Wedding Wednesday is a weekly feature discussing all things wedding-related! To suggest a topic or question, contact Gwen at info@gwendolyntundermann.com.
Fodor’s recently announced their Gold Awards 2010 for the best US destination wedding hotels. The winners are as follows:
Auberge du Soleil – Rutherford, CA
Casa Monica Hotel – St. Augustine, FL
Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – Orlando, FL
Monteleone Hotel – New Orleans, LA
New York Palace Hotel – New York, NY
San Juan Water & Beach Club – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sheraton Kauai Resort – Kauai, HI
The Broadmoor – Colorado Springs, CO
The Homestead – Hot Springs, VA
Wentworth by the Sea – Portsmouth, NH
Congratulations to the winners, which were selected based on the services and amenities they offer. To find out more about each venue, please visit the Fodor’s website and click on each hotel!
I’m surprised that Savannah didn’t make the list. It’s such a charming city with so much to do for the bride and groom and their guests. And as far as service, you will find plenty of southern hospitality to make you feel welcome! Take a peek at Allison & Jim’s Savannah destination wedding photos if you want a look at how beautiful a Savannah wedding can be!
If you were planning (or have planned) a destination wedding in the US, where would you choose and why?
We first met Melissa & Alex at Sheba & Nolan’s wedding last fall in Jacksonville. They had such an incredible vision for their wedding, deciding to do a destination wedding to Tampa. We met up with them this past May to shoot their engagement photos in downtown Boston and hear more details about the big day!
Melissa & Alex rented a gorgeous estate for their wedding party and family to spend time together for the whole wedding weekend. The mansion was flat-out amazing with a huge pool, tons of gorgeous rooms, and an amazing entrance way with chandeliers! Their master bedroom made for especially nice getting ready photos, with perfect light and a vivid red wall.
For the wedding ceremony and reception, Alex and Melissa chose A La Carte Event Pavilion, a full-service venue that created one of the most beautiful weddings we’ve seen to date. Their ceremony had one of the most personal, special moments we’ve ever seen, where Melissa played a message to her groom-to-be before being walked down the aisle by her father. Her message was heartfelt and impossible to not get caught up in. Alex was overcome by emotion. What an amazing moment!
Despite some afternoon storms, we found a beautiful, nearby park with lots of trees and green leaves hanging down. Melissa and Alex couldn’t help but look at each other and it was easy to see the connection they share as they spent a few quiet moments to themselves.
The rest of the evening was full of celebration! With Inpulse Entertainment keeping the party going, Melissa and Alex spent the rest of the night dancing with their closest friends and family.
We feel so honored and happy to have been able to share their wedding day with Melissa and Alex. They spent about 3 weeks in Florida, so now that they are back home we’re finally able to share a peek at some of the photos from their beautiful wedding! Congratulations to you both!
Pic with Sheba & Nolan and Melissa & Alex at the wedding
You know when you really click with some people? You meet up and the conversation just flows, you feel like you’ve known them all your life, and there’s an instant bond? That’s how we feel about Jessi and Jeff. They’re an amazing couple with so much passion and energy.
Jessi and Jeff also have a pretty amazing story. They first met while working at the same radio station and although life took them down separate paths for awhile, they were destined to find each other again. One look at them is all it takes to see not only two people totally head-over-heels in love with each other, but two of the closest friends you’ll ever find.
Although Jessi and Jeff live here in Jacksonville, they picked Nashville, TN for their wedding, partly because of their connections to country music and the city, but also because the city just rocks! And since we never need an excuse to make a little road trip, we headed up to Tennessee to meet Jessi and Jeff for some awesome downtown Nashville engagement photos!
We started out at the historic Printers Alley, where Jessi and Jeff also showed off their signature dip for us. Printers Alley ended up being just one of many awesome alleyways that we found all over downtown Nashville.
As the sun went down, Nashville’s lights came alive. We went up onto an observation deck overlooking the Public Square before heading to Broadway Street, where the bright lights really helped bring out that Nashville energy and excitement!
