Every wedding has a flavor...a sort of essence that carries the day. When Heather Abel and Adam Zucker were married August 19th, with two ceremonies, many many friends and family, music, turquoise blue umbrellas, limeade in jars, and the most stunning country barn surrounded by cornfields...the essence was warmth. Yes, it drizzled a bit at one point, but the day could not have been warmer, more beautifully lit from within.

The colors were pure summer - peaches, yellows, and pinks - and the barn was awash in paper lanterns, branches, and twinkle lights. For cocktails there was folk music, café tables set with vintage linens draped over peach cloths, and centerpieces of dahlias mixed with hens-and-chicks succulents. Instead of a traditional bridal party, all of Heather's friends were flower girls...an egalitarian, festive and flowery approach.

There were so many warm, sentimental touches...the readings from friends, Adam picking up his guitar to add a song to the ceremony, the beautiful quilt squares (each one with its own story from Adam and Heather's childhoods) that draped the chuppa. In one corner of the barn a typewriter was set up on a table with a vintage lamp, and all night family and friends would sit and write their best wishes, or compose poems or toasts for Heather and Adam.

The dinner tent was hung with Mexican paper garlands, and giant paper flowers. Terra cotta whitewashed pots held ornamental grasses, zinnias, and summer field flowers. Instead of a traditional cake, Adam and Heather had dozens of country pies in every flavor you could wish for. There was dancing in the barn well into the night.

Adam and Heather's wedding was memorable for its warmth and old-fashioned charm...but did you hear about the two uninvited guests at the rehearsal dinner? You've heard about the boy who cried wolf. Well, when Heather was little, she used to make up stories about snakes she had seen. The night before the wedding, everyone gathered at Race Brook Lodge, a wonderfully whimsical, cozy and funky camp lodge in Sheffield, Massachusets. Just as the guests were arriving, two big snakes (someone said rattlers, but I think that was Heather, and who would believe her now?) were spotted.

They were escorted out, without having sampled the barbeque or tried a single allemande left in the contra dancing that everyone enjoyed for hours. The significance of the snakes? This was an essence-of-summer, wonderful event that any of God's creatures would have loved to attend.

Service Providers:

Planning, Design and Coordination: Lisa Light, Ltd.

Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Race Brook Lodge

Contra Dancing, Music: Homespun Occasions

Photography: Lissa Gotwals

Catering: Dorcas P. Sommerhoff