Despite an awe-inducing love story literally made for the movies (read: summer camp sweethearts), when it came to wedding planning, this gorgeous bride had one priority in mind: absolutely no “wedding cheesiness.” To help orchestrate her vision, she hired the uber-talented VAvoom Events to create a chevron meets gold meets modern dream come true. See it all captured by Hannah Persson right here.
And a crazy cool film from Orr Bortman…
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From the Bride… Throughout our 16-month long engagement and planning process, my mind changed several times, but one thing always remained: I was trying to avoid as much wedding cheesiness as possible. The problem with that, however, was that the story of how Jesse and I met just oozes “aww’s” and “ahh’s.” My now-husband and I met when we were 12 and 14, respectively, at sleep-away summer camp in upstate Massachusetts. We were smitten back then but that relationship quickly faded as most pre-teen summer flings tend to do. Go ahead, get the “aww’s” out of your system now!
Fast forward about 15 years, and through the magic of Facebook we reconnected. After about 10 months of dating, Jesse proposed to me on a beautiful balcony overlooking the ocean in Mexico. We were over-the-moon.
After returning home and feeling very overwhelmed, we knew we needed help and immediately hired our amazing wedding planner, Amanda Pierce from VaVoom Events. Amanda totally “got” my vision of a (non-cheesy) New York City whimsical wedding day and pointed me in the direction of Studio Square Events, an amazing loft-like event space in Long Island City with floor to ceiling views of the Manhattan skyline. Jesse and I knew this was our place. As a bonus, the ground floor is an open to the public outdoor beer garden which was perfect for our September wedding after-party.
Studio Square also works exclusively with Sterling Caterers, who truly and deliciously fulfilled our vision of eclectic NYC-style cuisine (complete with a Bacon Bar in cocktail hour and NYC street cart dinner station).
Next, we began the search for a photographer who could capture our day in the not-so-typical fashion we craved. Again at the suggestion of Amanda, we found Hannah Persson after seeing several of her weddings featured on Style Me Pretty, and immediately fell in love with her artsy style and upbeat, infectious personality. Check.
The rest of the planning process was a blur of Pinterest, google searches, chevron, chevron, and more chevron. And as a little homage to my golf-obsessed hubby, we planned a little surprise for him during the reception – a full putting green setup complete with personalized golf balls.
Our wedding day really was everything we hoped it would be and so, so much more. We are so lucky to have found and worked with the vendors we worked with, as they truly made our dreams come true. We could not have asked for a more perfect day.
From Hannah Persson… I was so excited when Ali the bride, and Amanda, the event planner/designer called me, saying they had seen my work on Style Me Pretty and had to have me shoot the wedding! As soon as I began to hear about all the details — the jumbo balloons, the chevron aisle runner, the pink champagne with gold sugar rims, the L-O-V-E balloons, the GORGEOUS venue Studio Square — I was anticipating this day from the get-go! It’s an added bonus for the photog when everything takes place in one space. The awesome videographer and I were running up and down floors – it was really cool that the cocktail hour space, the ceremony, and the reception each had it’s own floor in the awesome converted warehouse in the upcoming LIC. The bride got ready at the W Manhattan, and then we did the perfect photoshoot at Gantry Park with the vintage Pepsi Cola sign. Everything was planned to perfection because of Amanda at VAvoom events. She really outdid herself with this one, and we are all so happy with the day. It couldn’t have been more magical. Witnessing the sun set behind the beautiful Manhattan skyline was one of the coolest wedding experiences I’ve had. And the couple is so incredibly sweet, along with their entire family. Pretty perfect day.
Photography: Hannah Persson Photo | Event Design & Planning: Amanda Pierce Of VAvoom Events | Floral Design: Pedestals Floral Decorators | Catering: Sterling Affair | Band: Times Square Orchestra | Venue: Studio Square Event Space | Photobooth: NY Digital Memories | Video: Orr Bortman | Video: Orr Bortman