April 2018

Plain and simple, this Sleepy Hollow Country Club wedding from Sara Wight Photography is beyond stunning. It starts with the Brides jaw-droppingly gorgeous Vera Wang gown and then just keeps the gorgeous going until the very end. It’s a soiree that has style for miles (and miles), and it’s surely a day their guests will talk about for years (and years).

From the bride… Michael and I wanted to create a unique, romantically sweet celebration for our wedding, with a touch of vintage elegance. We pulled inspiration from our Italian honeymoon and tried to include personal touches of our love of travel. It was important that we added a sense of our own personalities into the details, to help create uniqueness to our special day. When we were searching for venues we knew we wanted a vintage mansion setting, which would allow us to carry out our vision. Sleepy Hollow Country Club was an absolute dream location, and once we found the old Vanderbilt mansion, everything just seemed to fall into place. Our color palate was inspired by a farmer’s market wooden crate filled with ripe peaches. The soft peaches, greens, and pinks encapsulated the overall feel we wanted for our late June wedding. As a bride I knew exactly what feeling I wanted to capture, and I can truly say that everything turned out better than I could have imagined.

The outdoor ceremony had the feeling of walking through a European garden in the early 1900s. The Around Town Band provided an amazing harpist and flutist to help add to the romantic ambiance we wanted to create. With the amazing backdrop of the Hudson River, and the gorgeous trees, it was easy to get lost in the scenery, so the flowers and ceremony space were minimalistic, romantically soft, and simply… perfect. The white birch arbor was an idea created by myself, and carried out by our amazing florist, In Full Bloom. We wanted to create a unique, lighthearted ceremony, which would show the importance of our two families being joined together by our marriage. We wrote our own vows, had a few close family members/friends perform romantic readings, and got our guests involved through pledges and our personalized sermon.

Following the ceremony our guests moved to the outdoor cocktail hour, which gave one the feeling of being in J. Gatsby’s backyard during one of his elegant afternoon soirees. Personal touches were added with personalized cocktails for the bride and groom, as well as vintage paper straws and cute personalized stirrers, courtesy of MissPrissyPaige. Our guests ate, drank, and walked around the amazing grounds with one another, which was exactly what we had hoped they’d do… A perfect start to our perfect evening.

Inside, our guests were seated at their tables with handmade cork escort cards, made by the bride and groom, to capture our love of wine, wineries, and our upcoming honeymoon in Italy. Our tables were named for different cities in Italy, and the guests had to match their corks to the wine bottle labels, also handmade. Our centerpieces were 3-4 multilevel arrangements, intertwined with candles, and vintage stands. Our handmade limoncello favors were also placed at each guest’s seat. The children’s table was equipped with table top games, disposable cameras, and silly props for taking pictures. Pictures of us over the years, our families, even loved ones we’ve lost, were placed throughout the rooms inside the mansion. We had a puzzle piece guestbook, and a card display which was created to capture our love of travel. Even the ladies’ restroom had handmade lip-glosses, which was made by the bride and a bridesmaid. Our guests were able to roam around the mansion, as if it was our own home, and take in all the personal details we had created. They enjoyed a 3 course meal, two types of out-of-this-world cupcakes, created by Lovely Cakes, and late night snack vendors supplied by Funtime Amusements. An authentic cigar roller was also stationed on an outdoor veranda to allow for guests to flow inside and outside.

Guests have been talking about our amazing day for weeks now, and that was exactly what Michael and I had hoped for; an evening where we could celebrate our love of one another, with our closest family members and friends. Our wedding was created from our vision, with our guests in mind every step of the way. Michael and I felt overwhelmed with the amount of love and support we received on our special day, and we believe our guests felt equally appreciated through the personal details we’d created with them in mind.

Cape May is one of the East Coast’s little gems that just so happens to make the perfect wedding backdrop. Exhibit A: these nautical nuptials that take “Cape May pretty” to a whole new level. Complete with a seafoam color and subtle, stripey details everywhere you look, this gallery from Caroline Frost is one lovely spot you don’t want to miss.

From the Bride… The setting of this wedding took place at Congress Hall in historic Cape May, NJ. This is the oldest seaside hotel on the east coast and was a vacation spot for 4 of our US presidents, in which the building holds a lot of history. Bryan and I chose to have the wedding at Congress Hall because Cape May was always a spot that my mom and I summer vacationed together growing up as well as a frequent getaway I went with my college roommate to her family home. When I took Bryan down to see Congress Hall, he immediately fell in love with the venue as much as I did, with it’s picturesque scenery and timeless history of the hotel.

