Our Whimsical Garden Wedding
After being engaged for almost three years and rescheduling twice due to the pandemic, Conor and I finally got married on September 4, 2021. Despite some last minute pivots we had to make due to Covid-19 (again), we were able to pull off the wedding of our dreams. We had changed our venue, our date and a bunch of our vendors, but all of the cancellations, the replanning and waiting was worth it because we truly had the wedding we were supposed to have.
When you’re planning a wedding for almost three years, you get really close with your wedding planner. We worked with Kyle Michelle Weddings and Events and truly couldn’t have asked for a better team to bring our vision to life. Originally, Conor and I were living in Manhattan when we were engaged and wanted to host our reception in Manhattan as well. Our ceremony would be at Fordham University in the Bronx, where both us met our freshmen year of college, so a Manhattan reception made perfect sense.
Unfortunately after Covid-19 hit, with both of us working from home, our small one-bedroom in New York wasn’t feasible anymore. So we made the jump across the river to a more affordable and spacious apartment in Hoboken. New York City was also tragically hit hard by the pandemic, and after postponing our original wedding at Pier 60 once, we decided to get our deposit back and wait it out. Though we didn’t end up having our wedding at Pier 60, they were amazing to work with and so accommodating during the pandemic. We were so fortunate to be able to get our full deposit back, when other couples were not as lucky.
Now that we weren’t in Manhattan, we decided we wanted to look outside the city for our reception. We looked on and off at venues for a year, all over New York and New Jersey, but hadn’t fell in love with anything else. We were determined to still have our ceremony at Fordham, which meant so much to us, but unfortunately this limited us in terms of venues as they had to be a drivable distance away from the church.
We decide to look at Hempstead House on Long Island, where I’m from, after a suggestion from my mom who had been to a wedding there before. She was positive it would be perfect for what we were envisioning and she was absolutely right. A beautiful garden for our cocktail hour, an overlook of the Long Island Sound, a historic building filled with character - what more could we ask for! By some miracle, someone had called just two days before we had and was looking to move their 2021 wedding to 2022. And that’s how five months before our new wedding date, we booked a completely new venue. And so we set to work!
We had already sent out Save The Dates for our original wedding (and two other correspondences about our postponements), and since we were so close to our date we went right ahead and sent out our actual invitations. We worked with Fourteen-Forty to create our invitations and they perfectly pulled off the vintage, but contemporary feel we were going with for our big day. They even sketched out the beautiful facade of the Fordham University Church to make them extra personalized.
We worked with Visions Decor, and they brought all our ideas to life. The colors for our wedding were deep wine colors, with hints of mauve and lots of greenery. I did not want to shy away from color, and it was a constant joke with the florist to “keep on adding color”!
Our vision was for an enchanting, garden wedding that was both romantic and contemporary. And from everything to the table setting to the flowers, Visions captured the whimsical allure of a breathtaking garden wedding. When presenting their ideas to us, Visions described the decor as picturesque and story book-like, in a customized one-of-a-kind couture way.
I tried to carry this magical, garden feel into all the little details of the wedding. I found these beautiful Floral Pearl & Crystal Earrings that I think perfectly fit the aesthetic of our wedding.
For our vow books, we stuck with a deep burgundy color and bought these beautiful, personalized books that we could slip our printed vows into. They looked great in all our photos and our video. I would definitely recommend getting vow books, so you don’t have photos of you reading off of your phone or a flimsy or wrinkled piece of paper!
I spent a long time looking at wedding bands. While Conor picked his simple platinum band out within ten minutes of us being at the jeweler, but I really wanted a band that stood out from my engagement ring - so everyone would be able to tell I was married! My mom and me spent an afternoon in the diamond district in Manhattan, trying on different rings just to see what I would like. I ended up finding one that reminded me of small, delicate flowers and brought a picture of it to the jeweler who did my engagement ring. He made a few tweaks and then actually had it fitted with my engagement ring, so there would be no gap between the two rings and I wouldn’t need a spacer!
For my shoes, I wanted something with a small heel, so I could wear them all night without destroying my feet. I wanted something simple, but elegant and was so excited to find a pair of heels that had embellished detailing that resembled leaves - fitting perfect with the floral theme yet again. The exact pair I wore isn’t sold anymore, but I found a similar pair from the same brand, Badgley Mischka.
