WellWed on the Cape

Caitlin and Joseph met while working as lifeguards at their town's pool. Joseph was a year older than Caitlin, who was incredibly shy, and avoided him at all costs. One day they ended up sitting together at the same station for a 45 minute shift. They talked the entire time (while watching the pool of course!) and became friends immediately.

For the rest of the summer, Caitlin and Joseph would sit together as often as possible and spent hours on the phone. The couple began dating when the school year started - and had their first kiss in October of 1994. "We were together for two years and decided to go our separate ways when I began college," Caitlin recalls, "By my senior year in college, we had lost touch completely."

After graduation, Caitlin moved to Boston with friends and bumped into Joe who was living with friends half a mile down the street! The couple began "re-dating" shortly after on January 1, 2001.

After four years of dating, Caitlin was accepted to a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program in Chicago. Caitlin and Joseph bought a condo in the city and the couple drove halfway across the country to move all of their belongings.

Unfortunately, Joe wasn't able to stay permanently because of his job, so the couple was left to manage a long-distance relationship. They racked up miles flying, as well as minutes on the phone. In the winter of Caitlin's first semester, Joe proposed and by June 2006 he was able to transfer his job to the Chicago office. "Summers in Chicago are AMAZING, " says Caitlin, "So we enjoyed our year of engagement together going to festivals, hanging out at the beach with friends, and playing softball." The couple was married the following summer and enjoyed a fabulous honeymoon in Aruba. "Now we're coming up on our first anniversary and we both look forward to 60 more years!"

The Proposal:

Joe was living in Boston and Caitlin was just finishing her first semester of graduate school in Chicago. While she loved Chicago and had made some great friends, the end of the semester was getting to her and she was a bit homesick for friends and family in Boston. "I was almost at my wit's end when I got a call from Joe on a Friday night in the middle of December, " Caitlin remembers, "He told me to look out my window." Joe was standing in the courtyard of the building. He told Cailtin later that he sensed she needed him to be out there with her, so he decided to surprise her.

The next morning, Caitlin and Joseph woke up early to go to the gym. When they walked in, Joe was acting strangely. He told Caitlin to take a look at the pool, which was closed for repairs at the time. "I was resisting because I really wanted to get my run over with, but I gave in and walked in with him. He brought me over to the lifeguard chair and got down on one knee. The rest is pretty much a blur," Caitlin remembers, "I assume I said yes because I'm still wearing the ring!"

When Caitlin asked Joe about it later, he told her that he had planned to bring her to the beach in Chicago during the summer and propose there. Work had prevented him from doing so, and he was forced to wait until December. As you can imagine, the beaches in Chicago are not very inviting in December. The lifeguard stand at the gym pool would have to do!

Traditions Incorporated Into The Day:

"I would say that we had a traditional wedding in the sense that we were married in a church and didn't see each other beforehand," Caitlin says, "Otherwise, we pretty much went with elements that made us feel comfortable and we thought would make the event enjoyable for our guests."

The couple's minister was very liberal and the ceremony was incredibly short (about 15 minutes total). He ended with, "you can now kiss your groom", which they both loved.

Caitlin and Joseph also had photos taken by/on a lifeguard chair that just happened to be on the private beach - reminiscent of the proposal, in a sense.

Color Palette:

The couple based their color palette on the wedding cake. "We wanted something traditional, yet different," Caitlin says, "I came across a tiered wedding cake with chocolate cake and mint filling that had a sage green fondant frosting, brown ribbon, and chocolate colored mint leaves. So, our colors became brown and sage."

This was altered to include varying touches of pink when the couple decided to have the wedding favors be a donation to the Susan G. Komen Search for the Cure.

A Few Favorite Things About The Day:

"All of our vendors were amazing," Caitlin recalls, "I cannot say enough about the caterers, The Crazy Chefs. They took care of every last detail so that I didn't have to worry all the way in Chicago - and the food was incredible! Cocktail hour was superbly done - we even had our own row-boat filled raw bar with our names painted on it. The Crazy Chefs also helped us find the location, which undoubtedly made the event amazing!"

"Our band, the Boston Players, was fabulous. In fact, we chose them because we heard them at a wedding years ago and new that they were a perfect match for us and we weren't even engaged at the time," says Caitlin, " Everyone danced the entire night. It was hard to get people to sit down for dinner."

The couple's favorite part of the day was being able to enjoy themselves. "I know that's pretty vague, but it's true. After the ceremony, the photographer efficiently took several wonderful pictures, and we were able to make the entire cocktail hour." Caitlin remembers, "Because I knew the Crazy Chefs had everything under control, I was able to enjoy the entire reception."

Caitlin recalls the best part of the night as being the speeches made by her sister, Mikaela, who was also her maid of honor, her husband's brother, Brian, who was also the best man and her father. They each started their speeches with, "let me take you back to 1994"- and it was completely spontaneous! None of them had discussed what they were going to say with the others. They each had their own memories of Caitlin and Joe meeting and falling in love. "It was a testament to how much we have grown as individuals and a couple since we first met," says Caitlin.

Another thing that Caitlin loved about their weddng day was that Joe sent a wedding gift with her sister to give to her while they were getting dressed. "I opened the box and there sat an old whistle," Caitlin recalls, "Joe had been at his parents' house a couple of months before the wedding and found his lifeguard whistle from when we were lifeguards together." Caitlin, her sister and her bridesmaids were so chocked up and teary eyed that it took them several minutes to notice the beautiful diamond and tourmaline cocktail ring attached to the lanyard.

A Few Words Of Advice:

"Just relax!" says Caitlin, "The time goes by so quickly - if you stress about little details and expect perfection, you will be disappointed. I went with the flow and treated it as if it was our "surprise party. You hire professionals for a reason. They know what they are doing and they have their own vision that is usually better than anything you could imagine."

When asked by her professionals what she wanted, Caitlin would often say, "Surprise me."

"It was great because when we walked into the back yard, I was just as blown away as our guests!"