Kaitlin & Paul | Nanina’s in the Park | Belleville, NJ

Lush Gardens & An Elegant Ballroom

I’ve been friends with Paul’s sister, Allie, since I was eight years old and I’ve always had a crush on him growing up. My junior year of high school, Paul and I started talking at a New Year’s Eve party and we realized how much of a connection we have. We’ve been together ever since.Paul went to Penn State that spring and that fall I went to Towson University to study nursing.

Fast forward five years and Paul is now an Air Force pilot. Paul doesn’t get to come home very often, so one weekend when he was home, we headed to Bethany Beach for a trip with his parents. One night, we all headed to the beach to take some family photos, but his parents had to run back to the beach house because they “forgot” the camera. Little did I know, his parents were hiding back to capture Paul getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him!

My parents grew up in New Jersey and my mom suggested Nanina’s in the Park to me after hearing many great things about it. We set up a tour with Pete Palmieri, sales manager, and the moment we stepped inside, we knew we wanted to get married there. From the lush gardens to the elegant ballroom with a raised sky-painted ceiling, it was perfect. The lavish bridal suite really set the venue apart from others. Pete felt like family right away and made the whole planning process easy. On the day of, our maître d’, Rich, and our bridal attendant, Giselle, assured everything ran smoothly and on time The whole Nanina’s staff went above and beyond to make everything perfect.

Our ceremony was held in Nanina’s ballroom, which was decorated with bright spring flowers. It was very special to us to have Paul’s close friend, Cato, officiate. As a tribute to Paul’s service in the air force, we walked out as husband and wife under a saber arch. Having photographed weddings at Nanina’s before, our photographer was able to navigate around the venue and time photos perfectly throughout the day.

Before we joined our guests for cocktail hour, Paul and I enjoyed a table of our cocktail hour foods that Rich and Giselle set up in the bridal suite for us. We especially loved, as did our guests, the mac and cheese bar, the sushi, and the Taste of Asia station. We arrived upstairs to the room with beautiful classical music played by our band.

For our March wedding, we wanted our décor to introduce the start of spring. Our florist, Perla, made the ballroom come alive with eye-catching centerpieces filled with a variety of pink and purple roses, green hydrangeas, orchids, silver eucalyptus, and more. Dinner began with a Tuscan salad appetizer, followed by a Romeo & Juliet entrée duet meal of chateaubriand in cabernet sauce and shrimp Nanina’s in a lemon white wine sauce.

Guests also had options of chicken française in chicken stock and butter reduction sauce or a vegetarian eggplant Napoleon. Our DJ kept our guests on the dance floor all night with a variety of music everyone knew and loved. The night ended with an elaborate dessert station, including a chocolate fondue station, bananas foster flambé station, an espresso and cappuccino bar, and of course, our delicious wedding cake.

Thank you to all our friends and family for celebrating our wedding with us. Thank you to all our talented vendors for making sure every detail of our wedding was taken care of every step of the way. Thank you to Pete, Rich, Giselle, and the Nanina’s team for their hard work in making the day special and memorable for everyone.

Nanina’s in the Park, 973.751.1230, www.naninasinthepark.com