When I visualize a Manhattan wedding, there are only a few small variations that come to  mind.  My default dream Manhattan wedding is sleek, modern, upscale, elegant, classic with a bit of art deco nod.  Ashley Rupeka & Patrick Mokros’s wedding is a beautiful package of exactly that.  Even more special is that fact that Ashley & Patrick are two very good friends of mine, and yes I had to good fortune to attend this gorgeous affair.  Small bit of back story first… I have known Patrick {& his lovely sister Molly} since 2001, watching the both of them blossom into this life.  It goes without saying, having known someone for such a period of time, I have seen Patrick in & out of a few relationships over this time period, none that I was particularly a fan of.  I note this only because of a fun fact {dont worry not trying to get Patrick in any hot water!} In 2009 a mutual good friend of ours got married.  As his guest for this wedding, Patrick brought along and I quote ‘A good friend from home’  I can’t exactly explain why, but I thought to myself, yeah ah ha…..   As I came to find out, Ashley & Patrick were actually high school sweethearts & as I watched them interact that night, I knew something was very different.  I liked Ashley right off the bat and really liked the way that Patrick just seemed to ‘hum’ around her.  He didn’t know it yet, but I did.  I actually told him so that night.  ”You’re going to marry this girl some day” I told him.  He smiled at me in his cheshire way, explaining to me that it was strictly platonic & that he just needed a date for the wedding.   Riiiiiiight

It feels weird for me to write out the ‘What Storyboard Likes’ portion of this feature {as I normally do for my wedding features} for my good friends.  Instead, I want to share with you an awesome moment that I can only enhance with  my personal account of what happened.  Allow me to explain one small thing to start off with, Patrick, is a mischievous lil bastard, love him, but if he is given the chance to, oh I don’t know…. get frosting on Ashley’s face, yeah, he’s that guy!  So here’s how it went down.  I honestly do not know if they before hand discussed the whole don’t you dare ruin my makeup by pushing my face in the cake thing, what I do know is that it all started off innocently enough.  Whether being a good boy got the better of Patrick, I am not sure, but next thing you know, there’s a giant dollop of frosting on Ashley’s nose.  Ashley { who by the way, is a good nature gal that can & will give it right back to Patrick, another reason I adore her and that she is so very perfect for him} took it all in stride only to have Patrick one up himself immediately, ah… going and getting the frosting if you will, hehe.  See my lil gif below

Believe it or not, this isn’t the end of the story!  Shortly after Ashley recovered from getting frosted, then slimed if you will, Patrick was laughing off to the side, discussing a bit with those around him.  I’ve got to be honest, I myself didn’t see what happened next coming & I think the photographer was equally caught off guard, figuring it was all over.  Well, Ashley got herself a nice piece of cake & introduced it to Patrick’s face &  let’s just say, the crowd went wild!!  It was such an amazing moment for a few reasons.  One, they really did start off all well behaved.  As guests, we pretty much accepted that it was going to be a no frills cake moment.  Much like any great horror film, the moment you settle in, relax, the sh*t hits the fan truly taking you by surprise.  It was such a fun moment, one made even better by how wonderfully each took it.  There was nothing but love & fun in that moment, much the way I imagine Ashley & Patrick see themselves together.

 

Novella of the Bride…

We are High school sweethearts that reconnected after 11 Years.  Our friend Jessie was the first to call that we were going to get married a few years ago at Andy’s {a mutual friend} wedding.  Now she is doing a write up on our wedding!  I think this was her scheme all along!  {*SBW Note: For the record, I did NOT make Ashley write this!  When I got their questionnaire back & saw this in the tell us about yourself section, I about spit out my water in laughter.  Trust me I got skills, but that would be some next level stuff!}

We really wanted our wedding day to be as intimate as possible.  With our wedding being a trip for most of our guests, we wanted everyone to experience NYC in a different way, not as tourists.  I have always said that if I could be alive at any different time, it would be in the 1920′s!  We didn’t want our wedding to look ‘themed’ & really didn’t want it to be a typical wedding, wedding. I think we really wanted our guests to feel like they were coming to a more elaborate dinner party, and we really wanted everyone to be as comfortable as possible!  We tried to have little antique/1920′s touches here in there, with the classic champagne glasses, longer dinner tables instead of round tables, and more candles than usual to make the mood romantic and cozy.  We really wanted it to be a different wedding experience that anyone has ever had.  The Harold Pratt House made us feel like it was an adventure, CLUE if you will, and transported us back in time to a page right out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald book.  We loved that we were able to use every room in the mansion, and the fact that it is absolutely beautiful didn’t hurt either.

