Interview with the stunning bride, Jennifer:
How Did You Meet? We only lived 3.84 miles away from each other, but our paths never crossed until we met on Match.com. We were both super busy with our careers and couldn’t be happier to have found each other through the modern world of online dating. (Longer version is on our wedding website here if helpful: http://cunninghamharmon.weddingwindow.com/index.cfm?fa=thecouple)
What Attracted You to Most to your Husband? Beyond the fact that I think he’s the dreamiest man in the world??? Especially when he wears his boat shoes???!!! Ok, well – at first I was most attracted to Anthony because of how easy it was to talk to him. We were both surprised by how in-depth and deep our conversations would naturally get from the very first night. By week three, I felt like I’d known him for years. As our relationship grew, we both realized we were a perfect match in the “opposites attract” sense. We could not be more different but we balance each other out really well. I bring some color, quirkiness and free spirited-ness into Anthony’s life and he grounds me with a rational, calming and solid-as-a-rock practical nature. I’m most attracted to how Anthony pushes me to be a better person without squashing or judging who I am.
How did he propose?Anthony faked me out and told me we were going camping the day after Christmas (my LEAST favorite activity.) Instead, he surprised me a long weekend at a beautiful, lakeside cabin in the Smoky Mountains with nearby hiking, ice skating and vineyards. On the last night of the trip, we were snuggled up under a blanket and drinking wine on the porch bench swing. Anthony pretended to go inside to (very randomly) “get some Goldfish crackers” which ended up being his excuse to go get the ring. When he came back out, he hid the ring behind the Goldfish bag and got down on one knee to propose. I immediately started ugly crying which made him forget all of the sweet things he had planned to say so he simply asked, “Will you marry me?” I asked him to tell me his speech later on over dinner and it was very, very sweet indeed! (Jennifer and Anthony – Our Wedding Website – The Proposal)
What inspired the vision for your wedding? We didn’t agree on much at first, haha! Opposites attract works in relationships but is a definitely trickier with wedding planning. Something we both really wanted to do was create an atmosphere that was comfortable, warm and welcoming and not at all generic, stuffy or pretentious. We’re definitely not big ballroom people and wanted something that felt personal and intimate, but still classy, upscale and “nice enough” to be a wedding. So simple elegance became a guiding principle for everything from there. Mason jars + beaded dishes, baby’s breath + roses, natural burlap with silver candlesticks, etc. And once we realized our wedding date would be Halloween, things got REALLY interesting vision wise! I wanted to balance the holiday factor with the bridal factor which took a lot of explorations and trial & error. My self-imposed rule was nothing orange or black or scary, to ensure it would be a “wedding on Halloween” versus a “Halloween wedding.” So we infused small details that nodded to Halloween without turning our nuptuals into a spooky theme party. Hundreds of white natural pumpkins, silver fangs to hold the dinner placecards, a Nightmare Before Christmas cake topper on an otherwise traditional cake, silver pumpkin baskets and kitty shoes for the flower girls, a trick or treat candy bar for our favors and playing Thriller at the reception were ways we weaved the spirit of the day into the festivities without it getting overwhelming.
Tell us about finding your venue: We love playing golf at the Winter Park Golf Club and would always talk about how beautiful Casa Feliz was when we’d hit the 9th hole. We toured it after getting engaged and just couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else. Beyond the charm and personality of a historic Spanish house, our favorite part was all the various spaces and areas. We loved that we could have the ceremony on the front lawn, the receiving line under the side archway, the cocktail hour out on the back cul de sac, the dinner in the courtyard under market lights & stars, and the reception inside the house. By rotating and decorating for each portion, we made use of every square inch of our venue! And the upstairs his & her getting-ready suites were amazing, especially getting to peak out the windows at the arriving guests from the bridal suite. We knew we likely wouldn’t have a jam-packed dance floor all night since there were so many nooks and crannies for people to spread out and mingle in, but we didn’t want a traditional all-in-one-room experience so it was perfect for us.
The number question people asked us was, “Why Halloween??!!” While it IS one of my favorite holidays, it simply came down to scheduling. Casa Feliz is super popular and we didn’t want to wait until an available Saturday in 2015 to get married. Our venue contact didn’t even mention Halloween at first, figuring we wouldn’t want it. But after triple checking for an open Friday in 2014, she offered up 10/31/14 and we just looked at each other and knew that was it. I was sure I could make it cute versus creepy, and got ridiculously excited about how fun and unique that could be. It wasn’t planned but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. We LOVED our HalloWedding.
