I just got married on Cape Cod on August 31, 2026… and yes, it was a Monday! We got engaged on June 5th and in a matter of 11 weeks, poof, we were married. That took a laid back mindset, a can do attitude, and the need to prioritize what was most important to me for my wedding.
My husband, Daniel, and I knew we wanted to get married relatively quickly, and choosing a Monday ended up being one of the best wedding-planning decisions we made. It opened up so many possibilities when it came to venues and vendors and allowed us to create the wedding we wanted without waiting another year (or two!) for the perfect Saturday event.
If you’re considering a weekday wedding, I say go for it – with one caveat: be considerate of your guests. Some people may not be able to take the day off, while others may prefer not to use vacation time for a wedding. We understood that from the beginning and knew not everyone would be able to attend. We made it clear that, as much as we would love to celebrate with everyone, we completely understood if the short notice or weekday date made it difficult.
Planning a wedding on a shorter timeline also forced me to figure out something very quickly: What are my non-negotiables?
There are a million things you can spend time, energy and money on when planning a wedding. But when I envisioned our big day, there were a few things I absolutely would not compromise on.
So, from one Cape Cod bride to another, here are my top seven Cape Cod wedding must-haves.
1. Live Strings for the Ceremony
This was probably my biggest non-negotiable.
We were married in a Catholic church, and I wanted the ceremony to feel incredibly sacred, holy and beautiful. I kept picturing the sound of live strings filling the church as our family and wedding party walked down the aisle.
We ended up working with the Cape Cod String Quartet, founded by Dan Flonta, and they were absolutely fantastic. For our ceremony, we had a violin and cello, and I truly cannot imagine the Mass without them.
The music was ethereal.
There is something about hearing live strings inside a church that completely changes the atmosphere. It created the exact feeling I had hoped for… timeless, emotional, reverent and incredibly special. It was one of those details that wasn’t just beautiful in the moment; it became part of how I remember the entire ceremony.
If you’re planning a Cape Cod or New England wedding and live music is important to you, I could not recommend them more.
Connect with the Cape Cod String Quartet:
Website: https://www.capecodstringquartet.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capecodstringquartet/
2. A Venue on the Water
As a girl who loves the beach and a good sunset, I knew there was really no world in which I wasn’t getting married on or near the water.
To me, that is part of the magic of having a Cape Cod wedding in the first place.
We chose The Popponesset Inn in Mashpee, and their new tent is absolutely stunning. Being able to celebrate with the ocean right there gave us everything I wanted from a Cape Cod reception … that beautiful coastal feeling without having to make the wedding itself feel overly themed or “beachy.”
We also knew from the beginning that we did not want to hire a wedding planner, which made having the right person at our venue even more important.
Enter: Kelly McCoy (pictured below between me and my Mom)
One of the absolute best parts of the entire wedding-planning experience was working with Kelly at The Popponesset Inn. She was a dream. She helped us bring our vision to life, answered our endless questions, guided us through the process and made planning a wedding on a relatively short timeline feel completely manageable.
When you’re choosing a venue, obviously look at the view, the food, the space and all of the things you can see in photos. But also pay attention to who you are going to be working with.
You will be communicating with that person a LOT.
Having someone you trust on the venue side … especially if you aren’t hiring a wedding planner … is invaluable.
And getting a Cape Cod sunset as the backdrop to your wedding doesn’t hurt either.
3. A Wedding Cake That Actually Tastes Amazing
I knew exactly what I wanted when it came to our cake: delicious and vintage.
Wedding cakes have become such a fun design moment, and I loved the idea of having a cake that felt classic, romantic and a little nostalgic… but I also wanted people to actually want to eat it!
We worked with Lisa Raffael of Delicious Desserts, and Lisa helped bring that vision to life.
Lisa is SO loving, and her cakes are SO delicious.
The entire experience felt incredibly personal, and she created exactly what I had pictured. I really do think the wedding cake deserves its moment!
There are so many wedding trends that come and go, but there is something wonderfully old-school and romantic about newlyweds standing together and cutting a beautiful cake. If you’re planning a Cape Cod wedding, I cannot recommend Lisa enough.
Connect with Delicious Desserts:
Website: https://www.deliciousdesserts.net/
4. A DJ Who Does So Much More Than Play Music
I learned very quickly that the right DJ can completely shape the experience of your wedding reception.
We worked with DJ Joshua Carl of Profound Groove, and Josh was so much more than just our DJ.
He helped us coordinate the entire night around the music and really thought through how each moment would feel. We incorporated slideshows into both my father-daughter dance and Daniel’s mother-son dance, and having the photos moving alongside the music added such a beautiful emotional depth to those moments.
Everyone was crying.
Those were some of my favorite memories of the entire reception because it made the dances feel less like something we were checking off the traditional wedding list and more like an actual tribute to our families and our lives.
Josh was incredibly attentive throughout the planning process and made sure every detail was exactly how I wanted it. He didn’t just show up and play songs… he helped us produce an experience.
And, somehow, he also helped us make our last-minute Monday wedding happen! Josh is used to booking weddings around a year and a half in advance, so the fact that the stars aligned and he was available for us felt pretty miraculous.
When you’re choosing your DJ, I would look for someone who understands that they’re helping control the entire energy and flow of the night. Music is obviously a huge part of it, but the right person is also helping you create moments your guests will remember.
Josh absolutely did that for us.
