Outstanding Wedding at the Boston Intercontinental Hotel

Since my childhood I have been dreaming about wedding. Because I was addicted to Walt Disney Movies and happy endings, I started drawing princess dresses that always became bridal dresses. I kept on drawing dresses for years and expanded my artwork to short dresses, asymmetric ones, with several different shapes. I used all the paper I found, sketch book, class note pad, post-it, playing card, magazines… This passion led me to consider a carrier in Bridal Gown designer. However there is no academic degree in fashion design in France. Most of the school which offer this education are private and don’t provide a degree recognized by professionals. So I put aside my creative desire to study international law. During my college I had the opportunity to take classes in international private law and contemporary foreign law, where I studied marriage traditions and coutumes from all over the world.

Meanwhile I discovered the movie The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez. The 10 first minutes literally transcended me. Wedding Planner was not a well known profession in France and is still not really widespread. I knew it was the perfect job for me. My entourage often described me as an organization freak. I am obsessed by timing and I take extra care of every details. Wedding Planning seemed to me the best profession on earth. A mix of relationship, creativity and organization. Working to help people create and enjoy the most special day in their life was almost too good to be true.

Waterfront Wedding at the Boston Harbor Hotel

Last summer my boyfriend left France to study in the United States and following him was an incredible opportunity for me to do further researches on this magic industry. I browsed hundreds of websites, to find some graduate programs where I could learn how to become wedding planner. But reading the reviews and comments I felt like it was something that must most be learn on the field. I started looking for an internship in wedding planning, I scoured all the wedding websites to find the best wedding professionals who could hire me and I started applying.

I was lucky enough to get a internship interview with Alexis Eliopoulos O’Mara, one of the legendary wedding planners in New England. She did hundreds of weddings, plenty of them featured in major magazines and wedding blogs. Her portfolio was full of stunning pictures and her Wedding Wire reviews were outstanding. I think that the five days I waited for her answer was one of the most anxious period in my life. I was dreaming of this internship night and day! And I was so crazy happy to get a positive answer!

Indian Wedding on Spectacle Island in the Boston Harbor

I started my 6 month internship on March 3rd. From this date my life changed for ever. I stepped into a world that was breathtaking. I know girls would kill to work in this field, and my friends were waiting for details every week.

Ahead of the weddings, I discovered all the details that make a wedding perfect. I did research projects to find the perfect vendors that would match with the couples’ wishes, set up the meetings between the couples and the professionals to find the perfect match, attend the meeting to keep track of every wish expressed by the Bride of the Groom, followed up to help the couples in their process and of course help them to respect their budget. I spent hours preparing hotel bags, with the perfect wrap that would welcome the out-of-town guests. One of the items I had to find was some little lobsters, plush, keychain, whatever lobsters that could be nice. Few weeks after I found them, I was doing a romantic trip to Venice (Italy) with my boyfriend and I was crazy about the little murano-glass lobsters! I also created the wedding website for some couples, adding everything they needed from the weather in Boston to the registry!

But the most amazing part of the job was assisting Alexis in the Day of, from the set up to the break down. The weddings I worked on this summer were at the most outstanding venues in Boston!

Romantic Wedding at the Boston Fairmont Copley Plaza

The first event was a rehearsal dinner at the Skywalk, under Top of the Hub, at the 50th floor of the Prudential Tower, overlooking the Charles River. The guests arrived in Ducks after a tour of Boston and enjoyed the Casino Themed dinner with the best possible view on the city.

The day after, we went to the wedding at the Boston Intercontinental Hotel. The Bride’s father was the owner of one of the main event rental company in Boston and took care of the design with the Bride and his staff. Alexis was mainly assisting the bride in her preparation and during the day. This wedding got the Best Wedding of the Year Award by the TSE.

Destination Wedding in Plymouth (MA)

For the second wedding at the Boston Fairmont Copley Plaza (featured in Style me Pretty) I almost missed it. I was back in France for some US embassy meeting for the update of my visa and I was waiting to receive my passport to fly back to Boston. Finally I arrived two days before the wedding and I am so glad I could work on it too. The Bride and Groom were so sweet. They were deeply in love with each other, the Groom sang during the party and the Bride surprised him with a confetti bomb! I loved this complicity between them. And the theme was so romantic, in light blue and white. It was almost a fairytale in the Oval Ballroom.

The next one was maybe one of my favorite. The venue was the Boston Harbor Hotel, this waterfont wedding was stunning. It’s so wonderful to say I do in front of the Ocean! The Bride and the Groom were very involved and had excellent taste. From the Boat themed invitations in pearl paper, to the exotic flowers on the escort card table, everything was hand picked. And I must confess that I really enjoy the Groom’s outfit, I think it was the first time in my life that I saw an actual kilt. In this wedding, I was also  particularly touched by the donation favors to charity.

On July 16th I had the chance to be part of the most crazy wedding of the year: an Indian Wedding on Spectacle Island (Featured in Shaadi Bazaar). One of the Islands of the Boston Harbor. The planning was really challenging: organize the transportation of everything to the island, including the trucks for rentals, flowers, band and caterer. It was surrealist to watch the bang and all the music instruments arriving on the Island in a water taxi! But the most incredible part of this celebration was the flowers’ petals drop from the helicopter just after the “I do” it’s the kind of timing that need to be really prepared upstream and during the ceremony. For this wedding we were also really concern about the weather. It was an outdoor wedding without any tent, on the pier facing the Boston skyline. Of course we were prepared for any weather change with a back up plan but it would have been so sad. Lucky us the weather was perfect and the sunset on the city was really sublime.

The last wedding I worked on this summer was in Plymouth, on a cliff above the ocean. I had seen beach wedding before, in magazine and Internet, but in real it’s really wonderful. With the light breeze everything seems so quiet, the perfect place to express feelings. However we had a little panic on the day of: the Bride get food poisoned and spend the morning at the ER. I think it’s one of the worse things that could happen to a wedding! Nevertheless, the Bride manage to walk down the aisle in the early afternoon and enjoyed her special day with her husband.

Casino Themed Rehearsal at Top of the Hub

Aside of the event planning, I also had the opportunity to strengthen my skills in communication. I had my first experience in blogging and discovered social media marketing through Twitter and Facebook. I had the chance to attend meetings from the most respected association in the industry, the Boston Wedding Group, the Association of Bridal Consultant, the National Association of Catering Executive, International Special Event Society and even the Platinum Wedding Group.

This experience was incredible and I cannot thank Alexis enough for offering the opportunity to be a part of this magic world!