Although we were taking pictures throughout, we had a really amazing time hanging out with Jessi and Jeff. We’re so excited for their Nashville wedding (wait til you see this venue!!), but we’re even more excited to call them our friends! We can’t wait to see them tie the knot in what will be a truly amazing Nashville wedding! : )
Matt and I just returned from a fun trip to Tennessee where we spent a few days in a chalet in a small town about 45 minutes north of Nashville. The main purpose of the trip was Jessica & Jeff’s engagement shoot in downtown Nashville, and we also made two stops in Atlanta to meet with another couple and also to visit with our friends at Get Married magazine! We used the time at the chalet to spend with our puppies and do some brainstorming. The puppies absolutely LOVED it, and we always enjoy trips where we can bring them along.
Here’s our adorable “little” chalet and a pic of Matt with the puppies in our back yard:
We were greeted by Miss Polly and Peanut and Taz enjoyed her daily visits:
Peanut and Taz felt so adventurous hopping around on the rocks and playing in the stream. Even though we were just in the backyard, they felt like real explorers. It was priceless!
We had wild turkeys in our yard on a few occasions, but unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of them. However, we did get a picture of one of the many butterflies in the yard:
I even held it on my hand! I am surprised I could stay still long enough for Matt to get a photo because it was starting to tickle me!
We’re already talking about returning during the week of Christmas. A quiet holiday in the mountains, cuddled up by a fire with our puppies and drinking mulled cider sounds like the perfect way to spend Christmas and New Year’s! What’s your favorite getaway to relax and unwind?
Hello from Washington, DC! Matt and I are visiting our nation’s capital to celebrate the 4th of July! We’ve had so much fun this week and are beyond excited for tonight’s fireworks display! Matt had a conference at the beginning of the week (where he won an award for engineering!) so we didn’t do much sightseeing until Wednesday. Since then, we’ve done everything that was on our list of things to do and then some!
We took an afternoon walk around the mall and watched the sun set beyond the Washington Monument. Then we walked by the White House on our way back to the hotel. Our big day was Friday, when we did a tour of the Capitol. We got there early, so we spent some time at the Library of Congress before our tour. Our favorite part was Jefferson’s Library. The LOC is definitely an underrated site. There weren’t a lot of crowds so you could spend as much time as you wanted reading the historic documents on display.
We got very lucky when we went to the Capitol because we were able to get on a tour an hour earlier than our scheduled time! After the tour, we grabbed a quick lunch in the Capitol and then headed over to the Supreme Court for another tour. Then we walked down to the National Archives, which had a long line but it moved along pretty fast. You can’t come to DC for the 4th and NOT go see the actual Declaration of Independence! But my favorite part of the day was visiting the Museum of American History. I really loved the First Ladies exhibit and looking at all the gowns from the Inaugural Ball. Michelle Obama’s dress was by far the most elegant of them all!
Saturday we only had one stop – Arlington Cemetery. We spent most of the day there, visiting all the must-see sites like the Eternal Flame at the burial site of the Kennedys, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and Arlington House, but we also visited the Pan Am 103 memorial as well as the memorials for the Challenger and Columbia to pay our respects. We are so glad that we walked because we spent time reading the headstones along the way. It was such a humbling experience, and we’re glad that we didn’t do anything else because Arlington is a place that requires a lot of time.
And now it’s time for the grand finale! I’m even more excited because I found out this week that my favorite singer, Jane Monheit, is singing with the Navy band in a concert at the Washington Monument!!! Too awesome! We wanted to wish all of our friends and family a very happy and safe 4th of July! We hope you are able to spend time with those you love and enjoy the freedoms that so many sacrificed to protect! : )
We’ve had the opportunity to get to know Becky & Matt quite a bit over the past year through Facebook and several visits to Pittsburgh. In fact, Matt lives in the same town that I went to high school! On our last trip before their wedding, we got to spend a few hours with them shooting engagement photos in downtown Pittsburgh!
As the days kept counting down to the big day, we got more and more excited to see them again! Becky and Matt held their wedding at St. Scholastica Catholic Church. Officiating the ceremony was Father Frank, who was the cousin of Becky’s mom. He infused some light humor into the ceremony, setting the tone for happiness throughout the rest of the day.
After the ceremony, Becky, Matt, and the wedding party climbed aboard one of Molly’s Trolleys for a ride around town for group shots and couple shots. Our first stop was Mt Washington, with its amazing view of downtown Pittsburgh. We also stopped for some wedding photos at Carnegie Mellon University with it’s beautiful column, which make for very classic photos.
Becky and Matt held their wedding reception at Longvue Country Club, a historic landmark recognized by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Its beautiful stonework, a wide open patio area, an intimate sitting area for the cocktail hour, and gorgeous and expansive main reception hall made it a perfect setting for an intimate evening!
