A Beach-Inspired Wedding in Center City Philadelphia?

Yes, it’s true! We designed Caitlin and Calvin’s downtown Philadelphia wedding with a beach-inspired theme! From the aqua blue and summer pastel color palette to the seashells, sea glass, and sandcastle wedding cake, we brought the shore to The Barnes! Working closely with the bride and groom, their families, we created a warm, inviting wedding that oozed charm and individuality! It was a uniquely stunning celebration best shared in these gorgeous photos from Marie Labbancz, as we do here below. And you can also experience a sneak peek of the wedding in this video from CinemaCake Filmmakers.

But first, for those of you who want to know more about what it’s like to plan your wedding with Brian Kappra, and the rest of Team Evantine, read on. We’re addressing that here too!

Learn What It’s Like to Work with Evantine Design

But you can also get a taste as to the sweetness of the day through the kind words of the bride’s mother, printed with her permission just below. She outlines her whole experience with Evantine Design, from the introduction to the planning process, and through the execution of the wedding weekend. Although we get great satisfaction and fulfillment from seeing the wedding planning jump from the page into real life beauty, to read notes of gratitude fills our hearts to overflowing! Particularly when the letter details the entire Evantine Experience! What a lovely gift… Thank you, Caitlin, Calvin & dear Nancy! Congratulations again! Mazel Tov!

The Evantine Experience as Shared by Nancy, the Mother of the Bride

August 5, 2017, the day my daughter was married, was one of the most wonderful days of my life, largely due to Brian Kappra and his staff at Evantine Design.

For those of you who don’t need all the details, the short version of this review is that they had really creative ideas and designs which were seamlessly merged with my daughter’s and my every whim into the final plan. They then implemented the plan and carried it out to perfection on the day of the wedding.

I may have been the most relaxed Mother of the Bride ever on the day of the wedding because the Evantine staff took care of every detail for every person in the wedding party, and all of the details for the venue and actual wedding.  If only, I really wished I had another daughter because I enjoyed the day and evening so much!

Pre-Wedding Planning:  I first contacted Evantine in February for an August wedding.  Luckily for us, they had my date available. We told Brian the theme my daughter and her fiancé had selected. Brian Kappra immediately had many ideas for incorporating their “down the shore” theme into an elegant wedding.  Over the next few months, every time either of us had an idea, we sent it to Brian. When we met, he had taken many of our ideas, complemented by some of his own and the planning began!

The bride, groom and I selected the wedding invitations ourselves, even though Evantine would have come with us and help us decide. Evantine Design did review our selection and suggested some very good changes to the wording. Same with the invitations for the rehearsal dinner. We handled the actual rehearsal dinner ourselves, with Evantine Design providing the most beautiful floral arrangements for the tables!

Evantine was available to us every step of the way, really in almost in any way that we thought we needed and far many we didn’t know we needed!

The Wedding Day:

BEFORE THE CEREMONY:  The wedding day began at The Logan Hotel on the Parkway.  At the hotel, the bride’s suite and the groom’s room were fully furnished with soft drinks, champagne, wine, water and snacks that I had purchased and which were delivered by Evantine.  Our dresses were also ready for us in the suite.  There were people in each suite from Evantine Design to prepare gowns and tuxedos, dress each person and help everybody get ready. Other Evantine Design staff was there to make sure everybody got where they were supposed to go for pictures and to take care of any unexpected issues that came up. And they did!

Buses arrived when they were supposed to, to transport the wedding party, and, later the guests to The Barnes Foundation where the ceremony and reception were to take place. Like clockwork! 

During the pre-wedding picture session, the bride’s dress tore. Evantine Design had a seamstress on hand who repaired the tear and also washed off the bottoms of everyone’s’ dresses and shoes which had gotten dirty from mud while taking photos. It was just amazing!!!

Evantine really saved the day!

THE CEREMONY:  The wedding ceremony was outside on the Terrace at The Barnes. Gorgeous flowers were everywhere and the Chuppah was truly breathtaking, only to be surpassed by the décor of the main dining area.

People walked in and gasped at the beauty.  I have never seen anything like it.

RECEPTION: Brian Kappra and his entire Evantine Design team unobtrusively oversaw everything. At the appropriate time, they unveiled the beach towel wedding favors and their display and supervised their distribution to make sure everyone left with them. All with smiles on their faces!

Evantine Design truly made the day beautiful, memorable and easy.  Brian and his entire #TeamEvantine staff are just fabulous!  Worth every penny they charged and MORE! So much more. We can’t thank them enough…

With much love, Nancy Cantor

 

{Event Credits: Wedding Planning, Floral, and Event Design, Favors & Event Styling: Evantine Design; Photography: Marie Labbancz; Philadelphia Wedding Venue: The Barnes Foundation; Catering: Constellation Culinary, formerly known as Starr Events; Wedding Band: Eddie Bruce Orchestra; Wedding Weekend Hotel: The Logan; Wedding Video: CinemaCake Filmmakers}