Stylish Tropical-Inspired Wedding in Brooklyn

After being together for almost 11 years, Karen decided it was time she make the move so she popped the question to Peter herself! When they were ready to tie the knot, they returned to New York City and invited their friends and family to come experience the place where they fell in love. They enlisted Color Pop Events to help plan their wedding at 501 Union in Brooklyn where arrangements by Petals & Roots complemented the modern and fresh feel of the space with lots of tropical botanicals like peach anthurium, protea, and deep green monstera leaves. Just like the couple themselves, these photos by Eileen Meny Photography (including a tea ceremony mid-reception!) could not be cooler, so make sure to check out all the details of their super-stylish wedding (and read more in the bride’s words) below!

How did you meet?

We met online in 2008 on Match.com in the early days of online dating. Peter was living in NYC and I was working in Manhattan. In a city filled so many people, we may have never found each other if it wasn’t for the internet.

What is your proposal story?

There have been many well meaning family and friends, over the past 10 years, who have repeatedly asked Peter about when we were going to get married. Jokingly, Peter would respond almost always respond that he was “waiting for Karen to propose”. In reality it was never the right time. We were still working on establishing ourselves as individuals & we wanted to make sure we were where we wanted to be before we decided to get married. I was finishing up medical school and then residency (which was an incredibly taxing time on even the strongest of relationships) and Peter was making a big leap in his own career when he decided to quit the practice of law and pivot into technology and data engineering. So now after years of our personal & career growth and change, we finally seemed settled and I decided that now is the perfect time to get married! Since, Peter’s plate is still very full of various responsibilities, I wanted to take the pressure off of him and I decided to take him up on this joke of “waiting for me to propose” and I did!

It took me months of reading blogs and articles about other women who have proposed to their partners. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be too much of a shock to our families and friends (who for the most part are still very traditional). Finally after getting the support of my closest friends I decided to seize the day and arranged my surprise proposal in just a few weeks after I made my final decision.

I chose a random Wednesday in December to surprise him after he came home from work. I set up a scavenger hunt in our apartment where he was guided through multiple stops where I had placed travel mementos from our adventures together, emails I found from 2009 during our first months of dating, old photos, and lastly, he found me in our bedroom with a gift box with a ring & a gift card where I wrote out my proposal (I knew there was a good chance I would get too choked up to speak so I am glad I had it written down from him to read as we both started crying tears of joy!)

What were your favorite parts of the day?

Spending a relaxing morning with family at the pool and getting ready with my favorite people in our gorgeous suite at the 1Hotel Brooklyn Bridge.

Our wedding planner arranged a little treat where my husband and I shared some tasty bites and a toast with our favorite drinks alone together in private between our ceremony and our reception. It was so nice to get a moment alone to soak in the excitement and joy of our wedding day together.

Having our entire family and all of our friends out on the dance floor together all at once at the beginning of the night was absolutely amazing. Especially now, looking back we savor those moments of being so close with our loved ones while singing at the top of our lungs (even if most didn’t know the words) and dancing like the night would never end.

At the end of the night, the true party-hard guests left standing joined us at the local Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club for a truly relaxing wind down with games, drinks and music until the place closed down in the early hours of the morning and we finally had to part ways.

Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?

If your budget will allow, get a wedding planner! Our wedding planner guided us from start to finish on all of the important details of our wedding day. She helped us pick out vendors, read through contracts, and most importantly made sure we didn’t have to worry about a single detail on the day of our wedding because she had everything under control!

Event Credits

Ceremony Venue501 Union
Reception Venue501 Union
Event PlanningColor Pop Events
StationeryMinted
VideographyShark Pig
CateringPurslane
Ceremony MusiciansHighline Quartet
StationeryZOLA