Plan, Relax & Enjoy with Cape Cod Celebrations
“We’re there to make sure the day reflects you. We want you to feel like you’re planning with your best friend”
Photo courtesy of Alex Paul Photography
Photo courtesy of Alex Paul Photography
For this month’s vendor spotlight, we were lucky enough to sit down with Jamie Bohlin and Stephanie Diaz Eldredge from Cape Cod Celebrations.
Recently featured in Loverly, a staple of the Cape’s multi-million dollar wedding industry, and proud members of the Cape Cod Chamber’s Wedding Committee, Cape Cod Celebrations talks about their most interesting wedding ever, being jacks of all trades, and their latest project that highlights fellow Cape Cod vendors.
SL: How and when did you get started with weddings and events?
JB: I worked two summers at the Chatham Bars Inn back in 2006. I decided to start my own business on the side. I think the first season was 4 or 5 weddings, and it just started to grow from there. If you had asked me [back then] what I thought it would turn into I would have said, “yeah we’ll do 5-10 weddings a year and that’ll be great”. Slowly but surely we started bringing people onto the team - Stephanie being one of them. And now we have 5-6 planners, including myself. We do something like 65 weddings a year.
“My first wedding ever was tented in Chatham. I was 8 months pregnant!”
Photo courtesy of Organic Photography
SDE: I’ve been in the event world for about 10 years now and I also fell into the industry. I come from a background in stage and theater and moved into non profit event planning. When I moved to the Cape with my husband [where he grew up], I began to job hunt. Jamie was a good person to know. We kept in contact [and eventually] I became a part of Cape Cod Celebrations in 2015. I’ve strictly been on wedding planning ever since.
SL: What was your very first event like? What went right? What went wrong?
JB: My first wedding ever was tented in Chatham. And I was 8 months pregnant! Everybody made me sit down the entire day. We had to call the ambulance because someone tripped and fell and hit their head. Knowing what I know now, there are so many things I would’ve done differently from the shape of the tent to the flooring. Still, it was beautiful and a success!
SL: I feel like the “Cape” aesthetic is hard to nail down if you haven’t visited. How do you define it?
JB: Coastal casual. We’re not Miami beach. Hydrangeas definitely have a big cape look. Same with blue and whites. There’s always a touch of nautical but it really is casual elegance. We rarely see like blacks and golds and silvers. That’s more city (Boston). We’re more casual. Think, flip flops.
SDE: There is an easy yet relaxed atmosphere here. It’s not 100% preppy or nautical. It’s definitely a melding of what feels breezy. Think, salt air - fresh. Classic yet fun and elegant.
Photo courtesy of Alex Paul Photography
SL: What’s the most interesting wedding you’ve put together/what types of projects get you excited?
SDE: The most interesting wedding I’ve coordinated was a 5 day extravaganza in Woods Hole. It was one of the biggest events CCC has ever done. They wanted it to feel like a high end summer camp. We planned the itinerary down to the minute. We did their transportation, bachelor party, sunset cruise, bike and kayak rentals, three or four different parties at different locations and accommodations. There was so much going on. It was a large scale event but very curated. It took all of the members of our team to be there that weekend. I was in Woods Hole for the entire week and I had maybe 30 vendors over the entirety of the weekend.
“ It feels like a small place but the wedding industry is a multi million dollar industry. And it’s all done by small vendors and family teams who are here to do incredible work”
SL: Is that the kind of wedding that really gets you excited?
SDE: Not necessarily. I like it when couples do something that’s really unique to them. I had a couple who buried a bottle of bourbon before their wedding and dug it up on the day-of. Everyone took a shot to bless the wedding as it was good luck for them. So couples incorporating family traditions into their wedding gets me excited and it pulls at the heart strings a bit too.
SL: Who do you look up to?
JB: Tough one for me. I don’t think I've ever had a specific person that is famous or what have you. I thrive off of my team and my “friend-ors”. Just you know working together and supporting each other. We started an IG TV series called Gather Around The Table. Seeing people gather together and lean on each other is probably what I love and thrive off of the most.
Photo courtesy of Organic Photography
Photo courtesy of Organic Photography
SL: I just finished watching the second installation. It’s so fun to watch. Can you tell us about Gather, how it started, and what you’re hoping to do with it?
SDE: It started with the Cape Cod Wedding Chamber Committee.
“Your Vision is Our Brand”
JB: Yeah, we were kind of talking through ideas for virtual bridal expos. Then, Stephanie, myself, Harbor View Studios, and True North Event Rentals had this idea of interviewing Cape Cod vendors in a fun, behind-the-scenes way. We just started reaching out to people on the cape and have been having a lot of fun with it.
SDE: We wanted to find a way to highlight our Cape Cod wedding vendors. [The Cape] is highly sought after. And when [people] come here I think they don’t see how many events are going on. It feels like a small place but the wedding industry is a multi million dollar industry. And it's all done by small vendors and family teams who are here to do incredible work. But you don’t see that it’s just three people in an office.
JB: And we have 7 - 8 more coming! We’re posting every two weeks on our IG TV and on our blog.
SL: I have to say I love the editing. It is very fun and casual but professional.
JB: That's great feedback to hear. I'm obsessed with what Harbor View is doing with the intros. I think they’re doing an amazing job.
SL: What would you say is Cape Cod Celebration’s core philosophy?
JB: When I started this company, I wanted it to be really easy going. I wanted to do weddings that reflect the couple's personalities. We have a couple mantras. One is “Plan, Relax, Enjoy” - that’s a thread that really runs through everything. Our most recent one is “Your Vision is Our Brand”. We don’t want to put it out there that we are just this one type of wedding planning company that always has the same color scheme or themes. We’re there to make sure the day reflects you. We want you to feel like you’re planning with your best friend. We have a handful of clients that we’re still friends with and we love building those relationships.
Photo courtesy of Organic Photography
We’re a music blog so we have to ask…
What do you sing in the car?
JB: My go to songs are Killing me Softly by the Fugees and Hold On by Wilson Phillips. But when the fam is driving together we love throwing on The Greatest Showman Soundtrack!
SDE: Right now, LIZZO or Broadway show tunes… couldn’t be more different!
Best song for a lazy Sunday morning?
JB: We love listening to Mumford & Sons radio
SDE: John Mayer (for the HS/College girl inside)
What makes you get up and dance?
JB: Honestly anything! But I am partial to 90s boy bands!
SDE: Latin Music (Merengue, Salsa, reggaeton) OR Hip Hop and R&B (everything from old school to DJ Khaled)
THANK YOU Jamie & Stephanie for contributing to the SpeechLess blog. We look forward to working with you more helping visions come to life. Follow Cape Cod Celebrations and see what they’re up to with the links below:
Watch Gather Around the Table every 2 weeks on IG TV
Cape Cod Celebrations was recently featured in Loverly
Blog | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest
If you are a vendor and would like to be featured, please email booking@speechlessmusic.com
With a culinary background and an eye on etiquette, Peral Farquharson brings every part of her unique identity to her business, Designed by Delsie. Pearl talks to us about the mistakes she sees couples make when planning their wedding, and her take on navigating tricky family dynamics.