Stripes, Sea, and Nautical Wedding Perfection

Categorized | nautical, Real Wedding, Real Weddings, Stripes, The Blog, VW bus

Posted on 08 September 2016.

Never have I ever come across a nautical wedding I love quite this much. It’s a celebration set at Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay with seaside charm in every capture by Krista A. Jones. Perfectly mismatached bridesmaid dresses set the color scene and the bride and her dad made a memorable entrance pulling up in a vintage VW bus. Bravo to Kari Rider Events for designing a day with equal parts style and heart.

Board #450108 Board #450111 Board #450114 Board #450120 Board #450126 Board #450129 Board #450132

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Colors

Seasons

Spring

Settings

Waterside

Styles

Nautical

From the Bride… Matt and I met over a sticky shuffleboard table at a dive bar during a blizzard in NYC. I thought he was tall and handsome, and while I initially thought he was interested in me, too, I quickly realized he was far more concerned with the people sitting behind me—a table full of New York Rangers (his favorite team). Fortunately for me, Matt’s man crushes left shortly after, and the rest is history. We both love being outside near the water whenever possible, so we knew we wanted to escape New York City and have a seaside wedding. I grew up in Maryland, and the idea of throwing a big ole party by the Chesapeake Bay with all of our family and friends became a no-brainer. We love the tiny town of St. Michaels for its history, charm and great little harbor—and the fact that our guests would be able to walk to all of the weekend events. We settled pretty quickly on Navy Point at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum as our venue, where we had incredible views of the harbor and were surrounded by water on three sides.

Aside from getting to marry my best pal, my favorite part of the wedding was having my dad give me away in a vintage VW bus. Growing up, my family drove many different VW buses over the years, and the look on our guests faces when we pulled up was priceless. I’m pretty traditional and we were lucky enough to by married by the same priest who performed my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding ceremony nine years ago. My nephews and niece nailed it as our ring bearers and flower girl, which we loved. When it came to the look of the day, I knew I wanted to feed my addiction to all things blue and white. Working with the team at Kari Rider Events, we created a timeless blue and white garden party overlooking the water. Using my collection of blue and white ginger jars as our centerpieces, we kept the flowers simple with lots of white blooms and greenery from Monteray Farms. My mom, sister, and I had fun creating the lollipop escort cards, which was a play on my new last name, Lalli. My uber creative bridesmaid Kate made the boxwood table numbers and her equally talented sister Arney Walker did all of the calligraphy for our paper goods. And, of course, we had to create a signature drink and call it the Nancy Whiskey, the name of the bar where we met.

Matt and I were both college athletes and being more of a tomboy, I never pictured myself wearing a big white gown. The minute I tried on my two-piece Lihi Hod, I knew I’d found “the dress”—simple, elegant and comfortable (a priority for me!). To top it off, I wore my sister’s cathedral-length veil, which was the perfect complement.

From our first dance to the final song (“Shout,” of course), the reception was a blast. Despite the 90-degree heat and humidity, everyone danced the night away and our incredible band Doctor’s Orders made it quite the party. The feeling of having all of our favorite people in one place for the happiest celebration of our lives is one we will never forget!