I wanted to replicate the feeling of these weekend trips upstate.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
I’m a music publicist, and Sky started a small record label and publisher called Pack. Records (Pack. for short). We live in Chinatown in NY and love going to shows (concerts), hanging with our friends and spending time outdoors. Originally, I’m from Los Angeles, and Sky is from New Orleans. We met in NY in 2018.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
Sky and I first met at a Joy Again show at Baby’s All Right in NY through a mutual friend, but it was very much just friend vibes the night we met. I was fairly new to NY and we kept in touch, but didn’t properly hang out again until six months later when I asked Sky out for ice cream on a sticky, hot August day. We ended up spending the full day together and cancelled our evening plans to keep hanging out. Near the end of the night, one of my friends texted me that she saw me, “making out with a hot guy in a Riot Fest t-shirt.” We’ve been spotted, I said. The rest is history.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).
For my wedding, I wanted to replicate the feeling of these weekend trips upstate, Sky, and I do with a close group of New York friends, and just make it a little bigger to include our families and an extended group. The requirements I was looking for were a venue with a swimming pond and a big house where 18 of our close NY friends could stay together with us. Seven Ponds was really the one venue I found that met both needs, as most of the venues with ponds we found weren’t swimmable. We also fell in love with the venue’s breathtaking views and loved that the venue was remote enough to not have any noise restrictions. We wanted to keep the guest list as small as we could for a more intimate celebration, which included both of our families, and landed at 68 people.
What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee, etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).
I visualised a lot of bright, colourful elements for our decorations and went for a bouquet that incorporated a lot of orange as well as other bright colours. I chose light purple and green taper candles for our table decorations. I don’t really like large floral designs that look fake and overly done, and I also wanted to keep the floral costs more reasonable, so I found a wonderful florist to deliver a couple of buckets of colourful flowers and then one bucket of feverfew for my bridesmaid bouquets. My mom helped turn all the flowers that were delivered into bouquets and boutonnieres and decorated our ceremony site with individual flowers placed in the grass alongside each of the rows and around the ceremony arbour in a way that looked more natural. Overall, it came out even better than I imagined.
What did you enjoy most about the planning process, and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?
I think finding and locking in the venue was the biggest piece of the planning that really solidified the full idea for our wedding. Overall, the planning process was definitely stressful at times, but I’m so happy my dream wedding really came to life. For me, the transportation element really felt like the most stressful piece to coordinate since our venue was in such a remote area that had no Ubers or lifts. We ended up securing a school bus to provide transportation for everyone, and then some people preferred to drive themselves.
For me, planning out a weekend schedule for how the days would flow was one of the more fun elements, as I wanted to incorporate a lot of downtime for hanging out, swimming around the pond and exploring the property on walks.
Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?
Our cake baker, Forsythia, was wonderful – we chose a Meyer lemon turmeric chiffon cake with pickled berry jam and basil frosting. They were more unusual flavours, but really came out so great, and I loved the way she decorated the sheet cake with bright florals and cherries.
Our photographer, Elle from Kindred, was really wonderful and stayed calm throughout the weather scares and captured so many of the real emotional moments.
Rosie, one of the coordinators at the Seven Ponds venue, was also so wonderful, and I really appreciated all her help in making sure the weekend ran seamlessly. She had a really warm and calm demeanour that definitely helped make the weekend for me.
Overall, the venue was so great at not being too overbearing and letting us feel like we really had the house and property to ourselves, but then they were there and very on it whenever we needed them.
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, and is there a story?
I initially wanted to wear my mother’s wedding dress, but she got married in January, and I was getting married in July. When I tried it on, I really loved it, but it would have needed to be resized and had so many thick layers, so ultimately, I knew I would be really uncomfortable for an outdoor summer wedding, and it didn’t feel like the right fit.
When I began looking for another dress, I knew I really wanted a drop waist dress as well as a dress with short sleeves. When I found this very light pink drop waist dress online, I was really excited as I hadn’t thought about a pink dress, but knew that colour often worked well with my pale skin tone. When the dress arrived in person, it had the initial structure I wanted and the perfect drop waist I was looking for, but I took it to a tailor to add sleeves and make adjustments to fit me perfectly. The first sleeves the tailor made were too short, and I immediately knew I wanted them longer, but the second version she made was exactly how I envisioned. Overall, I felt so comfortable in my dress, and it was just what I wanted.
For my veil, I wore my mom’s wedding veil. It worked out really nicely as her veil had these soft pink flowers across the top, which happened to match my wedding dress perfectly. My mom sewed a new French clip to the veil so that it would stay in place even when I was dancing around.
Sky’s from the South (New Orleans) and wanted to do something that was both formal and classic, but fit the theme and was re-wearable. His white jacket felt very wedding-appropriate. Fun fact that Sky spent more on his one outfit than all my wedding looks combined lol.
Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.
I’m not someone who wears a lot of jewellery generally, and so when Sky and I first had discussions about getting engaged, I told him not to spend a lot on a wedding ring, as the jewellery just wasn’t something that was that important to me.
