Alicia and Jason

05/11/2019

Providence, RI, United States

Jason and I met in October 2013 at a bar in Providence, RI. If you have a few hours, Jason loves to tell the whole story! In short, we were playing “wing man” and “wing woman” that night for our friends, and it ended with the two of us talking all night! Soon after, we went on our first date and as they say, the rest is history! After the death of my grandmother in August 2017, I inherited her diamond engagement ring. Together, Jason and I went to Baxter’s Jeweler’s and had the diamond reset in the most beautiful Tacori setting. While the ring itself wasn’t a surprise, Jason managed to truly shock me when on December 22, 2017, he dropped down to one knee as soon as I entered the door of our home after work. It was just the two of us and our cat, Fitz. It was perfect.

Having known the engagement was coming, I thought a lot about my vision for our wedding. We had been to so many weddings over recent years, and I knew I wanted to get married somewhere no one else we knew had. I always admired the Providence Public Library in photos. I wanted something unique, elegant and with lots of ornate details, and something with a beautiful ceremony space as that would take place on site. On December 30, 2017 (I tend to move quickly!) we toured the Providence Public Library and immediately knew this was the place for us. I’m not very emotional, but my mom started crying almost as soon as we walked in the door! We loved the flow of the space, the big columns, the white and gold details, the open courtyard and the books displayed in the dining room. The venue search began and ended here, and we set to wed on May 11, 2019. It ended up being so perfect, and truly surprised our guests! Most of them had never been to a wedding at the library before, and thought we were literally getting married in the stacks! The uniqueness and beauty of the event space was jaw dropping!

We envisioned our day to be a classic, glamorous and elegant affair, filled with romance and love in every room. We decided on black tie invited for guest attire (we wanted our guests to dress more formally, but not feel obligated to rent a tux if they didn’t have one). When it came to the color palette, I knew I wanted something that would compliment the colors already present in the library. I decided on a mix of gold, white, ivory with hints blushes and peaches in our flowers.

The year and a half of planning was both fun and at times stressful! I had the help of my amazing mother, and I could not have planned this wedding without her! One of my first vendor calls was to our amazing photographers, Massart Photography. I had been admiring their photography for some time, and when Jason and I met them in person, we knew it was a match made in heaven!

I have watched a lot of “Say Yes to the Dress” over the years, and dreamed of being a Hayley Paige bride. For my first dress appointment, I went straight to The Bridal Garden in East Greenwich, RI in search of the perfect Hayley Paige gown. I loved the dress shopping experience and could have gone to many more stores. However, after trying on six or seven Hayley Paige dresses and finding the one, I knew that if I kept shopping, even just for fun, I would end up right back where I was. My beautiful gown was named the Jax gown, I felt like it was made for me. I grew up dancing, and when I put on the Jax gown, I said it reminded me of Swan Lake. And what a coincidence that the weekend of our wedding, Festival Ballet was performing Swan Lake at The Vets, next to the Renaissance Hotel where we stayed the weekend of our wedding!

Aside from dress shopping, designing our custom invitations with Little Birdie Papercraft & Design Studio was one of my favorite parts of wedding planning! I love paper, and could have chatted with studio owner Lesli-Ann for hours about techniques, paper weights and fonts! She designed our custom monogram, invitations and day-of paper items. I went in with a clear vision of a beautiful gold foil monogram at the top of our invitations, and then being able to carry that throughout the signs and paper for our wedding day.

I chose gold dresses from Kleinfeld Bridal Party for my bridesmaids and classic black tuxedos from Aldo’s House of Formals for Jason’s groomsmen. We worked with Susan Falso of Cherryhill Flowers to create arrangements with a mix of whites, blushes and peaches. I knew my bridesmaids and I would carry peonies (my favorite flower) in our bouquets that day, and I loved the look of white hydrangeas for the centerpieces. We felt like the library itself was so beautiful and intricate on its own (part of why we fell in love with it!) that we did not need to include too many flowers in the space. The gold candelabras with the hanging crystals for the dining room and the gold pedestals for the ceremony complimented the space perfectly. We placed some arrangements on the chairs during the ceremony, and then re-purposed those on the tables during cocktail hour.

