Castleton Wedding || Rachel and Nick
I’ve really been looking forward to sharing Rachel and Nick’s gorgeous wedding at Castleton Banquet and Conference Center in Windham! I’m so glad that I finally got to come back to this venue (it had been so long that I forgot I had been there before until I set foot on the grounds), and that it was for this fabulous wedding. I really think they nailed the timeless and elegant feel (just check out their style), and Castleton had everything they wanted so they could really share and enjoy this day with their family and friends.
Keep a look out for Rachel’s infectious smile and laugh! I think I was smiling the whole time I was editing their photos, just reliving the day with them. Also, definitely scroll to the reception photos for an epic Hora dance, with music by the Bill Winiker Band!
Wedding Venue: Castleton Banquet and Conference Center, Windham, NH
I’ve asked the couple some questions about their story and the wedding, Rachel’s answers are throughout in italics.
And I love that Rachel took the time to share their “meet cute” - it really is fit for a screenplay!
How did you meet your partner and/or get engaged?
One warm, July afternoon in 2019, I quickly changed out of my business-casual office attire and into something better suited for a summer’s evening date in Boston. I checked my text messages for the address the Hinge-date I was meeting sent me and for a moment, I considered canceling. I was tired from work and I didn’t even know where I was going—he just sent me the address and told me to be there at 7:15pm. But, it was a nice night and I didn’t have anything else going on, so I pasted the address into my GPS and walked over from my office. Before too long, I was standing on the sidewalk looking up at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum.
“Great…a museum”, I thought. I was never one for museums, but despite my general interest in local history, the only thing I knew about this one was from the advertisements on the side of the Green Line’s MBTA trains. I wouldn’t even learn about the infamous, still unsolved art heist of 1990 until after the date.
Shortly after I arrived, my date texted me that he was looking for a parking spot and would be there soon. By the time I had put my phone back in my pocket and walked up and down the sidewalk twice, a guy was walking towards me. I was surprised he had found parking so quickly, but nevertheless, we both went in for a hug and started inside. While waiting in line to purchase our tickets, our small talk wasn’t matching the conversations we had been having over text message. To test my theory, I asked him where he found a parking spot and he told me taken an Uber, not his car. Clearing that up by asking each other’s first names (his name was Nick and that was not the name of the guy I was supposed to meet), we realized that we were definitely not with the right person. Begrudgingly—because I could already tell I liked him— I said we should wait outside for our real dates to arrive. I had taken my phone back out to ask for his number, but realized as soon as we got outside that our real dates were in fact already out there waiting for us. We explained the mix up and I quickly put my phone away, but hoped I would run into this accidental-date man again that night, so I could get his phone number.
The date ended with no additional sighting of this “Nick” guy, but at least I had a funny story to tell people who asked about the date I thought about canceling. The next day, I was in my office at work scrolling through my Hinge app, and a familiar smile came across my screen. After I scrolled through all of the pictures and checked the name at the top of the profile, my heart started thumping. The power (or fate) of the algorithm had put Nick right at my fingertips. I messaged him, making sure he really was my accidental date from the night before and we decided to have an actual, intentional date.
Five years after our actual date together, Nick played Love Story by Taylor Swift in our lakeside, mountain resort hotel room and asked me to marry him. Happiness, joy and love surged through me, with a little bit of relief that our nearly-unbelievable “how we met” story wouldn’t go to waste.
Keep scrolling for this beautiful wedding at Castleton Banquet Center!
From my first meeting with Brett through the wedding day, the most important thing for us was capturing candid moments throughout the wedding day, From getting ready to the wedding party interacting with each other, I knew there was going to be so much that we would miss and we just really wanted those moments to be captured. Because of all of the prep work Brett did ahead of the wedding, including sending a detailed list of questions with the shot list about a month before the wedding, I was confident she would be on the lookout for and get all of those moments. Brett was incredibly responsive and receptive to random ideas, questions and thoughts I emailed her during our 18-months of planning and I felt like our wedding—and the memories of our wedding—were in excellent hands. While I hope all of my friends and family have similar, amazing experiences with their wedding photographers, there is only one Brett and Nick and I were so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with her!
Personally, Nick and I were most excited to see each other for the first time that day during our first look moments. We knew that it was what would make the whole day feel real, and Nick was anxious to see if the elaborate descriptions I gave him of my dress were true (they weren’t).
