Nick and Dray’s Wedding at The Chanler at Cliff Walk
We absolutely love Nick and Dray. Their wedding day was filled with emotion – an abundance of laughter, tears and joy – as they celebrated what the gift of marriage was bringing to their lives.
We have known Nick for many years. He is an incredibly kind and generous person as well as a talented event planner who has personally overseen hundreds of spectacular weddings and events. Over the years, we would share the trials and tribulations of dating. But when Nick met Dray, he couldn’t stop talking about him and we knew this was special. When they decided to marry they chose an intimate gathering of their closest family and friends to celebrate with them . Although, the guest list read like the who’s who of top wedding professionals, no one was there because this was work-related. Everyone came to witness their dear friend take another step into a lifetime with his partner, now husband, Dray.
It was such a joy to be a part of their day and with the help of so many talented friends, the space looked as beautiful as it felt. When you start with a setting as picture-perfect and lovely as the Chandler at Cliff Walk, add the layers of room decor and design by Exquisite Events, the elegant table settings and linens by Rentals Unlimited, the floral expertise of Toni Chandler and all under the watchful eye of event planner Karen Bennett Motta and then top it all off with a cake by Scrumptions that tasted as good as it looked, how can you not be thrilled? Love and laughter filled the terrace. Nick and Dray’s own words tell the story of their fabulous wedding better than we ever could. We are happy to share their story with you.
Dray wrote: We’re pretty different, but we share the same set of values and agree on what’s important. We love our friends and family and hanging out with them. We love food and wine and shopping! We just get along really well and did so from the very beginning. Otherwise, I’m high-strung and tightly-wound, and worry about almost everything, while Nick is much more laid back and relaxed and always confident that everything will be fine (and it always is!).
We met online through Match. We had actually both given up on the website. This was the last date we were both going on through the site (I’d even pulled my profile and canceled my subscription). Not for really any horrible reason, but we had both been on lots of dates – Nick more than I (kidding) – only because he’d been on the site longer than me. We just had come to the conclusion that we weren’t going to meet “the one” that way. But as luck would have it, we each had one more date scheduled! We met at a border-line dive bar in Cambridge near where I was living. Nick is never on time and true to form was an hour late to our first date! (actually he was two hours late, but he called 5 minutes before we were supposed to meet – I was already at the bar because on time to me is at least 15 minutes early – and said he was running late. I said ok (it was my last date after all!). For whatever reason, I wasn’t upset when he was still (another!) hour late. He says it best when he says, he sat down, we started to talk and it seemed like we’d known each other forever!
As far as the proposal went, I felt like I needed to do it because Nick was the planner – that is, he had the event planning experience and had been in the wedding business. Makes no sense but that’s what I thought. I also know if he had done it, it probably would have been better! Very long story short, I was going to do it the weekend before but Boston had a 25 inch snowstorm and it messed up those plans, so I was doing it the next weekend. Turns out we had another 25 inch snowstorm that weekend (what a winter!). In the end, so much had already been planned and I needed and wanted to do it, so we went to a Broadway national tour that we had tickets to, grabbed drinks at a couple bars and then after parking illegally due to said 25 inch storm, went to a 14-course sushi dinner that Nick had won at work. No one was in the restaurant (I mentioned the snow storm the day before) and after forcing sea urchin on blueberries with gold flakes down among other things, I was about to propose during dessert when about 40 people walked into the restaurant (separately) and two tables were on top of us. I didn’t want to do it with people that close so when we got into the car in the 14 degree weather, I told him I needed to ask him something, told him how much I loved him, pulled out a Tiffany box and . . . the waiter came out into the street and up to the car screaming “too much tip!”!!! Through tears, because he had figured out what was happening, Nick told him it was fine and to keep it and I proceeded to ask Nick to marry me! We stopped by his parents and were telling his mom at which point Nick broke down crying. His father who was upstairs came running down asking what was wrong?! Nick likes the story because it’s like real life. Things don’t always go as first planned and sometimes you need to adjust to the current situation (a waiter trying to give his tip back??!!), but it’s all perfect in its imperfect way!
Picking the date was easy. We wanted to keep the same “anniversary,” so we were married on the same date we had our first date 4 years earlier! We were fortunate that Nick had worked at The Chanler. We didn’t think it was possible, but thanks to Christine and Kate we were able to make it work. It’s truly one of the most beautiful and romantic places on earth, and we were very lucky to be able to have our wedding where Nick had so much history and planned so many weddings for other people!
And honestly everything was perfect! Colors were white and sage with a little light blue thrown in here and there. We were so fortunate that Nick had worked in the event business in Newport and so many wonderful people who own companies wanted to help and be a part of it! The flowers were stunning! We knew we only wanted white flowers. The cake was delicious! We had a moustache theme running throughout from our save the dates to cups and napkins to our thank you notes. When I started looking for a cake topper, I couldn’t find any two grooms I really liked. Somewhere along the way, I remembered cups or napkins that had a moustache and lips to of course represent the bride and groom and from there thought about the 2 moustaches. We’d used for other things and thought how it would be perfect. The food was delicious! The table settings were spot-on! We had so much fun with Karen who helped plan and Jenn, from Rentals, picking out tablecloths and napkins and settings and chairs! They had a ton of suggestions and we listened and took them. And Kelly out-did herself with the staging! Once the sun went down and the lights on the trees she brought in were visible and we were sitting by the ocean in one of the most amazing and romantic inns in the world, we really were in the perfect setting. We couldn’t have asked for anything more! It was the BEST day.
As well as the aforementioned details, one of the other things everyone comments on is the ceremony itself. Danna did an amazing job! She met with us one day for lunch and wrote something that represented us and how we met and who we were and have become. It was personal. It was our story and how we got to the wedding itself! There honestly wasn’t a dry eye in the house! One of Nick’s cousins mentioned that she didn’t cry at her wedding or at either of her brothers, but she did at ours!
Our friends were totally invested in doing whatever they could to make sure Nick and I had the wedding we dreamed of and wanted! Not that there would have ever been any doubt – and I’ve seen it in other parts of his/our life – but I knew I was marrying a special man based upon the outpouring of love and willingness they had to do whatever they could to make this day special and memorable. Everyone says it’s the best wedding they’ve ever been to!
Nothing was hard! We both had a really good time and agreed on pretty much everything. It was funny though because after Nick’s years “in the business” the things that were important to us were totally different things! I let him take the lead on those items and he let me do my thing (I still can’t believe I have a Pinterest account totally devoted to all things wedding!). The most fun was that we were working with friends throughout. We were very lucky to have all those wonderful people doing what they could to make sure we had the perfect day!
And they lived happily ever after. Lots of love, Susan & Lynda
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