When I first laid eyes on this wedding by 4Eyes Photography, my heart fell in love with her dress. That always happens to me when I’m poring over weddings, one thing always jumps out at me and just won’t let go. For this wedding it was the one shoulder, embossed gown with the most perfect buttons – also known as her wedding dress. So…like I am sure all of you do, I went straight to her description to see where she found that wonder, and can you believe that this bride on a budget had it custom made?! Oh it’s true. And now I am even more in love. The entire affair designed by Hatch Creative Studio is just as lovely, and you can see it all in the full gallery of images!
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From the Bride…We wanted our personalities to be reflected in every bit of the wedding and were really focused on the details. We made alot of the visuals for the ceremony and the reception ourselves. Mike is also an art director/designer and created our invitations, programs, thank you cards for the table and a custom seating tree. I wanted everything to have a very modern vintage style from the dress and veil to the flowers and decor. We worked with Barb Salzman of Hatch Creative Studio Event and Floral Design and she transformed the Ace Hotel space by complementing the dark laquered walls with mercury glass, candles, vases filled with gorgeous white flowers and elegant black feathers. The tables were long farmhouse style and made of rustic wood. She found table runners with a silver backdrop that had similar green swirls that were used on our invitation. The space has a wall of old speakers piled on top of each other that created a unique backdrop. She utilized the various layers to place flowers and candles which illuminated the room.
I found my dress at a custom dress shop that was coincidentally located directly across the street from the church where we got married. It was the first dress I saw and fell in love with it immediately. Christina, the dress designer, makes each dress by hand and was really open to some ideas I had on how I wanted the shoulder piece to look. She really understood my vision and created a dress that fit like a glove, looked impecable and wasn’t a fortune! I chose a french birdcage veil for the ceremony that was on a separate comb from a feathered headpiece so I could remove the veil after the ceremony but keep the feathers. I had three of my best friends as maids of honor and they all wore a black dress of their choosing. To make them stand out, each selected a black feather facinator to wear in their hair. My bouquet was also created by Hatch and featured all white English Garden roses and Rannaculous with black and white dotted feathers sprinkled throughout. It was wrapped in black lace with a vintage brooch. The maids of honor also had white flower bouquets featuring long black feathers with a different vintage brooch on the stems. Mike’s boutinniere included a white flower and black and white dotted feather to match my bouquet. The three groomsmen also wore a white flower with black feather to match the maids of honor bouquets.
Since we were on a budget and weddings in NYC can be extremely expensive, we designed alot of the details and special moments ourselves and found talented vendors on etsy to bring the unique touches to life. Mike created a seating tree where guests could find their table number but also see how everyone was connected to the bride and groom (i.e. friend of Mike, aunt of Lauren etc.). We provided a list of ‘our favorites’ in NYC for guest gift bags giving them our go-to spots such as brunch, shopping and even take out joints to enjoy while in town. Since art and painting are such an important part of our life instead of doing a traditional guest book we made a guest wedding canvas where they could leave messages via paint pens. We had a double decker tour bus take the entire wedding from the church to the Ace Hotel for the recpetion with a driving tour through our favorite neighborhoods. A friend of ours is a pastry chef and cake designer. We asked her to create our wedding cake and she designed a master piece inspired by our invitation that tasted even better than it looked. We also got a custom cake topper created by a vendor on etsy and she brought little details to life to make the figures resemble us down to a feather headpiece and Mike’s five o’clock shadow! I had a special hanger created by a vendor on etsy that had my new last name spelled out in wire which I used to hang my dress on the day of the wedding. It made for a great photo op! For a bit of tradition, we included framed pictures of our parents and grandparents weddings on a table in the reception room to honor them and remember those who had passed on. For my something blue, I wore teal blue shoes, for my something old I wore my grandmother’s ring and for something borrowed I used a hankerchief.
Photographer: 4Eyes Photography / Flowers + Event Design: Hatch Creative Studio / Invitations: Mike Dreeland / Ceremony: St. Patrick’s Cathedral / Reception: Ace Hotel / Cake + Desserts: The Sweet Peace / Wedding Topper: Milk Tea / Wedding Gown: Custom, Blue, 248 Mott Street, New York, NY (212-228-7744) / Veil and Headpiece: Elen Henderson Collection / Custom Dress Hanger: Aressa
