The wedding day, in Karina’s words... Original location and plan for the wedding...
“The wedding was supposed to be on the front porch of our Victorian home with a long walkway and the reception under a tent in the backyard on Memorial Day weekend. In years past late May is temperate, but on our wedding day it was cold, drizzly, and calling for sleet – everything in the tent was wet and windblown. A good friend, wedding guest, and landlord, Mark Ciborowski, called us at 10 o’clock the morning of the wedding and asked if we wanted to move our entire wedding to Phenix Hall, which is a historic theatre in downtown Concord (currently vacant). At first I said Are you nuts? Move my wedding the day of! But as the weather progressed, I thought better of it, called him back, and it was on!”
How long did you have to switch the location and how many people did it take to move the wedding?
“We had from 11 am to 5 pm to move everything, alert guests and vendors, and be ready to go! We put a message on Facebook to let everyone know the wedding was moving – and if anyone could help us it would be much appreciated! The new venue was less than a mile from our home, so people flooded in to help; we had about 20 people in less than an hour. They moved chairs, tables, decorations, including a claw foot bathtub up three stories!”
How did you come up with the theatre decor idea of the flowers, tulle, etc?
“When we first entered the space, it had been used temporarily as a yoga studio, so there was lots of ‘yoga inspired décor’ and instead of removing it all, I thought, let’s cover it! I bought a few hundred yards of tulle and muslin and we strung it up across the room. I had previously made tissue paper poofs, and had mostly cream and gold decorations – so everything was in muted whites and beige. We used the stage as the focal point; we were in good company, since Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln had both spoken on the Phenix Hall Stage. A friend tied back curtains, added flowers, and an antique print of a church, and candles as a backdrop. We strung white lights around which added a muted romantic atmosphere – there were no overhead lights – so we had just table lamps that also contributed to this feeling.”
How long did it take to decorate the room?
“At a certain point I had to leave to get my hair and makeup done; I left the décor in the capable hands of my now husband Ben and our friends – it took probably 3-4 hours to actually decorate – hang the fabric, the stage, and center pieces.” continued on page 37
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