Tora + Dean by Parker’s Pictures

One part of the venue I loved was the sporadic statues around the property.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

I am an interior designer at an architecture firm who works on a wide range of projects – restaurants, multifamily, and education primarily. Dean works in finance at Boston Consulting Group. I think we really work well together because we really live life to the fullest in everything we do. We both have large groups of friends that mesh so well, mostly because they are always a fun weekend activity, no matter how strange it is. Next weekend we will be taking a party bus with 17 of our friends in costumes to a Renaissance Faire. One of our biggest shared passions is animals. We volunteer regularly with the rescue where we adopted our dog, helping with home visits for potential adopters, transporting animals, and supporting events in both hands-on and administrative roles. Now that the wedding is behind us, we’re excited to have been approved as foster parents for puppies. Dean and I also really love experiencing the unique parts of the world. I have a dad who lives in Bangkok for half of the year, so whenever I am visiting him, I try to take in as much design inspiration as possible, and Dean spent a year in New Orleans before we met. The fact that he moved away from home to such a different place as our small towns in Massachusetts is really something I admire in him. We visit NOLA often since we both have friends there.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

Dean and I met through a friend who knew we both loved The Sopranos and Italian food. Flash forward to today, we have a dog named Polly Walnuts from the show. Dean and I had met briefly two times previously before our first date, the first was on the college dorm floor of a friend who set us up, and the second was at a house party I hosted. Dean had tried once or twice to slide into my DMs related to dogs or Sopranos, but I was hesitant, knowing I was in Boston while he was in New Orleans. Once he returned to Boston, I reached out to set up a date. We didn’t know until my bachelorette party that we had a photo together taken at my house party years before, crazy knowing we were going to get married one day! I texted him while I was waiting at the table for our first date, “I’ll be the girl in the red evening gown dress” to tease him a little, to which he replied, “Great, I wore a tuxedo.” We obviously did not wear those outfits, but it was mentioned in Dean’s vows that he was now, actually, in a tuxedo.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).

Some people may recognise Crane Estate as the location where they filmed a number of scenes from the 2019 Little Women, which is such an amazing backdrop for a film set in the 19th century. I wanted to use inspiration from that time period of the soft, feminine colours when looking at the florals and really let the venue shine. We were married in the Italian Garden, which is surrounded on both sides with florals mostly of pink and purple. One thing I didn’t realise until the wedding day was how beautiful it smelled during our ceremony, being surrounded by the garden. In the bridal suite within the venue, the wallpapers and marble are very playful and a bit bold compared to the rest of the estate. I loved taking pictures in these areas since they allowed for such different backdrops than the rolling green outside. One part of the venue I loved was the sporadic statues around the property. There are two gryphons that overlook the hills, and the Greek statues that line the property.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee, etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

We had an engagement that was about a year and a half, so I had plenty of time to create a lot of the décor items for the wedding. One of the first items I made was the acrylic table numbers. I made a vector of the design I wanted and used my office’s laser cutter to cut the numbers myself. I also designed the seating chart by applying a peel-and-stick wallpaper to a board, using acrylic sheets again, which I had cut into ovals, then writing the names on the ovals for each table. I recently sold this item to another bride, so I am excited to see what they create! One of the more tedious design items I tackled was using an embroidery machine to embroider each guest’s name into their napkin as their take-home gift. The Italian Garden was the perfect backdrop for our ceremony because it allowed us to take so much from the fountain and garden that we didn’t need florals to be too strong in the location.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process, and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

This may be controversial, but we really enjoyed involving our family in the planning and design process. I like to remind myself that it’s our parents’ first time experiencing life too, and this wedding was a huge part of their lives. We made sure their voices were heard so that they knew how much we cherish and love them. The wedding day itself doesn’t have a lot of moments where the bride can celebrate her mom or stepparents, and I wanted to make sure they both knew how much I cared for them. In addition to my first look with my dad, I had a first look with my stepdad as well. Dean’s mom also had a first look at Dean. Their first two looks were short, but special moments that really allowed us that one-on-one time before we had to greet 150+ people. One other item I did that I loved was that I spent the night before with one of my bridesmaids instead of sleeping alone. It really made going to bed and waking up so fun, when we both woke up earlier than the alarm and were like “today’s the day!” We ended up walking to grab coffee and having a relaxing beach morning.