We spent the night before the wedding in Manhattan at The Plaza Hotel. Our wedding was on a Saturday and we chose to have our rehearsal dinner on Thursday, so Conor and I could have a day away from each other with our friends (and so we could drink on Thursday and have a recovery day before the wedding!). We had a lovely girls day on Friday, complete with High Tea at The Palm Court and massages. And we had a relaxing, low-key night (exactly what I wanted!). We all gathered in my room and had salads from sweetgreen, movie snacks and watched The Princess Diaries 2 before we all got some sleep before the big day.
We worked with Willow House Beauty for all our hair and makeup and I couldn’t have asked for a better team. I wanted to look glam, but also like myself. The last thing I wanted was to feel like I had makeup caked on my face. Willow House listened to all my requests (including buying specific lashes for me, because I wanted big lashes). Not only did my makeup stay on all day and night, through tears and sweat, but looking back on my photos I’m so impressed how they someone made all the glitz and glam look fresh and natural. They do beautiful work.
I went with long, ankle-length robes from Pretty Plum Sugar, to give my bridesmaids a more sophisticated look. I loved this pattern because it was a more modern-looking pattern than a lot of the typical floral robes I was seeing online (hint: if you use Pretty Plum Sugar’s chat function on their website and ask nicely, they might give you a discount code! And everyone who works there is insanely nice and accommodating with any questions).
For my own robe, I wanted something long and whimsical. I loved the idea of a slip under a sheer robe, but none of the classic lace options I found online caught my eye. After waiting for a restock, I decided to splurge and go for this Lace Maxi Robe - it hit the perfect mix of whimsy and classy and I honestly felt so amazing wearing it around my hotel room the morning of the wedding.
I picked out my wedding dress the very first time I looked! I knew I was looking for something in mermaid style and I always loved a low-back dress. But I had no clue when it came to designers. I decided to turn to Pinterest (of course) and spent hours pinning dresses. After going through all the dresses I loved, one designer kept on coming up again and again - Berta. And that how my mom, godmother and maid of honor joined me at L’Fay Bridal in Manhattan - they were one of the few bridal shops in my area that carried an extensive amount of Berta dresses. I felt so comfortable and confident in my dress on my wedding day and it was worth the over two year wait to finally get to wear it!
In terms of flowers, we wanted lush florals and greenery. Visions Decor used deep, burgundy colored orchids as the main focal point of my bouquet, my husband’s boutonnière and corsages for both of our mothers. The ferns used as the greenery, as a compliment to our colors, were wild and untamed - again lending to the whimsical, garden theme of our wedding. Elegant, but unique and not stuffy at all, I truly fell in love with my bouquet the moment I saw it.
After replanning a whole new wedding, we didn’t think we could be thrown any more curveballs. But about a week before our wedding, we were informed we wouldn’t be able to have all of our guests at our ceremony in the University Church at Fordham, due to recent changes in Covid-19 guidelines at the college. Though a truly nightmare situation, our wedding planner Meghan was immediately doing damage control.
We decided that we would only have our wedding party, parents, grandparents and those a part of the mass at the wedding ceremony. We would get married at 2PM at the University Church as planned, with about only 30 people, and then we would book it to Hempstead House where we would hold a vow renewal ceremony at 5PM.
Conor and I decided to keep our first look before the Church, not for photos as originally planned, but only so we could have a moment together right before we were married. This ended up being one of my favorite moments of the day. I had butterflies and nerves the whole drive to the Church but as soon as I saw Conor outside the Church, they immediately disappeared. We were able to walk hand-and-hand into the Church, through a crowd of our closest family and friends. And then I was able to walk down the aisle completely nerve-free.
We were able to take our more posed photos with our bridal party and families outside of the church, right after the ceremony. We opted for navy suits and Burgundy bowties for our groomsmen from Generation Tux, so Conor would stand out in his tux. And instead of boutonnieres, each had a pocket square.
Working with Generation Tux was great, especially since we had groomsmen who lived all over. I simply designed what I wanted the groomsmen to wear (including shoes, belts and shirts) and sent each of them a link, where they were able to input their measurements. They received their suits about a week before the wedding, so they could try them on and send them back (for free) if they needed any adjustments. Then they simply had to mail everything back in a prepaid box after the wedding. We were also able to get our ring bearers outfit from Generation Tux, which was an added bonus!
