Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery
Warwick, New York
West Village
New York, New York
Hunter Mountain & Phoenicia Diner
Hunter, New York
From Brittany:Prior to planning my wedding, I did not envision my wedding, but I love how it turned out! My favorite moment was walking down the aisle with Brandon after saying"I do," and one of the most special things about our wedding was having our daughter there with us. I loved my venue, Highlands Country Club - they took care of all the details and made August 4th one of the best days of my life. Everything about HCC was picture perfect, as you can see by the amazing job Jackie did taking the most beautiful photos ever. I loved that our wedding was the best party we had ever been to with all of our friends and family.
Garrison, New York
Music: APB Entertainment
Private Residence
Cornwall, New York
Long Dock Park
Beacon, New York
Vanderbilt Mansion
Hyde Park, New York
Gantry Plaza State Park
Long Island City
From Ashia & Mike:
Both bride and groom have a deep passion, love, and appreciation for craft production - whether it's beer, coffee, woven baskets or textiles - and so it was very fitting that the wedding had so many craft elements incorporated.
This was meant (just as craft has always intended throughout history) to help forge a meaningful connection with the process, each other and with all of our guests.
The most unique piece was definitely our wedding guest pen holder, it was made from the stump of our first Christmas Tree!
Here are some of the craft elements incorporated into the wedding:
Many global artisans from around the world, inspired by the Bride's work at Nest
Welcome & Better Together Signs, made by bride & sisters
Lace Table Cloths by artisans in Poland
Handwoven breadbaskets from Nepal
Handpainted Veil made in the USA
Handmade Wedding Guest Book from Lithuania
Ring Box, hand carved from North Carolina
Wedding Earrings, by Deepa Gurnani handmade by artisans in India
Mike and I took on the brunt of the wedding work. We had no idea what we were getting into but being able to use our minds to think through what would make the day truly us and then to rally our closest friends and family on the Friday before to help make it happen was actually one of the most memorable and special parts of the wedding experience.
Preparations: Shakespeare on the Hudson
Flowers: DIY via the Bouqs
Ceremony: St. Mary's in Coxsackie, NY
Reception: the Barn at Oak Hill
Catering: Simply Gourmet
Floral Headwreaths: Rosery
Hair: Lari Manz
From Allie:
I think the best way to describe the vibe I was going for for was "beach-boho," though my husband is a bit more "country club traditional." So we landed somewhere akin to "preppy-beach-boho-chic" which was just confusing enough to totally work! The wedding palette we went with was just light pastels/blues/greens, which was consistent with our beachy venue. As far as other wedding elements, we were pretty #basic: mason jars, flower crowns, the whole show. Very pinterestable.
The best part about the wedding for us was definitely having all of our favorite people together in the same place. The love in the room was so palpable, and we were so moved by how many people traveled from far and wide to spend less than 24 hours with us. From Korea, China and Taiwan to Portugal and Spain, we were so humbled by the outpouring of support we received from all corners of the globe (and the number of flight hours logged in transit!)
If we had to pinpoint a specific moment, I think we'd have to say that our favorite part of the whole night was standing on the beach after everyone had cleared out, and just taking it all in before joining our guests on the buses back to the hotel. From what we understand from our guests, the sushi chef during cocktail hour, my signature cocktail (patent pending), and the band were the big winners of the night.
As far as advice I might give to future brides: order too much dessert. Worst case, you have leftovers.
Venue: Shenorock Shore Club
Florist: L'Oasis Floral Design
Band: Faze4
Wedding Planner: Whitney Events
Stationary: Minted
Hair: Jessica Cleaver
Makeup: Jennifer Dockendorf
Cupcakes: Jennifer Roche
From Kelsey:
Prior to planning (and all throughout) we just wanted our wedding to a huge celebration. We both have huge families and many friends from each of our colleges and our home town, so we really were just so excited to have all of the people that we care about together. Since we were together for nine years before getting married, we had already met every person at our wedding... to know me was to know Kyle and vice versa. We were really excited about that because for many people there, it was watching two people that you know and love get married - not watching one person that you know and love get married to a stranger that you barely knew.
