Real wedding: Lauren + Lawrence

Lauren + Lawrence had all the right pieces and vendors in place for this gorgeous wedding…such a charming affair!

I am so glad to be writing here because, as you’ll see, we relied on Brooklyn Bride every step of the way!

So much has been said here and elsewhere about Blue Hill at Stone Barns, so I’ll just say this: the 64-person private dining room is the holy grail for a couple who wants a long, drinky dinner-party in lieu of a dancey-reception. I’ll also say this: what really stole our hearts (even more than the food, if you believe it) was the Blue Hill private events staff. Throughout the whole process, but especially on the day of the wedding, Estelle Silbermann and Michael Greenberg were like spiritual leaders. No choosing linens or wines or chairs or creating table numbers, blah blah blah. They print menus and put them on cute mini-clipboards and put them at each place setting! They manage the iPod. They bake the cake! They take your guests on a private tour of the farm on the afternoon of the wedding! They’ll even do the flowers but I wanted the inimitable Saipua.

FLOWERS: Sarah and Amy from Saipua made a special trip up to Sleepy Hollow to scope out the space — they created wreaths and swags to give the dining room the folksy feel we wanted.

CLOTHES, ETC: My dress was Jenny Packham. I bought it from Mark Ingram (all in all a much less intimidating, less awful experience than I expected). Shoes were Prada. Hair clip was Jennifer Behr. Lawrence wore a JCrew suit, his shirt and tie were from In God We Trust. Virginia Bradley did my makeup, and this was something I did not think I wanted, but am so glad I hired Virginia and recommend her wholeheartedly.  Anna Sheffield of Bing Bang made our custom rings.

STATIONERY: Our invitations and save-the-dates were Anna Bond from Rifle Design. Lawrence conceived of the map, sent Anna a sketch, and she made it look perfect.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Leo Patrone was our photographer and he rules. He brought warmth and humor to something that was, for us, an uncomfortable process of being “looked at” nonstop for three days. We found him here on Brooklyn Bride — when I learned he’d shot the wedding of a guy I went to high school with! We had a lot of fun with Leo in our apartment in Bushwick, and at Roberta’s.

STUFF: We had tote bags from Custom Ink.com, luminaries from Paper Acorn via Etsy. Cake toppers from Melabo via Etsy. For favors, we filled mason jars with chocolate covered espresso beans from nutsonline.com and then glued toy farm animals to the tops. Oh, and we had a quaker-style wedding certificate for everyone to sign, and we also made a seating chart poster from a great, affordable site: DocumentsandDesigns.com.

[images from Leo Patrone]