A wedding with a tiki/ Hawaiian theme and goats as surprise guests!? Obviously I’m going to love this! Meg and Ricky were married in June at Groveland Fairways in Massachusetts. They described their wedding theme as “A light-hearted tiki party in New England… featuring two baby goats!”
“It all started with the Hawaiian shirts”, Meg began. “Before we were even engaged, and after an epic year of weddings, Ricky told my dad that he was never wearing a tie again and that when we got married he was going to wear a Hawaiian shirt. I’m pretty sure they high-fived. Thus, the theme was born. I’ve always had a Little Mermaid princess deep in my soul, so I definitely incorporated a bit of that vibe too.”
“When we actually started planning our wedding, we realised that our biggest priority was to throw one hell of a party. We are by no means serious people, so we made it our personal goal not to let any part of the wedding feel stuffy. We wanted our guests to feel comfortable. We encouraged them to wear their most festive summer attire and greeted them with cocktail umbrellas attached to their escort cards. It was a celebration of friends, family, and all of our favourite things.”
The décor was fun, colourful and featured plenty of pineapples! “We used pineapples as centrepieces on each table and also to line the aisle during the ceremony”, she continued. “We sprinkled bright coloured rose petals down the aisle too. We turned upcycled whisky bottles into bud vases and scattered them on the tables. I picked up a bucket of flowers from a lovely flower farm and filled all of the bottles with my mom before the rehearsal.”
“We also saved anything fun and nautical that we came across including a bunch of conch shells, a ship in a bottle, and a gold seashell place-mat. The foyer table was covered in cocktail umbrella clad escort cards because we wanted everyone to be ready to party from the moment they walked through the door. We had handmade fortune cookie favors waiting at each place setting.”
“I did a lot of DIY projects! We were lucky to have amazing vendors and a venue that took care of everything for us on the day of, so we had time to focus on details without being totally overwhelmed on the big day. I made all of the invitations, we printed all the escort cards and attached cocktail umbrellas to them. Our favours were homemade fortune cookies filled with some of our favourite song lyrics. My mom was a DIY angel. She helped me make all of the centrepieces.”
However the couple didn’t set out to have an intentionally quirky wedding. “We didn’t set out so be different on purpose, instead we decided from the beginning that we were going to do the whole thing our way. We said no to anything that didn’t feel like us or didn’t seem worth the astronomical cost. When I found how expensive floral centrepieces were, I said ‘Screw it, I’ll just throw a pineapple on every table’. We said no to formal wear. We had our friend officiate in a sleeveless black Hawaiian shirt.”
OK, OK I know what you’re thinking – tell us about the goats! Meg explains, “When we first started looking at venues, we found one in coastal Maine that happened to have a bunch of pygmy goats that you can take photos with. We both love goats, and were so excited at the possibility of hanging out with them on our big day. Alas, our guest list was way too big for said venue so we moved on and forgot about the goats. Fast forward to the day of, I’m in the bridal suite with my mom and beautiful bridesmaids, getting ready. Our amazing day of coordinator, Liz, walks into the room, nods at Zac (our photographer) and says ‘Goats are a go’.”
“As it turns out, Zac was scouting locations for our first look and noticed that the neighbours had a pair of baby pygmy goats. Liz talked to them to if we could meet the goats, and they sent them over (on leashes!) with their 10 year old son Henry, who was our own personal goat wrangler for the day. We got to hold and cuddle them during our first look, and I thought our hearts were going to explode with happiness. We learned that goats really will eat anything, including dresses and bridal hair, and I couldn’t have been more excited about it. One of my favourite photos is of Ricky gently removing my hair from Buttermilk’s mouth while I laugh hysterically. It was the most amazing surprise!”
“The best things about our wedding was the energy, the baby goats, the friends and all the high fives!” Meg concluded. “We smiled, laughed, hugged, danced, and twirled all night with our favourite people. Everything was so bright, light-hearted, and full of life. Being surrounded by all of the people who have shaped our lives just seemed to confirm our big love. There was so much dancing. We opened up the dance floor with Wild Thing by the Troggs. For the after party, we booked a bar and turned it into our own private club/pizza party. One of our groomsmen DJed. We danced until they kicked us out, and then had a champagne fuelled after, after party at the hotel. It was absolutely perfect.”
The Gallery
Suppliers
- Photography: Zac Wolf
- Venue: Groveland Fairways, New England
- Bride's Dress: Dolly Couture
- Bride's Shoes: Angela Nuran (vintage)
- Groom's Shirt: Famous Hawaiian Shirts
- Bridesmaid Dresses: Donna Morgan Rhea
- Cake: Crema Cafe
- Flowers: Aster B. Flowers
- Catering: Vinwood Caterers