This castle wedding is not where you'd expect (& it's ever-so-stunning)

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 64

We brides here in the States can get a wee bit jealous (maybe this is just me) of European brides and their castle weddings. We certainly have our pick of amazing venues but for a royal wedding, it’s far and few between. So I was elated when seeing this stunning & ornate Rhode Island castle wedding fit for a New England royalty.

While often we advise brides to chose their dress according to their destination, Amethyst bucked the trend and found her fabulous feathered wedding dress first of everything. With 1920s art deco vibes, and a pink and sparkling gold palette in mind, the Glen Manor castle was the perfect venue for their elegant day.

But perhaps the coolest aspect of this sparkling day is that the bride baked her own wedding cake – and it’s no simple sweet! Four tiers with plenty of sparkles, sugar flowers and details, we are so impressed by her work and love this personal touch.

Our Love Story

I was up from New York visiting my best friend in November 2013. We went out to The Hawthorne in Boston so I could meet her boyfriend at the time. He was a little boring so I was looking around the bar trying to find other people to talk to. That’s when I spotted a few of my friend’s friends from college. I had hung out with two of them before but I hadn’t met the other guy they were with. We ended up talking all night and he said he would text me the next day. I didn’t expect him to actually do it – but he did!

When Zev and I moved in together, people kept bugging him about when he was going to propose so he just started to tell them “I don’t know when I’m going to propose, but when I do, she’s getting a Ring Pop!”

We went on a trip to Israel in November 2015. We were doing a sunrise hike of Masada, an ancient fortress overlooking the Dead Sea. It was a pretty strenuous hike for me and I was struggling toward the end but Zev kept encouraging me. I really didn’t want to miss the sunrise but Zev told me we could still see it even if we didn’t make it all the way to the top. We made it to the top just in time. A few minutes afterward, Zev asked me if I wanted a granola bar. He put his backpack on the ground and was looking for the granola bar and instead he pulled out a Ring Pop and proposed!

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 35

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 37

The Dress & Attire

I actually chose my dress before we picked the venue. A friend and I went to a sample sale at Ceremony in Back Bay. We were looking for bridal accessories for her wedding – I hadn’t even found a venue or picked a date for my wedding yet! But of course we ended up looking at some dresses and she found a dress and showed it to me and I really didn’t like it on the hanger, but she said “Trust me, just try it on,” so I did and I loved it. The dress was pretty form fitting and the skirt was made of feathers. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Zev wanted to wear something lightweight because we had planned on doing our ceremony outside and he didn’t want to get too hot and decided a light grey suit was a good neutral choice that went with our pink & gold color scheme

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 42

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 36

The Venue

Originally I wanted a beach wedding, but I couldn’t find any venues I liked without having to do a destination wedding. Zev mentioned that he thought it would be cool to have a wedding at an old estate or mansion. We started looking around New England for these types of venues and came across Glen Manor in Portsmouth, RI. It was right on the water and the beach was close by, so it was an awesome fit for both of us! After touring around the manor, I felt like pink and gold really complimented what was already there

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 20

The Important Details

The food was important to both of us and the photography was important to me (Zev hates taking pictures). We had both been to plenty of weddings where the food hasn’t been good and it seems to be one of the things people always remember about a wedding, so catering was one of our splurges and a great photographer was the other splurge. You don’t get to do your wedding day over again so having someone who can capture all of your special moments with a creative eye, good lighting and angles was a priority.

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 17

The Flowers

I wanted pink and white with a little bit of hot pink for a pop of color. I wanted to keep the florals from being over the top because both our venue and my dress were ornate and detailed.

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 43

Favorite Moments

Getting ready with my mom and bridesmaids was a lot of fun. Seeing Zev for our first look. Hearing Zev’s vows. Hearing my dad’s welcome speech. Seeing Zev cry at his best man’s speech was really cute and touching. My siblings are spread all over the globe so getting to hang out and dance and laugh with them all together was great.

Our first dance is hands down my favorite memory of the day – we took dance lessons for a couple of weeks beforehand. We started out with a slow song and had the DJ cut it off after about 15 seconds and pretend he was having a technical issue and then cut in with Montel Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”. It was hilarious seeing everyone’s reactions because no one with the exception of my mom and some of the vendors knew it was going to happen

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 27

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 45

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 54

The Cake

I am an avid baker and thought it would be cool to make my own wedding cake because I had never done a wedding cake before. I wrote down a bunch of ideas and sketched some drawings and when I narrowed down which ideas I liked the most, I could only get it down to 4, so I had a 4 tier cake. The top tier was gold sequins with a pink gum paste peony attached. The second tier was white with gold edible lace. The third tier was a pink and white marble effect with small white fondant ruffles with the edges painted gold between it and the bottom tier. The bottom tier was pink fondant ruffles with the edges painted gold. I did a chocolate cake with a swiss meringue Nutella buttercream and a vanilla cake with a vanilla buttercream.

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 58

The Music & Reception

Zev and the wedding party walked down the aisle to Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” performed by Chris Cornell and I walked down the aisle to Beyonce’s “XO”. Our first dance was to Alicia Keys “Lovin U” and Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”.

I baked chocolate chip cookies to give out as guests left the reception

Upscale Art Deco Rhode Island Wedding With A Feathered Dress – Lynne Reznick Photography 67

Advice for Other Couples

Don’t drive yourself too crazy over small things. I was so worried people would notice that I hadn’t done menu cards or programs or do a photobooth, but in reality, I was the only one who noticed or cared.