Christina Fagan, founder of Sh*t That I Knit, admits it wasn’t exactly love at first sight when she first crossed paths with Alex Pardy, a private wealth manager at UBS. “We met once in Boston and thought nothing of it,” she admits. “Then we were at the same Memorial Day party in Martha’s Vineyard…and the rest is history.”
A little under two years later, Alex organized a ski weekend with both of their parents and siblings at Christina’s family home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. “We skied all day and then went on a big family walk up to a cabin that we love,” she remembers. “Little did I know our moms had hiked up there earlier in the day and decorated the cabin with rose petals and champagne. The second we got to the cabin, Alex got down on one knee and proposed (and I ugly cried).”
Once engaged, the couple knew they wanted to tie the knot in Sugar Hill, the same place where Alex proposed. “The summer up there is incredibly lush, so we incorporated a lot of greenery into our aesthetic,” says Christina. She hired Kate Murtaugh in Boston as a day-of-coordinator and started working on knitting 200 green and white pom moms for her seating cards. “We incorporated a lot of our own personal/DIY touches while also trusting the professionals with the important stuff,” she adds.
Christina admits she was pretty set on finding a dress with lace sleeves when she first started looking for wedding gowns. But when she saw her Legends by Romona Keveza dress, she immediately knew it was the one. “It was so classic and had pockets!” she says. “I felt like it was my one time to wear a big poufy gown.” She complemented her look with flowery pink Stuart Weitzman heels, the same earrings that her mother wore one her wedding day, and her late aunt’s ring.
Alex, meanwhile, wore a bright blue IndoChino suit, and worked with friend Milicent Armstrong of Artemis Designs to make kilim loafers for himself and his groomsmen. As for the guests, the dress code was flexible. “They were told to wear ‘New Hampshire Chic,’ which can really mean whatever you want it to mean,” says the bride. “Although my cousin wore shorts—that did not fly with me!”
During a sunny afternoon in June, friends and family convened at St. Matthew’s Chapel in Sugar Hill for the couple’s wedding ceremony. “While we stuck to a traditional format and had our minister come up from Weston, MA, it was very much us,” she says. “We had readings from The Princess Bride, wrote our own vows, and sang “Climb Every Mountain” from the Sound of Music as a congregation.”
A cocktail hour followed, where guests were treated to lots of comfort food and goblets of rosé on ice. During dinner, the bride’s father, the groom’s best man, and the bride’s sisters all gave touching toasts. “My older sister completely lost her voice and my younger sister had to take over the rest of the speech,” she remembers. “Despite her silence, they totally killed it.”
For music, the couple hired a Boston band called The Silver Arrow Band. “We were very serious about our set list and stuck to all Motown and classics” she says. “We even said that if any Bruno Mars was played, we weren’t paying the band!” When it came time for their big dance, the newlyweds chose “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, which ended up as one of the bride’s favorite moments from the entire day. “The best part was definitely letting loose with Alex,” she says. “A lot of people asked us after the wedding if we were really having that much fun during our first dance—we definitely were.”