The inspiration for Bryan and my wedding was elegant and classic, I wanted it to look like it came from the pages of Vanity Fair or a Ralph Lauren ad. We kept the color scheme simple based on the unique room color of the ballroom, which was turquoise, by using a simple color pallet of navy and silver accents with all whitefloral arrangementsto pay homageto being by the ocean.

The day could not have been more beautiful and unseasonably warm for November 2nd down the shore — almost 70 degrees — and the energy of the wedding was just as bright and infectious! Surrounded by family and friends alongside our bridal parties made of up college roommates, cousins and childhood and NYC friends, the love was felt all around that day.Throughout the wedding, we wanted to be sure to add our own personal touches and included details such as our favorite drink, a Moscow Mule which was our signature cocktail called the ‘Gunderstruck’ a spin on Bryan’s last name of ‘Gunderson.’ The band’s playlist was especially important to us to include a variety of special songs to remind us of our relationship through the years together whether it was attending a Tom Petty concert at the Beacon Theatre in NYC, or our wedding song ‘Halo’ by Beyonce, which Bryanincludedon a mix tape for me before he moved to Colorado for a summer. Also, in lieu of wedding favors to our guests, we decided to make a donation to Memorial Sloan Ketering Hospital for cancer research in honor of my two Grandfathers and uncle that all passed away at young ages to cancer to celebrate them in spirit that day.

After two amazing speeches by my maid of honor since second grade, Amanda, and Bryan’s best man from high school at Delbarton, Ryan — who gave a whole new meaning to the word ‘speedbump’ — we were treated by a surprise guest appearance by my Dad as he played with our band one of my favorite songs by the group Chicago, which was the first concert we both saw together while he served in Operation Desert Storm as a Colonel in the Marine Corps. We couldn’t have asked for a better day filled with love,happiness and joy as we celebrated our union together as husband and wife

From The Bride… A few years ago I took some recreational flower arranging classes at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and took note of the Palm House, a beautiful glass greenhouse nestled in the garden. A few years later, after Brendan and I got engaged, we visited the Palm House and I fell in love with it again—as a wedding venue! The garden’s romantic, elegant aesthetic and proximity to our home in Brooklyn made it the perfect location for us.

The venue really served as the inspiration for our wedding, and we decided to play up the natural beauty of the setting with a garden theme focused on shades of purple, silver accents, and succulents. I choose a beautiful Mikaella gown that had flower lace details on the bodice and a sheer organza overlay that I thought complemented the organic feel of the venue. Serving as my own wedding planner, I was heavily involved in the design of the wedding, and really enjoyed infusing little personal touches along the way. I did the calligraphy on the invitations and escort cards, assembled all the wedding favors (personalized M&Ms in mini glass jars with leaf tags), and made table numbers (painted wooden numbers on a moss ball) and wedding signage. I enlisted my dad to paint all the props for the photobooth and he totally surprised me with his hidden artistic talent! Designs by Ahn not only made beautiful bouquets and gorgeous arrangements, but also fulfilled my dream of having succulents in silver buckets serve as escort card holders.

Urban elegance is the name of the game for this Long Island City wedding photographed by Lindsay Hite of READYLUCK. Starting with a ceremony covered in twinkling cafe lights and ending with a reception that’s the very definition of “chic,” it’s no wonder Around Town Entertainment kept the party going well the night. See it all waiting in THE VAULT.

From the Bride and Groom, Lesley and Josh… From the outset, we wanted to throw a beautiful and personal party for our friends and family to celebrate the love we have for each other and for them. We envisioned New York City as the location of our wedding because the city is where our relationship began. It’s where generations of our family members married, and, practically speaking, is a close destination for the majority of our guests. We wanted the wedding to have an offbeat, but elegant vibe that would reflect our interests and personalities, as well as put this beloved city on display.

We were instantly attracted to The Foundry – partly because of the view of Manhattan, partly because of the lush courtyard, and mostly because it felt like it had a lot of character. At the same time, it was a terrific blank slate to translate our vision. After that was decided on, we selected vendors that both connected with our vision and we felt would be easy to work with despite us being in Utah and their being in New York.

From the Bride, “Soon after we selected the venue, I started searching for her dress and found ‘the one’ at Alta Moda, a local dress shop in Salt Lake City. This dress had everything I wanted, and didn’t even know I wanted! I fell absolutely in love with the dress’s unique, intricate lace pattern, its feminine silhouette that accentuated my curves, and ultimately, it’s timeless feel.”

