Mikaela & John
Photos courtesy Hayley Bryant Photography
Date of engagement: March 29, 2020
Date of wedding: July 24, 2021
Wedding location: Birch Hill Farm, Gilford NH
Primary wedding color: navy with blush accents
When family is important to a couple, bringing the ideas of the families to fruition and taking advantage of the phenomenal views are priorities. Making the wedding planning much easier for this wedding was Creations by Collis, a skilled wedding planner. Says Mikaela, “My parents insisted we hire a wedding planner because they wanted the process to be fun and relaxing and not stressful. Our wedding planner was great – we kept in touch regularly throughout the process of planning via email, Zoom and phone calls. The planner and her staff did all the set up, decorating and break down for the day-of, which was a huge help. She also coordinated all of the vendors, the arrival times and the timeline for the day-of. We wanted to be able to enjoy the time with our friends and family and having the wedding planner coordinating everything for the day-of allowed us to do that.”
With about a year to plan the wedding, the couple were looking for a relaxed, beautiful venue in the Lakes Region and Birch Hill Farm was perfect. They wanted a place where they could “gather all our friends and family outdoors. I really loved the idea of the do-it-yourself type of venue because I had a very specific image in my mind of what I wanted the day to look like,” says Mikaela. “We toured Birch Hill with my parents and my sister and everyone just fell in love with the beautiful setting so we knew it was the perfect place to host our wedding.”
The wedding had about 150 guests, and the weather was, recalls Mikaela, “Absolutely beautiful. We felt so lucky – we thought it would be hot since it was July but the temperature was 75 and it was sunny with some scattered clouds throughout the afternoon.
“We had six bridesmaids and groomsmen; I had a maid of honor and a man of honor (my two siblings) and then four bridesmaids and John had a best man and then five other groomsmen. The wedding professionals were chosen mostly by word of mouth and recommendations from either our wedding planner or the owner of our venue. Most of the vendors we met with or spoke with prior to hiring to ask questions and just get a feel for their style. We chose vendors who really made us feel comfortable and shared our vision.”
The wedding menu consisted of appetizers – a stationary crudites table, a cheese and cracker table and a raw bar with shrimp cocktail and oysters. There also were four passed hors d’oeuves, which were mozzarella and tomato skewers, chicken with a peanut sauce, crab cakes and melon and prosciutto. Dinner was sliced tenderloin and chicken piccata with roasted red potatoes and asparagus.
The three-layer cake had two flavors: lemon cake with lemon frosting and a white cake with a fresh strawberry frosting.
Mikaela says she “would definitely recommend doing first look photos before the wedding ceremony. We got so many of the pictures done early and then were able to really enjoy the cocktail hour with our guests. I would also recommend planning not only ‘who’ you want in pictures but ‘where’ at your venue you want to take them. I would definitely recommend having a wedding planner because planning a wedding is hard and there are SO many things you don’t even think of until you have an expert ask you about them. We did not have a videographer and I regret it only because I wish I had gotten the speeches on video. If you don’t have a videographer then I recommend assigning someone to video the speeches because it goes by so quickly, and you really want to be able to listen again because you miss a lot in the excitement of the day.”
The couple had a mini-moon to Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod and are going to Cancun for their real honeymoon; the trip has been postponed due to COVID.
The Wedding Professionals
Florist and flower choices: Says Mikaela, “We used Lakes Region Floral Studio and Susan was THE BEST! The flowers were gorgeous; I knew I wanted blue hydrangeas with other white and blush tones as an accent. Susan added a variety of white and blush flowers, including peonies, spray rose, lisianthus and greenery – she absolutely nailed it!”
Venue: Birch Hill Farm, Gilford, NH
Ceremony: The ceremony was on the front lawn at Birch Hill Farm, right in front of the main house. Says the bride, “My sister married us. She was also my maid of honor so she had a lot of jobs that day!”
Photographer: Hayley Bryant Photography. According to bride Mikaela, “Hayley did an amazing job, and she also did our engagement pictures. We had two photographers on the day of the event because we wanted to get plenty of shots of our guests as well.”
Hair artist: Claudia Jackson
Makeup: Carissa Candage
Wedding Gown: Says the bride, “I had two wedding dresses! For the ceremony I wore an Enzoani gown, and it was ivory; it had more of the ballgown/formal wedding dress feel. For my second dress I wanted something lighter and fun to dance in and I got a dress by Made With Love which was also ivory.”
Wedding Planner: Sherri Collis from Creations by Collis. According to the bride, “Sherri was excellent and very organized. She worked really closely with the owner of the venue and the florist to accomplish my vision for the day.”
Caterer: Curt’s Caterers
Cake baker: Curt’s Caterers did the wedding cakes
Pastries: Assorted desserts from
Jennifer Clifford. Mini whoopie pies, mini cheesecake, salted caramel chocolate
bars and baklava.
Music: Get Down Tonight Entertainment
Live music: Piano and cello for the wedding ceremony.
Concludes wedding planner Sherri Collis, “Mikaela and her Mom wanted to make use of their creativity and they handled some of the details to keep the hands-on approach alive. A terrific cast of vendors were called upon to collaborate and harmonize the schedule and all ran smoothly to manifest the wedding of Mikaela and John’s dreams.”
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