And the Rest Was History
By Shelley Green | Photography by Kristyn Oborne and Kacey Long of Tommy McCart Photography
Posted: Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009
O.A.R.’s guitars reverberated from the stage as Molly Tremoulis spotted Ben Venskus, her freshman crush, among the crowd. “I was in my dorm room doing my hair when I heard this guy yelling through the quad,” Molly remembers. “When I looked out my window to see who owned this booming voice, all I could see was his smile.”
As history majors at Wingate University, Ben, a Boston native, and Molly shared classes, laughed at each other’s presentations, and as Molly felt, had the same sense of humor. After three years of admiring him from afar, Molly’s sorority sister formally introduced her to Ben at the O.A.R. concert, and the two have been inseparable ever since. “Here is all this music going on around us, and we talked the entire time. It was like catching up with an old friend,” Molly says. “We had an instant connection.”
Civil and Revolutionary war buffs, Molly declares the two could snuggle up watching the History Channel and be totally content. “It’s amazing to share a conversation with someone that is as passionate about the same things as you,” Molly says.
On the morning of Aug. 24, 2007, Ben and Molly were house sitting for Molly’s parents in Charlotte. The couple participated in a routine Saturday morning of running errands before Ben surprised Molly with a proposal. After taking their chocolate lab, Bailey, to the groomers, Molly settled herself on the back porch with the newspaper and a cup of coffee. Ben returned home and fiddled in the kitchen a bit to work up his nerve before joining Molly on the porch.
“We were talking about this and that when all the sudden we thought we heard a deer,” Molly explains. “When I brought my head back around, he was down on one knee.” Through tears and laughter, Molly managed to say yes. “I’ve only seen Ben cry one other time in my life, and that was when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004!”
The bride-to-be immediately composed a list of possible wedding dates. Her first choice was Christmas, but with Ben’s family flying down from Boston, winter would not work. The couple eventually decided on April 18, two days after Molly’s 26th birthday.
Once the date was decided, Molly, with the help of her mother, moved on to the details. For her flowers, Molly knew she wanted lilies, her favorite. She envisioned an English garden for her bouquet. “I wanted something romantic and flowing with lilies and ivy,” Molly explains. “When I think of an English garden, I think lavender, so we also added a purple accent.”
When it came to selecting a photographer, Molly took the advice of a friend and chose Tommy McCart Photography. Ben and Molly bonded with Tommy right away and used him for the engagement photos and two of his partner photographers, Kacey Long and Kristyn Oborne, for wedding photos. “No matter how we were posed we felt comfortable and not staged,” explains Molly. “They were fantastic and really grasped the point of the day and the importance of capturing it.”
For her dress, Molly aspired for a simple, yet elegant gown. “I wanted beading, but not on the entire dress and I didn’t want to be uncomfortable,” explains Molly. After trying on 12 dresses, it came down to three finalists, all by Mori Lee. The first was all lace, but it was too heavy, the second was too simple and the third she loved. “I didn’t even have a designer in mind, so it was weird they all ended up being the same,” exclaims Molly.
The strapless gown had three tiers of satin at the bottom hem and similar layering at the bodice. For her bridesmaids, Molly found strapless, tea-length gowns with the same embellishment at the hem. “I finally found the right shade of green, and then I saw the dress had the same design as mine and I thought, That dress wants to be in my wedding,” she says.
Molly and Ben wanted a combination of Northern and Southern themes to represent the blending of their families. They chose Cheesecake, Etc., to make both the wedding cake and the groom’s cake. “The groom’s cake is a Southern tradition, and I thought it would be cute to have a Boston cream pie,” explains Molly. “Ben is a huge chocolate fan, so she did a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse in the shape of a baseball diamond with a ‘B’ in the middle for the Red Sox.”
Since the majority of the guests were traveling from out of town, Molly and Ben made guest bags with Charlotte maps, bottles of champagne, chocolates and other treats for each hotel room. “We thought of our guests throughout the entire planning process,” says Molly. “Some weddings can be so formal and stuffy. Our guests traveled a long way and we wanted them to feel comfortable, invited and to have fun.”
On the morning of April 18, St. Matthew Catholic Church was brimming with dozens of Easter lilies and 125 guests anxiously awaiting the nuptials of Ben and Molly. “I was excited, but I didn’t have butterflies until I was in my dress, bouquet in hand, and we had five minutes before the ceremony. Then it hit me: I’m getting married in five minutes.”
The couple participated in a traditional Catholic mass conducted by Father Patrick Cahill, the brother-in-law of Molly’s cousin. The reception was held at Cramer Mountain Country Club. The stone floors, wraparound deck and large windows framing the sunset provided an ideal backdrop. A roast beef carving station, pasta bar, fruit and greens station offered good eats for all attendants. An ice luge cut into the shape of a martini glass was decorated with a ‘V’ for Venskus, and choice martinis were mixed throughout the evening.
To close the celebration, everyone locked arms in a circle with Molly and Ben while singing “Friends in Low Places.” “It was priceless,” remembers Molly. “That has always been the song for my friends and me from Virginia, but this was Ben’s Northern friends and my Southern friends, both our families, and everyone was singing this song. I still get goose bumps when I think about it.”
Molly and Ben spent a week in the Cayman Islands, the same honeymoon destination as Molly’s parents 30 years ago. When looking back, Molly says Ben’s smile is what stands out most in her mind. “He was the first thing I saw coming down the aisle,” says Molly. “Seeing that same smile I fell in love with eight years ago smiling back at me — it was perfect.”