We got our bridesmaid dresses from RK Bridal in New York City. Though the process wasn’t as seamless as the groomsmen’s attire, I liked RK Bridal because they have hundreds of hundreds of options for bridesmaid dresses and they had an option where my bridesmaids from far away could send in their measurements instead of actually coming into the store. This beautiful merlot dress I chose is actually a now discontinued style from Morilee. I wanted something that was elegant and flattered all of my bridesmaid figures. Half silk and half tulle, I loved how unique and classy these dresses looked. I also didn’t want my bridesmaid to shell out an obscene amount of money - with alterations these came out to around $200. I know that mix-matched dresses are in-style right now for bridesmaids, but I always loved that with everyone wearing the same thing you could immediately tell who was a part of the bridal party! Definitely make sure you do what you want for your wedding day, and don’t just focus on what is trending right now on Pinterest.
Originally, Conor and I were going to exchange our hand-written vows in private right before the ceremony (as in the Catholic Church you can’t have personalized vows). But with our last minute shift in plans, we would be able to read our vows out loud at the vow renewal in front of all our family and friend. In the span of two days, with the amazing help of Visions Decor, we organized an entire second ceremony at Hempstead House.
We ended up not decorating the church at all, so we could use our full ceremony budget for the second ceremony. As guests entered around the back of Hempstead House, right into the garden, we had a large sign to let them know they were in the right place! Our wedding planner actually constructed this fun, velvet sign that counted the days we’ve waited for our wedding.
For the ceremony, we had a white runner, lined with fresh rose petals in pinks and whites, put down. It ran all the way from the back entrance of the venue to the garden, overlooking the Long Island Sound. Visions Decor also built an amazingly elaborate and colorful arch and had it installed as a backdrop for our vows. It was a perfect 75 degrees that day and we had our guests mull about the garden and grab a cocktail before we started.
We had our whole bridal party walk down the aisle for a second time that day to an instrumental version of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Vesislava. Part of the beauty of having two ceremonies was that we had to have a traditional, beautiful and spiritual ceremony in the church - but also a contemporary one as well! And picking some beautiful music to walk down the aisle to was one of my favorite parts.
Our ring bearer, my godson, brought our rings down in this beautiful, hexagonal glass box. I filled in myself with some fake moss from Amazon. Our flower girl had a simple, elegant white basket that housed the white petals she tossed before my father and I’s walk down the aisle, to “Iris (arr. piano)” by Music Lab Collective. It was just as surreal the second time around, especially being able to walk down to such an amazingly beautiful and personal song.
After exchanging our personal vows, successsfully making our friends and family cry (shedding a few tears ourselves) and a short vow renewal ceremony, we walked back down the aisle to an instrumental version of “A Sky Full of Stars” covered by The Piano Guys and we were finally, officially done and MARRIED! It was totally worth the almost three year wait to be able to get married not once, but twice, in one day!
Our amazing photographer was Lucy Munoz and she captured our day beautifully. Right after our ceremony at Hempstead House she ushered us off so we could get some photos during golden hour. Not only did we have a blast working with her (seriously, we took photos for an hour and it felt like five minutes!) but her work has an etherial quality about it that truly captured our day as the fairy tale it was. Some of our favorites are below:
We opted to pay extra to add an extra half-an-hour to our cocktail hour, which I would definitely recommend if it’s in your budget. Adding more time meant that we could do a full hour of photos and still get to spend a half hour at the cocktail reception. We had planned this day for almost three years and were for sure going to make sure we got to enjoy every part of the party!
We held the cocktail reception right next to where we held the ceremony, in the outdoor gardens at Hempstead House. Since the gardens were already so beautiful, we kept the decor simple. We had multiple food stations covered with elegant, white fringed umbrellas and a few small bistro tables, also bedecked in white tablecloths. For music, we had a string quartet playing instrumental covers of modern songs (my exact words in terms of cocktail hour music were “Bridgerton-y”).
The main focal point of our cocktail hour was the circular French-style garden bar. Not only did it add to the story-book-like atmosphere of the cocktail reception, its 360-degree design was super welcoming to our guests and meant for more space behind the bar (and thus shorter wait times for drinks!).
