Real Wedding: Sabrina & Aaron
Cake: Jodi’s Cakes Entertainment: Billy Voss
Hair: Luca Blandi Invitations: Bella Figura
Lighting: Capron Lighting Linens: Classic Party Rentals
Makeup: Coco Grace Reception Site: Sconset Casino
From the age of 10, Sabrina dreamed of a Nantucket wedding. Growing up, she spent two weeks of every summer under the Nantucket sun, and when she met Aaron a mere 14 years later, an island wedding was still on her mind. They had met on their first day at Columbia Business School and began dating later that year. “From the moment we officially became a couple, everything seemed to flow naturally, and we realized that we were a pretty good team,” Sabrina says. Still, she didn’t notice how serious things had become until they traveled together to visit her family in Slovenia and Croatia during the summer of 2007. “After three weeks of traveling, Aaron and I found ourselves in a Munich hotel on our way home, eating cheeseburgers and drinking beer, and we realized we were in love,” she says.
Two years later, the couple was relaxing one lazy Saturday when Aaron glanced out the window and noticed ominous clouds gathering over the Hudson River. Unwilling to allow the weather to thwart his romantic plans for a sunset proposal, he urged Sabrina to join him for a walk along the water. He waited until he found a nice patch of grass before getting to one knee and sweetly asking Sabrina to marry him. “We were both so nervous and in such shock that neither remembers what was said, but the results are all that matter,” says Sabrina.
After the proposal, Sabrina knew immediately that her Nantucket wedding dreams were about to come true. Luckily, Aaron had always been fond of the beach and took to the island right away. The couple embarked on planning for a fabulous outdoor tented wedding celebration. There was only one little problem — Hurricane Earl. As their wedding weekend approached, flights and ferries were canceled, vendors worried they wouldn’t make it, and of course, their outdoor wedding plans had to be changed. Sabrina and Aaron tried to remain calm, but it was difficult. “There were definitely tears in the days leading up to our departure for Nantucket,” says Sabrina, “But once we got there, we realized it was still going to be our wedding weekend and it was definitely going to be memorable.”
Nicole Whelden of Unique Nantucket Events worked tirelessly to execute their rain plan, moving the wedding to its indoor location of Sconset Casino and arranging for Zofia Waig of Zofia Photography to come to the rescue when the couple’s New York City photographer canceled because of the storm. Nearly all the guests attended, and when Sabrina and Aaron awoke the morning of their wedding to a perfect, sunny morning, they knew there was nothing to worry about.
The ceremony at Whales' Watch was nondenominational, but as a nod to Aaron’s Jewish background, they were married under a huppa that had been hand-sewn by Aaron’s mother. Sabrina also had lace cuffs from her great-grandmother’s wedding blouse, dating to 1914, sewn into her own gown, and wore a small Ganesha pin her godmother had given her. “Ganesha, among other things, is the remover of obstacles. Little did she know when she let me borrow that, that we’d be dealing with Hurricane Earl!” she says.
The Sconset Casino was even better than the bride and groom could have imagined. “After fighting through Earl to get to Nantucket, I think all of us were ready to relax and have a good time,” says Sabrina. The dance floor was packed all evening, friends gave many impromptu dancing and singing performances, and guests even donned fake mustaches — which Aaron had arranged to be passed around on trays. It wasn’t quite the wedding they had planned on originally, but after they had said their “I do's” in the presence of all the people they loved, moving indoors and changing their plans hardly seemed like a compromise.
Sabrina & Aaron’s Advice:
#1 Let go of the details & have fun! What matters most is that you are marrying the person you love with all the people you love surrounding you.
#2 Attitude is everything. Hurricane Earl made sure we never lost sight of that & our family & friends helped us keep a sense of humor about the whole thing.