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A Pit Stop at an Ice Cream Shop Before Walking Down the Aisle at this Nantucket Wedding

By Patricia Garcia | Photography by 

Nathan Coe

Interior designer Nina Bartram and investment banker Arthur Colby fell in love over New Year’s Eve in 2012, while they were both in Jupiter Island visiting their families. “We dated long distance for the first four years of our relationship,” Nina explains. “We saw each other whenever possible between deployments, as Arthur was a captain in the Marine Corps.” In 2016, Arthur finally moved to Chicago to live with Nina and only a year later, he proposed back in Jupiter Island where it all began.

“The proposal was so perfectly unassuming,” Nina says.  “Arthur asked if I wanted to go for a walk on Harbor Island, a small strip of land that runs parallel to Jupiter Island and is connected by a beautiful red footbridge. The path winds through a garden and comes to the most picturesque point that overlooks the harbor. We stopped at the point and he got down on one knee and I burst out ‘yes!’”

Choosing to have their wedding in Nantucket was an easy decision. “I grew up spending summers on Nantucket so it’s always been a dream wedding location for me,” Nina says. The majority of their wedding events were centered in town, with the rehearsal dinner taking place at Nina’s grandmother’s home, while welcome drinks were held at the Nantucket Yacht Club. But for the reception, the couple wanted an outside venue and went with the Sankaty Golf Club. “This gave friends and family the chance to see more of the island,” the bride adds.

The couple hired planner David Handy, and worked on an aesthetic inspired by the charming laidback beauty of Nantucket. They created custom India Amory linens and worked with Janelle Sing on a suite of watercolor paper products for the rehearsal dinner and reception.

For her bridal attire, Nina collaborated with longtime family friend and wedding stylist Cynthia Smith. “She helped me with all the weekend looks and the overall wedding aesthetic,” the bride explains. “I had a very clear idea of what I wanted my wedding dress to look like: unique, modified A-line, no volume.” After trying on a dozen dresses, Nina finally found “the one” in an Isabel Armstrong dress with French lace. She paired it with nude Tabitha Simmons sandals, and diamond studs that Arthur gifted her as a wedding present. Halfway through the reception, she changed into a Temperley London pink sequin dress with Aquazzura sandals and Irene Neuwirth gold teardrop chandelier earrings.

The groom, meanwhile, chose a Ralph Lauren blue suit with black lizard skin Belgian loafers and a custom white shirt, while bridesmaids all wore island formal dresses custom made by Brock Collection.

The day of the ceremony, friends and family gathered at St. Paul’s church to witness Nina and Arthur’s say their vows. But before heading to the chapel to walk down the aisle, the bride’s father decided to make a quick pit stop. “On our way, we drove by my, and I think everyone’s, all-time favorite ice cream spot, The Juice Bar,” Nina remembers. “He looked at me and said ‘Let’s grab a scoop.’ I thought he was joking then he hopped out of the car. It was definitely the best scoop of mint chocolate ever!”

A cocktail hour with a tequila and raw bar on the golf course immediately followed, and later guests enjoyed a dinner of halibut and filet under a tent looking out at Sankaty Light House. For their first dance, the couple had originally chosen “Dancing In the Moonlight,” but ended up having two first dances. “We had planned some minor logistics with our band, Sultans of Swing, where they would play one song to give us time to make our way from the cake cutting to the dance floor,” she explains. “We were so eager to start dancing that we completely forgot the plan and got there so quickly that we had two first dances! The first technically was ‘You Are The Best Thing.’”

After the ceremony wrapped, the newlyweds and their guests went back to a friend’s house and kept the party going well into the night. But that wasn’t the end of the celebration for them, as the two capped off their wedding with an exotic honeymoon in New Zealand and at The Brando in French Polynesia.