Candlelit Fall Wedding at The Foundry
A candlelit wedding at The Foundry sounds like the beginning to a very, very beautiful evening and my dears, that is what is on the agenda for today. As if the premise wasn't romantic enough, the savvy couple added in vendors like Trent Bailey Photography, Rountree Flowers, Marcey Brownstein, Face Time Beauty, and SO many more that I haven't been able to tear myself away from this gallery!
From the beautiful bride... We were so excited when we walked into the Foundry. It is a beautiful space with amazing character of its own so didn't need a lot of decoration. We worked with Jessie from Rountree Flowers to create beautiful soft arrangements of mostly white and green. She used roses, ranunculus, large white amaryllis blossoms, magenta ranunculus for a little color and velvety gray dusty miller and sage green foliage and umbrella fern. We used tons of mercury glass votives and tapered candles and a delicately sparkling runner on the tables for a beautiful glow. We knew what we were going for, but when Jessie put it all together that night, it was so magical that it took my breath away when I walked in the room.
We didn't have a theme for our wedding but New York and our combined culturally diversity were the focal points. New York is our home but we have roots in Jamaica, England, Ireland, Florida, Texas and Arizona. The food, bar and music were our best ways to honor all of that. We had people coming from all over the world to share our wedding with us so we wanted to show them the best party we could and encourage them to enjoy New York, so instead of a brunch the next day we took our family and out of towners to see Once on Broadway.
We had so much fun with our cocktail hour menu. Our caterer told us to pick our favorite things -- it was our party! So we chose things like mini fish and chips, bite size bangers and mash, mini Texas pulled pork sliders... When we told our caterer we wanted to get Jamaican patties locally, they surprised us by researching and creating their own recipe to make us the cutest bite-size (and very authentic tasting) patties. And friends told us not only the food was delicious, but they could tell how much we put into it because it was so 'us'.
My mom had the idea to surprise Colin with a special bourbon tasting bar because it's his drink of choice, but he kept looking to add 'just one more' to the main bar. I eventually had to limit him just so he wouldn't ruin the surprise. We ended up serving 7 different bourbons that night in total, but no one complained!
Our music choices were also really meaningful to us. My brother walked me down the aisle to "Caribbean Blue" by Enya because our late father loved Enya, and we later danced to a childhood favorite. Our recessional song was Bob Marley's "Is This Love", which just filled the room with happiness. It was the best feeling to turn around and see everyone dancing out behind us. Colin danced with his mom to their favorite Paul McCartney song and he and I danced to a country song. We watched a YouTube video over and over to learn how to two step, and had so much fun practicing in our apartment. We love that all these songs had meaning for us before, but even more so now. Our DJ was incredible -- we gave him a list of favorites, but wanted him to do what he did best. He really played amazing surprises and had everyone dancing until the very last song.
We didn't have a bridal party because we wanted everyone around us as part of our wedding, and we were able to include people in other really special ways. A close friend performed our ceremony and we asked couples whose relationships we admire to give advice that was incorporated into our ceremony. We had other family and friends serve as our witnesses, read poems, and give toasts. Our friend Ari led an amazing cocktail hour band, and our favors were New York City Maptote bags -- a wedding gift from the founders who are childhood friends. It was an amazing feeling to have such special people playing parts in our wedding, not just watching it.
Trent & Dara, our photographers, helped us to decide to see each other before the wedding. The sun was setting early so we really wanted the amazing daylight photos we knew he would capture, but didn't want to ruin the 'moment'. That was some of the best advice we received. I was so jittery, but when I saw Colin I was filled this amazing calm and happiness, and to have that time together before the wedding was so special.
Some practical advice: don't do your place cards the night before! If you do... print individual name cards multiple times and then write in or stamp numbers. That way when you have to move people around for whatever reason it would be a lot easier to change. A day of planner was essential, and ours was amazing. You do not want to be dealing with details. And stop and take it in. Everyone says it, but it really does go so fast.
We didn't have a theme for our wedding but New York and our combined culturally diversity were the focal points. New York is our home but we have roots in Jamaica, England, Ireland, Florida, Texas and Arizona. The food, bar and music were our best ways to honor all of that. We had people coming from all over the world to share our wedding with us so we wanted to show them the best party we could and encourage them to enjoy New York, so instead of a brunch the next day we took our family and out of towners to see Once on Broadway.
We had so much fun with our cocktail hour menu. Our caterer told us to pick our favorite things -- it was our party! So we chose things like mini fish and chips, bite size bangers and mash, mini Texas pulled pork sliders... When we told our caterer we wanted to get Jamaican patties locally, they surprised us by researching and creating their own recipe to make us the cutest bite-size (and very authentic tasting) patties. And friends told us not only the food was delicious, but they could tell how much we put into it because it was so 'us'.
My mom had the idea to surprise Colin with a special bourbon tasting bar because it's his drink of choice, but he kept looking to add 'just one more' to the main bar. I eventually had to limit him just so he wouldn't ruin the surprise. We ended up serving 7 different bourbons that night in total, but no one complained!
Our music choices were also really meaningful to us. My brother walked me down the aisle to "Caribbean Blue" by Enya because our late father loved Enya, and we later danced to a childhood favorite. Our recessional song was Bob Marley's "Is This Love", which just filled the room with happiness. It was the best feeling to turn around and see everyone dancing out behind us. Colin danced with his mom to their favorite Paul McCartney song and he and I danced to a country song. We watched a YouTube video over and over to learn how to two step, and had so much fun practicing in our apartment. We love that all these songs had meaning for us before, but even more so now. Our DJ was incredible -- we gave him a list of favorites, but wanted him to do what he did best. He really played amazing surprises and had everyone dancing until the very last song.
We didn't have a bridal party because we wanted everyone around us as part of our wedding, and we were able to include people in other really special ways. A close friend performed our ceremony and we asked couples whose relationships we admire to give advice that was incorporated into our ceremony. We had other family and friends serve as our witnesses, read poems, and give toasts. Our friend Ari led an amazing cocktail hour band, and our favors were New York City Maptote bags -- a wedding gift from the founders who are childhood friends. It was an amazing feeling to have such special people playing parts in our wedding, not just watching it.
Trent & Dara, our photographers, helped us to decide to see each other before the wedding. The sun was setting early so we really wanted the amazing daylight photos we knew he would capture, but didn't want to ruin the 'moment'. That was some of the best advice we received. I was so jittery, but when I saw Colin I was filled this amazing calm and happiness, and to have that time together before the wedding was so special.
Some practical advice: don't do your place cards the night before! If you do... print individual name cards multiple times and then write in or stamp numbers. That way when you have to move people around for whatever reason it would be a lot easier to change. A day of planner was essential, and ours was amazing. You do not want to be dealing with details. And stop and take it in. Everyone says it, but it really does go so fast.