Erin + Tim filmed by Weiss Photo and Film - Together Journal

I wanted every element to feel thoughtful, sophisticated and curated.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

Tim and I live in New York City and have been together for 7 years. Tim is an Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley, and I work in Global Communications for Drunk Elephant. I’d say we’re a great example of opposites attract! Both of our jobs are very demanding but in different ways. Tim is a very mathematic and analytical thinker, while I’m a bit more… colourful and creative. We are both very type-A, though, so it just ~works~ with us. We also love film and spend a lot of time watching and talking about movies. Fashion, food, and family are a few of our other favourite things.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

Tim and I met on Hinge (it is the 21st century, after all!) on July 4, 2017. After talking for a few days, we decided to meet in person for a drink in a small bar on Bleecker Street. We talked about music, movies and our love for New York. We also stumbled upon the topic of family and came to the (seemingly implausible) realization that our fathers actually grew up together in a small town in Vermont… it was crazy, but it also felt kismet. It quickly became a long first date, and we spent the next 5 hours laughing and sharing stories.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

After our first date, I think we both knew we wanted to spend our life together. There was so much synergy between us, and everything really felt right. We quickly fell into place with one another in our relationship (and have been together ever since). When we met, I was only 21 and finishing my degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology, while Tim was 26 and looking for a career change. We helped each other achieve our dreams over the course of 5 years before we got engaged, and it was perfect.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

Tim got down on one knee on March 3, 2023, at the quintessential Central Park Sailboat Pond here in New York City. It’s my absolute favourite spot in the city, so it was really special to me that he chose there to propose.

What he didn’t know, is that the city drains the pond at the end of February every year, so where there normally is a beautiful pond with water and sailboats, there was just an empty hole in the ground! We laughed SO hard after the proposal, and we still laugh about it today. It made the day even more memorable in such a silly way, which fits our relationship and us.

Tim kept a whole day of surprises going, from my family secretly being at the proposal to all of our friends gathering at the bar where we first met to surprise me and celebrate our engagement. It was an amazing day, and it felt so wonderful to be engaged to one another finally.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding.

Classic and elegant New York City. I’m obsessed with antiques and historical architecture, so the historic venue we chose really fed into the overall design of our wedding. I wanted every element to feel thoughtful, sophisticated and curated. Fashion is very important to me, so I wanted that to be evident in the design.

I told everyone I wanted the perfect mix between Grace Kelly and Carrie Bradshaw, or in other words, the perfect mix of classic yet modern. I think we were able to achieve just that with the style and mood of our big day—at least I hope so!

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Food & Fashion! When so many people were travelling to NYC just to celebrate Tim and I, we agreed that we wanted it to be a standout meal for them. Our caterer, Rhubarb Hospitality, went above and beyond for our menu and service. Same with our custom 5-tier wedding cake, Soma Cakes in NYC brought our dreams to life and multiple people during the wedding came up to us to tell us it was the BEST cake they’ve ever had! High praise!

As I’ve said, fashion is a very important part of my life, so when it came to our wedding, there were no exceptions. I had four different outfits planned for the big day (+1 for our welcome party!) that I spent a lot of time dreaming up. I workshopped mood boards for every outfit, inclusive of all the elements that went with each of them. It took a lot of time and effort (and help from friends!), but it really helped me visualize the looks and made me feel a lot more confident in all the choices I made!

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

Yes! This is par for the course with any large event, and working in PR, I’m no stranger to planning events and the nuances that come with them. It’s important to remember not to sweat the small stuff.

For us, we hired an illustrator to draw fashion portraits of our guests as a keepsake from our wedding. The illustrator really promised us the world in terms of style/design, and we spent the whole wedding telling everyone to make sure they go and get a custom drawing. At the end of the night, when Tim and I finally went over to get our own drawing…let’s just say we were shocked at the quality and level of artistry LOL. The morning after the wedding, we laughed so hard with all of our friends and family as we looked at the drawings, and we still laugh today!

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

I’ve been in love with Grace Kelly’s wedding dress for as long as I can remember, so she was the driving force behind the inspiration for my dress but with a modern twist. With this, I had a strong vision for what I wanted, so Netta BenShabu helped me create a custom version of their ‘Daisy’ dress, bringing my Grace Kelly x Carrie Bradshaw dreams to life. We opened the back, lengthened the train, added buttons on the cuffs and back, and changed the sleeves – it made it perfect for me, and it felt so special that it was completely custom.

My reception dress was Dolce&Gabbana—I saw it walk the SS23 runway (virtually) and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to wear it as the party dress for our wedding…so I did! It felt fabulous and was the perfect juxtaposition to my more traditional ceremony dress.

Tim wore a custom tuxedo from his go-to haberdasher, Phil. He’s been going to him for years to make his suits for work, so it was a natural choice for Tim. For some special touches, Tim wore a bowtie from YSL that I gifted him at Christmas and his great-grandfather’s gold cufflinks, which have been passed down in his family for generations. They sat next to a very small “E” (for Erin) that was embroidered on the cuff of his shirt sleeve.