We got engaged at Storm King Art Centre almost exactly 5 years after we went there with a group of friends for Sky’s 33rd birthday, when we first started dating. It was a special moment for us and really our first weekend trip we did together. Sky popped the question under this beautiful tree we had all hung out under during our first trip. I was totally surprised in a great way. We both started happy crying, and I didn’t tell anyone until we got back home late that night, so we could have our special time together, taking it all in just the two of us.
The ring Sky proposed to me was a ring his father gave his Mom when he was born. I didn’t really have an idea for what kind of ring I wanted before we got engaged, but when I saw the ring he proposed with, the square-cut diamond felt perfect and not small by any means, but also not too big and over the top for my style.
Sky bought his wedding band from Knaus Works, which is a boutique handmade jewellery maker in New York by Sofie Kjoerum Austlid. He found Knaus Works through an independent artist he likes, Sassy009. We both loved the wavy and uneven texture of the ring.
What were one or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).
We spent the most on the venue as the setting was really important to us and really set the stage for the full weekend. For our wedding, we had a close group of friends staying in the house with us, arriving on the Thursday evening before our wedding, so that we could ease into the weekend with a more intimate dinner. Our wonderful friends did all the grocery shopping and cooked us a delicious meal of Cajun shrimp and Baja steak, combining our backgrounds of being from New Orleans for Sky and Los Angeles for me. Apparently, they had a whole Zoom planning call beforehand to figure out what they were going to cook and took it very seriously, which we were so grateful for. The food was so incredibly delicious, and it felt really wonderful to have a first night with a smaller group of friends to get settled into the weekend with.
The second day, we calmly woke up and spent the day hanging out on the pond, swimming and floating around on floaties that we bought at the Dollar General store nearby. That night was our rehearsal dinner, where everyone from the wedding was invited, and so in the afternoon, we all got ready and dressed up in our nicer outfits. I wore a Sandy Liang ice blue skirt. Later that night, we sang karaoke using the porch of the house as a stage and then played a couple of games of sardines (a game of reverse hide and seek) in the big old farmhouse with all the lights off while playing scary music. We only made it through two games, as the house ended up really being too big, and it took forever to find anyone.
The third day was the wedding day. We woke up and swam in the pond again. Then there was a light rain in the morning, and we all hung out on the porch singing Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” so we could shout the chorus “It’s like rain on your wedding day.” And then we went swimming in the rain again. In the early afternoon, I showered and started getting ready, and then all my bridesmaids joined me so we could do makeup and finish getting ready together. About an hour before the ceremony started, all of a sudden, a huge storm came in, which really started to make me nervous. My friend Ruby kept saying, “Don’t worry, this is going to clear”, while lightning was flashing behind her in the background. I eventually decided to stop stressing about it and told the DJ to just turn the music up so it was louder than the rain. Luckily, it all cleared up just in time for the ceremony. The rain broke the heat, and we had a perfect evening.
Side note – I can share more high-res film pictures of the outfits from the other days that our talented friend Rob took, if helpful, as we only had Kindred photograph the wedding day.
Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?
I think my favourite moment was probably our ceremony. I had a really nice talk with my dad on our way to walk down the aisle, and it was all really emotional. When Sky and I each said our vows, everyone thought it was funny that we kept trying to kiss each other too early, and our officiant had to keep sweetly reminding us that it wasn’t time yet. Overall, it felt very real, intimate and meaningful for the two of us.
LOCATION & CATERING Seven Ponds Farm, @sevenpondsfarm PHOTOGRAPHER Kindred, @kindredweddings BRIDE Emily, @emmy_mullen GROOM Sky, @skymcelroy BRIDE’S DRESS Tailored by Bibi at Alts Tribeca, @alts GROOM’S MAIN OUTFIT & BOW TIE Ralph Lauren, @ralphlauren BRIDE’S ENGAGEMENT & WEDDING RING Family rings GROOM’S WEDDING RING Knaus, @knaus.works BRIDE’S ACCESSORIES Mother of the bride’s pearl bracelet GROOM’S CUFFLINKS & POCKET SQUARE The Tie Bar, @thetiebar GROOM’S WATCH Timex, @timex BRIDE’S SHOES Pêche, @shop_peche GROOM’S SHOES Ferragamo, @ferragamo FLORIST Shylabeth Taylor of Catskill Blooms, @catskillblooms; arranged by bride’s mom, Doris Mullen, with help from friends CELEBRANT Jennell Gharu-Razor, @jenellrazor CEREMONY ENTERTAINMENT Aunt Stephanie Newsom played the accordion; Uncle Peter and cousin Michael Newsom played guitar for the ceremony, @miketooloud COCKTAIL HOUR & RECEPTION DJ Arty Furtado, @artyfurtado CAKE Forsythia Forsythia, @forsythia_forsythia MAKEUP Bride HAIR Bride’s mom and sister GROOM’S FRAGRANCE Fierce by Abercrombie & Fitch, @abercrombie GIFT REGISTRY Zola, @zola