The color palette was navy with yellows, greens and whites. I always liked the idea of a rustic farm wedding but that wasn't going to happen in a middle of a city, so we just brought different elements of that to the day - some wooden crates, bright colored flowers, table numbers on burlap hearts and twinkle lights.
We wanted to have little touches of DC throughout the day since nearly everyone was coming from NY or NJ to visit our city. We had DC pictures (cherry blossom trees and monuments) on the menus and made sure to include one of our favorite DC beers (DC Brau Corruption).
As cliché as it sounds, it really is impossible to choose a favorite moment. We loved our band and how much fun everyone was having on the dance floor. We loved the monastery gardens where we got our pictures taken and how different and beautiful it was. Mostly, we loved celebrating the best day of our lives with everyone that we loved.
I chose the flowers that I did based on color. I really love brightly colored flowers and green and yellow are my favorite colors. I chose sunflowers with whites and greenery for the bouquets and boutonnieres. The centerpieces and large flower crate at the place card table had orange, red, yellow, greens and whites in them - zinnias, gerbera daisies, hydrangeas, bells of Ireland, chamomile and snapdragons. You'll notice there was no pink or purple at the entire wedding - that wasn't an accident :)
We had a Funfetti cake with buttercream frosting. When Kyle turned 25 years old, we were visiting our home town. He requested that his mom make him a Funfetti cake and she refused because she said that no respectable 25 year old lawyer ate Funfetti (hahaha). We got the cake to be Funfetti flavored as a surprise to his mom and the rest of our guests. Our caterer used to solely make cakes so we were very excited to have her make ours - it was delicious and beautiful.
My gown was bought at Bridal by Elena in Gambrills, Maryland. The consultant for my bridal appointment actually picked it out for me even though I said I didn't like it... I swore I would never have a strapless dress. I tried it on to make her happy (and make a point that it would look terrible on me) and I ended up loving it immediately and choosing it that day.
We were really excited that Jackie was available to shoot our wedding. Both Kyle and I are pretty darn awkward in front of the camera and Jackie made us feel so comfortable and natural. I'm sure part of it is that I've known her forever, but she also has such a presence in how she directed us that it never felt weird or forced. It was lots of fun to have her there too since she knows my family so well and our many quirks!
Our advice to anyone planning their wedding would be to take some time throughout the day and just stand back and look around together. Everyone always tells you how fast the day will go, and that couldn't be more true. It helps to take a few moments to just take everything in.
Ceremony: St. Patrick's Catholic Church
Reception: St. Francis Hall
Portraits: Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America
Flowers: Convention Floral
Entertainment: Bachelor Boys Band
Caterer: Teatime Delicacies
From the bride:
When I was a child I had always imagined being married with kids by the time I turned 30, but when 31 rolled around and I was still swiping through Tinder profiles, marriage seemed like an improbability. I wasn’t at all convinced that a casual dating app was going to reveal my soulmate, but just as I was about to hit delete, I met Pete.
Two years later as I clutched my Dad’s arm and stepped through the doors of our wedding venue to see Pete standing at the end of the aisle, I started to cry. Our best friends Darah and Jimmy had just finished singing the second verse of our favorite Chris Stapleton song and a sea of people with tears in their eyes smiled back at me. I will never forget that overwhelming feeling of love – the love I had for the man who stood before me (who also couldn’t hold back his tears) and the love I felt from the people surrounding me, who despite all my cynicism, had truly believed that this day would come. I can’t imagine there will be another day in my lifetime where all the most important people in our lives will be together in one place to celebrate, and that will be a moment I will cherish forever.
When it came to planning our wedding our approach was a bit unconventional. We hadn’t imagined a specific theme – we just knew that we wanted our wedding to be a reflection of our personalities and our relationship – laid back, loving, approachable and, of course, filled with ridiculous dancing, an inflatable flamingo, and a whole lot of laughter. When it came to our aesthetic, we never really had a specific color palate. Pete’s favorite color is blue and I love patterns and textures so we just started from there. I was scrolling through GreenWeddingShoe’s instagram and saw these awesome bohemian floral patterned bridesmaid dresses by ShowMeYourMumu and instantly feel in love. From there we layered on complimenting textures and colors. I designed my own wedding invitations, save the date cards and menus. One of my favorite personal touches were the table numbers. We absolutely LOVED our engagement photos and wanted to find a creative way to incorporate them into our wedding. Each table number featured a different picture from our engagement session along with a correlating fact about our relationship. We painted crates white to match the beachy vibe of our venue and had our florist fill them with vibrant colors and textures.
