our professional photos I didn’t want to look at a bunch of people holding their phones. You can print one of these right off of Etsy.

 

My older brother, Caleb walked me half way down the aisle to my grandfather who walked me the rest of the way.

My dad isn’t in my life so I had my older brother and grandfather walk me down the aisle. Having these two guys walk me down the aisle was the best decision I made. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted it this way.

I love my grandparents so much. It’s horrible but it was one of my fears that they wouldn’t be able to see me get married. This will forever be one of my favorite memories of all time.

I honestly don’t even remember what we were laughing at but it must’ve been good. It was basically an ongoing giggle fest at the arch.

We are husband and wife! 🙂

PS. Shout out to Joey, @ball_and_claw_vintage for letting us borrow your kilim rug! xoxoxo

 

FAMILY & BRIDAL PARTY

Me and my mama! I love this lady!

After we got married we obviously went off to take photos. (well after I stuffed my face for a little while)

 

THE MR. & MRS.

Flowers by Chelsie, Flower Child Floral

We bought 110 crystals and rocks at the flea market for about $1 a piece. (some were more) and we used them for the name cards at the tables.

I wrote out all 110 name cards by hand.. by myself. (oh-em-gee) I honestly just watched YouTube videos until my writing look acceptable.

 

…and then we danced the night away!

OUTFIT CHANGE!

Mike and I did an outfit change towards the end of the wedding. Originally I was only going to change but our friend Stephan at Chazmatazz in Toms River helped us so much with picking the suits out. He convinced us that it would be amazing if Mike changed his jacket too and I’m so glad we listened.

 

CUT THE CAKE!

 

 

DIYS

 

Our wedding day seriously flew by. It really was the most magical day of our lives. We were blown away by the amount of out of town people that came.

Mike hadn’t seen his father since he was a kid and he came! He came from Florida to NJ to our wedding. It meant so much. My grandfather (mom’s dad) also came. He’s in his 80’s and him and his wife made the ride all the way to NJ from FL.

Now that we’re married I feel like we’ve come full circle. We’ve been together 7 years (next month) and I love Mike more than the day I met him. We have grown so much together and have built so much. I was always a little scared of the word marriage.. mainly because of the marriages I’ve seen… but speaking from my own personal experience marriage feels amazing. Don’t get me wrong our schedules and our lives are the exact same as before but I have a whole new respect and love for the lives we’ve built. I hope that we can grow and be like our grandparents. Mike’s grandparents have been together for 61 years and my grandparents have been together for 69 years.

Coming from a girl scared of weddings and marriage, is it magical. I’m so happy to call Mike my husband and my life partner.

Venue: Wanderland on the Bay
Photogrpaher: Ciara Perrone
Flowers: Flower Child Floral
DJ: Ryan Subers from JB Productions Live
Cake and donuts: Flourbomb
Makeup: Joy Sims
Hair: Allie Byrne
Suits: Chazmatazz Formalwear
Floral ties: Neck and Tie Co.
Snapchat filter: Katerina Kriticos
Cookies: J & G Cookies
Officiant: Daniel O’Heney (if you’re in NJ and need an officiant, Dan is amazing!)

xo
Cara