Sarah & Victoria – A Huge Bridal Party & A Barn House Wedding

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With eighteen bridespeople and a 4:45 am start, Sarah and Victoria had their dreamy rustic barn house wedding day in New Jersey.

Tell us about the proposal. How did you know that a proposal was the next step in your relationship?

We spoke about marriage relatively early on in our relationship. We would always discuss rings we like, what we pictured our wedding to be like, and our future. With that being said, it was always implied that Sarah would be the one to propose. We aren’t sure when this implication came to be, but we are both aware that it was there.

V: Because of this, I had planned to propose back to Sarah whenever she decided to propose to me. As time went on and we moved in together, I knew that time could be coming. But you never know for sure. When we lived in Manhattan, we always went out to nice, fancy dinners, so I planned to start bringing Sarah’s ring out with me as soon as I got it.

In the late Spring of 2017, I finally went to the jewelry store. Designing a ring for Sarah, and thank god I did because I cut it close. Sarah and I had a fancy dinner night planned for Tavern on the Green coming up, so I knew I needed the ring to bring with me.

On Saturday, June 10, 2017, Sarah and I spent the day as we usually would. We ordered breakfast sandwiches to our apartment, we went to the gym in the afternoon, and then we went home to get ready for our dinner date. Sarah wasn’t feeling well for a lot of the day. She kept saying her stomach hurt. This made me think there was no way we were getting engaged that night. I contemplated not even bringing her ring with me, but I did anyway.

When we got to the restaurant, we were brought to our table and ordered a bottle of sparkling rosé. Our go-to warmer weather drink. We then went on to order appetizers, our meals and then ate those appetizers and meals. The more time that went on, the more I thought there was no way it was happening that night. The dessert menu came, and the first thing we always look for on a dessert menu is crème brûlée, so I immediately pointed to it.

On the other hand, Sarah was telling me to turn the menu around, and when I did, I read the words “Will you marry me?” Sarah got down on one knee and asked me to be her wife. We were both shaking, but I immediately turned around after saying “Yes!” to awkwardly get her ring from my purse and return the favor. I got down on one knee and said, “I can only be your wife if you’re mine. Will you marry me?” and she said, “Yes!”. We squeeze hugged after that, and the shaking didn’t stop. We were so overwhelmed with excitement, we could barely eat our dessert, and that never happens.

When we left the restaurant, I got my phone out to call an Uber, but Sarah said we had a ride already. A horse and carriage approached the restaurant, and she said that was it. We went for a ride around Central Park where she coordinated a photographer to take photos of us. A funny side note is that these pictures ended up coming out terrible, but the experience was something we’ll never forget.

After that, we went back to our apartment and walked into rainbow balloons everywhere and clotheslines of pictures of us throughout our relationship. Cue the ugly crying. Our friends went to our apartment while we were out and did this. It finally hit both of us that it was real! I had known the entire day that we were meeting Sarah’s brother and his friend at a bar close by for some drinks. When we walked into the bar, we headed to the back where her brother told us he was, and that’s when everyone yelled “SURPRISE!” and the ugly crying was back again. Sarah invited a bunch of our closest friends to be at the bar and celebrate with us. It was a night we will never forget!

How was it navigating eighteen bridespeople?

We honestly didn’t have all the stress and anxieties that typically come with planning a wedding. Aside from the financial strain of paying for it, since we paid for the entire thing ourselves, the most stressful thing to plan was our bachelorette party. As you will see from our pictures, we had eighteen bridesmaids. That is a lot of girls to coordinate and plan a trip with, so yes, the bachelorette was definitely the most stressful thing to plan leading up to the wedding.

What lead you to the venue? Had you been there before?

We knew from the start that we wanted a rustic/farm vibe for our wedding. Sarah is the one who found Perona Farms. It is the first venue we went to see, followed by another venue close by immediately after. We immediately fell in love with the Barn at Perona Farms.

It was two floors, with a cocktail hour being held on the first and the reception held on the second. They explained everything that came with the basic package, and it was super important to us to get delicious food and drinks included in the per person price. One of the other things we loved about Perona is that all the food is farm-to-table.

