From the blue hydrangeas on the ceiling over the dance floor to the fleet of elegant, custom-designed tents overlooking the Atlantic, last weekend’s lavish wedding at the Chatham Bars Inn had it all.
Exquisite floral arrangements? Check. Ornate chandeliers? Check. Bruno Mars? Check.
Wait, that Bruno Mars? Yes, it cost a pretty penny, but the pompadoured Grammy winner did indeed perform at the spare-no-expense Cape Cod wedding of Kristin Ryan and Troy Brown, whose father, Greg Brown, is the multimillionaire CEO of Motorola Solutions.
The newlyweds, both Boston College alums, appear to reside in New York City, according to their LinkedIn pages. But Cape Cod is a home away from home for the groom, whose father summers at a waterfront estate in Chatham worth an estimated $9 million. The couple could not be reached for comment.
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The opulent Sept. 18 affair, managed by celebrity wedding planner Marcy Blum, was teeming with special touches, like the column of women, dressed as flappers, who sauntered into the reception with keys to the evening’s speakeasy-style after-party.
That Blum is mum on the arrangements — she politely declined our interview request — isn’t unusual. She’s planned plenty of ritzy weddings — the Rockefellers, George Soros, Billy Joel, and Kyra Sedgwick are a few of her former clients — and has earned a reputation for discretion.
For example, Blum handled the special day for LeBron and Savannah James in 2013, and somehow managed to keep the whole affair off Instagram. (It helped, of course, that all of James’s guests had their cellphones coat-checked at the door.)
Blum wouldn’t discuss the couple’s color palette or the bride’s garter toss, but she did give an enthusiastic shout-out to Chatham Bars Inn, which she said handled the catering.
“Did a wonderful job,” she wrote in an email.
She wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t dish the wedding details. Vendors and guests also were guarded. (Nondisclosure agreements are commonplace in the luxury wedding industry.) So we scoured the Internet, including social media.
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Judging from the couple’s own wedding website, the weekend kicked off with a rehearsal dinner, a seaside feast catered by New York chef Mario Carbone, whose renowned namesake restaurant is known for its spicy rigatoni and celebrity clientele. (Rihanna is a regular.) In one Instagram post, it looks like the custom menu cards included surf and at least a few turf options, and guests were seated at one long table with a knotty nautical theme.
Blum’s Instagram captures the wedding day itself with a cinematographer’s eye for detail. Sweeping drone shots of the beachfront ceremony and a glittering glass-top tent are interspersed with slow-mo footage of the happy couple on the sand and, soon enough, walking down the aisle.
Following the ceremony — the dramatic backdrop of which was the wide-open ocean vista outside Chatham Bars Inn — people headed to a sumptuous cocktail hour, hosted in one of the custom-designed tents complete with Cape-style decor and towering sunflower displays. An outdoor porch area with Adirondack rocking chairs offered yet another locale for guests to take in the views.
“The cocktail hour concept was for guests to feel as if they were visiting the family’s lovely and inviting house on the Cape,” Blum wrote on Instagram.
Then it was on to the reception, beneath an endless blanket of blue hydrangeas. Three golden chandeliers hung like ziggurats over the dance floor, and vines cloaked arbor-like structures that framed the room. Element Music brought in a full drum line dressed in traditional marching band attire to entertain.
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Then, eventually, Mars, the song-and-dance man whose hits include “Just the Way You Are” and “That’s What I Like,” took the stage for the boisterous after-party.
Why would a superstar singer perform at a stranger’s wedding? Simple: The money is excellent. Scarlet, a London-based agency that specializes in providing high-end entertainment for ultra-high-end weddings, books Bruno to serenade brides and grooms. But it’s not cheap. If you want the 11-time Grammy winner singing during your first dance as a married couple, it costs a minimum of $3 million.
Even at that number, Mars is apparently in demand. According to Scarlet’s website, Mars recently performed at Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s wedding in Lake Como, Italy.
Social media posts reveal the wedding extravaganza concluded with an array of late-night eats, including a Shake Shack food truck, no doubt serving greasy burgers to soak up all those top-shelf spirits.
Blum was quick to tag all those who helped put together the massive event. Design concepts were the work of HMR Designs, Frost Chicago did lighting and production, paper and branding were by TPD Design House, and photography and video was by Allan Zepeda and Storybox Cinema. Peak Event Services, a Woburn-based company, built the colossal tents.
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The event was the talk of the town, and one video on Blum’s account shows onlookers in Chatham craning their necks to get a glimpse at the festivities. The buzz reverberated all the way to Boston.
“The personalization of the design was top-notch, and I know Marcy Blum is one of the best in the business,” said one Boston wedding planner, who asked not to be named. “A food truck for the after party and a marching band for cocktail hour? I think these experiences are what people can take when planning small or big weddings.”
“It was absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking and Marcy is an absolute legend,” Boston-based wedding event planner Kate Murtaugh said. “I’m amazed at the level of production that went into it.”
Correction: This story has been updated to remove a reporting error in the list of private parties at which Bruno Mars has performed.
Brittany Bowker can be reached at brittany.bowker@globe.com. Follow her @brittbowker and also on Instagram @brittbowker. Mark Shanahan can be reached at mark.shanahan@globe.com. Follow him @MarkAShanahan.