Modern NYC Pop-Up Elopement on the High Line

Michelle Hoover
October 27, 2015
Categories: Modern, Real Weddings
Tags: Outdoor Ceremony

For these city-dwellers, NYC’s Highline possesses more than just magnificent views. For it was at this exact attraction where they held their pop-up ceremony! A wonderfully intimate affair from the lens of Fairytale Studio high above the city streets proves to be infinitely romantic, but we’ll let you be the judge. See every second of love captured by Jennifer Sosa in THE VAULT!

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From Grizzoo…We tied the knot this summer in a progressive New York downtown fashion – with a pop-up ceremony on the High Line. The bride Liz, an animal-loving Kindergarten teacher, had wanted a super small elopement with just immediate family present. I, the groom, an art director in advertising and an event planner, wanted to do something uniquely personal and awesome. So we had a guerrilla pop-up wedding followed by a wave of celebrations afterwards.

Since Liz is a school teacher, she only wanted to get married over the summer. We started our planning 6 months before. We got officially engaged just 4 months before the wedding, with a surprise pop-up gallery (overlooking the High Line).

Our wonderfully intimate wedding ceremony was on the High Line Park in New York City – our first date spot from 2 years ago. (She actually didn’t know it realize that she was on a date, even after we spent a few hours at night hanging out on the High Line talking…but that’s another story.) The High Line will lets people get married there. You just have to let them know in advance, have under 20 people present, and can’t block off space from the public. So we knew that there would be a lot of tourists and strangers bearing witness to our vows!

We had two get ready rooms at the Standard Hotel overlooking the High Line. Our plan was to try to beat the crowds and have a 9am wedding. Well that didn’t happen as planned, as we finally had our ceremony at 11am after some prolonged getting ready time. We made our way to our planned spot, a tree covered scenic corner on the 10th Street Square part of the High Line. There were benches, beautiful foliage, and a view of the overlook of the High Line. It really was the perfect blend of city and nature. With an official gathering of just immediate family and a couple of friends, the audience swelled to include about 40 tourists and bystanders. The ceremony was officiated by Jon Tyson, pastor of Trinity Grace Church Midtown. Our two grandmothers were our flower girls who carried green floral garlands for each side of the family to hold during the ceremony.

The bridal march song, “Stick Together,” was an original and personally commissioned song by NYC singer songwriter Mara Measor. Mara sweetly performed the song live with her ukulele and her indie folk style. She wrote this song based on our personal journal entries of our dating relationship. (This song was used first for our proposal on Ultimate Pi Day, to the complete surprise to Liz!)

The bride wore a Maggie Sottero dress with Lucky Brand flats. The groom’s attire was a blue tuxedo by Hugo Boss, a Ted Baker thin floral branches black tie and blue derby shoes, a Grand Frank floral pocket square, a John Varvatos square dot shirt, and a Tie Bar floral lapel pin.

Our celebration continued on from a Chelsea garden patio reception lunch (Bottino) with the immediate family and friends who helped with the ceremony. Because it was a Friday luncheon, we were able to have the beautiful garden patio to ourselves. It was a wonderful and intimate time. Our wedding cake was an amazing Green Tea Mille Crepe Cake from Lady M (one of the best cakes to be found in NYC), and it was topped with two pigeon cake toppers which we found on Etsy. The lunch was a wonderfully casual and intimate time to celebrate.

Afterwards we stole some time away to hanging out with our two Australian Shepherds “Ozzy” and “Olive” in Soho at our pet-friendly wedding night stay at the Crosby Street Hotel. We chilled time in our hotel suite and on the rooftop garden then walked the fashionable and cobble stoned Crosby Street, where a street fashion photographer spontaneously snapped us for his blog (http://www.quistyle.com/archives/56160). We capped off the afternoon with an ice cream social at the nearby Morgenstern’s Ice Cream with local friends. (It’s our favorite ice cream spot in NYC! Right across the street is a street art mural that changes up every several weeks.)

After a private and classy start to the day, we cherished having these beautiful casual and fun moments for ourselves. We had plotted out our day to unfold like a fun roving musical video taking place in a lot of our favorite places and scenes.

That evening. we had a formal reception at Giando on the Water in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We titled our Alice In Wonderland themed party – “Curiouser & Curiouser! The Wonderland of Grizzoo.” It was nontraditional celebration in tune with our creative and unique tastes. Giando is a beautiful venue with a stunning waterfront patio which as a view of Manhattan between the two downtown bridges. It was the perfect spot for pictures with friends and family during cocktail hour. For a fun flourish to our group photos, we had some large 40″ metallic type balloons. They spelled out “Hooray” and “XOXO” to add some spirit and cheer to the scene. We added other fun touches of experience and decor – table mad libs, gold painted animals, Alice in Wonderland themed playing cards, art prints, and a Mad Hatter emcee. It was a fun and whimsical celebration.

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See even more New York celebrations in THE VAULT!