We left Perona knowing how much we loved it but wanted to keep our options open. We went to the other venue. It was stunning but significantly more expensive for less of the rustic vibe we were looking for. When we left that venue, we immediately drove back to Perona Farms and put a deposit down for the barn, and we never looked back!

Tell us the details of your big dream farm wedding day.

Our big day was everything we dreamed of and more. We had our rehearsal dinner the night before with our bridal party and immediate families. We booked two separate hotel rooms because we wanted to keep the tradition alive of sleeping apart the night before the wedding. A few of our friends slept with us in our rooms since we were getting ready there (hair and makeup) very early in the morning. 4:45 am, to be exact. When we woke up, it was raining heavily, and the skies were dark.

We both thought everything about the day we pictured was going to be different. We spent several hours in our hotel rooms getting our hair and makeup done with our bridal party. Our bridal party was made up of our closest girlfriends and Victoria’s sister, the matron of honor, and Sarah’s brother, her man of honor. We are both good friends with the entire bridal party. So they made sure to bounce between both suites as we were getting ready. As the morning went on, the skies began to clear, and when it was time to get on the busses to go to the venue, the sun started coming out!

We got to the venue in our separate busses and went into our bridal suites to put on our dresses and record our interviews with the videographer. At this time, we both did our first looks with our fathers, which were extremely heartwarming moments. After this, it was finally time for our first look, and it was everything we imagined and more. It was so surreal to walk into each other’s arms wearing our wedding gowns, where we were about to be married. We went on to take pictures, and before we knew it, it was ceremony time.

Victoria’s brother married us, and he couldn’t have done a better job. Standing under that trellis, being married by someone we both know so well and feel comfortable with, made such a difference. After all, he was the one who declared us wife and wife! After the ceremony, we went into the barn where cocktail hour immediately commenced. The cocktail hour was full of delicious foods and drinks and greeting so many of our amazing guests.

From there, everyone went upstairs, and we fixed ourselves up for the reception introduction. After the introduction, we immediately went into our first dance. We chose the song “The Bones” by Marren Morris, and we are so happy we did. There was no other song that truly represented us as a couple, and we sang it loud and proud to each other throughout the entire dance. We worked with our DJ to split the song early and go into another, “Tonight and Every Night” by Robin Shulz, so our bridal party and family and friends could join us. For some reason, ending with that song was super important to us. We wanted to embrace married life dancing with each other and then everyone else too!

We then went on to dance with our fathers separately. After this, we didn’t leave the dance floor other than to eat our dinners. After we ate, the matron and man of honor made their speeches, and then everyone was gathered around the dance floor to watch the same day edit.

Having a same-day edit was very important because we knew a lot of our guests were going to miss the ceremony since we got married on a Friday. The same day edit allowed everyone to see bits and pieces of the ceremony they missed, and it also allowed us to see it from everyone else’s view. It is no shocker that we were both sobbing afterward.

The dancing continued after this. We took a quick break to cut our cake, which we did to “You Make it Easy” by Jason Aldean, singing to each other as usual, and then we were right back on the dance floor. The number of people on the dance floor throughout the entire night made us so happy. We wanted to throw a party, and we definitely did!

When the reception came to an end, the barn had apple cider donuts to give out to everyone as favors, and we had sparklers waiting for our exit. Sparklers are a hit and miss, so all I have to say to anyone else who wants to use them is to make sure you have a stick lighter!

After our exit, everyone got on busses to go back to the hotel, and we arranged for the hotel bar to provide food and drinks for our guests. It was such a great way to end our magical day!

What does marriage mean to you?

Marriage to us means being a team. It is the emotional and physical love between two people. It is being able to read the body language and tone of voice of the person you love and knowing exactly what they need at that moment or how to comfort them.

If there’s anything we’ve learned, which we knew before we were even married, is that it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. There are tough times and those hard times are different for all couples. For us, we have made it a point to never go to bed mad at each other. Neither of us can fall asleep if we’re arguing, but we make it a point to kiss the other goodnight and tell each other we love you.

Marriage is also not about finding time but making the time for physical and emotional connection. We find this super important personally. Lastly, it’s always kissing each other good morning, hello, goodbye, and goodnight. Those kisses may seem little, but to us, they’re the most important.