Paulina & Matthew: Sunset Bash on the Beach

Sometimes if you’re lucky, you get to know a couple with love that is so tangible, pure, and passionate, that you’re honored just to know them and witness it. It makes you want to be a better spouse yourself. Meet Paulina and Matthew. They come from a family that is already immensely dear to us - we have now had the pleasure of working with three out of their five daughters on their weddings. Each one so special and unique!

The very first thing we like to do when working with our couples is get to know them on a deeper level - favorite foods, places they’ve traveled, important family traditions, heritage and culture, personal style, and experiences that are special to them as a couple. This helps us develop a design so fine-tuned to who they are as a couple, and that’s what makes a wedding feel warm, intimate, and detailed…

Believe it or not, our next step is NOT figuring out how many boutonnieres they need, or what their favorite flower type is. We begin to build their custom floorplan first and foremost - this is the back-bone and the spring-board of the design process. Once a tentative floorplan in place, we then make decisions pertaining to sizes/shapes of tables, height and mass of centerpieces, texture and color of linens, rental needs, focal areas, etc.

From there, we bring visuals together. For some Brides, it’s as simple as a custom design document, however, Paulina opted for a full table rendering so she could truly touch and smell everything - even making edits on-site until the design was just right. Creating a full table rendering also helps give us peace of mind, to know that when we are finally at the week of the wedding, we are designing exactly what our couples expect and love. No guessing involved! Of course, there are always a few sweet surprises we like to throw in for fun.

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The first glimpse a guest has for the wedding day, is the invitation suite. Of course, Paulina and Matthew’s were as significant and detailed as you may have guessed by now! Our in-house press company created the most exquisite designs solely centered around the guest favors… yes, you heard me right. Now, for a little back-story. Paulina’s family are proudly Dutch and full of tradition and sentiment. For their guest favors at the reception, they thoughtfully curated an artist from the Netherlands to design and print a custom delft blue pattern on a china plate - with each element symbolizing something special in the couple’s lives.

The outer layer of the main invitation was a sheer vellum sheet, hand-painted white with the same flowers from the delft plate. The main pieces were torn-edge paper from Silk & Willow, letterpressed with charcoal ink and bronze foil accents. Frayed indigo velvet and raw burgundy silk ribbon from Honey Silk & Co wrapped it all together with a copper wax seal. Dark blue envelopes were lined with the same blue delft pattern, adorned with a collection of vintage stamps, and scrolling white calligraphy from Lola Grace Calligraphy.

Paulina’s childhood home provided the perfect backdrop for both the ladies and gentlemen to get ready in the morning. We can’t imagine a more warm, intimate, or comfortable place to spend precious moments with your best friends and family. The drop-dead gorgeous Bride and Groom also shared their first look along the tree-lined driveway. The way Matthew looks at Paulina is what all classic love stories are made of… so much admiration, respect, and gratefulness.

Our Groom presented his Bride with her bouquet during the first look, and WOW, was this ever a fun bouquet to design! Flowers are incredibly important to this family, so only the best of blooms were picked - blush king protea, coral anthurium, apricot ranunculus, peach juliet garden roses, sunset toned vanda orchids, burgundy scabiosa, coral charm peony, maroon kangaroo paw, and a plethora of textural mixed greenery. Colorful velvet and silk ribbons for the handle were the perfect cascading touch.

In the Bride’s family, it is always tradition to have a small marriage license signing ceremony in their beautiful backyard with only their closest family and friends, prior to the actual ceremony and reception. This allowed for extra relaxed quality family time, and they didn’t have to worry about signing the license later on in the day. Not to mention, it’s the perfect photo opportunity!

After a short drive from the house to the beach in Saugatuck, Michigan, the bridal party and family congregated at the ceremony site for formal photos. Can we just take a moment for how adorable Miss Lillian and her flower girl crown are?

The Bride’s family private property had long winding driveways through gorgeous woods, right on the edge of Lake Michigan. Paulina had always dreamed of a woodland ceremony AND a beachfront reception… for most venues? Impossible. However, this property was perfectly laid-out for exactly what she had dreamed. Guests were shuttled up the hill through a canopy of swaying trees, arriving at the most idyllic, shaded ceremony site. A mixture of bamboo and wood benches created an organic aisle that was lined with mixed Persian rugs, leading up to an arch with billowing champagne organic fabric and textural floral designs.

