Real Wedding: Meghan & Patrick
Cake & Catering: Simply with Style Catering Favors: A Dozen Hens Bakery Floral Design: The Marine Home Center Invitations: Wedding Paper Divas Photography: Jennifer Stone Photography Reception Site: The Wade Cottages
Meghan McGuire and Patrick Aufiero were supposed to be married on a bluff overlooking the ocean at The Wade Cottages in Siasconset, Nantucket, but a sudden rainstorm the night before the wedding forced them to move the ceremony into a tent. "The tent ended up being so much more intimate and cozy," Meghan describes, "It felt like one huge hug from all our family and friends."
The intimate atmosphere was something Meghan and Patrick had been waiting for ten years. They met at Boston University when she was a senior and he was a sophomore, and they were able to maintain their relationship while Pat played professional hockey in New England and Germany, going for periods of up to two months without seeing each other. Eventually, Pat moved back to Boston to go to law school and live with Meghan.
As a Christmas gift in 2007, Pat gave Meghan a trip to California Wine Country. Secretly, Meghan hoped he would propose, but she remembers trying not to "jinx" the trip so she tried not to think about it. While they were in California, after a morning at the spa, Pat and Meghan found a secluded table for a picnic lunch overlooking Napa Valley. "I forgot the wine opener," he told her, and he headed back to the car. Meghan disregarded the comment, until Pat returned and announced, "We don't need a wine opener, actually, since we won't be drinking wine...we'll be drinking champagne." Then he got down on one knee and proposed, and after an enthusiastic "yes!" from Meghan, the two celebrated with champagne and a giant chocolate chip cookie, never touching their sandwiches.
They chose to marry in Nantucket, where they had vacationed several times throughout their relationship. According to Meghan, she and Pat "always left feeling a little bit more in love," and wanted to share the location with their family and friends. Having the wedding in the fall meant that there were few tourists, and sometimes it seemed like they had the island all to themselves.
Every aspect of Meghan and Pat's wedding was profoundly meaningful and true to their personalities as a couple. During the ceremony, Meghan's brother read from "A Gift from the Sea," and toward the end the officiant broke into laughter "which rippled through the crowd until eventually we were all laughing," Meghan recalls.
Meghan says the personal touches are what made her and Pat's wedding so memorable. The most important part of planning a wedding, she thinks is following your gut. "Everyone offers their advice ant tells you what they think you should do," she says, but "you want to stay true to yourself."
Though Meghan never dreamed much about her wedding, the one thing she always wanted to do was dance to "Crazy Love" by Van Morrison, so that was her first dance with Patrick as a married couple. The father-daughter dance was the jitterbug to Elvis' "Good Luck Charm," something Meghan's father taught her in the kitchen of her childhood home, another significant memory for the family.
Kendra Lockley, from "Simply with Style" catered the wedding. Meghan praises Kendra as part caterer, part event planner, and part therapist, due to everything she contributed. With the rainy forecast, Kendra set up the tent for the ceremony, decorated the interior with candles and greens from the Wade Cottages gardens, and made sure there were plates of food waiting for Meghan and Patrick in their hotel room after the wedding.
Meghan and Patrick ended up loving their enclosed wedding ceremony. They were so focused on getting married that minor details and mishaps seemed insignificant the day of the celebration. Their love for each other got them through the experience, as well as some words of wisdom from Siasconset locals who say, "A wet knot is harder to untie."