We couldn’t believe how quickly we got the our photos back! I audibly reacted to pretty much every picture we clicked through. “OOHHH!!!” “We need to frame this one” “I don’t even remember this happening!” We decided not to look at them all in one sitting because we wanted to prolong the wedding afterglow as long as possible. We took our time and looked at an album every day or every other day. We loved doing it this way and it was something to look forward to. The pictures themselves were absolutely gorgeous—the lighting, the angles, etc. In addition to our photos being true works of art, they also helped us piece together parts of the day that were such a blur. There were some things we vaguely remembered, but having them all in photos helped us relive a lot of it, and showed us things we hadn’t seen or realized happened. For us, our photos will be more than just a frozen moment in time. We (and our families) will use them to relive the day in its entirety and it all of its glory.
While much of the day is a blur, Nick and I both remember walking down the aisle, suddenly aware of everyone surrounding us. The pre-ceremony nerves washed away, as we recognized that the only thing that mattered as I closed the gap between us was the sun shining down on us, the love in the people around us and the forever that patiently awaited us.
After deciding we wanted to get married in the fall, we got to work looking for venues that had the grounds and landscaping to show off the beautiful New England foliage—especially for Nick’s side of the family and friends who live out west. Foliage was a “must have” for both of us, while a waterfront property was a “nice to have” for Nick (but it became a “must have” for me because I wanted Nick to have exactly what he wanted). Castleton on Cobbetts Pond in Windham, New Hampshire was the last venue tour on our list for that week and as soon as we got inside, we knew we did not need to tour anywhere else.
The vision Nick and I had for our wedding included a traditional Jewish ceremony, an overwhelming amount of desserts, live music and plenty of space for our guests to dance. Our guests’ experience was at the center of our planning and there were specific things we knew we wanted to do, so each guest felt special and knew that our day would not have been the same without them there. Castleton accommodated these ideas, including passing around glasses of champagne to our guests as they arrived, having champagne, red and white wine circulating at the beginning of cocktail hour and designating a banquet table for our dessert bar. The team at Castleton understood how important the little details were to us and we knew at our first meeting that they would be able to execute all of those details perfectly.
What were your goals for your wedding day? (ie, what was your vision, what did you care about most?)
Our overall aesthetic vision for our wedding was a formal event, with our décor coordinated with our invitations. We wanted our centerpieces, florals and table settings to complement Castleton’s fairy light canopies draped from the ceilings in the ballroom, which, thanks to our vendors, was done perfectly. The wedding ceremony and our guests’ experience were the most important things for Nick and me. Everything from the toiletry kits in the restrooms to the number of bartenders throughout the event was decided with the guests’ comfort and needs in mind. We wanted our wedding to be a reason for our friends and family to enjoy a weekend away, get dressed up for a formal night out and have everything they could want or need accommodated and accounted for. It was also very important for us to celebrate our families and for our guests to really feel the merging of our two families. We wanted both our ceremony and reception to radiate warmth and love from beginning to end. To achieve this, we made sure we incorporated family treasures and special nods to those who were with us that day in spirit during our ceremony.
What is one suggestion you have for other couples who are planning their weddings?
The biggest and most important thing we learned that we would share with other couples is to invest in the moments and vendors that will set the tone for your wedding and that you and your guests will remember forever. For us, that was the flowers, dessert bar, having a dedicated space for our families’ kids, and of course our photographer and band. While planning, we took time to talk about after the wedding, what do we hope people will continue to talk about. We chose our venue, vendors and dessert based on who we felt could really deliver that wow-factor and execute the vision we had been brainstorming for over a year. We would also suggest that couples allow plenty of time to plan. With about 18-months of lead time, we were able to take our time meeting potential vendors, reviewing their work and spend time meeting with them to build out the day-of timeline and overall event outline together. We were so excited to get married but it was just as important to us that we give our guests a night to remember. I am really glad we had all of that time to plan and it was absolutely worth the wait.
Our first dance plans quickly went from looking for lessons, to self-teaching a dance from YouTube, to deciding we would just do our best on the dance floor. We used a few minutes during cocktail hour in the bridal suite in between bites of hors d’oeuvres to practice a few spins and then we were off! We weren’t really nervous because we knew were just going to have fun and we were excited about a little surprise we had for our guests. After we finished our dance, the band invited everyone out onto the dancefloor with us and played Fly Me to the Moon again, so we could share the dance with our guests. Then, they played I’m a Believer, to get everyone in the dancing mood, which, in the ballroom lasted all night, but in my heart lasted into the morning.
