Real Wedding: Mollie & Benjamin
Mollie Glick thought she'd find her own Mr. Darcy during her studies abroad at Oxford. Instead, she ended up falling for the boy next door—literally. Ben Hughes, another American abroad, was her rowhouse neighbor, and soon after they met, the two were inseparable.
Their courtship continued when they returned to school in the States. After they graduated they moved to New York City so Mollie could become a literary agent and Ben could pursue a career in advertising and several years later the couple started looking for an apartment to buy in Brooklyn.
In addition to being a great place to live, Ben knew that the borough was also the perfect place to propose. So, instead of apartment hunting one day, he whisked Mollie away for a whirlwind tour of the Brooklyn spots they loved best—including a DUMBO bar where they sipped sangria; Jacques Torres Chocolates, where they picked up champagne truffles; and Five Front restaurant, where they shared a romantic dinner in the garden. Strolling back home across the Brooklyn Bridge, Ben stopped mid-span, and proposed.
While they considered a trip to City Hall as a modern alternative to a more traditional wedding, in the end Mollie and Ben decided that a “proper” wedding would be a wonderful excuse to bring together their friends and families for a celebration. And although they fell in love in Oxford and lived in Manhattan, they both knew they wanted to celebrate their wedding in Cape Cod, which has been a special place for both of their families. Mollie’s parents have a home in Harwich, and Ben’s grandparents for many years ran a dairy farm in Edgartown. Ben’s parents had even celebrated their own wedding on the Vineyard.
Mollie knew that she wanted the wedding to reflect the romance of the English countryside where her courtship with Ben had begun, and so an English garden theme was a natural fit. Mollie has a background in costume design and a very specific aesthetic, and she brought Jennifer at Clementine Floral on board to help make her vision a reality. While Mollie bid on rusty watering cans on eBay and borrowed old birdcages from her grandmother, Jennifer scouted vintage teacups at local antique stores and discovered a moss-covered stone bust for the cocktail reception. The result was a scene straight from a British pastoral wedding: A path lined with pink rose petals led to a flower-covered huppah, baskets dripping with fresh flowers hung from the backs of chairs, and exquisite ivory pin-tucked linens and fragrant bouquets in chipped china teacups transformed the wedding into a shabby-chic afternoon tea celebration. Even the coconut cream wedding cake was bedecked with fresh peonies.
In an old-fashioned gesture, Ben and Mollie refrained from seeing each other on their wedding day until the actual ceremony began. To communicate with each other, they passed notes through members of the wedding parties. “It meant we had to take more pictures after the ceremony, but seeing the look on Ben’s face when I walked down the aisle with my dad was well worth it,” says Mollie. And Mollie and Ben agree that the extra photo time gave them an opportunity to connect as a couple between the emotion of the ceremony and the party at the reception.
The reception was full of special moments, like Ben’s Uncle Charlie surprising the couple with a banjo serenade. Mollie and Ben honored Mollie’s parents by playing their wedding song during the father-daughter, mother-son dance, letting Mollie’s mom cut in to dance with her dad. In a nod to their old Oxford classmates, the play list also included Belle and Sebastian’s “Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying,” a song they had played on repeat throughout their year in England.
Mollie encourages other brides to stay true to their vision of their wedding and not to compromise. “You’ll spend the same amount of money whether you personalize or don’t, so you might as well reflect your tastes,” she says. By choosing a theme that celebrated their relationship, and bringing together family and friends in a place that had real meaning for them both, Mollie and Ben were able to exchange vows in a ceremony that felt absolutely right. And the day after the ceremony, when the celebrants gathered at Mollie’s parents home for a post-wedding brunch, everyone present had a favorite moment from the wedding to share.
Photography by Bello Photography