Guests were entertained throughout the evening with live music by the John Parker Band. The dance floor was never empty and Becky and Matt were always in the middle of the action. But it was Matt’s serenading of Becky with “Take Me Home Tonight”, which he is apparently infamous for singing karaoke-style, that stole the show. It helped take the celebration to a whole-new level and will probably be one of the more enduring images of the reception. It was definitely one of our favorite reception moments EVER! You rock, Matt!
Such a beautiful occasion to celebrate a truly wonderful couple! Through what we’ve seen of them firsthand and the testimony through friends and family giving toasts at the reception, we know that we were really lucky to be part of such a special day! And now we have two more friends in the Pittsburgh area to visit when we go up there!
But we also had fun seeing the Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals at Fenway! We’ve been talking about going to a game at Fenway since I first met Matt. He is a huge Red Sox fan (probably more than any other team in any sport) and he has always told me how incredible Fenway is. We’ve seen the Red Sox play in Tampa and also gone to PNC Park to watch the Pirates, but this was our first time going to watch Matt’s team play at home. I have to say Fenway is a really awesome place. You walk in and it’s like being transcended back in time. I don’t know how it’s possible to feel nostalgic over a place you’ve never been before, but that was the feeling I had as I walked through the corridors along the vendors, smelling the old ball park air filled with hot sausages and grilled onions.
We definitely plan to go back again the next time we’re up that way! It was so much fun, and I even got so giddy as the crowd did the wave and kept it going for several rounds! I don’t think I’ve been anywhere that successfully got the wave going like that! Yeah, I was so geeked over that!
To tell you about Melissa & Alex, we first have to rewind to last September to Sheba & Nolan’s wedding at the Garden Club of Jacksonville. It was that evening that we first met Melissa & Alex, who were excited to be celebrating the marriage of their dear friends and also thinking about their own wedding day! Alex came up to us at the wedding and said that he was engaged and asked if we travel. Do we?!?! Heck yes, we LOVE to travel! So then he told us they live in the Boston area but were planning a Florida destination wedding. Now, I won’t spoil the surprise but I will tell you that you HAVE to come back and check the blog at the end of July to see the amazing wedding they have planned! It’s going to be off the charts incredible! I went down to Tampa to meet up with them during one of their meetings at the venue and… wow! Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one!
Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend. We were in New England to shoot two weddings and had plans to meet up with Melissa & Alex for some engagement photos in downtown Boston. We spent the morning at Fenway watching the Red Sox beat the Royals (more on that later this week) and then we met up with them at one of Boston’s most beautiful locations, the Public Garden. It was a gorgeous day and there were a lot of people there, but it’s such a huge park that we were able to find plenty of places that were quiet. From the very beginning, Melissa & Alex were so relaxed and were cute and flirty one minute and then sassy and sexy the next. All we had to do was click the shutter. They put a lot of thought into their session, and it turned out to be one of our favorite e-sessions ever!
After some engagement photos at the Public Garden, Melissa & Alex changed for a night on the town! I think my jaw dropped when we first saw them, because they looked amazing! I mean, seriously, just look at the photos. They are such a gorgeous couple!
They really wanted to do a shot in front of the subway, which was too fun! After a short ride on the train, we stopped for more engagement photos at Quincy Market. There were some fun street lamps that we just HAD to use! We came back to Quincy Market later for drinks and a couple of fun, grainy photos at Anthem Kitchen & Bar.
When Melissa & Alex were planning their engagement session, they asked around for locations and everyone said “You have to do engagement photos at Long Wharf.” We walked over there just as the sun was setting and casting hues of pink and purple on the tall buildings nearby. Facing East, we got the brilliant blue sky that we love to shoot so much! It was a gorgeous, romantic setting down at the wharf, and a great way to end the engagement session!
We are so glad we had a chance to meet up with Melissa & Alex before their wedding day! They are so much fun and now we’re so anxious for their wedding day to get here!!! We hope you guys had as much fun as we did, and we look forward to seeing you again next month for the big day! : )
Matt was so inspired from the moment we met Sammy & Allen! He directed much of the shoot and also wrote the blog post before I could even write one word! So here is their story from the POV of Mr. Tundermann.