For our guests we were most excited for the surprise group first dance to Fly me to the Moon which led into I’m a Believer, and to surprise my mom and uncle with a birthday cake and my dad with a retirement cake. We wanted to celebrate those major milestones in my family and we felt there was no better way or place to do that. Because of how special we knew those moments would be, I really appreciated that Brett had asked us ahead of time if there were any specific moments we wanted to be sure were captured. Through the planning of how to make sure it would be a surprise, it was so nice to not have to worry about whether or not we would get pictures of it. I knew Brett would be all over it!
What confirmed that Castleton was the best place for us was their “drop week” accommodation, which allows the couples to drop of all of their décor, table and place settings, favors, etc. the week leading up to the wedding. Our drop day included a meeting with our day-of coordinator who ran through the entire timeline, setting up of the décor, where things should be placed, and more. In addition, we were able to rent the entire space, giving us the full 1,800 square foot dance floor (very important for our band and for dancing the hora). Everything else, from the team, to the grounds to the food to the elevated ambiance of the venue made Castleton the second easiest “yes” of the engagement experience.
We had speeches scattered throughout the night and songs that meant something special to certain guests, so how much we love each other and our families was palpable. Speeches from my dad, the wedding party, Nick and me, Nick’s and my siblings and a cousin is what, we believe, really made it feel like a celebration of our love and the life we are building together.
As much as the ceremony is the most important part of the wedding, the party is the most anticipated. Looking around the ballroom, we were so happy and excited to see our guests enjoying the food and music and to see their smiles amidst the glow of the twinkling lights from the centerpieces and candle votives. We just couldn’t believe everyone was there because they wanted to celebrate with us—we felt so lucky and loved. With Nick and me being welcomed officially into each other’s’ families by way of speeches, hugs and private words and a seemingly never-ending dessert bar dedicated to my grandmother (who instilled my love for dessert), we can say our wedding was focused on love, family and tradition. I was so proud to share my family’s most meaningful Jewish traditions with Nick’s family and friends, including the most fun, which was the hora that felt as endless as our dessert! Out of all of the priceless moments Brett captured though, the ones we will treasure the most are of the surprise birthday and retirement celebrations we had for my mom and her twin brother, and my dad, and our families’ little ones dancing with the kind of reckless abandon seen only in little kids wearing formal attire.
What did you like best when working with me?
Brett was an absolute dream to work with. During the early planning phases, I knew candid pictures would be the most important and those were what immediately caught my eye as I browsed Brett’s galleries. I had my first meeting with Brett very early on in the planning process and she asked questions about parts of the wedding day I hadn’t even thought about. Because of these questions, I knew Brett was already thinking about the overall vision of the day and that she would be exactly the photographer we needed. Our whole experience with Brett, from beginning to end, was so great but the best thing, and what really showcased Brett’s artistic abilities and flexibility, was our engagement picture sessions. One of my proudest achievements is turning Nick into a big breakfast guy. We found a diner shortly after we moved to our town and before long, we were spending more Saturday mornings there than at our house. When it came time to plan our engagement session, I asked Brett if she would be willing to do pictures at the diner and at an outdoor spot with prime foliage and lighting. We had so much fun at the diner, taking pictures at the breakfast bar, a booth and our regular table and included every last overflowing plate. True to New England fall, the day of the diner pictures was cold and rainy, and Brett was so flexible with rescheduling and found us a great park for the outdoor photos and was an absolute expert with getting our pup, Ollie in a bunch of shots. We were so happy with how they all came out and we used one of the pictures with Ollie for our save the dates. One of my friends texts me pictures of her young son asking for the picture of Ollie (which is still on her refrigerator!).
Thank you, Rachel! I loved being a part of your wedding and engagement!
Here are the incredible vendors that made Rachel and Nick’s wedding at Castleton happen!
Florist: Susanne’s Weddings
Cake: Klemm’s Bakery
Band: The Winiker Band
Video: Sean Mitchell, Press Play Studios
Caterer: Castleton
Officiant: Rabbi Todd Markley
Invitations & Favors: Caryl Maye (Mother of Bride)
Jeweler: Crosby Jewelers
Bridal Shop: Tulle Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Azazie
Hair/Makeup: Spa Nijoli
Looking for more waterfront wedding inspiration? Check out these blog posts!