Liz and Steve planned a crazy personal and intimate wedding for their friends and family at Spohr Gardens in Cape Cod. The outdoor ceremony over a dock was followed by a crazy fun night of family style Italian food and of course, oysters and mojitos by candlelight. Photographer Evangeline Lane is to blame for all these gorgeous images! We so love the personality and love that shines through!
What made the wedding special and unique?
The people, the timing and the location! Cape Cod is one of our favorite places and after living there this past winter we decided it would be the perfect place to have our wedding. We really lucked out with finding local vendors whose vision were inline with ours. Having such talented people to work with meant we could relax (a bit!) while letting them do what they do best. We also loved having the ceremony outdoors right over the water at Spohr Gardens – it was breathtaking and helped us to be present. It was also special having the reception at one of our favorite restaurants at the Cape. Once we walked inside it feel like we were all transported to Italy for the night with all of our favorite people, it was magical!
Tell us about the gown and where/how you found it!
The gown is from BHLDN and is by the Australian designer, Rachel Gilbert. I saw the sequins and bought it immediately – there was only one left! I have a thing about sequins…I just love a bit of sparkle must be the jewelry designer side of me. The dress was also great for dancing which is always important to factor in!
What were some touches added to make it personal?
We are both designers (karaslawrence.com) and we were very excited to design the invites and wedding website. We used a photo I took at boardwalk beach and Steve designed the invites, thank you cards and built the website. I also had fun illustrating a map of the area for our guest! We worked with local printers and paper stores in, Providence. Our friend Cory (mrcoryrobinson.com), helped us with the lovely hand-painted signs and table numbers. I also had fun making Steve’s wedding band and our friend Bernice (machajewelry.com) made my lovely band. My cousin Jeff also played acoustic guitar during the ceremony it was awesome to have friends and family be a part of the festivities! We feel very lucky to have such talented friends!
What was the most memorable part of the day?
This is hard to answer! One moment that stands out was when we walked up to the reception at Osteria La Civetta and saw a Vespa with a hand-painted sign with our names on it–the owner, Sara’s mother had made it for us as a surprise. There were also a bunch of beautiful candles outside and we could see everyone through the glass windows talking, eating oysters and drinking mojitos; I don’t even think they even noticed us! It was very special and of course, the speeches, the food, the music and the dancing! Another moment was right after the ceremony when we went with the photographers to our favorite beach. Our friends had tied Narragansett Del’s Shandy cans to the back of our Volvo, they were bouncing around like crazy. When we arrived at the beach it was amazing to have a quiet moment together to take it all in before the reception began. Now we love looking back on all the beautiful photographs that Evangeline took. It felt effortless having Evangeline Lane and Evan there to shoot our wedding; they fit right into the crowd and were always right there when something special was happening! I love looking at the photograph of our guests at the ceremony blowing bubbles and taking photos, I feel like I am looking at still from a Wes Anderson film. Moments like this are what made our day!
Tell us how you met and became engaged.
We met in Greenpoint thought mutual friends who were visiting. After we met we slowly realized we had so much in common we grew up like 20 minutes away, went to the same college, both majored in graphic design and new a lot of the same people. Somehow we had never met until that day! Steve lived in Philly at the time and I had recently moved to NYC. It was a really fun time! I loved going to Philly and Steve loved visiting me in NYC. It was exciting getting to know each other while exploring two cities, but we spent way too much time on the Chinatown bus. Eventually Steve decided to move to NYC and the rest is history. Seven years later we got engaged in Arizona at the north rim of the Grand Canyon it was beautiful!
Vendors: Photography: Evangeline Lane // Ceremony: Spohr Gardens // Reception: Osteria La Civetta // Cake/Dessert : Windfall Market // DJ/Band: DJ Dox Ellis // Bridal Gown: BHLDN // Shoes: Sam Edleman Gladiators // Engagement Ring: Vintage, Rose gold w/ rose cut diamonds // Wedding Bands: Bride: Macha Jewelry and Groom: Liz Karas // Grooms suit: John Varvatos // MOH: J.Crew // Best Man: Banana Republic // Flowers: Astrid, Windfall Market // Reception Stylist: Sara the co-owner of Osteria La Civetta