The all-white space of Studio 450 really created the perfect backdrop for this utterly modern affair….
We were married at 4pm on the roof terrace on July 30th, a perfect hot summer’s day, I chose to arrive at the ceremony via the freight elevator with my father walking me out and down the “aisle” with my bridesmaids and flower girls following, the elevator opens right on to the roof terrace and it just seemed a little more theatrical and fun than the traditional way of walking up the stairs! Before the ceremony each guest was given a glass of white sangria and a wicker fan with the order of service attached to it. We had a State officiant marry us as neither of us are religious and we wanted to write our own vows and create our own ceremony. We had a lady – Kelly Lemons – marry us, as we’d been to a lot of weddings officiated by men so we thought why not mix it up a bit! We wrote our vows at one of our favorite restaurants (Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens) on a paper tablecloth which we’ve now framed and hung in our apartment. Our dear friend Cariad Harmon performed a song she had written for us with a guitar accompaniment, we’d asked her to keep it as a surprise and it brought the house down! We had two readings performed by friends, one was Us Two by A. A. Milne and the other was an excerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
After the ceremony guests mingled for a couple of hours and photos were taken on the roof terrace which has an indoors and outdoors area. We had the Lobster Place from Chelsea market set up a raw bar with three different types of local oysters they shucked in front of guests and a central table set up with different charcuterie, cheeses and antipasti for nibbles while guests drank prosecco, beer, wine or cocktails. At around 7pm (we timed it for the sunset) guests were taken downstairs to the main loft space for dinner and speeches. The meal was served family style to ensure it stayed casual and fun and to enable people to try and share lots of different dishes. We had nine dishes in total, including lamb with mint sauce, duck fat smashed potatoes, roasted asparagus with quail eggs, hangar steak with chimichurri sauce and crab cakes with three different types of remoulade – guests were fat and happy by the end! We decided against having a wedding cake and chose instead to cut the first slice of a Key Lime Pie while backstage ten other pies were being cut and brought out for dessert. We finished with shards of dark chocolate on glass blocks being brought out with coffee and a shot of frangelico for everyone to enjoy as the best men did their speech.
We knew we wanted to keep it simple it terms of look and feel, the views at Studio D really are the best backdrop and décor that you could ask for. We just had white balloons to decorate the roof terrace and the flowers for the tables, bars and bouquets were very simple and fresh consisting of white roses, freesias and an assortment of green leaves. We had 250 votive candles to light the space at night and the sunset was sensational, bouncing off the all white space with incredible colors!
After the dinner we went back upstairs to the roof terrace and penthouse for drinking and dancing until 2am, if only it could’ve been longer!
VENDORS
Location: Studio 450
Caterer: Michael Zulli Catering, NYC; The Lobster Place for the oyster raw bar.
Florist: Spruce, Chelsea NYC
Hair/makeup: Hair: Kristan Serafino Makeup: Lauren Cosenza
Dress: Nicole Miller
Shoes: Christian Louboutin
Men’s suits: Groom: Paul Smith; Best Men: Zara
Bridesmaids dresses: Various boutiques in London, UK
Flower girl dresses: Gap (!)
[images from Tory Williams Photography]