As guests gathered at the top of the hill, waiting for the ceremony, the bridal party took photos down at the beachfront amongst the dunegrass. Could you find a prettier bridal party? I don’t think so! The bridesmaid’s mixed custom silk dresses in shades of butterscotch, apricot, peach, and copper were incredibly flattering and the perfect compliment to the overall color palette.

As guests waited beneath a canopy of swaying trees and chirping birds, the bridal party gathered to make the long and serene walk through the woods. Our Father of the Bride, Paul, cherished the last few moments with his namesake, Paulina, before he escorted her down the aisle. Their close bond was so beautifully apparent, and a joy to witness.

Paulina and Matthew exchanged heartfelt, handwritten vows with the distant sound of waves crashing and rustling of leaves as their melody. There was not a dry eye on top of that hill. They were married by the Groom’s own father, tenderly washed each others’ feet as humble servants of our Father above, and sealed it all with an elated kiss. Wedding guests showered them with fresh petals and celebratory cheers as they walked back down the aisle as husband and wife.

After the ceremony, guests meandered down the forested hills to arrive at the beachfront property for cocktail hour. They admired the picturesque views and setting sun while sipping on specialty cocktails - Brooklyn Gin (Hers), Smoky Mezcal Negroni (His), and Grapefruit-Rosemary Gin (Ours). A custom alphabetized seating chart was available for guests to peruse and find their table number ahead of time.

A sailcloth tent with wood pole legs added to the beach-vibe and created the perfect atmosphere for the dinner reception. Massive 7ft round hoop chandeliers with textural greens and dried pampas grass brought visual interest to the tall, sloping ceilings. A mixture of round and long tables were draped with various organic cream-toned linens to set the perfect backdrop for our colorful centerpieces. We were overjoyed that Fancy Fray was able to source and provide the most beautiful, brand new mid-century modern natural wood chairs with woven seats for this event - the perfect accent to our boho beach design!

The lush floral designs were displayed in assorted brass and copper vessels, and mixed with marble candle holders and black taper candles. Natural blue agate slices with white calligraphy served as table numbers, and complimented both the custom blue delft guest favor plates, and the watercolor ombre menu cards with vellum, wax seals, dried grasses, and calligraphied guest names.

The pastry chefs at the Amway Grand knocked the cake out of the park… a painted blue cake with fresh blooms, dripping caramel, and touches of fresh fruit on top of an indigo patterned linen from Nuage Designs.

Finally, our Bride and Groom gave us the moment we all live for as event designers… a private “room reveal” before guests were allowed into the space. Their reaction and excitement is what feeds our soul! After over a year of dreaming together of what this tent would look like - this is the moment we had a private celebration of it finally coming to fruition before our eyes.

Guests were welcomed into the tent for dinner as the sun began to set, and treated to a magnificent four-course meal of Korean street tacos, compressed watermelon and feta salad, duet of salmon roulade and crab cakes, and petit trio of desserts alongside their scrumptious tres leches wedding cake.

Shortly after the heartfelt speeches by family and friends, Paulina and Matthew snuck away for a quiet moment alone together on the beach. What a surreal moment it must have been, to be in such an idyllic spot while overlooking a beautiful tent full of the people you love most in the world.

Once Paulina and Matthew rejoined their guests inside the tent, they shared in their first dance, followed by the traditional father-daughter and mother-son dances. Soon after, The Gold Coast All Stars kicked off the night and the dance floor was packed from start to finish. The guests danced under the stars, and some even christened both Lake Michigan and the swimming pool for the perfect ending to the perfect day (be sure to check out the video from A Little Long Distance below)!

Paulina and Matthew’s love story culminated in a wedding day fit for a fairytale. It was one of those days that we will look fondly upon for many many years to come. We could not be more grateful for the opportunity to work with clients, such as Paulina, Matthew, and their precious families. Lastly, we will leave you with a poem that has immense meaning to our Bride and Groom - and was a highlight of their ceremony… they fully embody this type of all-encompassing love depicted by E.E. Cummings below.

“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows