This Elegant Connors Center Wedding Featured Nods to the Bride’s Iranian Roots

May 26, 2019
The Connors Center
Dover, Massachusetts

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

THE STORY

Maryam Labaf says she and her now-husband Jason Carney are, at their core, “two nerds,” so it was only natural that they’d meet in school while working on a group project. They were each completing their master’s degrees in mathematics at a university in Dayton, Ohio when they were paired up for a class assignment. They got to know each other, and eventually, Jason asked her on a date to see the musical Wicked. Fast-forward two years and the couple was ready to get engaged.

In May 2017, they decided to rent a cabin in the woods near Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio for a short getaway. On the last day of the trip, Jason suggested they hike to a nearby waterfall. When they got there, Jason said he wanted to sit on a rock and enjoy the view for a few moments. “I said, ‘No, I want to [leave]. There’s still a long way to go,’ and he said, ‘Can you please sit just a minute?” Maryam recalls. She knelt down to look for a clean place on the rock to sit, and when she looked up, Jason took a ring out of his pocket. “He said, ‘You’ve changed my life and I’d really like to spend the rest of my life with you,'” Maryam says. “He said a lot of nice words, actually, but I was so excited that I can’t remember all of them.” On their drive back home, Jason asked Maryam when she wanted to get married. “I told him ‘as soon as possible,'” the bride recalls. The couple tied the knot two weeks later in a no-frills ceremony in Indianapolis.

By 2019, though, they were living apart while Maryam began pursuing a PhD at UMass Boston. So in January, they decided they would throw another wedding celebration—this time on the East Coast. With four months until their wedding, they needed to choose a venue quickly. The Connors Center, a stone mansion situated on an 80-acre estate in Dover, was the last venue Maryam visited and she “fell in love” right away, she says. “I really like the old style of the building, which is so [unique] to Boston.” They planned a small but elegant wedding with 45 guests, in part because Maryam’s relatives, who live in Iran, weren’t able to make it for the big day, and also because the couple only wanted to invite those closest to them. “I knew I wasn’t interested in having a big party. I wanted the people who I invited to be the people I really really love,” the bride says.

THE DETAILS

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

Maryam knew she wanted a mermaid-cut gown with a long train, but each time she visited a bridal shop to try on dresses she left disappointed that none of the styles she liked could be ready in time for her May wedding. Allegria Bridal was the last stop on her list, and there, she finally fell head-over-heels for this Eve of Milady frock.

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

The couple’s wedding altar featured a traditional Persian Sofreh Aghd: a table upon which they placed several symbolic objects such as an Iranian poetry book, sweet treats, mirrors, candelabras, metallic eggs, and wheat. 

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

The bride wanted to incorporate a pastel color palette throughout the wedding décor, which included tall, clear glass centerpieces showcasing cascading arrangements of blush and white orchids, roses, and hydrangea. “I always dreamed of the way my wedding would [look], and what [my wedding] was was very close to my childhood dream,” Maryam says.

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

Maryam and Jason’s celebration blended modern and traditional styles, and the mahogany-paneled walls at the Connors Center served as the perfect juxtaposition to their contemporary tablescapes.

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

At their reception, the couple served a two-tier cake that Montilio’s Baking Company decorated with sugar flowers as well as a line from the Farsi poetry book on Maryam and Jason’s Sofreh Aghd that read “Love is everything.”

Photo by Alex Gordias Photography

DJ Arman Manshady played a mix of songs in English, Farsi, Spanish, and Turkish at Maryam and Jason’s reception. The pair had their first dance to Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.”

THE FILE

Bride’s Gown Eve of Milady, Allegria Bridal
Cake Montilio’s Baking Company
Caterer Capers Catering
DJ Arman Manshady
Flowers Florissima
Harpist Lizary Rodríguez
Lighting Retonica Event Lighting
Officiant Michelle Lydon
Photographer Alex Gordias Photography
Planner Primavera Dreams
Rentals Party Rental Ltd.
Videographer I Do Cinematography

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