Vow Spring Summer 2014

groomsmen dancing their way into the reception hall.

“We told them to get wild, and they did,” Alyssa says.

One of the more unusual touches at the reception was the couple’s wedding cake topper: a hand-carved wooden elephant and a turtle.

“I had a friend from Haiti who made them for us, and they’ve always been meaningful,” Andrew says. “The turtle stands for fertility and the elephant brings luck.” Their seamstress added a veil to the turtle and top hat to the elephant.

Andrew’s large Italian family has a tradition of taking a shot of Sambuca following Andrew’s father’s toast.

That meant coming up with shot glasses, which weren’t available at the reception venue.

“I collect shot glasses from everywhere I travel, so we brought them in and used those,” Alyssa says.

The result was a meaningful, eclectic group of glasses from places including Texas and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Alyssa added to her collection during their honeymoon, which they took right after their wedding, to Cancun.

The couple says their wedding and reception went off flawlessly and they’re loving married life. “I asked people about married life before our wedding,” Andrew says. “They said it’s good, but for us, we’re happier than we’ve ever been.”  22 VOW | Your Wedding. Your Way.