As soon as she saw a picture of oversize balloons floating above a wedding ceremony, “I knew I had to have them,” Taelor told Pretty Little Weddings. So when the bride wed her fiancé, Alexander, the bridesmaids and groomsmen held huge, white, round balloons. Taelor and Alexander infused their wedding with yellow and purple details, and asked friends and family to chip in to keep within their budget.

So that they could stick within their budget, the couple asked a family friend to design their bouquets and boutonnieres. Bridesmaids were allowed to choose their own dresses, as long as they were in a shade of purple. And both bride and groom—and bridesmaids and groomsmen—sported Toms on their feet.

The couple craved a destination wedding, “but after research revealed the amount of control we’d have to give up, we opted for something closer to home,” Danielle said. “Rhode Island is equidistant from both of our immediate families in New Hampshire and Connecticut and even closer to Boston, where we currently live.” Danielle and Grant fell for the charm of Linden Place, she said, and picked a soft palette of blush rose, emerald and pale gold to allow its unique details to stand out. As they wed in front of a fireplace, the couple exchanged vows promising to be each others’ “best friend and one true love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and tranquility, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know, in all the ways that life may find us.”

Danielle was never early—but that August night her hair and makeup were done with time to spare. “Grant said, ‘Not yet!’” Danielle said. “So I waited, watching Grant anxiously check the clock, the window, his watch and his phone until finally he said, ‘ready!’” And when Danielle finally descended the stairs and out the front door, she saw the limousine Grant had arranged. “We had a lovely dinner in the lantern room of a cozy lighthouse, and we had it all to ourselves,” Danielle said, before Grant proposed.

Photography by Rebecca Arthurs Photography.

“Try to relax on your wedding day,” Martha encouraged other Pretty Little Wedding readers. “The day will go by so fast. Enjoy every moment of it, and have fun. Hire a wedding coordinator if you can – having my wedding coordinator was one of the main reasons I was able to let go and relax and have fun.”

Photography by 39 East Photography.