Today I am thrilled to present a wedding that took place in one of my all-time favorite places: New York City. After changing their initial plans of a large wedding at a relative’s house in Maine, the happy couple skillfully managed to pull together a lovely, more intimate wedding for 50 guests in just five weeks.
Here is their story as told by the bride, Jen:
“[Jesse and I] got married at a garden on our block and then headed to our favorite restaurant in the West Village for our reception, Market Table. After I walked down the aisle, a double-decker tour bus rolled by and someone screamed, ‘Don’t do it.’ We got a great laugh and proceeded to have the most wonderful evening.
Truthfully, I was never much of a wedding person. We are at the age when we have them all of the time! In order for me to walk down the aisle, we needed to do this in our style… which is exactly what we did. We had an intimate, elegant, and affordable wedding that was just different than most of the weddings we all go to.
Some of the ways we did this:
- PHOTOGRAPHY: My father, Mark Portland, is a genius professional photographer. So he could walk me down the aisle, my Aunt Connie (while not a pro, she does an awesome job) took pictures of the ceremony. My father then took pics after he walked me down the aisle and at the reception.
- MUSIC: Originally we were going to go with an iPod for music. Two days before the wedding, we asked two of the guests who happen to have a cover band to play. They did this as a wedding gift to us. It was so much fun and different than your typical wedding band. The first song they sang was Joe Cocker’s ‘Feeling Alright’ with the groom and his father. [The band] now has been booked for other weddings as well!
- KEPT IT GREEN: while we did send out invitations (everyone vetoed my Evite wishes), RSVPs went to my email address. We also ditched having programs at the ceremony.
- BRIDAL PARTY: Since Jesse has been in so many weddings, it would be difficult to include everyone as his groomsmen… So he had his father and best friend as co best-men. My sister was my maid of honor and his sister was my bridesmaid.
- PARTY FAVORS: Were recipe cards with a pic of Jesse and I on it. The recipe was from the famous chef of Market Table, Mikey Price. We were able to print these on our home computer.
- MINISTER: Was Tom Speers, who Jesse has known his whole life. I also babysat for his children years ago when we lived in Philly. Tom made the ceremony lovely. It should be known that my mom is Jewish, my Dad is Catholic, and Jesse’s family is Presbyterian…and we created a loving ceremony that was for everyone.
In the end, we had a wedding for under $15K in the Big Apple. While that is not chump change, when it comes to weddings it is!
If you have questions on this or any other wedding related topic, please post for me here or send me an email to susan.southerland@pwg.com. Also become a fan on Facebook by clicking here and follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
Your partner in perfect planning,
Susan
