Real Wedding: Annie & Luke
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Photography: Pixel Perfect, Entertainment: DJ Phil, Hair & Makeup: Darya Salon
Annie Taylor and Luke Farrow’s relationship is reminiscent of all the great love stories.
Annie, a Southern belle born and raised in Texas, spent all her summers in Nantucket since she was a young girl. Luke, a Northerner who had grown up in Concord, Massachusetts, also spent many summers on the island, working and enjoying the sun. During college, Annie spent the summer working for a local floral designer, happy to have escaped the humidity of the South. At the airport on her way home, she met Luke, who had a job there as a ramp agent. As often happens on the island, the last flight out was canceled due to fog, and Annie found herself invited to a party instead. She and Luke exchanged e-mail addresses but only spoke occasionally until they both returned to Nantucket the next summer. When Luke invited Annie to visit him in Boston over Labor Day, she knew there was something special there. “We sat in this old Italian restaurant, and he looked across the table at me and simply said, ‘For every reason you can give me to leave, I’ll give you one to stay.’” Needless to say, Annie never left.
For years, Luke would tease Annie, telling her that she would never marry him unless he had a huge diamond ring for her, to which Annie would reply, “I’d marry you if all you had to give me was a twist-tie.” Five years, one dog, four apartments, and one college graduation after they had taken their first Labor Day trip to Boston, the couple was vacationing in Philadelphia, with plans to move there. They had just finished dinner and were walking back to the hotel when Luke handed Annie a card expressing his love for her, with a postscript telling her to refer to the “awkwardly kneeling man at your feet.” Through a veil of tears, Annie looked down to see Luke on his knee, holding a gold twist-tie made into the shape of a ring, as well as a dazzling cushion-cut diamond ring. Annie couldn’t believe it. “It was in the city we had planned on for our future that our life truly began,” she says.
Annie and Luke couldn’t imagine a better place to be married than Nantucket, the place that had brought them together. Since Annie had spent five summers working with one of the island’s floral designers, she had seen a lot of local weddings and knew she was prepared to plan her own. They also both knew how gorgeous the island was in September. Drawing inspiration from 1920s weddings at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Annie embraced pale dusky lavenders and champagne gold tones. She complemented the unique colors by using her family’s heirloom silver as vessels for centerpieces. “Since the wedding was so far away from my childhood home, it was a way of bringing a little more South up North.” Each table was named after a different famous poet, with their best love poem placed in the center. They also chose to have traditional bride and groom’s cakes. Annie’s was southern red velvet, and Luke’s was in the shape of a whale — a tribute to the “Wally the Whale” cakes he had loved as a child. Annie wasn’t originally thrilled with his choice, but admits that both cakes were beautiful.
As Annie walked down the aisle that day, she says that seeing Luke’s face was her favorite moment of the wedding. “Seeing him as the church door swung open is a memory that will warm me for years to come. I was marrying my best friend and the love of my life. It was five years in the making, but worth every second when we first met eyes.”