What was your biggest planning challenge? Not wanting a long engagement but wanting to be extremely hands-on. Finding the time to do everything the way I wanted to do it in 10 months with work and life mixed in was the biggest challenge. We both got promoted at work within a month of getting engaged which was an awesome trifecta of big life changes but definitely something that made the wedding planning process really hectic. Staying proactive, focused and organized helped me make sure I could still find moments to just enjoy being engaged.
What was your favorite design element of your wedding? The centerpieces for sure. I alternated 2 designs to mix up the look across tables and add some variety to the heights and colors of everything. Half the tables had an over-sized bundle of baby’s breath in a mason jar with mini white pumpkins on silver candlesticks on either side. The other half had a silver glittery pumpkin on a tall candlestick in the middle, flanked by two mason jar’s of titanic pink roses on either side sitting in beaded dishes. All tables had candles in beaded holders and natural burlap runners on either ivory or taupe tablecloths, with dark gray beveled chargers. We did a mixture of all those elements on the long head bridal party table. It created a cohesive but not “matchy matchy” feel when you looked out on the courtyard and with the market lights, the vampire fangs place card holders and all of our favorite people gathered together…I just loved our dinner the very most.
Did you have any DIY details? Oh my gosh, YES! This was an epic DIY endeavor. I love crafting and being creative so the wedding was no exception.
For the ceremony, my family & friends helped me make over 100 wedding wands for guests to wave during the recessional. I found really cute pumpkin-shaped bells to tied on at the ends of wooden dowels with ivory and blush ribbons, which were super fun to walk through after being pronounced husband and wife. We re-used them at the end of the night for our exit as well.
For the seating chart, I affixed hand-written name cards onto 10 white pumpkins with pearl push-pins so guests could find out what table they were sitting at by visiting a little pumpkin patch on a table.For a fun nod to Halloween and taking a bite into dinner, I spray-painted white plastic vampire fangs to a silver chrome color to hold guests’ dinner placecards.
My mom helped me hand stamp kraft bags with a custom designed stamp, inviting guests to visit the candy bar inside as a trick or treating-centric favor.
Anthony even helped by designing a custom seal for all of our invitations and stationary with an “H” in a pumpkin. We were able to save money and add a lot of personalization to our save the dates and invitation suite by adding onto a pre-existing design and printing via VistaPrint.
In lieu of a Photo Booth, we put together a Fuji Instastax guest book station with plenty of film and props so we could have snapshots of our guests along with their well wishes. They got more and more interesting as the night went on. 😉
I also choreographed a surprise Daddy/Daughter dance together – it was the best kept secret busting out into Thriller mid-way through Michael Buble’s Daddy’s Little Girl!
And although my friends and family probably still think I’m crazy for doing so, I made all of our ceremony and dinner flower arrangements the day before the wedding. My bridesmaids and Mom all came to a local floral wholesaler with me at 8am for mimosas, bagels and flower arranging. It was a bit stressful but ended up being a really fun girls’ time and turned out to be both beautiful and budget-efficient.
What was the most memorable moment of your wedding day? After our the ceremony, receiving line and pictures were done, our planner set up a little alone time moment for us before our grand entrance. She brought over two of each of the cocktail hour hors d’ouvres and 2 glasses of wine over to a cocktail table at the ceremony site all for us. I had been dying to try our Halloween-inspired pumpkin soup and bite-sized grilled cheese appetizer and it gave us a moment to be together just the two of us and reflect on the ceremony and the day before heading into the reception. I’m so grateful for that moment to breathe, chat, eat and enjoy the sunset before the rest of our evening.