After an amazing, long cocktail reception it was time to head inside. Conor and I actually got to view the inside of the venue before everyone else and it was one the things I was most excited for that day after planning for so long. Visions Decor worked so hard to capture my vision and boy, did they deliver. Our guests were visually transported to a captivating, ethereal garden.
We had two types of tables for our reception, in order to make the room feel more garden-y and less “ballroom”. For the round tables, we had a blush satin underlay with a vintage lace overlay for tablecloths. In the center of each round table was a magnificent, neoclassical candelabra with lush greenery climbing up and cascading off. I wanted the reception to feel romantic and enchanting, but also modern and young. These more modern candelabras made for the perfect mix of contemporary and classic. For chairs, we wanted to mix textures (again for that contemporary look) and went with these velvet chairs in a rich emerald green.
Our rectangle tables were dressed in a coordinating textured linen in blush metallic, a sister fabric to the round tables. All the rectangle tables were placed upon a red carpet that is a part of the venue, so instead of emerald, we went with a similar red-hued velvet chair, to coordinate with the rug. The centerpieces of the rectangle tables were gorgeous, gold candlestick holders with hurricanes at staggered heights. We also had a greenery floral runner, with the same flowers as the round tables.
We opted for a sweetheart table, so we could have some time to ourselves during the night. For decor, we used the same lace and silk tablecloths as the round tables and the look was completed with cascading florals and greenery that draped over the sides and front of the table.
We had to bring everything into Hempstead House. This meant not only table and chairs, but all the glasses, silverware and dishes as well. To go with the deep and rich emeralds and burgundies in our decor, we went with gold as an accent. This carried though not only in the candelabras and hurricane candle holders, but in our place settings as well. We paired elegant gold-rimmed champagne, wine and water glasses with a more modern glass and gold charger and gold, vintage-style utensils. This completed the look of the tables.
In the center of the reception room, in-between all the tables was this beautiful stone fountain. It was one of the many reasons we fell in love with this venue, and it completed the feeling of a garden-escape - all indoors! We had dainty, pink roses floating in the fountain and more greenery draped around it.
The final touches to make all our guests feel like there were in an enchanting, botanical wonderland were full branches of greenery draped all around the room - from the pillars and the ceiling. We lit the room with twinkle lights and candlelight, and paired with all the lush florals and greenery, we were to make the whole room feel truly magical.
For entertainment for the reception with had a hybrid DJ/live band, which was the best of both worlds. The DJ gave us the ability to have all our favorite genres of music played and the live instrumentalists brought a real life to the party. The sax player was mixing in with the crowd of party guests, our drummer brought out the bongos and was letting people play along to the beat. At one point, our priest even went up and played the drums!
We had a mix of music for the reception, from classic dance hits, to 70s and 80s songs for our parents and their friends. For our afterparty, which ran from 12AM-1AM, we didn’t change locations - we simply switched up the music to all our favorite songs from high school and college, and incorporated a lot of boy band, punk and electronic music. We’ll never forgot singing along to the Jonas Brothers, Blink-182, The Killers and Galantis with all our closest friends until our voices were almost gone.
We ended the night with a classic cake-to-the-face moment. To save some money, we went with a smaller, three-tier cake for photos. Then, we did a kitchen cake to make sure we fed all the rest of our guests!
We got our cake from Buttermilk Bakeshop in Brooklyn. We had gotten our cake from our engagement party from here and it is hands-down the best cake I’ve ever had. Buttermilk specializes in decorated cakes that are beautiful all without being covered in nasty-tasting fondant! And they have some of the most delicious cake flavors - we went with a chocolate-cake with an espresso buttercream! Our other favorites is their lemon cake with strawberry frosting, which we had for our engagement party.
Conor and I truly felt like we had the wedding of our dreams. Despite all we went through to get to our big day, it was worth the wait, the tears and the frustrations to have the most perfect day. And we wouldn’t have been blessed with such an amazing wedding if it weren’t for our fabulous vendors, who worked tirelessly with us for almost three years to bring our vision to life.
Wedding Planner: Kyle Michelle Weddings and Events
Florist: Visions Decor
Venue: Hempstead House
Photographer: Lucy Munoz
Videography: Amor in Motion
Wedding Dress: L’Fay Bridal/Berta
Bridesmaid Dresses: Mori Lee
Groomsmen/Ring Bearer Tuxes: Generation Tux
Cake: Buttermilk Bakeshop
Music: DLE Event Group