Connect with DJ Joshua Carl & Profound Groove:
DJ Joshua Carl: https://www.instagram.com/djjoshuacarl/
Profound Groove: https://www.instagram.com/profoundgroovellc/
5. A Hair & Makeup Team That Makes You Feel Like You
This one was about so much more than hair and makeup for me.
On my wedding day, I really wanted to feel like myself.
Screenshot
I didn’t want to look in the mirror and feel like I was wearing a costume or a completely different face just because I was a bride. I wanted to feel natural, beautiful and elevated… like the best version of myself.
But just as importantly, I cared about the energy of the people I was going to be around that morning.
Wedding mornings can be emotional and there is a lot happening around you, so I wanted people in the room who had a calm, positive energy and made the getting-ready process actually enjoyable.
Teryn Brewer and Samantha McGlynn of Glam by Sam absolutely crushed it.
They brought exactly the kind of energy I wanted into the morning, and I felt SO beautiful.
I think brides can get very focused on portfolios when choosing hair and makeup… and obviously you need to love someone’s work… but I would also think about the person behind the work. You’re spending a really intimate part of your wedding day with them. They’re there during the nerves, the excitement, the family coming in and out of the room and all of those little moments before you walk down the aisle.
You want people around you who make you feel good.
For me, feeling natural, feeling like myself and having Teryn and Sam bring such a calm, positive presence into the morning was exactly what I needed.
Connect with Teryn Brewer:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamterynhair/
Connect with Samantha McGlynn / Glam by Sam
6. A Photo & Video Team That Understands Your Vision
Your wedding day goes by SO fast.
Everyone tells you that before you get married, and then you experience it and realize they weren’t exaggerating. There are so many moments happening at once, so many people you love in one place and so many little things you wish you could somehow freeze in time.
That made photo and video incredibly important to me.
I knew I didn’t want our wedding photos and film to feel overly posed or trendy. I wanted timeless, emotional, authentic, nostalgic, vintage vibes… something that felt like us and would still feel like us decades from now.
We worked with Lauren Hawkins for photography and the team at Boettcher Films for video, and they completely understood the vision.
They are obviously incredibly talented, but what stood out to me just as much was how they made us feel on the wedding day.
They were happy, calm and such a positive presence to have around us. When you’re choosing a photographer and videographer, remember that these are people who are going to be with you during some of the most intimate and emotional moments of your entire day. They’re there while you’re getting ready, before you walk down the aisle, during your portraits, throughout the reception and in all of those little in-between moments.
You want to actually like being around them!
Lauren and the Boettcher Films team made us feel comfortable enough to just be ourselves, which allowed them to capture the authentic moments I cared about so much.
By the end of our wedding, they didn’t feel like vendors anymore.
They felt like friends.
And I think that says everything.
Connect with Lauren Hawkins:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenhawkinsphoto/
Connect with Boettcher Films:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boettcherfilms/
7. Jesus at the Center of It All
This was the most important one.
More than the venue, the cake, the music, the photos or any of the beautiful details we spent months thinking about, Daniel and I wanted our wedding to be centered around Jesus and the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
We didn’t want our wedding to just be an amazing party… although it definitely was one!
We wanted it to mean something.
Getting married in the Catholic Church was incredibly important to us. Having our priest marry us, celebrating our marriage through the Mass and truly honoring the sacrament reminded us of what the entire day was actually about.
It wasn’t just about throwing a wedding. We were entering into a marriage.
We tried to carry our faith beyond the church and into the reception, too. Our priest gave a blessing over dinner, and we placed prayer cards at every guest’s seat. They were little details, but they helped make our faith part of the entire celebration rather than something that ended when we walked out of the church.
For us, putting Jesus at the center changed the entire meaning of the day.
There is so much emphasis in wedding planning on how everything is going to look… the flowers, the dress, the tables, the photos, the venue. And I loved all of those things! But our faith gave the day a depth that none of those details could have created on their own.
It made our wedding feel like more than a party.
It felt sacred.
And out of every “must-have” on this list, that is the one I know we’ll carry with us long after the wedding day itself.
Figure Out What Matters Most to You
If I learned anything from planning our wedding, it is that you cannot make everything the most important thing.
Especially when you’re planning quickly, you have to decide what matters most to you and your future spouse.
For me, it was the feeling of the ceremony, celebrating by the water, having those beautiful classic details, creating an incredible experience for our guests, capturing the day in a way that felt authentic, feeling completely like myself throughout it all and, above everything else, keeping our faith at the center.
Your list might be totally different.
Maybe it’s your photographer, the band, the flowers, the food and the dress. Maybe you care most about an incredible after-party. Maybe you’re a foodie and the menu is the first thing you plan.
That’s the fun of it.
Figure out your non-negotiables early, prioritize them and then give yourself permission to be flexible with the rest.
Our Monday Cape Cod wedding wasn’t about checking every single box of what a wedding is “supposed” to look like. It was about creating a day that felt sacred, beautiful, emotional, fun and completely true to us.
And I think that’s the best wedding-planning advice I could give anyone: choose the things that are going to make you feel something.
The music filled the church. The sunset over the water. Cutting the cake. Looking around the room during a dance and seeing everyone you love crying with you. Looking in the mirror that morning and still seeing yourself. And eventually getting to relive moments you didn’t even realize were happening through the photos and film.
But most importantly, remember what the day is actually about.
For us, that was standing before God, surrounded by the people we love, and entering into the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
Everything else made the day beautiful.
Our faith made it meaningful.
God Bless,
Shannon Rose Linger