This Elegant Estate Wedding Has All the Inspo You Need

September 15, 2018
Private Residence
Waldoboro, Maine 

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

THE STORY

Although Elizabeth Wetherill and Jon Lawless attended the same small liberal arts college in upstate New York, they didn’t meet until Elizabeth’s senior year in January 2011. “We’d never crossed paths until a party right before I graduated,” she says. The two hung out for the entire night, and when a group of girls asked them how long they’d been a couple, they played along. “We decided to joke with them and say we’d been together for years,” Elizabeth says, with a laugh. “It just went from there, and we started spending every day together.” Since Elizabeth was graduating, though, she says she didn’t think their relationship would become serious. To her surprise, they continued to date long-distance while she was living in New York City and Jon finished up school. After that, Jon also moved to Manhattan, and they eventually moved to Boston together about five years after they first met.

A few months later, in January 2017, they couple packed their bags for a trip to Iceland. At that point, they’d talked about getting engaged but agreed they’d wait for things to settle down since they’d recently moved. While in Iceland, though, Elizabeth says she noticed that Jon was “acting a bit strange.” “He wouldn’t let me go into his bag to get out, like, a sweatshirt,” she recalls. One day during the trip, they decided to drive out to a nearby waterfall to explore. When they got there, Jon offered to take a photo of Elizabeth as she looked out at the falls. When she turned back around, Jon was down on one knee. “So many emotions hit me at once, I almost don’t remember the first few minutes after that,” Elizabeth says. “I was shocked and so excited.”

Within days of getting engaged, the couple landed on a venue: Elizabeth’s family summer home, in Waldoboro, Maine—an expansive waterfront property owned by her family for more than a century. Away from the hustle and bustle of city life, it’s also where the couple spent many summers together. “I think it’s where we really started to get close and see a life of just us together,” the bride says. To play up the stunning natural surroundings, the couple decorated their reception tent with locally-grown flowers and plenty of greenery. The bride says her style is “very classic and tends to lean in a formal direction,” so their wedding was also a black-tie affair. “We loved the [vibe] of a black-tie wedding because it feels so special and really celebratory,” Elizabeth says. At the same time, they wanted to create a comfortable atmosphere and “didn’t want things to feel stuffy,” she says. So the couple included elements such as a family-style dinner, cozy seating areas throughout the tent, and a sprawling dance floor to accommodate their 175 guests. “I really wanted this to be a wedding where everybody was dancing all night with a ton of energy, and we got that,” the bride says. “It was so much fun.”

THE DETAILS

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

“I wanted invitations that were very traditional and formal but still [represented our] aesthetic,” the bride says. Throughout their stationery suite, the couple also incorporated elements from their watercolor-painted wedding crest, which was designed by Elizabeth’s friend Garrett.

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

“The wedding dress I got was not what I thought I was going to end up with,” Elizabeth says. After visiting a few salons in Philadelphia, the bride headed to Boston’s Ľélite Bridal Boutique with her cousin and made of honor Hellie, who suggested she try on dresses that were a bit more outside her comfort zone.“I ended up putting on this dress, and I didn’t even really want to try it on, but then it was perfect,” the bride says of her Liancarlo gown. “It was so beautiful and different from anything that I’d looked at.”

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

A nod to the safari the couple planned for their honeymoon, custom gold animal figurines—purchased on Etsy from Tiny Taxidermy Designs—served as escort-card holders at the reception.

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

Elizabeth and Jon’s classic gold, blue, and white tablescapes featured tall candles and low-rising arrangements of roses, hydrangeas, delphiniums, lisianthus, and hypericum.

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

Lush garlands accented the entrance to the reception tent, as well as the poles inside. “It was a nice way to blend the outside and the inside of the tent,” Elizabeth says.

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

The couple had their first dance to Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic.” “I don’t love being the center of attention, so I actually had a lot of anxiety going [into] the first dance, but it felt very comfortable,” Elizabeth says. “I didn’t even really realize there were other people in the room. It was just a moment for  me and Jon.”

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

“I am not a dessert person, and we didn’t want a wedding cake, but my mom said ‘You absolutely have to have a cake,'” Elizabeth says, with a laugh. Topped with blue delphiniums, the couple’s three-tier vanilla-sponge cake featured buttercream frosting and a raspberry filling.

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

The reception also featured a dessert table with doughnut holes, mini blueberry tarts, s’mores bars, and cannolis—a special treat for Jon. “They are absolutely my husband’s favorite thing,” the bride says.

Photo by Brea McDonald Photography

The couple made their official exit through a line of sparklers. “It was a fun way to end the night and felt really celebratory,” says Elizabeth who’d changed into a Mestiza cocktail dress for the afterparty. 

THE FILE
Band Eye2Eye
Beauty Beauty Mark Co.
Bride’s gown Liancarlo, Ľélite Bridal Boutique
Cake and Catering Trillium Caterers
Escort card holders Tiny Taxidermy Designs, Etsy
Flowers Seasons Downeast Designs
Hair Mahogany
Invitations Albertine Press
Lighting Griffin & Griffin
Photographer Brea McDonald Photography
Planner Beehive Creative Events
Rentals One Stop Event Rentals; A Family Affair of Maine
Tent Wallace Events
Transportation Country Coach Charters
Videographer Media Northeast

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