If I had give advice to future brides, I would suggest to find small ways to make your wedding feel personal, even if it goes against the grain of wedding norms. For us, it made each part of the wedding feel that much more special. We started with planning our ceremony. One of my closest childhood friends, Jen had been diagnosed with a rare illness a few years prior and watching her and her husband battle through it together, all while raising three young children, was a real testament to a strong and loving marriage. I knew this was the kind of marriage I wanted to emulate, so we asked Jen to do the honor of marrying us. Jen had never done anything like this before so we gave her some ideas of what kind of things we wanted her to talk about during the ceremony and then let her take it from there. Pete and I had also decided we wanted to write our own vows and keep them a secret. It was all a bit of risk, not knowing what Jen would say or what we would say to each other, but the surprise of it all made it that much more beautiful. Jen had asked our parents and bridal party to describe our relationship in one word and she incorporated that in to her ceremony. She read excerpts from a Bob Marley quote, shared her own perspective on marriage, and even surprised Pete and I by recounting our feelings from our first date and a few one liners from Pete’s tinder profile. Pete’s sister, Lauren also came up for a reading, which she barely could get through without sobbing, but the imperfections of it all, and the words we each stumbled over made the whole ceremony that much more endearing. Some of my other favorite personal touches from the wedding was having our best friends Jimmy and Darah play and sing one of our favorite songs as we walked down the aisle. My friends Meghan and Jimmy had been married a few years prior under their grandparents chuppah and, having always admired their relationship, we asked if we could incorporate it into our ceremony. We also asked one of Pete’s sisters if she could make a macrame that we could hang from it so that we had something special from each of our families to begin our marriage under. Pete’s brother-in-law even offered to make our favorite cupcakes (carrot cake, dulce de leche and oreo) in leu of a traditional cake. Pete, of course, wanted his favorite cinnamon roll on top.
Another one of my favorite moments from the wedding was having my dad sing the first verse of our father/daughter dance to "My Girl". I have such fond memories of my Dad singing and playing guitar to me as a child, so it was extra special to see him grab the mic and jump in with the band. Later in the night he jumped back on stage with my maid of honor for a song and we all crowded around the stage like a bunch of squealing teenage groupies.
My first dance with Pete was also a unique moment based on our relationship (wait… how many favorites can I have?!?). My Tinder profile picture had been a picture of me dancing with a sparkler at a 4th of July party and Pete says he always remembers swiping right because I looked so genuinely happy and carefree dancing with a sparkler in my hand. So we decided we wanted to do our first dance outside with sparklers and, of course, to the same Thomas Rhett song Pete had proposed to me to. It wasn’t as dark as we had hoped for, so the sparklers weren’t incredibly visible, but the magic of the moment overshadowed all of that. There were honestly so many “favorite” moments throughout the night that felt that much more magical because of the sentiment behind them. Overall our wedding was an absolute blast! We laughed, we cried, we belted out lyrics to our favorite songs and we ran in and out of the PfotoBooth to photo bomb our friends’ and families photos. I think those are two wedding must-haves (aside from an awesome photographer) – a kick-ass band and an adequately propped photo booth. Some of my favorite pictures from our wedding involve a crab hat, a sombrero and a blow up flamingo :) AND, of course, all the candid pictures where are just being our silly selves and laughing hysterically :) So, thank you, Jackie and team for taking pictures that truly captured the real, raw, loving and funny moments of our wedding day. We wish we could do it all over again!
Venue: Coveleigh Club
Flowers: Waverly & Grove
Entertainment: Silver Arrow Band
Cinematography: Preston Films
Stationery: DIY
Bridesmaid Dresses: Show Me Your Mumu
Brides Dress: Sukran’s Bridal
Hair/Makeup: Candice Bertolini and Tonya Valentin
FEAST Caterers
Washingtonville, New York
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Cornwall, New York
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Beacon, New York
