Gregory and Kelley's Wedding in Huntington, New York

About a month later on August 2nd, we hosted 55 people at our home in Huntington, NY and had a full ceremony and vow exchange, this time exchanging rings, which we didn't have in time for our elopement. We bought the rings at Tiffany's in New York City the day after eloping, during our "mini-moon" over the 4th of July holiday. My brother was my man of honor and his brother was Gregory's best man. Both of our parents walked each of us down the aisle, and my sister-in-law and best friend of 23 years shared beautiful readings I had picked out for the ceremony. It was truly beautiful and with only 55 people there, it was so intimate and personal.

After the ceremony, we enjoy a terrific spread across beautiful farm tables, plus an oyster bar and delicious passed heavy hors d'eouvres! We didn't want to do a sit-down meal, we wanted everyone to be social and active and keep things light, informal, and just enoy our little "community" of supporters from our lives. We hand-picked the menu to represent each of our tastes and signified special foods from our dating history, like giant bavarian pretzels from our first date and spicy Thai basil chicken lettuce wraps from our trip to Phuket! I even baked the dessert, which let us skip cake — since neither of us enjoy cake at all. I made our favorites: chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin, and dark chocolate brownies. There was not a single one left at the end of the night! Some would think it's pretty crazy to bake a few hundred goodies the day of your wedding, but it forced everything to remain calm and orderly — just as we wanted it!

We kicked off our reception by sharing a case of Veuve Cliquot with everyone, passing out bottles to our closest family members and all popping them open together in celebration after explaining the significance we've put on sharing a bottle together. Every big or little celebration or milestone, Gregory and I get a bottle and enjoy it together, and then write on the corks what the day was and why we were celebrating. We invited everyone to do the same. It was so cool and inclusive — everyone passed around the bottles and was serving each other. It was so significant to us both to invite everyone into our lives together. We loved it!

Then, our brothers shared some seriously incredible speeches and Gregory and I danced to "Tennessee Whiskey" by Chris Stapleton and we all enjoyed a gorgeous night out on our yard undera beautiful clear top tent with yard games and fun music! We finished off the evening at the house by playing The Shoe Game, a family tradition that causes a lot of great laughs, and then headed to the hotel for our after-hours party at the bar. We arranged for a big school bus to bring us all back and forth, which also served as a sweet nod to how Gregory and I met back in third grade! I really tried to weave our lives and our relationship into each detail.

The remainder of the weekend (because we got married on a Thursday) was spent with our family and friends that were able to stay for a few days. We arranged for us all to go to a local vineyard, have an adult "Field Day" and a bunch more of other fun activities. We really wanted everyone to feel like they were on a mini vacation and invited to be immersed into our lives for a small moment in time. We couldn't be more thankful for those who were able to come and celebrate with us and make everything so significant and meaningful to us!