This Falmouth Micro Wedding Is Giving Us All the Feels

Full of personal touches, the sweet celebration even included a spin in a classic MG.

By Andrea Timpano· 8/14/2020, 11:03 a.m.

The groom’s brother (and best man) loaned his classic MG to the newlyweds, who went for a ride after cocktail hour. / Photo by Hope Allison Photography

June 5, 2020
The Moors Clubhouse
Falmouth, Massachusetts

THE STORY

For Juli Laubner and Ben Elder, the road to “I do” first began in Woods Hole, where they met while working at a restaurant in 2013. Things moved pretty quickly from there, Juli says, with the couple soon moving in together and then buying a house within a couple of years. It seemed all but predestined that the pair, who live in Falmouth, would one day walk down the aisle—it was just a matter of when.

The answer ultimately came in 2019, just a few days after Juli’s birthday. After leaving a gig at a local library, Ben, a musician, headed to a nearby jewelry store to pick out a ring—and promptly proposed to Juli in their kitchen soon after. “I was very surprised. I figured if he was going to do it, it would have been on my birthday,” says the bride, a nurse. “But it’s very much like Ben to make it personal [by proposing] in the place we live and to also do it on a whim. He had the ring for maybe an hour before he proposed.”

Aiming to marry the following year, the couple began planning, dreaming up a city-chic celebration in the heart of Boston. There would be a ceremony at King’s Chapel, a photo session aboard a swan boat in the nearby Public Garden, a decadent seven-course meal at Hampshire House on Beacon Street. “And then COVID hit,” Juli says. “We were still kind of hopeful in March, but then it just got worse and worse.” Unsure how to proceed, the couple anxiously awaited updates on the state’s gathering guidelines. Once Governor Baker announced Massachusetts’ reopening plan in mid-May, they knew the June wedding they’d envisioned would have to be cancelled. “I cried for a whole day,” Juli recalls. “And then we said, ‘Okay, let’s plan something else.”

Determined to honor their original wedding date, the bride and groom got to work, enlisting the help of family and friends to put together a totally different (and totally DIY) wedding in just two short weeks. Trading the urban vibe of their planned Boston event for a more rustic feel, the couple opted to host loved ones at the Moors House—a charming private clubhouse overseen by a Falmouth neighborhood association, to which Ben’s aunt belongs. On the day of, Juli and Ben swapped vows outside in the company of some 25 guests, treating their loved ones to a lively cocktail hour before tucking into a family-style dinner (served for a smaller group indoors). “All of our family and friends came together to help, which was great,” Juli says. “They’d all been waiting for [us to get married] for a long time, so they were on board.”

THE DETAILS