Black, white, and gold is a classic glamour wedding color combination. Then set the wedding at a stunning historic library and you have one vintage glam wedding you can’t help but love! With black and white stripes and a stunning sparkling wedding dress, don’t miss this wedding from M.Studios.
Planning our wedding was actually easier than anticipated, due to some fast decision making on our part as well as a lot of hard work and creative ideas from my mom. We had originally considered one of the Newport mansions but realized it wouldn’t fit the time of year and feel for our wedding. We wanted an autumn wedding and a venue that allowed for different experiences for our guests, versus one ballroom. Luckily for us, we found out that Russell Morin Catering & Events has other venues in their repertoire, which is how we discovered the Providence Public Library. It had multiple levels and different rooms, as well as the Golden Age architecture we love. It was perfect. We stopped our search and signed the contract a week after we got engaged.
My dress was the very first one I tried on! My mom and I had made a couple of appointments just to get an idea of what I might like, planning to go back for the “real” dress shopping day at a later date. Instead, it took all of ten minutes for the consultant to find my beautiful Lazaro dress. It felt like a modern day twist on 1920s glam and was so comfortable – important to me for a dress I’d be wearing for 12+ hours! Jax has his tux made to measure by Marc Allen Fine Clothiers in Newport, RI. We had met Abby, the store manager, about a year earlier and remembered how much fun we had had shopping with her so Jax knew right away and that he wanted to go to her for his tuxedo. We had so much fun designing his tux and Abby was excellent – so consultative and helped select the white camouflage fabric that spun a fun twist on what would have otherwise been a traditional white smoking jacket.
We had a very special officiant for our wedding. My late grandfather’s brother, my great uncle, is a Jesuit priest and officiated my parents’ wedding, and even baptized me. My father is even named after him! It meant so much to me to be able to have my great uncle officiate. He only recently moved home from many years of living abroad and having his presence in our family’s life is wonderful. He’s sharp and funny, and made me feel much more connected to our ceremony. Having an officiant who knows us and is part of our life heightened the ceremony for us, and he had all of our guests laughing at the reception.
When wedding planning, we had two main focuses – guest experience and the wedding feeling true to us. It was important to us to have a live band & DJ, great food (and a lot of it!), and keeping the formalities at the reception to a minimum so we could spend as much time as possible with our guests. Music was one of the first things about which we really connected, so we had some pretty specific requests. Notably, we wanted to close out the night with Float On by Modest Mouse, as we once skipped a flight just to hear them play live.
Once we had our venue, it was easy to base our decor around the space. Black, gold, and white were our wedding colors and we wanted a dark and romantic vibe, achieved with hundreds of antique candlesticks and heavy greenery mixed with all white blooms. Black and white striped details added a modern twist. We also wanted the night be a true party! It was really, really important to us that our guests had a great time with lots of food and dancing. The wedding party joined cocktail hour fifteen minutes in, and we opened the dance floor immediately following dinner. The party continued with a live band and late night snacks at the Dorrance, the old Federal Reserve building.
Our reception venue was so beautiful that we wanted flowers to accent rather than overwhelm the space. Danielle at Studio 539 was really consultative and worked with us on finding the perfect balance of romantic white blooms and greenery to combine with the antique candlesticks we used as centerpieces and scattered throughout the venue. They also did an incredible job with my bouquet. I wanted something really organic looking without being messy and it was absolutely perfect, beyond my expectations.
For food, my father and Jackson both loved the idea of a mashed potato bar and Morin’s really pulled out all the stops, with three kinds of potatoes and a litany of toppings, in addition to a raw bar station and creative passed hors d’oeuvres. We also wanted to spend a lot of time dancing and connecting with our guests – when else do you have so many people you love in one room?! For this, we cut down on a lot of reception traditions, such as a cake cutting, tossing the bouquet, and the garter. Instead, we had multiple dessert stations with different options such as gourmet cupcakes, cannolis, apple pie a la mode, and peanut butter cups. We really appreciated how flexible our caterer was and how many customizations they put together for us.
Photography | M.Studios | Ceremony Venue | Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul | Reception Venue | Providence Public Library | Planning | Michael Marcoux Events | Florals | Studio 539 | Lighting | Ormonde Productions | Band | Soul Estate Band | Rentals | Peak Event Services | Catering | Russell Morin Catering & Events | Hair & Makeup | Petal Blush Beauty | Dress | Lazaro | Groom’s Attire | Marc Allen Fine Clothiers | Bride’s Shoes | Valentino | Bridesmaid Dresses | David’s Bridal | Groom’s Shoes | Versace | Submitted via Matchology
