Five Things We Know about Celeb Wedding Planner Bryan Rafanelli’s Recent Nuptials
He and partner Mark Walsh waited 30 years to tie the knot, and then planned their celebration in 30 days.
Bryan Rafanelli, founder and chief creative officer of Rafanelli Events—the Boston and NYC-based firm behind the nuptials of celebs such as Chelsea Clinton and Allison Williams—tied the knot with partner Mark Walsh earlier this month on Cape Cod, Vogue.com reports. The surprising part? The wedding unfolded after the couple was together for nearly 30 years, and was planned in just 30 days. The unsurprising part? It was pretty much flawless. Rafanelli designed the wedding himself, enlisting two Rafanelli Events planners for help with the logistics. The vibe for the day: “Elegant, understated, summer. I wanted guests to feel like family, and for the reception to be a reflection of our simple intention to ‘finally’ get married,” he told Vogue. Here’s what else we learned from the article about the nuptials:
1. While the planner (and Rhode Island native) is known for executing jaw-dropping, extravagant affairs, he and Walsh decided to base their celebration on Rafanelli’s parents’ wedding, which included just a ceremony and a lunch. “Given the fact that we wanted to plan this in 30 days, I had no desire to host a big wedding or have an evening reception, but loved the idea of a day ceremony and lunch, just like my parents had,” Rafanelli told Vogue.
2. Rafanelli and Walsh held their celebration in a gated community called Oyster Harbors, in Osterville, at the home where Rafanelli put on his first client’s wedding 23 years before. The father of that bride officiated the grooms’ ceremony.
3. At the end of the ceremony, undercover musicians who had been seated among the crowd hopped up from their seats to perform CeCe Peniston’s “Finally,” a nod to the couple’s long road to “I do.”
4. One of the couple’s four golden retrievers, named George Clooney, donned an amazing floral collar featuring hellebores, piers, roses, hydrangea, and Italian pittosporum for the occasion. Along with their other three pups, George also made an appearance on the couple’s three-tier, vanilla-buttercream cake in the form of a paper cake topper.
5. There was just one element of the day that Rafanelli didn’t plan. The homeowner arranged for a flyover from a vintage plane near the end of the event with a banner that said, “Bryan & Mark—it only took 30 years! Congrats!”
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