We hired Beth Harris, event coordinator, from The Harold Pratt House to coordinate and to take charge on our wedding day…we didn’t hire a wedding planner.  I don’t think our day would have been as perfect if she was not there.  She was seriously like Jesus reincarnated in a petite blonde…that girl parted the ocean that night…wait was that Jesus or Moses?

Bride’s Favorite Moment: “I don’t know if I have a favorite moment per se, for the entire 6 hours melted into one giant memory that went by far too quickly.  But, just having our closest friends and family in the same room with us, witnessing our vows, eating dinner together, and dancing the night away…is something that I will never forget and I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

Groom’s Favorite Moment: “There’s really no way that I could single out one thing that made the day.  Everything just came together so well.  We had all of the right people in the right place, eating the right things, dancing to the right music that was being performed by the right band.  Most importantly, I had the right girl in the right dress walking down the aisle to a very lucky me.”

A Final Note from Ashley: “Our wedding photographer, Laura Miller, is now known as ‘That ninja photographer’ to all of our guests.  I don’t know how she did it, but she happened to catch every moment…perfectly.  We think she multiplied herself before coming that night, to be able to be in at least 4 different places at once.  We have photos that tell a beautiful story…   I also want to say that Patrick is by far the most incredible man, he gave me {along with our respective parents} a wedding that I don’t think I could have ever dreamed of having.  I wouldn’t have changed a thing, because it was an absolutely perfect day…and he makes all of my days perfect.  I am one fucking lucky girl.

 

Vendor Love

Venue: The Harold Pratt House
Wedding Dress: Reem Acra
Bridal Boutique: Gabriella Bridal
Bridesmaid Dress: Club Monaco
Shoes: Yves Saint Laurent
Hair Stylist: Rita Hazan Salon
Makeup Artist: Nam Vo
Groom’s Suit: Yves Saint Laurent
Music: Naked Soul Band from Perrone Brothers
Lighting: Glen Goldman Productions, inc
Rentals: Party Rental Ltd
Florist: Laura Remmert Events
Caterer: Benchmarc Events
Baker: Momofuku Milk Bar
Photographer: Weddings by Two

Marisa Rothstein & Nolan Robinson wanted a unique, slightly offbeat, fun wedding in a location was sure to fulfill their needs!  Landing on the Housing Works Bookstore (which is a nonprofit), they choose to focus their money where they felt it was the most important.  Opting out of traditional things such as cake cutting, tons of flowers and so forth, they instead wrote unique vows for one another and other creative elements.  In lieu of a guestbook (and in keeping with the bookstore theme) Marisa & Nolan had utilized an adorable “card catalog” drawer to give guests a way to write their best wishes or a note of advice to the couple. As guests arrived, they were treated to Ketubah signing downstairs, while being able to enjoy a cocktail hour before the ceremony upstairs.  Immediately following the ceremony the chairs were whisked away and the crowd was swept up in the Hora dance, complete with chair-lifting and everything. Following this, guests sat down for a meal and were treated to not only the traditional toasts but a fully prepared skit depicting the couple’s story performed by Marisa’s sister and friends!

 

 

 

 

Vendor Love

Hair Stylist:  Revolver Salon
Caterer:  Housing Works
Reception Venue:  Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
Cake Designer:  Marneycakes, Inc.
DJ:  A Starry Night: Elegant Disc Jockeys
Heirlooms and extras:  J Levine Judaica, NYC
Photographer:  Sarah Tew Photography

 

Its never ceases to amaze me how incredibly serendipitous life can be.  This particular example involves a Twitter started friendship (that’s you Casey!), a charity auction, a swoon worthy restaurant, & a couple: One from Australia, one from Minnesota.  Allow me to explain.

In order of operations: Hubby & I, every year, attend a charity event in DC.  Just a tad over a year ago, we won/bought however you prefer to think of it, one of the packages at auction, all for charity of course.  Part of that lovely package was a VIP experience dinner for two at PUBLIC.  As it turned out, Hubby, who is in the high end wine auction business, actually already knew the great folks at PUBLIC (they had done some events there in the past).  Cut to Twitter, it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly easy it is to bond with & becomes friends with someone via this crazy social media form, in about a heart beat.  Casey of Casey Fatchett Photography is a shining example of this.  Witty, funny, & certainly fun to go back & forth with, it wasnt long before we were in each other’s corners.  Casey & I (as well as Casey’s fantastic wife, Caroline) didnt actually physically meet until just very recently at Tamra’s amazing Everswoon launch party (Thanks Tamra!).  There was a humours moment when we first meet, where Casey, being ever the gentleman, held out his hand to shake a good to meet you hello to me.  I looked down at his hand and started to chuckle.  You know the feeling when even though you have not yet physically meet a person, you converse with them so much in a written sense, its as if they are already a friend part of your life?  Thats how I felt at the moment.  It felt like shaking the hand of a friend you have had for 2 years, yeah not happening.  I was like oh come here and then proceeded to bear hug Casey (Thank you Caroline for not smacking  me away

