Wait a second. 2015 is over? It has to have been yesterday that I was writing our 2014 year in review. Time is freaking flying!
Anyway. Holy crap, what an amazing year it’s been here at The Little Things! There have been some truly wonderful moments, but I’ll always remember 2015 as the year I made “the leap” from working for someone else to working for myself and turned TLT from a proof-of-concept to a real live business. And we celebrated by diving head first into our best wedding season yet – we helped some of the most genuine, fun loving, down to earth and all around awesome couples celebrate the best day of their lives in style from downtown Boston to the Outer Cape to the Boston Harbor Islands to Newport, RI and beyond, and we worked with some unbelievably talented and hard-working vendors along the way. It’s been completely surreal, and I could never put into words how much it means to me that our TLT clients are finding value in what we’re doing and supporting me and this business, and that we’re connecting with other like-minded vendors along the way. It is, quite literally, a dream come true.
Photo: Sarah Jayne Photography
We kicked off our season at the very beginning of Spring at the historic Pierce House. After a winter full of record-setting snow, we weren’t sure whether we’d be able to move forward with a lawn ceremony as planned (there was still a foot of snow on the ground at our last site visit), but a few days before Sarah and Eric’s celebration, the ground cleared, the sun shone, and things shaped up just perfectly for the new Mr. and Mrs. Landry!
Photos: Fat Orange Cat Studio // Makeup: TADA Makeup // Hair: Heather Bilek
Venue: The Pierce House
Florals: Sweet Annie Floral Design // Gown: BHLDN
Next, we headed to the beautiful Belle Mer in Newport, RI on the 4th of July! Kathryn and Jake had a wonderful vision for a celebration merging rustic Napa Valley and coastal Rhode Island style, and they pulled it off flawlessly. It was a joy to set up and style Kathryn and Jake’s beautiful day and to be a part of such a special celebration for two of the nicest people you’ll meet.
Photos: Brumley and Wells // Venue: Belle Mer
Florals: Orly Khon
Napkins: The Everyday Napkin // Menu Design: Bash Studio // Menu Printing: Smudge Ink
After a bit of a mid-summer break, we dove right into a busy end of summer and fall stretch with a nice little double-header! I was onsite with Liz and Dan in Wellfleet, while the rest of my team was onsite in West Newbury for Todd and India’s backyard wedding. This weekend was absolutely picture perfect in terms of weather, which was perfect for these two outdoor celebrations.
Liz and Dan’s Wellfleet wedding merged a laid-back, casual vibe with some pops of glam, and it was truly spectacular. The groom’s family spends summers in their home just a few hundred feet from The Chequessett Club, and as was the trend this year, family pitched in in many places to make this day magical. The groom’s father and uncles built the chuppah from driftwood they collected from the very beach where Liz and Dan said their vows, and installed it (during high tide!) on the morning of the wedding. Liz’s father then married the couple under that chuppah with the most thoughtful and meaningful words, and having their families play such an integral part in the most important piece of the day was unforgettable.
Photo: Rebecca Arthurs Photography // Florals: Sweet Annie Floral Design // Venue: Chequessett Yacht Club
While I was onsite in Wellfleet, my team was executing Todd and India’s stunning celebration in West Newbury. Todd and India live in Los Angeles and planned to get married in his parent’s backyard, since it’s a halfway point between LA, where the couple and their friends live, and England, where the bride is from and her family lives. I’ll never forget when India inquired with us and said “The event is going to be a an english country garden / bohemian style very relaxed very easy day. We are getting hitched in the grooms parents back yard, behind a 300 year old white house and in the shade of a sweet little rustic barn. Very low key, very love filled.” Very low key, very love filled. Has there ever been a more perfect fit for our vibe?
India and Todd accomplished that very vision and their wedding was so full of love you can literally feel it coming through in the photos. I’m still psyched that India was stylish and non-traditional enough to ask her bridesmaids to wear all white and to have the groomsmen rock espadrilles because really, what’s more left coast than that!?
Photography: First Mate // Florals: Sweet Annie Floral Design
We kicked off September with a Labor Day wedding at the beautiful Lyman Estate. Justin and Laurel were looking for a day that infused their more modern style with their venue’s traditional feel, incorporated their love for ducks, and their craft beer hobby. We incorporated ducks in subtle ways, my favorite of which was the clean and modern ampersand logo that we added a beak to and used on their stationery. We also incorporated hops into all of the florals, and it was a huge hit, almost as much as their perfectly curated selection of craft beers from the Urban Grape!
Photography: Xu Liu Photography
Florals: Sweet Annie Floral Design
Next, we headed to the incomparable Artists for Humanity Epicenter in South Boston for Melissa and Josh’s art and architecture-themed celebration. Melissa, an architect, fell in love with the clean lines and industrial touches within the space, but the couple also loved that the proceeds from events at the space go toward providing art education for Boston’s underserved youth. The art created by these students adorns the walls of the space, and it was a spectacular focal point of their day!
Melissa and Josh’s crew LET LOOSE on the dance floor, and one of the highlights of my whole season was when she came to ask me a question towards the end of the evening and had what looked like specs of dirt or sand all over her. I mean, on her shoulders, her face, her hair, in her eyelashes! It was everywhere. I asked her whether she knew she had stuff all over her and she said “oh yeah, my friends took ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ quite literally.” She was having so much fun dancing on her wedding night that she couldn’t be bothered to wash off the sugar her friends poured on her on the dance floor. It was epic!
Their photos are forthcoming, so here are a couple poorly edited iPhone snaps I managed to snag quickly on the day.
