Around one week before Dane Boudreau’s decided proposal date, he tore his ACL on a deployed Navy vessel. And so, at the Terranea Resort, where he and Elizabeth Furlong had gone on their first getaway nine years prior, he did a sort of “wrestlers lunge” in place of getting down on one knee. And he could not get up, after she said yes.
Once engaged, the couple toyed with the idea of eloping but decided on an 100-guest wedding at the Santa Barbara Courthouse’s Mural Room, followed by a reception at the Carousel House overlooking the pier. Their aesthetic for the day was “very cinematic” and inspiration came from Wes Anderson’s color play, particularly in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Sophia Copola’s “irreverence and whimsy.” Other references were Annabel’s Rose Room in London and Manish Arora’s home in Paris. “We wanted our guests to feel like they were arriving to a blow-out garden party wonderland rather than a stuffy wedding,” Elizabeth says.
A few months before she got engaged, the bride spotted her Gabriela Hearst bridal look on Net-A-Porter. “I just instantly knew what would work for me and never saw myself going to a bridal salon and trying on dress after dress,” she explains. “Initially, my mother HATED it and wouldn’t speak to me for months, insisting it wasn’t a real dress. I just told her to ‘trust the vision.’”
Laura Basci, who Elizabeth had worked with in celebrity PR, was the only person trusted to fit the bridal set. “We worked together to ensure the pants kept a little flare at the bottom while still nipping at the waist,” Elizabeth says. Laura also custom-made the veil to perfectly fit the ensemble, and the bride completed the look with Manolo Blahnik Josima pumps and a Mignonne Gavigan pearl headpiece.
On the day-of, the bride got ready with Janet Villa, who kept her beauty look simple with a defined cheekbone and flawless skin. And Dane put on his dark burgundy Ermenegildo Zegna tuxedo jacket—also tailored by Laura—and Saint Laurent patent leather shoes.
In the Mural Room, Elizabeth walked down the aisle with her father but sans bouquet, as valets had misplaced the floral arrangements and they ended up being found later in an employee closet. “After speaking with several guests, we came to the conclusion that no one noticed!!” the bride says.
And because of Dane’s service in the Navy, he had a strong relationship with the Epsicopalian Chaplain on his ship and flew him out from his station in Annapolis to officiate their ceremony. “To be perfectly honest we both blacked out,” Elizabeth says of her feelings during the service. “I remember smiling a lot and beautiful music from the string duet, but Dane and I truly don’t remember it.”
After announced as a married couple, guests passed through draped, pink and green velvet swathed around garlands of Bright Floral’s dyed baby’s breath to enter the Carousel House, which was filled with hanging paper lanterns and beautiful florals with pops of color on the four tables. And outside, Bubble Bliss, a Prosecco station in a vintage Italian Piaggio Apé, handed out coupes of sparkling wine.
As Dane is half Puerto Rican, much of the music was dedicated to Elvis Crespo, a favorite of his family. “One of the highlights of the evening was watching his grandmother dance with her sisters and cousins to ‘Suavamente’–a song that is always played at Christmas, Easter, and any birthday,” Elizabeth explains. “What a joy to see my very Caucasian aunts and uncles stumble around the beat!”
“Additionally, having all of our family and friends dance to ‘Vivir Mi Vida’ was amazing,” the bride says. “Watching everyone sway with the beat and form lines of people dancing salsa, merengue, or however they wanted to interpret the music—what a visual!” And to end the night, the newlyweds retreated to their room at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara with “tons of room service junk food.”
For their honeymoon, the pair headed to the Maldives and stayed at The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort. They returned home a week before COVID-19 quarantines started hitting the States. “Dane and I know we were among few lucky ones to have a 2020 wedding AND a honeymoon and are so grateful fate was on our side.”