An additional item that helped ease our nerves was that we had Dean’s younger sister read our vows beforehand to ensure we were on the same page and they were of similar length. We had heard of another couple doing this, but it took some stress off when she told us she loved what we wrote!

Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?

I don’t drink, so I knew I wanted the mocktail to be something a little more exciting. While at Quinn’s in Boston, I tried a pickle-mocktini, which I then spent weeks trying to recreate perfectly. I was so happy when Maura at Fireside Catering was just as excited for this adventurous mocktail! The mocktail is 2 shots of pickle juice, a shot of elderflower syrup, and lime juice! The second item we made sure to add to our night was late-night ramen, which I also worked with Maura to coordinate. The alcoholic drinks were both Dean’s choices, a Manhattan and an alcoholic Shirly Temple. We decided to bring around cup-o-noodles as our late-night snack, pretty easy to prepare too, by just adding the hot water! When working with our photographer, Parker, it was great having her at our rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding day. I really wanted natural emotions on the wedding day, and having my family go through the first 30 minutes of the rehearsal dinner and struggle not to smile at the camera directly was a good preview of the following day. That way, too, she had already formed a relationship with my parents, who had a sense of how she was going to be involved in the day.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, and is there a story?

My dad and I always knew we wanted our father-daughter dance to be unique and fun. We are both very outgoing and silly people who love disco music. Many past brides I know recommended having a second dress to “let loose” a little and be able to dance freely, so I knew my second dress had to coordinate with our first dance. My dad and I chose a song I used to love in middle school, “Crying at the Discotheque”, and decided to start memorising a dance routine. I wanted my dress to allow me to move freely, and also encapsulate a posh disco queen. For shoes, I love a bold outfit choice, so I went with pink Prada pumps to bring some colour in after wearing white the past year to every event! My dad and I had so much fun during our dance; we actually practised early on the morning of the wedding because we were both so nervous, but it was such a lively part of the night and perfectly describes our relationship.

Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.

Dean and I purchased our wedding and engagement rings from a family friend who designed them specifically for us. I always knew I wanted a smaller band to separate my wedding band and engagement ring, so my argument was that the middle one was a gift from our dog, Polly. We got engaged on Christmas Day in Bordeaux, France. One thing that made the moment a bit silly was that Dean didn’t realise the ring was upside down when he was proposing due to nerves. We were alone in a vineyard, and it was the perfect moment, full of joy and happiness. I mixed metals for rings, which originally I could never see myself doing – I felt as though I was a gold girl through and through, but when I tried on my wedding band, I fell in love. One of the hardest parts of being engaged is when you have the wedding band in possession, but can’t wear it! Dean warned me it would be bad luck, but occasionally I would try it on before getting married if no one was looking!

What were one or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

For a while, we were hesitant about getting a videographer, I think because I had never found a videographer whose work I enjoyed. I felt as though so many videos ended up feeling like more of an ad for the venue, and while our venue is beautiful, I wanted it to feel like us. When I came across Andy Hansen, I was blown away by how different his wedding videos were from others; they felt like movies curated for couples. We decided about six months before our wedding that we wanted a videographer, so it was definitely an unexpected addition to the overall cost, but the number of times people have told us they watched our video is amazing. We absolutely love what Andy did with our vision. I had sent him 20-30 precedents of different styles I liked, and he was able to take different pieces I noticed about each film and make our wedding video his own. Dean’s mom will watch it before bed sometimes, just as a reminder of how perfect the day was!

Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?

One moment that will always stay with me is when our officiant, my cousin, reacted after Dean and I said our vows to one another. She said, “Wow, guys, that was really sweet”, and it was just a genuine comment. Our family smiled and laughed at how pure that moment was. Our ceremony was so special to us. Dean and I were nervous about writing our own vows, but they were perfect. One moment I will always remember is how proud I was of Dean when he spoke to the guests about how thankful he was for our parents and me. We have a number of photos where I am looking at him, smiling at this moment, just happy to be there with him. Another moment that was very special to me was when I put my dress on to show all of my bridesmaids, my mother-in-law, and my MOH. I am not a very emotional person, and to suddenly have 10 women looking at me, crying happy tears, made me feel so happy about who I have in my life. In our vows, I mentioned how proud I am that we have a life full of so much love and laughter, that even on non-special days, we feel just as excited and lucky to spend time together and with our loved ones.