Written by Matt Tundermann
Sammy & Allen’s journey together started at Cal State Fullerton in LA. They were both hanging out with a mutual friend, although Sammy admits that she didn’t even talk to Allen at first. But once they started talking, they both realized that they had almost identical class schedules. And now, years later, it’s easy to see how fate has brought together two people whose relationship has all the ingredients to be a long and lasting one; friendship, love, teamwork, and vision.
Speaking of vision, when Sammy & Allen contacted us to do some engagement photos in Southern California, they had an amazing vision for the setting they wanted; the rugged and beautiful beaches at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach, CA. This gorgeous location has special meaning to them because they spent time doing research for classes there. After some administrative wrangling and paperwork that had me feeling like a Hollywood producer, we headed off to Crystal Cove with our “cast and crew” for an amazing engagement session!
Crystal Cove is a combination of beautiful natural beaches, with waves crashing over rocks, towering cliffs overlooking the water, fields of bright flowers, and an a row of historic beach houses. It’s an amazing area with a fun, open-air feeling. We especially loved this hillside full of bright flowers with its fun, crazy-looking tree.
One of the many highlights of the day was our “shake break” at Ruby’s Shake Shack. Ruby’s sits in a little pull-off from the coastal highway in Newport Beach and serves some great classic shakes. We enjoyed having some downtime with Sammy & Allen to just chat, discussing some of their ideas for their wedding, and enjoying the incredible weather. By the end of our break, we felt like we had been friends with them for 10 years!
After our break, we headed back to the top of the cliffs to capture Sammy & Allen in a field of wild flowers as the warm California sun washed over them. Without any prompting, they just reached out to each other and enjoyed the warmth and affection that has made their relationship so strong.
The truly amazing part of the day was how natural Sammy & Allen are with each other in front of the camera. Whether it’s being playful and flirty or romantic and sweet, they have an easy time sharing their joy as a couple. And with a beautiful sunset as our final backdrop of the day, it was the perfect ending to a perfect shoot!
Sammy & Allen, thank you so much for allowing us to capture your engagement! : )
Savannah has a type of old-world, Southern charm that is hard to equal. With historic old buildings, beautiful parks, and a cobble-stone waterfront, it’s not hard to understand why Alli and Jim chose this beautiful backdrop for their destination wedding.
Alli stayed at the very posh Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront. Combining vintage elegance with a modern flair, Alli wore a full-length gown with ruffles, a head-band veil, and fabulous zebra-print heels. Hair and makeup were provided by The Red Headed Bride. The finishing touch was an amazing bouquet by A To Zinnia’s.
At the same time, Jim was putting on his white tuxedo at the AVIA Savannah Hotel before meeting for guy photos. These included a very touching photo of Jim, his father, Jim, Jr., and his grandfather, Jim, Sr.
With the help of amazing Savannah wedding coordinator Jeannie Sims of BRiDE – Brilliantly Designed Events, Alli and Jim chose to have their wedding at Reynolds Square. Reynolds Square is centered around a statue of John Wesley with beautiful Spanish moss hanging from the trees. Accompanied by classical music, Jim watched as his beautiful bride was escorted into the square by her father. The ceremony was officiated by Judge Andrews, who added to the feel of this Southern wedding with a classic top hat. After a very sweet ceremony, a trolley from Old Savannah Tours transported everyone to shoot wedding photos at Forsyth Park.
Next it was on to the wedding reception at Vic’s on the River. The reception was decorated with colorful floral arrangements and a lot of details with birds (such as the table numbers and votive holder favors). The guests signed a “family tree” by using their thumbprints as the leaves (possibly the cutest guestbook we have ever seen!). The adorable wedding cake, created by Delectable Designs, had a pair of birds to symbolize their union, with a pair of little bird tracks, symbolizing the journey that brought them to that day. However, the “sweetest” moment of the evening happened when Jim gave a toast to thank all their guests and family. As he looked down at his new bride, Jim began to choke up. With Alli gazing back at him, Jim had eyes only for his bride, revealing the absolute love he has for her and she has for him.
Alli and Jim continued to celebrate with their guests, with music provided by the Jeff Beasley Band. The night ended with a festive exit from Vic’s and an after party at Churchill’s Pub!
Although we had a short time with Alli and Jim, they left an impression on us with their sweetness and obvious affection for each other. We want to thank them for letting us be a part of their beautiful wedding and wish them many blessings as they begin their marriage!
