Jersey City Summer Wedding Q’s and A’s

Learn about how this bride and groom pulled together their perfect celebration wedding with this awesome Jersey City Q and A with the bride!

Q: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?

A: Our inspiration was very simple — we wanted to get together with as many loved ones and friends as possible and celebrate! Everything we chose was about celebration. Alex and I had waited so long to meet and took our time being engaged. By the time our wedding day arrived we were so very ready to party!! We chose August as a nod to our fathers, each of whom were born during August. My Dad passed away in 2016 and not having him there was so hard for me, so we wanted to honor him in this way. I’m sure he was there in spirit because we had perfect sunshine and a refreshingly cool temperature for August. Although neither of us is super religious, we did incorporate a chuppah into our ceremony.

Q: Let’s talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?

A: I chose rose gold, ivory, pale blue and navy for our wedding colors. These colors were reflected in everything from my dress (with a rose gold underlayer) to the flowers and decorations. Our programs and gift box were DIY using templates I’d found online. Because the Liberty House is already gorgeous we didn’t need much in the way of decorations! We chose an abundance of flowers and fairy lights for the dance floor. Beyond that, the incredible view of downtown Manhattan was all the decoration we needed.

Q: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?

A: I had so much fun working with Jimmy, who owns JR Floral Designs! I had seen two beautiful bouquets mixing roses and succulents, for myself and for my bridesmaids. Jimmy brought the design to life perfectly. We did succulents for my husband and the groomsmen, plus his Dad. Our mothers both got succulent and rose corsages. The ceremony had tons of flowers — beautiful cascading bouquets of mixed flowers on the chuppah, and roses lining the chair rows with rose petals sprinkled down the aisle. Inside the reception, we had vases filled with different citrus slices and then a bouquet overflowing out of the vase on each table. Likewise our sweetheart table had a huge floral banner. I could not have been happier with how the florals turned out! Every single bouquet went home with someone.

Q: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?

A: We did. Firstly, everyone except me walked down the aisle to rock n’ roll songs!! I went the classic Cannon in D route. Then during the reception, rather than doing a sit down meal, we did a continuous cocktail hour all night long. It was very important to us that our guests had freedom to structure the night how they wanted to. Food always available, dancing always available, the beautiful outdoor patio always available, chairs to sit in always available. We worked very closely with Christian, our exceptional DJ, to ensure a mix of high energy songs to keep people dancing all night (it worked!!). My favorite parts of the wedding are the most traditional parts. I loved waiting in the bride’s waiting room while Alex stood at the altar. We didn’t do a first look, so I loved walking down the aisle and seeing his reaction. I loved exchanging rings with him and the powerful feeling that came over me of ‘wow, we have pledged ourselves to each other and it feels GREAT!’ I loved our first dance, and our last dance of the night too. And I loved being with so many people WE love to celebrate every moment.

Q: Let’s talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail.

A: Alex is a man who looks great in a suit! So for him there was no question that a classic navy suit was the way to go. We rented his suit, his groomsmen’s suits and chose a pale blue tie to bring out his handsome blue eyes. All of his groomsmen cleaned up so well! And it made for some great rat pack-style group photos. For me, my engagement ring was a huge source of inspiration. It is rose gold and I brought that color into many elements of the wedding. My wedding dress was ivory with a rose gold silk underlayer for example. Because every girl should get to wear a crown at least once if she wants, I accessorized with a rose gold tiara. I wore my Mom’s garter belt for my something borrowed and had a beautiful pair of pale blue and gold earrings for my something blue.

Q: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.

A: We met on a dating app! For me, dating apps were a great way to vet guys and consider a wide variety of men I’d otherwise never come across. Neither of us were looking for ‘the one’ when we met. Our relationship was fun from the beginning and every step we took made sense. Things have always felt very natural between us. The proposal happened on the evening of Christmas Day with his family. We were in his parents’ country home with them, his aunt and uncle, and his cousin and her boyfriend. Alex had actually planned to propose on New Year’s Eve, but he could see that I was visually let down that Christmas seemed to be fading away with no proposal. (Oops!) So he went downstairs during dinner to our room to get the ring. During our Christmas popper trivia game around the table, Alex waited until last to ask the question on his popper slip. Instead of asking the popper question, he asked if I would marry him. My mood immediately lifted and that Christmas became one of the best nights of my life!!

Q: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?

A: It’s hard to put the elation into words when we were pronounced man and wife. Separately, Alex and I had each been searching for so long to find the person we were meant to spend our lives with. All those ups and downs had left each of us feeling like maybe that good match didn’t exist. As our relationship blossomed and it became clear to us that we’d found our lifelong love in each other, that joy filled my heart so completely that it continues to spill over in happiness every day. (Even if we’re fighting!) Getting married is like an evolution. We have launched into a new era of life. It feels magnificent!

Q: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you’d like to share with other couples planning their day?

A: Because we got married relatively late in life, we had the ability to ask lots of friends what they wished they could have changed about their wedding. By far everyone recommended paying for a high-quality photographer and investing in filming the wedding. So we did both of those things! It was amazing how much I missed on the wedding day, as a bride you are just running everywhere. I so appreciate the depth of photos and having a video to show me and remind me.Another thing I will say is that 99% of our planning was low-stress. The day before and the day of the wedding? SUPER stressful. We got stuck in a 3-hour traffic jam on the way to our wedding hotel on what should have been a 20 minute drive. We almost missed our own rehearsal dinner! The next day traffic was just as bad and two of our groomsmen almost didn’t make the lineup. A couple of our guests missed the ceremony due to traffic. A few minor details on the wedding day turned out incorrectly, and I had to let go of the desire to fix them because nobody knew except me and Alex. So my advice out of this is to breathe, realize everything may not be exactly perfect but that your day will still be wonderful!!