While they were both working in Nantucket for the summer during college, Alexandra “Allie” Evarts and Louis Bingham Ott shared their first kiss at the house Lou was renting in Madaket. They parted ways at the end of the season and rekindled their relationship when they both found themselves living in the East Village in New York. “My best friend was dating Lou’s best friend, so there was quite a bit of excitement and encouragement about our budding relationship,” she says. After four years together and a move to Boston, Lou proposed to Allie on a Nantucket beach with a ring he had designed with his grandmother’s 1950s diamond.
The engaged couple chose to host their #AlapaLouza wedding at a classic Nantucket home that sits on top of a knoll overlooking the harbor. The house is also only a five-minute walk from her grandparents’ place, where she spends every summer and where she and Lou quarantined for the first three months of lockdown. “My first memories of Nantucket are defined by the natural wildness of the Middle Moors that have fortunately been well preserved by the Nantucket Land Bank in the area that my grandparents reside on the island,” Allie explains. “Naturally, I wanted this nostalgic beauty of old Nantucket to be woven throughout the aesthetic of the wedding.”
The two chose October 2, 2021 as their date, as fall has always been Allie’s favorite season on the island. The bride’s mother and aunt acted as the wedding planners, helping Allie with every detail, and worked with Jimmy Jasick, the day-of coordinator. For the reception tent, Allie worked with local florist Christine of Eibhlin Fern Florals to bring the natural environment into the space. Christine also worked closely with the bride’s grandfather, an avid gardener, to incorporate some of the lisianthus from his garden into her bridal bouquet. And Adam from Advanced Production & Design helped mimic a starry night by hanging tons of round paper lanterns throughout the tent.
For her rehearsal dinner look, Allie wanted something on the sexier side and went with a Galvan London dress, Rebecca de Ravenel earrings, and Jimmy Choo heels. During the toasts that night, the mother-of-the-bride gifted Allie and Lou white tuxedo jackets personalized by John Coles with a painted scene of the couple in front of their wedding venue with their puppy, Dune.
After trying on different wedding dress styles, Allie landed on a silk faille ballgown from Vera Wang for the ceremony. The design originally had a sweetheart neckline, but the bride altered it to a straighter one and added buttons down the back seam for a sophisticated look. Allie also completed her look with pearl cluster Ted Muehling earrings from Nantucket store Patina and Jimmy Choo flats. And on the day-of, she got ready with Darya Salon & Spa and natural makeup artist Jessa Blades.
Allie’s bridesmaids were all dressed in Cara Cara looks in the same Tropical Birds print. Her closest gals had the option of choosing from the Blue Hill dress, Georgica skirt and Sagaponack top, Bellport dress, or Wethersfield dress. Cara Cara also designed a matching dress for Allie’s 15-month-old niece and flower girl, Josephine. “Me and a few of my bridesmaids met up with Julia, one of the founders and lead designers, on Nantucket last summer to try on a few styles,” Allie explains. “From this first meeting, we immediately knew that we had to go with the Cara Cara styles.”
At the Nantucket Unitarian Universalist Church on Orange Street, the reverend from St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, where Lou went to high school, performed the ceremony. Lou, a real movie buff, was in charge of the service and selected The Princess Bride’s theme for the wedding party recessional, John Williams’s Jurassic Park theme for the processional, and Williams’s “Olympic Fanfare” was played on the organ for the recessional.
During the ceremony, the bride felt “lucky, present, grateful, emotional, excited, and loved.” “I felt like the luckiest man in the world, and I could not believe how beautiful my bride was,” Lou adds.
Allie’s grandfather was a PBS producer and director—he produced The French Chef with Julia Child and The Victory Garden, the latter of which Allie’s grandmother was the on-air chef. Her grandmother was also the founding chef of the Straight Wharf Restaurant on Nantucket, where the rehearsal dinner was held. “All I can say is that Eithne and Mark from Nantucket Catering Company had an earful from pretty much every member of my family about the food,” the bride admits. “Thankfully they are absolute pros and the food was incredible.”
The evening started with mini lobster rolls, tuna cones, mini crab cakes with citrus aioli and a raw bar of Nantucket fifth bend oysters, little neck clams, jumbo shrimp, and scallop ceviche shots. Guests then headed into the tent, greeted by baskets of fresh bread and ramekins of Irish butter and maldon sea salt. The entree was a choice of oven roasted organic chicken with pan jus and roasted vegetable risotto or a classic steak frites with béarnaise and creamed spinach.
Dessert—Allie’s favorite part—consisted of chocolate chip cookies from Something Natural and ice cream from The Juice Bar. The couple also requested the caterers make sheet cakes of Allie’s grandmother’s classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, from her Victory Garden cookbook.
As soon as the reception started, Allie changed into white sneakers, and during the band’s break, she put on a fun feather dress by Sorcha O’Raghallaigh that she found at Brown Thomas in Dublin. The newlyweds had their first dance to “I Try” by Macy Gray and then invited all their guests to join them and their band, Soul of Boston. In one peak moment, all the ladies joined up to belt along to “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”
After the reception, the party headed to The Chicken Box for more dancing. And since the new mister and missus are in a new job and law school, they’ll be going to Austria for a ski honeymoon later this year.
