Weddings

Cristina & Michael

By Patti Verbanas • Photography by Jeff Tisman

A Princeton couple takes the plunge and weds with a ceremony and reception that are as personal as their vows to each other.

“It snowed. It was October, and it was snowing,” says Cristina Vildostegui-Cerra, a kindergarten teacher at Brooks Crossing Elementary School in South Brunswick. “My 23 students jumped from their seats and ran to the window, screaming. Meanwhile, I’m turning white and screaming, too — in horror.” Three days later, on November 1, 2008, Cristina and her fiancé, Michael Cerra, were scheduled to wed at the Princeton University Chapel and host 250 guests in a tented reception at the Manor House. Fortunately, by that evening, the flakes had melted, and that weekend the couple was wed on a sunny 65-degree day.

Michael and Cristina hadn’t set out to have an autumn wedding. The original plan was summer nuptials, to work around Cristina’s teaching schedule, but they had difficulty coordinating their preferred vendors and locations. “November 1 was available for everybody, and we just took it,” Cristina says.

The Princeton backdrop was a given: Cristina grew up there, and after college she returned to be close to her family and set up a

home with Michael, an early clinical development specialist at Merck. Though they knew they wanted to be married in the chapel — the third-largest university chapel in the world — finding a site to accommodate the reception’s size proved more difficult. The couple turned to Teri Lands of Main Street Fine Catering for assistance. Lands’ charge: to find a location that fit the couple’s clean, modern aesthetic but would also reflect the chapel’s classical ambiance. Her solution: a tented reception at the Manor House, which, Michael says, “had an old Princeton feel yet nicely accommodated our modern decor.”

At the outset, there were three vendors the couple knew they wanted: Main Street, which had been recommended by Cristina’s mother, florist Adriene Presti of Dahlia in

Pennington, and photographer Jeff Tisman. “After we met with Jeff, we were dead set on having him,” Cristina says. “His work spoke for itself, and his rapport with us and with my parents was great.” Lands, Tisman, and Presti had worked together at many other weddings, which made planning easier for the couple. “Adriene took the time to understand our vision and created unique arrangements for us,” Cristina says. “And Teri was a great point person during the whole planning process.” The couple chose their remaining vendors based on this trio’s recommendations.

The challenge was to create a wedding that was seasonal but not stereotypical. “We were worried about a November 1 wedding date because we didn’t want a Thanksgiving or Halloween theme,” Cristina says. “We wanted to play up that it was fall and a gorgeous time of year, but we didn’t want it to feel like the

traditional fall wedding — with leaves and gourds everywhere. We wanted it to be classy but also have a youthful, modern flair.” The solution was using rust-orange details on elements such as the invitations, flowers, cake, and tabletops to give a nod to the season in a cohesive, but subtle, fashion. Even the groomsmen got in on it. “We wanted to add something that wouldn’t be obvious,” Michael says. “So they wore tuxedos, but after the ceremony they hiked the legs up to show their orange socks. It was a lot of fun.” The menu also referenced harvest time, including dishes such as pumpkin ravioli and field greens with blood orange vinaigrette, butternut squash shoestrings, and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Autumn aside, the couple wanted the wedding to be unique to them. And the details certainly did

have people talking long after. The program’s cover was created by one of Cristina’s students; it depicted the couple, heralding “Miss V. and Miycol are getting mared!” The table names were based on locales in New Orleans — where Cristina was born and where Michael held his bachelor party — with corresponding stories as to why each place was special to the couple.

“After all, that’s the biggest thing: how personal the event is,” Cristina says. “We wanted people to feel like it was ‘Michael and Cristina’s Wedding,’ not just some couple that was getting married. All weddings are nice in their own way, but it’s what you do to make it your day that people will remember.”