Jessica and Jason’s Wedding
Jessica and Jason had a dreamy Kaaterskill wedding on August 11th 2012. Their day and details were so colorful and creative, complete with a mariachi band, a post-ceremony piñata, and dancing into the night. Beautiful images by Jack Jeffries.
Jessica in her own words…
I told my bridesmaids to dress as if they were attending a garden party in Mexico city in the 1920’s… We wanted it be to colorful, relaxed, really fun, a little sexy, a little untamed, a little silly, and a little other worldly. We wanted it to feel like a wedding— not just a party— romantic and special— because we wanted people who were there with a significant other to feel so swept up in the moment that they might just run off and get married right then too.
While we hoped the reception would be wildly fun and free, we wanted the ceremony to be…well, ceremonial. We wanted our friends and family to truly take part in a little of the anticipation and gravity that Jason and I were feeling. The monsoon of rain had just (miraculously!) stopped after 8 hours and the sun was really shining just before sunset. In the distance, the mariachi band began to play, and at the beckoning of the ushers’ bells, everyone loosely lined up: Jason first, followed by our dear friend Jimmy, who presided over our ceremony and who was burning sage to give things an official and spiritual vibe, then our family, and then the guests. They made a half-circle around the pond through the small cluster of trees to the little clearing next the llama pen. The procession lent a more introspective and official spirit to the event— at least, that’s what our guest said! After everyone was seated, the bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls, and my dad and me made our way to the spot. Jason and I (both raised Catholic) and our friends made a chuppah of sorts for us to stand under and we wrote all of our ceremony and our vows. We chose 2 poems for our friend Christine to read and our friends Austin and Cameron sang the Talking Heads song “People Like Us. That was a particularly great moment because our dog Augie, who was very pleased with himself, decided to heartily howl along with them. He really went all out and everyone was laughing. It wasn’t a long ceremony by any means, but it wasn’t short. We wanted to give ourselves a little time to let it all set in. It didn’t work though! It zoomed by!
The reception was just meant to be a great time. I’m from Texas, so we had a mariachi band play during our cocktail hour at the pond house. That was dreamy— I’m so glad we had the mariachi band. It would have been my late Cuban grandfather’s favorite thing ever. Just thinking how much he would have loved the food and the music and the setting really made me emotional- it still does. My friend Yasmin made a pinata shaped like an avocado simply because avocados are our favorites and a pinata sounded fun. After an hour or two at sunset by the pond, we completed our circular progression around the grounds and headed into the barn for dinner. Dinner was just meant to be great food and company— there were speeches followed by our three friends Jimmy, Casey, and Ryan (who also all happen to be professional djs) taking turns to play great music late into the night. Nothing stuffy! Just real sweetness and merriment!
Our caterer was Miss Lucy’s, which, as every single person who came to our wedding will tell you, just as they told us, was the BEST WEDDING FOOD EVER. Probably some of the best food any of us have ever had ever. We had a buffet that was kinda like a fancy bbq/picnic. Everything was super sustainable since that’s very important to us and everything was beyond delicious.
My friend Lindsay Dilworth made us a beautiful vegan chocolate cake. Just because. I didn’t even think I wanted a wedding cake until she showed up with what was the most perfect dream cake I could have imagined. Everything works out!