Describe your cake: Anthony’s Aunt Lucy owns a bakery called Sweet Art by Lucila in Miami. We were super grateful and excited when she offered to make us one of her cakes for us as a wedding gift, which has become a family tradition on Anthony’s side. We had a 4-tiered cake with lemon, vanilla, coconut flavors with Lucy’s famous rum cake on the bottom. We were blown away when we finally saw it in person, especially the tiers that were big pink roses made of icing. She made a tower of cake pops for us as well for the cocktail hour which were a hit. And we’re super thankful to Anthony’s family members who very, very, very carefully drove it all the way from Miami to Orlando with just barely enough room in the car for it! We paired our modern traditional cake with a whimsical Halloween cake topper, Jack & Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. (Jack & Sally actually made several appearances throughout the night – we incorporated the ending lyrics of the movie into our ceremony and our strings trio played a custom orchestration of “This Is Halloween” as our recessional music.)
How was your experience with your photographer? AMAZING!! Sara & Jason were the best photographers you could ever ask for. Anthony is absolutely not a picture person and by the end of the wedding, he was totally comfortable and complimentary of their style and demeanor. Sara surprised me by stopping by our hotel suite the morning of our wedding to capture some getting ready pictures and I almost teared up when I saw her. She’s simultaneously both the sweetest and coolest chick. I love how Sara & Jason worked quickly but also took the time to make sure they were capturing the best possible pictures. They were super organized and knew how to keep things moving for portraits and detail shots without rushing anyone. They were never invasive or in your face but I will miss spending time with them! They kept us laughing and in great spirits all day long. THEY ARE AWESOME.
What’s next for you and your husband as a couple? We’re excited to just sit back, relax and enjoy being a married couple. We’re super happy to get back into the swing of things at work and with our family and friends now that the wedding is over. And Anthony is ecstatic to be done spending money on the wedding in hopes of getting a bigger, better boat but…we’ll take that one day at a time 😉 In the meantime, we’re looking forward to skiing and snowboarding in the new year on our honeymoon next month in Whistler!
Can you please list your vendors:
Venue: Casa Feliz
Caterer: Arthur’s Catering
Photographers: Concept Photography
Event Coordinator: Mobella Events
Flowers: Florida Flowers & Orchids
Cake: Sweet Art by Lucila
Strings Music: Classern Quartet
DJ: A-List Entertainment
Dress: Anne Barge
Veil: Solutions Bridal
Seamstress: The Seamstress, Winter Park FL
Hair & Makeup: Makeover Station
Jewelry: Nina by Nordstrom
Tuxedos: Men’s Wearhouse
Flower Girl Dresses: Pippa and Julie
Officiant: Pastor Joseph Wamack

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Interview with the gorgeous Amy + Brandon:
HOW DID YOU MEET? I had known of Brandon for a while before actually meeting him. I was in an organization with his college roommate (and best man) and went to parties and get-togethers at his apartment long before speaking to him. Then in February 2011 I held an event at her house called “Kegs for Kids” to raise money for Dance Marathon and Children’s Miracle Network. Clayton brought along Brandon and I finally had the chance to meet him! I was chatting with some friends when he smiled this huge grin from across the table and said hi. We spent the evening talking about indie bands and traveling (he was planning his trip to China!).
Now I say I met him at a charity event. Brandon says he met me at a keg party.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU THE MOST TO YOUR HUSBAND/WIFE?
Brandon– I was attracted to her happiness and warmth. She was so enthusiastic on our first date, and her face was beaming through several hours and even more stories. It was so easy to stay engaged with her.
Amy– What most attracted me to Brandon was his enthusiasm. Our first date last 4 hours and our second lasted 9, the whole time just spent talking. He was so excited about everything, from school to music to my long and probably boring stories! His enthusiasm and joy has kept us laughing and having fun for the past 4 years.
HOW DID HE PROPOSE? Brandon went above and beyond when planning this proposal! My parents were in town for Labor Day weekend and Brandon sent the three of us off to brunch while he was “working” (i.e. getting everything ready). When we left brunch, a town car was waiting to take me on a scavenger hunt around Boston. At each stop, I had to answer three questions about our relationship to get my next clue. Best of all, he had brought in my friends and family from New York, Vermont, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida and had one person waiting to see me at each stop! After sending me to all of my favorite spots around the city, the day ended at the top of Boston’s famous Clock Tower where he popped the question!
WHAT INSPIRED YOUR VISION FOR YOUR WEDDING? Growing up I loved several different fairytale movies, especially Beauty and the Beast and Ever After. I wanted to incorporate the lush, whimsical feel of those movies without blatantly referring to them. I looked at a lot of inspiration weddings that had lush flowers and antique centerpieces to try to find ways to incorporate the feel of those stories while still keeping the focus entirely on the two of us as a couple.
TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR VENUE: Finding Bella Collina was actually really easy for us. Back in 2008, while I was studying in Italy, my mom saw it and said, “Amy’s going to want to get married there one day.” The same day Brandon and I got engaged my mom showed me the website and I fell in love for a second time!
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST PLANNING CHALLENGE? The biggest challenge was planning from afar. We are located up in Boston, so I had to rely on a couple meetings and the knowledge of Brandee Gaar with Blush (my wedding coordinator) and my mom to make sure everything was ready. I had one weekend of initial meetings with vendors; another weekend to see finalized table settings, invitations, etc.; and then showed up at the wedding praying that it all ended up the way I expected. It was absolutely perfect!
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE DESIGN ELEMENT OF YOUR WEDDING? Hands down the chandeliers over the dance floor! I had always wanted one, but there were no trees. When I mentioned to Brandee that I was sad that we couldn’t have chandeliers since there wasn’t anything to hang them from she said, “Oh, I have a guy for that!” Ben with Kaleidoscope Event Lighting is a genius and found a way to hang not 1, but 3 chandeliers over the dance floor. At night it looked like they were just floating over the lawn!
DID YOU HAVE ANY DIY DETAILS? We didn’t have much in the way of DIY. Though we grew up in Florida, Brandon and I live in Boston now. We didn’t even get in town until a few days before the wedding, which didn’t leave too much time for crafting, especially with my crafting skills.
WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF YOUR WEDDING DAY? My most memorable moment was the same as Brandon’s, when we finally got to see each other. The aisle was slightly curved, so for the first bit of the walk we couldn’t see each other. It built up the suspense so that it was even better. My other most memorable moment was standing with my dad right before I walked down the aisle. The whole morning was a complete whirlwind of curling irons, makeup brushes, and tulle. With so many people around me, I couldn’t really think about what was about to happen. Those few moments gave me a minute to quietly think about how big this event was in our lives and allowed me to walk in to the ceremony with a clear head.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DRESS? I absolutely loved my dress! It was a tulle A-line Monique Lhuillier that I got from the Collection in Winter Park. It was everything I had wanted from the start. It has the look of a tulle ball gown without all the bulk. Really, it’s just a few layers of tulle, so it was really light and comfortable. On the upper half of the dress there was lace and beaded applique that gave it a soft, romantic feel. The dress is actually made strapless, but when I mentioned to my alterations lady, Judy at the Seamstress in Winter Park, that I was worried about being in a strapless dress all night she added some little straps on for me. Overall the dress was able to give me the look I wanted without sacrificing comfort!
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER? We had so much fun with Sara and Jason both times they photographed us. Shooting our engagement photos around Boston was amazing and allowed us to feel even more comfortable on our wedding day. When I first saw their pictures I was ready to book them without asking a single question and I remember Sara saying she wanted to meet me first to make sure we got along. I’m so happy we did! They are the first people you really spend time with after you get married, so it’s so important that you enjoy being with them (and don’t mind kiss in front of them. A lot.)
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND AS A COUPLE? Well, we just got back from a two-week honeymoon in Thailand, which was an absolute dream!! Now we are just settling into real life and enjoying being able to finally say “husband” and “wife”!
CAN YOU PLEASE LIST YOUR VENDORS:
Wedding Coordinator- Blush by Brandee Gaar
Venue- Bella Collina
Officiant- Rev. Glynn Ferguson, Sensational Ceremonies
Photographers- Concept Photography
Videographers- Shutter Life Productions
Florist- Lee James Floral Designs
Dress – Collection in Winter Park
Lighting- Kaleidoscope Event Lighting
Band/DJ- The Buzzcats
Ceremony Music- Beautiful Music
Stationary- Dogwood Blossom Stationery & Invitation Studio, LLC
Cake- Party Flavors
Hair/Makeup- Lejeune Artistry
Chairs- A Chair Affair

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We had such a great time shooting some engagement pics with Jamie + Wade at the Wilderness Lodge + Magic Kingdom. Another beautiful Florida afternoon, another awesome couple! Life is good:)
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