As much as my husband and I love a destination wedding and will travel the world to celebrate our loved ones, my parents weren’t into the idea of us going too far for our own wedding. We still wanted that getaway-feeling, so when searching for our venue, we decided to look in my home-state of Connecticut, as it felt like a mini-destination to us Brooklynites.
We immediately fell in love with the idea of hosting our wedding at an inn, where everything could be on-site from the accommodations to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. We dreamed our wedding weekend would feel like a relaxed weekend away with loved ones and we found this all and more (including the inn’s absolutely incredible wedding coordinator, Tosh Urbowicz!) at the beautiful Bee and Thistle Inn in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Built in the 1750s, the 10-room inn is exceedingly charming and was the perfect backdrop for our June wedding. We arrived on Thursday evening with a handful of friends and family to start the celebration early, with more guests trickling in the next morning. Friday was spent playing lawn games and drinking wine, leading to a quick wedding rehearsal in the backyard. Our Welcome Dinner was held in the garden that evening (more on that below). We spent an easy morning together in the garden on Saturday before it was time to get ready our wedding. That afternoon, we were married under the trees by the waterfront and our tented reception was held in the backyard. We brought the party inside that night for the afterparty and relived the evening on Sunday morning over breakfast. Our bridal party and friends stayed between the Bee and Thistle, and the Old Lyme Inn right across the street, while family was mostly in a larger hotel about 10 minutes away. All of this is to say that we had our homebase at the inn, and it really felt like our home for the weekend.
The Bee and Thistle is absolutely perfect as-is, but here are a few ways we made our wedding weekend even more personal:
Candles
I wanted to create a scent memory for our wedding, so whenever we smelled the fragrance, it would instantly take us back to the joy and love we felt. I wrote a post on how I chose my wedding day fragrance, and in addition to the fragrance I wore during our entire wedding weekend, I bought multiple Diptyque Baies candles, the corresponding scent to the fragrance to place around the inn. We scattered these candles in the entry way, in the living room, dining room, as well as in our bedroom. And it worked! Now whenever I smell the lovely black currant leaves and rose scent, I’m immediately transported back.
Homemade cookies
As soon as you walked into the inn, the entryway table had a schedule of events (created by Protea Press) and my mother’s much-loved Sprinkle Cookies in a jar, that was continuously replenished (because her cookies are just that delicious!). She spent time before the wedding creating the dough, freezing it, and baking it right before we left for our wedding weekend. We also put out a small sign saying they were “baked with love by the bride’s mother.”
Lawn games
As our guests started to arrive Thursday evening and Friday morning for the wedding weekend, with the first true event being the Welcome Dinner on Friday evening, we spent Friday afternoon catching up with friends over lawn games that we bought to keep our guests busy (along with stocking up on beer and wine!).
The perfect playlist
The months leading up to our wedding, we created a few playlists to blast as we were hanging out at the inn to add to the ambiance. These tunes were played during our entire stay on the lower level of the inn so we always had music on that matched the mood, whether that was for breakfast, while we were DIYing the flowers for the Welcome Dinner, getting ready for our wedding and any time in between.
A non-traditional welcome dinner
Since our wedding reception was going to include a formal four-course meal, we wanted our Welcome Dinner to feel entirely separate. We invited our wedding guests to join us the evening before in the inn’s garden (we were so lucky with the weather the entire weekend!) and brought in a food truck serving up (incredibly delicious) tacos and the inn served up the tastiest spicy margaritas. As the night went out, firepits were lit and our guests made smores over the fire. The lighthearted evening felt like the perfect balance to our wedding the next day.
Late-night food
After hours of dancing at weddings, I always build up quite the appetite and knew we had to offer our guests something delicious at our after party to keep up the momentum. My husband and I both love late-night bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches, so we treated our guests to breakfast sammies around midnight by Keith Urbowicz of Roost Chef. Everyone raved about them and they were the perfect ending to the evening.
What are ways that you have or are planning to personalize your wedding?