We spent a lot of time concerning ourselves with tangible details – coordinating typefaces, colors, materials, and all things tactile. We were struck by the story of The Foundry, which had been part of the local brass and metal production industry. We wanted to avoid an overly industrial look, but chose neutrals and metallic colors as sort of a nod to the building’s history. This palette also complemented everything else – the flowers, the food, the music, the people, etc.

We truly lucked out with our vendors. Lindsay from READYLUCK was a pure joy to work with. She is an incredibly talented photographer and one of the kindest, most thoughtful and easy-going people we worked with. Hiring her was by far one of the best decisions we could have made during our planning process. Our caterers were phenomenal to work with throughout every phase of the planning process and brought us both such joy to see how our ideas materialized on the big day. Working with them was one of the highlights of planning because we shared so much love and appreciation for each other.

We were thrilled to partner with Saipua, whose design aesthetic perfectly complemented the ambiance we strove to create. We also loved that Saipua, in essence, is a mother-daughter business with Sarah as head florist and designer and Susan, master soapmaker. For favors we knew everyone would enjoy, Susan created customized soaps we gave our guests at the end of the evening. A live band was a must, and we were thrilled with Around Town’s renditions of each and every song. Having them there certainly made the reception all the more lively and photogenic.

We did not have too many DIY elements (other than our vows). The most unique aspects of our wedding were the ceremony and cake. The ceremony was officiated by the bride’s oldest friend who got to know Josh especially well during the couple’s courtship in New York. Her ceremony was so touching and personal – it was by far one of the most talked about features of our wedding. Similarly, the wedding cake was actually made by a close friend of the bride, from college. It was such a treat to involve her in this way. We placed complete trust in her and the results far exceeded our expectations.

From the bride, “It’s hard to know what advice to give because I’m not sure whether it’s better to give advice based on what went right or wrong. A lot of former brides advised me to “enjoy every moment,” Honestly, that was harder to manage than I expected, in part because I still felt somewhat responsible for getting things done on the day of the wedding, and that gave me additional, unwelcomed stress. So my advice is a bit more specific: ‘In order to be fully present and enjoy every moment (1) make sure your “day of” timeline and plans are as final as you need them to be to feel relaxed, (2) be sure checks for tips are made up in advance and someone has been delegated the task of distributing them, and (3) drink just enough to relax your expectations and truly enjoy your party.’

It all started with one of the sweetest proposals ever.  Well, actually, it started in an LSAT prep course, but when it came time to get down on bended knee, this groom surprised his bride with a meaningful moment she will NEVER forget.  Follow that up with a vintage-inspired love fest overflowing with gorgeous details (think Beacon Lane invites and a stunning Johanna Johnson gown from Gabriella New York) and it’s a happy, happy Wednesday.  See it all captured by Kelly Kollar in THE VAULT.

Take a classic color palette – ivory and gold – and add in a punch of color (teal!) and what do you get? One really fun and fabulous wedding that we’re pining over (and pinning nonstop)! Brigham & Co. captured every delightful detail of this Connecticut celebration, from the unique wedding dress (designs by Amy Kuschel and Jenny Yoo combined) to lots of late night dancing thanks to Around Town Entertainment. See it all in our Vault right this way!

From Brigham and Co… They didn’t know it yet, but Sarah and Brendan lived only three blocks apart before they found one another. With big hearts, and a knack for good humor, it’s no surprise a little comic relief took place when they met for their first date at Pen Rose in NYC when Sarah hugged a guy she thought was Brendan, only to find out he hadn’t arrived just yet. After this first encounter, these two were bound together for what would soon become forever. 

On September 17, 2016, Sarah and Brendan wed on a picture-perfect autumn day at the Hartford Golf Club in West Hartford, Connecticut. Sarah readied with her maids at her mother and father’s elegant Farmington, Connecticut home, donning an assortment of fine details and a wedding dress that turned heads – an elegant Amy Kuschel and Jenny Yoo combo. 

Sarah and Brendan joined their love in an Interfaith ceremony held outdoors on the grounds of the Hartford Golf Club, beginning this next, wild chapter of life with the groom’s customary “breaking of the glass.” A modest gathering of those nearest and dearest cheered and exalted as the celebration moved gracefully into a beautiful, sunset-lathered cocktail hour, and onward into a candlelit reception adorned with white roses, variegated greens, and live music to dance the night away.