New York Athletic Club Wedding

Stephanie Weers
March 13, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Every time I see a New York City wedding, my heart beats a little faster. My swooning levels go through the roof and I wish myself away to Big Apple bliss. And this morning? Let’s just say I’m experiencing all of the above. With beautiful planning on part of Ever Swoon and pretty snaps a la Kelsey Combe, the gallery is a must, and don’t forget to hit “play” on Deneemotion Boutique’s film below.

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City Hall Religious Institution

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Classic Weddings

From the Bride… When people asked me as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered ‘a bride.’ Not the fairytale aspects of a bride (a big, white puffy dress was never something I coveted)… I never really bought into the idea of a Prince Charming, or being saved on a white horse. For me, it was the ideal of it, the notion of what it meant – to find the person, fall in love, be loved and to love in that head over heels kind of way. Turns out, I found ‘the’ person back in the third grade in our hometown on Long Island (I just didn’t know it until after some years spent in New York City after college). He very quickly left all my ideas of love in the dust, as I found out the real thing was way better than anything I dreamed up in my head.

This love that we shared became the very foundation for what we wanted to express on our wedding day. However, him being a part owner in a family business and the guy who was voted ‘friendliest’ in high school, we quickly realized that a smaller wedding of family and close friends was not a possibility. So, we set out on our journey to create the most intimate, large wedding possible.

The upper east side of Manhattan has been our home, both single and as a couple. As an avid runner, I joined him on many runs around the Reservoir Loop in Central Park. When he asked me to marry him on a dreary December morning on that same running path, we knew somehow the Park, the upper east side and New York City would be the stars of our day.

I must just touch on the dress, designed by Jenny Packham. I had ripped a picture of it out of a magazine where a celebrity was wearing it in pink. I kept the picture for years in a cigar box on a coffee table in my small, studio apartment. When I was getting ready to head down to Florida to see my family that Christmas, I stuffed the picture in my handbag in the hopes I may find something like it. The day after Christmas, I set out with my mother, aunt, grandmother, and great aunt (both in their 90s) to the Boca Raton Bridal shop. ‘The’ dress, in cream, ‘just came in’.

Everything seemed to flow from there. Through the generosity of his father, we decided upon the historic New York Athletic Club, located on Central Park South with sweeping views of the entire Park. My groom-to-be suggested our wedding invitation incorporate the cherry blossom trees that canopy over the Bridle Path where we got engaged. And last but certainly not least, having our wedding mass at our beloved parish, the stunning Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, located on Park Avenue and 83rd Street. It would be a sophisticated, un-stuffy, old New York- style wedding with personal touches that made it feel like ‘us’ with the goal of bringing a rather large crowd into the smaller, intimate world of our love, family and friends.

A day and evening filled with happy tears, heartfelt speeches and relentless dancing, it was so much more than anything we could have imagined – and like everything else since falling in love, we realized reality was way better than anything we had dreamed of in our heads.