August 29, 2015

This happy couple wanted to make sure that their rustic chic wedding at the Valley Country Club featured personal touches which truly reflected their loving relationship… and we think they prevailed! After hearing about their perfectly choreographed first dance (complete with an awesome dip-kiss!), handmade scrapbooks of their relationship that doubled as decor, a guestbook inspired by their favorite movie, and Jeff’s beautifully written vows, we feel like we’ve known the two for years. Now, it’s your turn to get to know (and fall in love with) them, too.

By Kaitlyn Murray

How did you meet?

We met at our best man’s birthday party on September 10, 2011. I had just started graduate school with Jeff’s best friend, and then we met while going out together to celebrate the mutual friend’s birthday. We hit it off instantly and went on our first formal date the following week.

When did you get engaged? 

We dated for three years before Jeff proposed in 2014. I’m the planner in the relationship and I knew something was up when he planned a big night out without a reason (like an anniversary or birthday.) However, Jeff knew I was on to him and he intentionally took me around downtown Providence looking at various sites without proposing to throw me off. He then took me to Gracie’s, our favorite restaurant together, where he had a reservation at their most romantic table. Jeff proposed at the start of the meal and had the restaurant manager secretly taking pictures of the proposal from afar. 

What was your planning process like – fun or stressful?

The planning process was a lot of fun for us. As a planner, it came naturally to me and, with the help of a wedding organizer binder, I was able to coordinate the details. Jeff was very involved throughout the planning process and was a good sport with all kinds of crafts on the weekends to personalize our wedding from the hand cut menus to the personalized welcome bags and cocktail stirrers. Our families were also supportive in regards to making decisions, finalizing details and helping with various projects along the way.

Who are your adorable flower girls & ring bearer?

They are my cousins- Zephy, Eva, Addy and Antonio. My cousins and I had a blast preparing for the wedding. The girls practiced walking down the aisle with their younger brother and coached him for the big day. I also worked with the girls to pick their flower girl dresses.

I saw you had a violinist at your ceremony, what did she play as you walked down the aisle?

That was one of my bridesmaids and her fellow musician from their group Legacy String Trio. They are available for hire at weddings and did an incredible job throughout the ceremony. I walked down to Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love”.

And what was your first dance as a married couple? 

We danced to Ray LaMontague’s “You Are The Best Thing”. We practiced multiple times in our living room before the big day.

You had not one, not two, but three cakes! What made you decide to go with more than one?

We fell in love with the look of cake displays rather than a single cake, and decided to go less traditional with it. Jeff had a customer who made wedding cakes (Jennie Cakes) and she made us sample cakes for our Jack and Jill Shower. We had our friends and family vote at the shower as to which flavor was their favorite, and we ultimately chose for all three cakes to be lemon with buttercream.

It’s so sweet that you let your guests look through scrapbooks from you relationship – how did those come about?

After our first year of dating we decided to start making scrapbooks together that we could show our kids one day. While it was jumping the gun the first year together, Jeff was on board with my ideas for the scrapbooks and we have been making them every year since on Snapfish.com. It’s really fun to review our adventures throughout the year and we try to make a new one around our anniversary to look through together while we celebrate.

What inspired your guestbook?

We love the movie “Up” and aspire to have a love story as warm, enduring, and adventurous as that. We decided to have our guestbook personalized on Etsy by making a sign depicting our adventurous love that we can put in our house as a symbol of all of our family and friends who are close to our hearts.

What was each of your favorite moments from that day?

Becca: My favorite moment was listening to Jeff read me the vows he had written. They were so sweet and were a reminder of the incredible man I was getting to marry. I could barely keep it together while we read our vows! We had personalized a wine box and put our vows in the box at the ceremony and we just took them back out on our one-year anniversary and celebrated with a bottle of wine.

Jeff: My favorite moment was finally getting to see my bride for the first time during our first-look photo shoot. All of the suspense and excitement from the past year was building up to that moment for me. My heart was pounding out of my chest when I knew she was walking up behind me, then when I got the tap on my shoulder to turn around, seeing my beautiful wife (to be) made all of my nerves go away.

Were there any hitches that day? 

The biggest hitch we encountered was dinner being delayed due to people forgetting what they had selected on the invitations. We hadn’t thought to write each person’s entrée selection on the back of their name cards (highly recommend all couples to do so now!), and when dinner came around it was a mess. A lot of people changed their orders and the kitchen was flooded with the incorrect number of fish vs. beef plates. The DJ and venue worked hard to speed up dinner and get people on the dance floor in the meantime. Thankfully we had a five course meal planned and our guests had plenty of food while waiting for the entrée course. Ultimately, the venue extended our time a bit and all of our vendors were very supportive with adding an extra thirty minutes so that we all had enough time to dance and celebrate following dinner.

Now that you’ve been married for a year, what’s been the best part about marriage? Do you have any advice?

The best part of marriage so far is being able to move forward with everything we want in life together. Buying a house together and thinking about having kids are things that we are able to do with confidence as a married couple. We can do anything we want together and we get to share in each other’s excitement about it all. Our advice to recently engaged couples is to have fun with the wedding planning process because it will be over before you know it. It’s not just the single day to celebrate the wedding- it’s planning the whole thing together and making it as personal and fun as possible. At the end of the day it won’t matter what color sash you selected or which charger plates you picked. You and your guests will remember how much love was felt, and the wedding planning process is one of the first big opportunities you will get to work together as a team to overcome inevitable barriers throughout planning.

The Details

Photographer: Brittany Leigh Photography // Ceremony & reception venue: Valley Country Club // Hair & Makeup: Jacki Crugnola Hair and Makeup Design // Bridal gown: Mary’s Bridal, North Carolina // Groom’s Suit: Men’s Wearhouse // Bridesmaids’ dresses:  David’s Bridal // Groomsmen’s formalwear: Men’s Wearhouse // Catering: Valley Country Club // Cake: Jennie Cakes // Floral design: DIY // Music: Jason Demers, Music Machine RI // Invitations & signage: DIY, made with Vistaprint