Something Old, Something New

Most weddings are steeped in tradition. From veiled brides to tiered cakes, there is a way you're supposed to do things. On the other hand, the image of a nontraditional wedding is one of barefoot gatherings on a dune at sunset.

Carol Varney and Jason Read wanted something in between, a conventional wedding but one that was personal and meaningful. So instead of forgoing tradition, they decided to rethink it. Before a hundred guests, they would be married in a casual setting, one decorated by family and friends, with a gourmet vegetarian feast and dancing into the night. And they would do it all within their budget, a firm $6,000.

The couple met as students at Hampshire College in Amherst, but their romance didn't begin until after they graduated and each had settled into a job -- on opposite coasts. Through much of their courtship, Read lived in Portland, Maine, and Varney in San Francisco. They met whenever and wherever they could -- in Portland, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and New York. After a trip to Italy, marriage was imminent, and the theme for their wedding had emerged. The event would highlight the cities of their courtship.

Varney called on her (and our) good friend Kevin Musumano, whom she met soon after graduation from Hampshire when she took a job in student services at the Harvard Design School. Musumano was a student there, and he now works in our design studio. Musumano happily agreed to lend his design expertise to the event as his wedding gift to the couple, and the trio embarked on a three-month project that included everything from the bride's dress to the party favors. The result was a splendid wedding and reception on a sunny Saturday in September of last year.

Hampshire College, which held happy memories for Read and Varney, seemed the obvious location for the event. The Amherst campus was close enough to most of their family and friends to be convenient, and it had a beautiful barn-turned-reception-space at the edge of a rolling lawn. A tent would be added to the field next to the barn. The ceremony could be indoors, the dinner outdoors under the tent, and once the chairs were cleared, the guests could move back into the barn for an evening dance party.

The one thing the couple would not handle themselves would be the food. A vegetarian menu would be prepared by the caterers at The Black Sheep deli and bakery in Amherst.

On the morning of the day before the wedding, the tent was erected, the rented tables and chairs delivered, and the creative team -- Read, Varney, and a group of family and friends who had been making preparations all summer -- got to work. Out of the trunks of cars came paper lanterns, metal buckets, rolls of paper, maps, postcards, and toy airplanes; mismatched plates, glasses, and silverware; and flowers, real and paper. And there were rolls and rolls of plastic tape similar to the stuff police use to cordon off a crime scene, but instead of "Do not cross," this tape had "Je t'aime" printed in red letters on a white background.

Most of the day was given over to organizing the props and doing anything that required a ladder or scaffolding. The stage where the couple were to be married was set up. Big red paper lanterns aglow with white Christmas lights were hung in the barn, and white paper lanterns with battery-operated lights were placed in the tent.

The day of the wedding, the sky was cloudless blue, the breeze was light, the temperature a perfect 68 degrees. More guests arrived, ready to help set up. The tabletops were wrapped in huge black-and-white maps (created at Kinko's), each representing a city where the couple had traveled during their courtship. That done, a team attached brightly colored plastic skirts to the edge of each table. Following them was the taping crew, which stretched Je t'aime along the tabletops.

Next came the place setters, with armloads of flea-market and yard-sale dinnerware that Varney and Read had been collecting for months. Mismatched silverware was rolled in napkins created from fabric remnants, which generally followed the red-yellow-pink-magenta color scheme. The rolled-up settings were placed in red metal buckets on the table. Bottles of wine, water, and lemonade were put in similar galvanized buckets that would later be filled with ice. Rows of little glass jars, each holding a single brightly colored daisy, ran down the center of every table. Luggage tags (from United Airlines, of course) attached to toy airplanes served as identification markers for the tables, which were labeled with postcards set on clip stands commemorating a city where the bride and groom had traveled.

Defying tradition, the bride wore a magenta silk dress; the groom, in a black suit, wore a matching magenta tie. A cellist played hauntingly beautiful modern compositions, accompanying herself via prerecorded MP3s. The bride and groom addressed each other with touching pronouncements of when, how, and why they fell in love.

With the official "I now pronounce you . . . ," the party began.

Designers Cheryl and Jeffrey Katz are freelance writers and owners of C&J Katz Studio in Boston.