Modern NYC Bookstore Wedding

Stop everything you’re doing; we have a dress that deserves your full attention. This Oscar De La Renta masterpiece is pretty much all I’ve been thinking about since the moment I laid my eyes on it, and this stylish Bride is my new hero. Her chic celebration, planned by ever swoon, is chock full of goodness and Sasithon Photography captured them all right here. My new fav? I think so.

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From the beautiful Bride… We decided to get married when we stumbled upon the venue, Housing Works Bookstore in SoHo, New York. Housing Works is a non-profit bookstore in our community and, with its mahogany- paneled bookshelves and spiral staircases, the space felt very intimate and true to our experience in New York. Our objective for the evening was to throw an elegant and modern dinner party with delicious food and great music. We planned our wedding remotely during a year in which we were living in Italy, so we relied heavily on the endless know-how and organization of our Event Planner Tamra Sanford of Ever Swoon, and the impeccable aesthetic of our Floral Designer Kat Hyppolite of Kat Flower. Kat created beautiful bouquets and centerpieces in pinks, burgundy and purple that looked wild and romantic, and complimented the floral motifs Nico designed for our invitations and paper goods. We also had a wonderful photographer, Sasithon Pooviriyakul, who completely understood how to translate our vision of an intimate dinner party into stunning candid images of the evening.

We were lucky enough to have friends and family from all over the world join us for the evening, so we worked with our celebrant Fintan Moore to create a ceremony that was intimate, thoughtful, and true to our partnership. We decided on a Celtic Handfasting ceremony, which celebrated our shared Irish heritage and communicated a key message of the night: two families coming together. As interludes during the ceremony our friends recited poetry from the staircase behind us. It was a special moment to celebrate our love and friendship; our wedding party knotting our hands together with ribbons as our guests watched on from the balcony above. Since we had over a year to plan the wedding, we had the opportunity to be very mindful of every detail. I designed my own fragrance for the day, and Chris had cufflinks made to honor his favorite soccer team.

Over the past seven years we have shared seven addresses, so we named our seven tables after streets we have lived on, which was another fun way for our guests to share in our story. Of course even the best-laid plans often go awry, and the blazing red wedding dress was chosen only days before the wedding. Some of the most important parts of the night included handmade and personal elements made by our families. Chris’s sister prepared her incredible coconut cream pie, our absolute favorite, for our wedding dessert and my mom made handmade paper using flowers and seeds from her garden, which she turned into bookmarks to pair with our wedding favors – books from Housing Works, of course!

Photography: Sasithon Photography | Event Planning: ever swoon | Floral Design: Kat Flower | Wedding Dress: Oscar De La Renta | Bride's Shoes: J.Crew | Bracelet: Cartier | Hair And Makeup: Giovanna Berardi Of Parlor | Wedding Venue: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe | Earrings: Oscar De La Renta | Groom's Pocket Square: Sarah Drake Design | Groom's Shoes : Alden | Music : Dean Tsur - The Juilliard School