Venue: Artists for Humanity // Florals: New Leaf Flores // Catering: Gourmet Caterers // Rentals: NECR
For our last wedding of September, we headed back to Cape Cod where we celebrated Sarah and Ben with a 200+ guest blowout featuring a ceremony designed to mimic a music festival, sparkling rose as the groom’s signature cocktail, a pig roast, party vests, and antics aplenty. I had a blast and I wasn’t even a part of the party!
This day was also full of emotion from the bride and the groom! I knew from working with Sarah and Ben for a year + that they were funny, lighthearted, and full of energy, but I’m not sure I knew how deep their love for one another was until their wedding day came. The enormity of what they were doing wasn’t lost on either of them, and despite doing a first look, the groom couldn’t keep his composure as he saw his bride walking down the aisle towards him, and it made for one of my favorite photos of the year.
Despite all of that awesomeness, what was most special about this wedding was that it was a day that brought a family close together once again after experiencing some challenging times. Ensuring a couple feels the support of family and friends as they embark on life as husband and wife is what a wedding is all about. To see this wedding bring a family back together and be the stepping stone to it’s healing is a wonderful reminder of the power of what we’re doing.
Photography: Sarah Jayne Photography // Suit: Snapsuits
Florals: Sweet Annie Floral Design // Hair and Makeup: TADA Makeup & Weddings
Catering: Sumptuous Catering // Rentals: American Tent & Table // Venue: Bourne Farm
We kicked off October in downtown Boston for a Canadian-American wedding at The Cyclorama! Tory (the American) and Joe (the Canadian) wanted to treat their guests to a personalized and unique celebration, and that they certainly did! From the mini Canadian/American flag station to the (temporary) tattoo bar to their first course being four small bites representing their four most special places, their guests got the Tory and Joe show but in the most elegant way possible.
Just to give you an idea of who these two are as human beings: they put handwritten notes in every guests’s welcome bag. They sent personalized thank you notes to every single person who worked their wedding, including each person on my staff and even my boyfriend, who showed up at the venue at 1am to help me with strike. He was there for probably a half hour. They spoke at their wedding and, in front of their 200+ guests, thanked me, the DJ, the catering staff, the venue… you get the drift. Their whole focus throughout the 16 months we planned their wedding together was to make sure their guests felt taken care of, comfortable, and primed to have the best time ever. They are two of the most gracious people you’ll ever meet, and I feel so lucky to now call them friends!
Photography: Cyndi for Hitched Studios // Florals: Sweet Annie Floral Design
Venue: The Cyclorama // Lighting and Draping: Ryan Designs
We spent Columbus Day weekend celebrating Monika and Seth at one of our favorite sports, The Fruitlands Museum. We’d been working with Seth and Monika for over a year to craft a day that blended their unique interests and styles into one cohesive aesthetic, and the result was really special.
This couple is kind, fun-loving, and extremely thoughtful – during our last site visit, they gifted me with what they called their idea of a wedding season survival kit. It included a bottle of champagne (to celebrate getting through it), some tea blended to calm and soothe an anxious mind, and a candle with a tropical scent, to transport me to a serene beach setting each time I lit it. It was so thoughtful, and exactly what I needed to get me through the final push!
On their wedding day, these two soaked in every moment they spent celebrating with their families and their friends, and it. was. awesome. The killer views and perfect New England Fall weather didn’t hurt, either.
Photo: MKD Photography // Venue: The Fruitlands Museum
Calligraphy: La Happy // Gilded Animals: The Romanticist Studios
Finally, we ended our season with a bang with Liz and Tucker on Thompson Island. This wedding was our first ferry-access-only situation, which made it a wonderful challenge, and really special in a bunch of ways! One of my favorite images from our whole year is of Liz and Tucker’s guests arriving to their wedding via an absolutely packed ferry and then unloading onto the dock. So fun!
The other thing that stands out about Liz and Tucker’s day is the warmth and joy that radiated out of them for the entirety of the celebration. Whether it was drinking out of their bride and groom straws, going all in on their lobster bake dinner, organizing massive group photos, or tearing up the dance floor, these two were into it all day and all night, and so their guests were, too. It was an amazing day full of love and good times (see photo below), and we wouldn’t have wanted to say goodbye to our 2015 wedding season in any other way.
Photography: First Mate // Florals: Wildfolk Studio // Venue: Thompson Island // Gown: Ceremony Boston
Stationery: Smudge Ink Letterpress
In addition to serving these wonderful freaking awesome clients, I feel so fortunate to have been able to further my skill set this year by attending Joy Thigpen’s styling workshop at the incomparable Serenbe, getting a creative refresh and reset with my friends Sarah and Katie at our 1st annual Get Fresh weekend in the Catskills (more on both of those experiences here), and of course for developing relationships with fellow creatives/hustlers/entrepreneurs/badasses.
I’m also extremely grateful that our work has been recognized in a number of places this year, which I’ve listed with links below, in case you’d like to check any of it out:
- Sarah and Eric on Snippet and Ink
- Baby Nora on 100 Layer Cakelet
- Boozy milkshakes on Style Me Pretty
- New England Nautical / West Coast Whimsical beach setup on Coastal Living
Despite all of the aforementioned 2015 amazingness, though, the number one highlight of the year has easily been this little TLT community of ours. We’ve connected with armloads of crazy talented folks, felt the unwavering support of our tribe of clients, and we’ve consistently and enthusiastically been cheered on by industry partners, by friends, and by family. Without this support and loyalty, The Little Things would still be just a dream. From the bottom of my heart: thank you, thank you, thank you for making 2015 our best year yet. We can’t wait to show you what 2016 has in store.
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