Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship…
Hal and I met the first day of college in Design History class. We immediately hit it off, building our relationship atop a foundation of friendship, creativity, and collaboration. When we got engaged 8 years later, we knew we wanted our wedding planning to take advantage of this foundation, and really push our creative skills to the next level. Both of us work professionally in the design field, and have a passion for hand crafts of many kinds.
Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details…
The entire aesthetic of our wedding stemmed from one pair of fabulous paisley velvet boots. We always knew that our wedding wouldn’t be anything close to conventional, but those boots really sealed the deal! We didn’t want to bind ourselves to a color scheme, instead looking to our surroundings for texture and color inspiration. Our goal was to design a natural, botanical, open-air celebration honoring love and the changing of the seasons.
Hal’s mom has a tiny cottage nestled on the beach of the North Fork on Long Island. The cottage has been in the family for generations, forever instilled with the energy and love of those that came before us. It is a wonderful place, one that we refer to as the Vortex because of its power to draw you in, making you never want to leave. Our venue was never a question. Founder’s Landing Park, located a stone’s throw from the cottage, is a beautiful spot, and one that would offer the space we need while still staying close to the heart of the cottage. The park only had one date left in September 2018, which just so happened to be the Autumnal Equinox. With our love for fall and nature, we decided to let our inspiration flow from the natural beauty of the seasonal transition.
We created a vast amount of the personal touches and details ourselves, with the goal of collaborating and exploring our skill sets both individually and as a couple. We handcrafted our favors, hand lettered signage, and designed our invitation suite; we screenprinted welcome bags and arranged dried flowers. We gathered driftwood at one of our favorite beaches (which is where we eventually chose to do our First Look), which Hal used to create our ceremony arch. We also collaborated with many people close to us to create some of our favorite details, even more treasured because of the many hours and hands that went into making them happen. One of the most special aspects of our planning was writing the ceremony with Hal’s cousin, Ariel. Ariel knows us intimately both as individuals and as a couple, and we couldn’t have been more honored to have her craft this special aspect of our day.
Tell us about your main outfits:
The true inspiration for our scheme were the natural colours and textures of the beautiful setting we would eventually get married upon. The boots we took as a starting point are velvet and paisley in light golden earth-tones with pops of turquoise and blue, picking out many of the most striking colors of our location. We knew we wanted something untraditional yet classy, that spoke to our passions for design and the natural world. We pulled some inspiration images made some sketches and worked with a Philadelphia-based designer and seamstress, Lele Tran, to bring our minimal naturalist fantasy to life.
Hal’s vest is made from suede sourced at Mood NYC, and upholstery fabric sourced from fabric row in downtown Philadelphia. Instead of the traditional ornament of a tie and collar we opted for a cleaner mandarin style collar.
My dress design was an exercise in trusting my gut instincts. While I knew I didn’t want a white dress, I originally thought I wanted something more colourful; however, I kept gravitating toward the warm hues of wheat and sand. The warm tone of the silk crepe, lined with a deeper gold, really pulled in the natural surroundings of the beach and rocks. I also had a change of heart a couple months before our wedding and ended up redesigning the entire top half of my dress we had been working on for months. However, the result was just what I was looking for: minimal, but with some edgier design elements like the back cutout and two-tone silk, while still pulling inspiration from the beautiful setting, blending in and standing out simultaneously.
What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?
Our favourite memories consist of the intangible. We never could have imagined the amount of love and joy that emanated from our weekend. Having all our loved ones travel great distances to be with us, forever instilling this special place with love and laughter, meant more to us than we can express.
Our officiant Ariel, saging us with a giant smudge stick immediately before our ceremony; the three of us huddled out of sight in the bushes, taking a moment to shake out the giddy nerves and centre ourselves. And Ariel turning to us, saying: “Alright, you’re ready. Now don’t pick up any weird sh*t on your way to the altar.”
After our ceremony was over, instead of walking back down the aisle, we turned around, ran down the steps to the beach, and took off on a canoe ride together immediately post-ceremony. We’ll never forget absorbing those first minutes as husband and wife, looking back at all our loved ones kicking off cocktail hour.
Tearing up the dance floor! Our DJ Jeremy was a musical magician, keeping everyone dancing all evening long.
We capped off the night with a campfire on the beach and many shenanigans we won’t soon forget!
Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together?
As difficult as it may be, try your best to carve out some time for yourselves during your wedding day. We received this sage advice from several people close to us. In order to follow this advice as best we could, we set aside time in the schedule to allow for us to steal away, such as driving to our ceremony location after the First Look; taking the canoe ride; and taking a short walk during dinner to watch the sun set. These moments gave us a chance to take a breath and absorb all the love that made our day so special, and become for the briefest of moments observers of the joyous gathering of the people that we love most in the world.
Photography: Traverse the Tides (AJ & Jennie Ranieri)- Ceremony and Reception Location: Founder’s Landing Park in Southold, NY- Celebrant: Ariel Nadelstern (Hal’s cousin)- Entertainment: DJ: Jeremy Gibson– Flora: Flowers were self sourced and added to greenery from FiftyFlowers– Coordinator: Ashley O’Neil– Food/Beverage/Catering: Lombardi’s Love Lane Market in Mattituck, NY– Invitation suite: designed by Meg, printed by Revival Letterpress– Outfits: both bride and groom outfits were created in collaboration with Philadelphia-based designer Lele Tran– Rings: Groom designed and modeled the rings, and had them cast in Philadelphia- Shoes: bride wore Jeffrey Campbell, groom wore To Boot NY– Jewellery: bride’s earrings, bracelet were Emilie Shapiro Contemporary Metals– Bride and groom scarves/wraps: Friend Dianne Koppisch Hricko dyed custom Shibori style wraps- Bride’s Flowers and Groom’s Boutonniere: OhDina! Flower Crowns Make-Up: Sonomi Obinata