Russell Morin Catering & Events is the exclusive caterer for the library, and we were so lucky to work with them. At each step of the planning process, we were so impressed by their attention to detail and knew we were in such good hands. Not only was the food incredible (our guests are still talking about it), but the little extras they offer are unparalleled. Think mint tea and cucumber water as welcome drinks, chocolate truffles passed out on the dance floor and doggy bags for Jason and me to take with us at the end of the night (which we promptly ate in our hotel room at 2 am!). Our wedding cake was Funfetti with a marble fondant icing. I had always joked that I wanted a Funfetti wedding cake, and was so excited when I learned that it was one of the options we could choose from! Our day-of coordinator, Ardriana Solitro, was incredible to work with the relieved so much of my stress!

May 11, 2019 was the most perfect day. No, really, it was. Weather-wise the weeks leading up had been cool and rainy. However, May 11th was sunny and 70 degrees. There were signs from my late grandparents all weekend, so they must have had something to do with it! Jason and I truly felt so lucky that day – lucky to be so in love with each other, lucky to be marrying our best friend, lucky to be surrounded by 130 of our closest friends and family.

We started off the morning of our wedding getting ready in separate rooms at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel. We read love notes and opened gifts from each other. I surprised Jason with a Little Black Book of boudoir photos (he had no clue I did the photo shoot!), and he gifted me a Michele watch that I had been wanting! I loved spending the hours with my mom and bridesmaids chatting, eating and drinking mimosas and getting glammed up by Bianca Nastari (makeup) and Laurie McGowan (hair).

We did our first look on the second floor balcony of the library, where to Jason’s surprise, I was very emotional. We posed for our formal photos inside and outside the library, and a few special ones among the books. My father walked me down the aisle to “Speechless” by Dan + Shay, and then paused for a moment to leave us with some fatherly advice before we joined our hands in marriage. It was such a special moment. My uncle, who is a judge, officiated our wedding, and it was the most beautiful ceremony. Jason and I wrote our own vows, and they were both sentimental and funny. Our ceremony felt like “us” and was one of my favorite parts of the day. Looking out and seeing the faces of our friends and family full of love and support for us was an incredible feeling.

After our ceremony, we sent our guests to cocktail hour. Along with our photographers and videographer, Jason and I set out to Waterplace Park for more photos and video. We loved spending this time just the two of us having just gotten married! The light in Waterplace Park was absolutely magical on this beautiful day, and made for some of our favorite photos. These moments were some of my favorite from our day - enjoying that truly NEW newlywed feeling! My biggest piece of advice I give to engaged couples now is to take some time just the two of you right after the ceremony to soak everything in and enjoy the first few minutes of marriage!

During cocktail hour, our guests enjoyed passed wine and prosecco, two full bars, passed hors d’oeuvres and a Tuscan-inspired table of meats, cheeses and other bites. Guests selected their escort cards from one of the library’s card catalogs and signed our guestbook.

Before we knew it, we returned to the library for introductions. For our first dance, we danced to a song that we started listening to back when we first met, “Latch” by Sam Smith. It somehow has always been our song, though I think the first version we heard was the Disclosure techno version! We then headed to the elegant dining room for dinner and speeches. My dad began dinner with the most heartfelt toast, and our Maids of Honor and Best Man ended dinner with words of both love and humor. At each guest’s place was a “Thank You” note from us. We also explained on this card that in lieu of favors, we made a donation to a charity that is close to both sides of our family, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, in honor of Jason’s late father and my aunt. When Jason and I made our rounds to the tables during dinner, I was so grateful and blown away by how elegant everyone looked for our day.

After our cake cutting and parent dances, we opened the dance floor and the party got started! Blurred Vision Dance Band and DJ Frankie Jay kept the dance floor packed all night! Our guests were a dancing crowd, and boy do we have some funny dancing photos! Jason and I love to dance – we are always the first and last people on a dance floor, and that’s where we spent most of our night! Another one of my favorite parts of the night was the spontaneously performing dance moves that my cousins and I had choreographed as kids – after all these years we never forgot our choreography for “Livin’ La Vida Loca”!

Before long, it was the end of the night and our photographers were calling us outside for some end-of-night portraits. They captured some beautiful shots of us outside the library under the stars, beaming from what was the perfect day. We hosted an after-party at Public Kitchen & Bar inside the Renaissance Hotel, and two days later jetted off to incredible Bali for a two-week honeymoon!