I had been dogging Casey for sometime to submit a damn wedding to me already!!  Finally, I was greeted in my inbox with a submission from Casey and oh how funny can life be…  Not only did I love the super Manhattan featured wedding, but the reception took place at….  PUBLIC!  Now allow me a small digression for a moment.  Hubby & I did finally have our VIP experience at PUBLIC that we had won.  With not the slightest bit of embellishment, it was by far one of the nights of our lives.  It was….perfection.  From Chef Brad, to various staff members there (PS-our waitress was amazing, she really really needs to write a food blog, like now!), to the mega delicious food, to all the wonderful things we got to experience while there, it was beyond a home run.

When I saw Casey’s submission of a wedding at PUBLIC all those lovely feelings came floating back.  Having a close connection with PUBLIC, I thought it would be a rare great opportunity to actually hear a bit from the vendor side of things too.  I reached out to the fine ladies and asked for a bit of commentary from their side as well, and they were all to happy to volley up some great stuff about Randi Anderson & Karlo Pastrovic’s wedding!  So now that I have written a mega intro, allow me to STFU and let you guys get to strolling through this absolutely lovely New York City wedding!!

A note from Casey,  the photographer:

Randi is from Minnesota. Karlo is from Australia. They meet in New York City and have a VERY New York wedding. At the same time, it was intensely personal and thoughtful and highlighted the importance of family and friends. Their invitations and favors featured a wedding logo designed for them by a close friend. A friend of Randi’s from college DJ’d the reception. Karlo hand stamped the individual letters for each escort card. At one point during the ceremony, the celebrant asked all those in attendance to reach out and ‘send’ their support and love to the couple. I have been to hundreds of weddings and I feel like the woman in the taxi Mary Poppins ads saying, “Even I, a jaded New Yorker…” but the moment was palpably electric! After the ceremony, they hopped in a vintage cab (which was fitting because they gave vintage cab models to the bridal party as part of their thank you gifts) and headed down to Public, where they danced the night away!

“We wanted a simple but elegant  New York wedding: beautiful little church, thoughtfully designed restaurant with a Michelin Star which would cater to the different tastes of our guests.  Special item, personalized bells from Bevin Brothers in Connecticut. We also hired a film car, in our case a checker cab, instead of a limo to take us from the church.”

Note from the grand folks at PUBLIC:

Randi Anderson and Karlo Pastovic contacted me early 2010 to discuss having their wedding reception at PUBLIC.  They were to be married off-site & then PUBLIC was going to be the party!  They first contacted me via email and were recommended by family friends.  (The recommendation came from a couple that happened to be the James BeardAward-winning author team of Andrew Dornenburg and Karen A. Page, co-authors of the books Becoming a Chef (1995; 2003, 2nd ed.), Culinary Artistry (1996), Dining Out (1998), Chef’s Night Out (2001),The New American Chef (2003), What to Drink With What You Eat (2006), The Flavor Bible (2008), and The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine (2011).) 

A few more words from PUBLIC:

From the beginning, Randi & Karlo had a vision and we worked together to make the vision come alive.  The most important part of it all of course was the food so Chef Brad indeed worked his magic.  The vibe of the event was electric!  The guests were boisterous and fun, and everyone raved about the food & service.  The whole night flew by so fast and I can honestly say that this was actually one of our most entertaining, and fun for the staff weddings. 

Getting a lil help from their friends: Julie Gamble, an artist, arranged the flowers for the reception while Diana Litchfield did the invitations.

 

When asked their favorite moment, the couple each had separate favorites with one major agreed upon fave.  While the the groom’s speech will always stay fresh in our brides mind, the groom will forever hold their first dance close to his heart, however for both our bride & groom it was the power of all the love from the guest they received upon walking into the reception for the first time!

*SBW: I’m sorry, but how incredibly cute are these two, especially in this particular photograph?!  I love how petulantly cute mister on the right is.  I wanna hang out with him, he is probably a handful!

Fun lil wedding tid-bit: Big Al’s limo swooped by Public at the end of the night whisking away our couple for a little ride around town before dropping us off at the hotel.  What a sweet way to really cement your wedding day and have some magical last moments that are special just to the two of you forever!

 

Vendor Love

Wedding Dress: Lovely Bride
Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Hair Stylist: Blow NYC
Make-up Artist: Bobbie Brown
Favors and Gifts: Bevin Brothers
Reception Venue: Public
Ceremony: Church of the Transfiguration
Music: DJ Rubia
Florist: Julie Gamble (Friend of the couple)
Photo Booth Equipment: Casey Fatchett Photography
Photography: Casey Fatchett Photography