New England is one of those magical places where historic venues abound. The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH is an grand hotel with elegant details and gardens, nestled in the mountains. Katie choose a pretty green and white color palette with a mix of elegant and preppy details that fit in perfectly with this classic mountain venue. Mountainside Bride recommended cinematographer Meg Simone and New England photographer Eric McCallister were on hand to capture every perfect detail of the day.
Katy + Chris
Mount Washington Hotel,
Bretton Woods, NH
Why a Mountain Wedding?
My husband is from southern New Hampshire and grew up vacationing with his family in the White Mountains. While I am from the Boston area, I spent my summers by the beach and in the boat on the South Shore and the Cape. While up camping with Chris’ family, we stopped at the Mount Washington Hotel and I thought “this would be an incredibly gorgeous place to get married” and that was it! Knowing this was a significant spot for Chris and his family and while I always envisioned myself getting married in a pretty place but not sure where(!), it fit my limited criteria perfectly. Chris, being the wonderful person he is, let me choose knowing I had been dreaming about my future wedding for as long as I can remember!
Wedding day weather?
We woke up to pouring rain and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with clouds that looked like cottonballs!
Biggest splurge
Venue and Bar choices
What were some personal details you incorporated?
Personalized playing cards as part of our welcome bag along with “K” hershey kisses. Also the bathroom baskets / poem
Your favorite moment of the day.
Sitting down at dinner and listening to our toasts be made by my dad, sisters and best man who is Chris’ best friend. Also when Chris and I left dinner briefly to get pictures under the breathtaking sunset is a moment I will always remember.
Three things you’re glad you did.
chose the venue we did, chose the vendors we did and decided to sit for dinner while our guests came to our table versus the opposite which tends to be the more traditional way.
What was the biggest challenge planning your mountain wedding?
Just getting as much in, decision making-wise, as we could when we made the trip up there. Not being from the area, we tried to cut down our trips up there as much as we could but over the course of 10 months, we did about 4 trips. It is a beautiful places so we were always happy to take a trip up!
What was the best piece of wedding advice you got?
To stop together during our wedding day, maybe two or three times for about two or three minutes and just take it all in…. best advice ever because the day flies by and it is important to enjoy the day – enjoy watching the amazing guests that came to celebrate you and your significant other smiling and having the time of their lives, just like we were!
Anything you wish you hadn’t worried about?
Being nervous in front of so many people. During the actual day, I found all I focused on was my husband, our family and friends. It was not nerve racking at all!
How did you choose your vendors?
Research and reading reviews (band, photographer) and recommendations (florist, film maker)
What is your very best advice to other mountain brides? Whenever you decide to get married (assuming in the mountains), take it all in. The wedding day itself is one of the very best days ever. Having such a huge moment in your life take place in such a breathtaking place, stop and look around. Physically being in the mountains with the person you choose to spend your life with… what an overwhelmingly wonderful feeling that is difficult to put into words!
Mount Washington, NH Wedding Vendors
Mountainside Guide
Meg Simone is a distinguished member of the Mountainside Guide, an exclusive vendor directory featuring the best and most reliable mountain wedding vendors in North America. Mountainside Guide members are screened and vetted for quality of work, reliability, and professionalism, both among their peers and on review web sites. See Meg Simone’s portfolio HERE.
Katie Recommends:
Our photographer, Eric McCallister, out of Portsmouth, NH, was so easy and fun to work with and his work is amazing. His style is still traditional but adds his own artistic flare, making his work stand out from others. We were so pleased with our engagement photos along with our wedding shots. Eric was always very easy to contact and got us a few samples from our big day within 24 hrs. He is amazing!
Our film maker, Meg Simone based out of the White Mountains, was also fantastic!! I cannot say enough about her talent, professionalism, personality and just overall – she is the best! Her films are able to capture and bring to life the most special parts of our wedding day. Most of the time, I did not even notice she was there, yet after watching the end product, she was ALL over the place, capturing every special, sentimental detail. Loved her!
Our florist, Sara Severence who is also based in NH, owns Ivy and Aster Floral Designs. Her work was beautiful. She listened so intently to my vision and dissected pictures I shared with her. I was speechless when she brought me my bouquet on the day of. Everything was simply perfect!
Lastly, our band was Joey Scott and the Connection based out of Boston. Oh my gosh, we did not stop dancing all night long!! We had a large number of guests, about 240 and NO ONE sat down all night. Even our grandparents danced throughout the night. They played everything from Top 40 songs to Motown to Whitney Houston. Such a great group of talented musicians!!