The Wedding Chicks

New York is filled with charming nooks and crannies that only a local New Yorker would know of. Like the La Plaza Cultural in the East Village, a unique open-air theater and green space, combining the functions of a community garden, a park and play area, wildlife refuge and performance venue.  It also happened to be the ceremony site for Ashley and Colin’s wedding, whose entire guest list was from out of town.

To ensure that their guests experienced some of New York’s incredible charm they created a unique and intimate wedding day. Taking them from a public park to a ride on a big yellow school bus all the way to to a Soho Bookstore. Sounds like a fun adventure to us! Read on to hear more about their Soho Bookstore Wedding and as always see more photos in the full gallery here all captured by Trent Bailey Photography.

From The Bride:
The ceremony was held at La Plaza Cultural in the East Village. There are so many interesting and beautiful community gardens sprinkled around the Village, and we knew not many of our guests would even know places like that existed. I always wanted to get married outside and the weeping willows seemed to be the perfect backdrop. A close friend of ours performed the ceremony, which made the evening that much more meaningful.

Big yellow school buses took guests to the reception at Housing Works Bookstore in SoHo. The bookstore was the perfect choice for us. We’re both writers and love books. We met in grad school and really bonded while working on a project that kept us in the library for three days straight! Housing Works Bookstore is fantastic … all the profit from our wedding went to support the eradication of AIDS and homelessness in the city. They also have in-house catering that’s delicious and the staff was so helpful and accommodating.

What she wishes she would have done differently:
I wish I had done the escort cards differently. I put them in this little card catalog to fit in with the book theme, which I thought was so cute. Even though they were arranged alphabetically, it took guests a long time to find their name, and this backed up the line getting into the space. If I did it again, I would have laid them out where they were easy to see and grab quickly.

We spent the year before our big day scouring the used section at The Strand to collect all the books that we then covered to match our stationery. Kathleen of Kat Flower did all of our floral arrangements, and she is a girl after my heart … the rich, luxurious mix of whites, blush tones and deeply dark hues of all the blooms made the space absolutely gorgeous!

Our band, Roosevelt Dime, set the tone for the evening. Their folksy, soulful jug-band-like blues created the perfect mood. I loved watching our parents dance all night!! For favors, each guest received a book and a personalized bookmark that also served as a place card.

The best part of our wedding was having all the people we love in one place to share and celebrate our marriage with us! Five months later, I’m still looking at all the wonderful pictures Trent Bailey took. The snapshots of those memories will last forever, and it’s exactly why we didn’t want to skimp on photography! We couldn’t have asked for a better evening to start our lives together!

Makeup: Morgan Gates
Flowers: Kat Flower
Ceremony: La Plaza Cultural
Venue: Housing Works Bookstore

Read on to see how much this heart themed wedding costs. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple’s breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.

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Growing up Whit always knew she wanted to get married at Renbrook School where her father worked. While a school is not a traditional wedding venue, the historical building holds many fond memories for this bride — and turned out to be very appropriate since both Mark and Whit worked in the field of education!

With the help of Sarah Taggart from A Polished Plan, the school was transformed into an unique wedding venue with DIY projects and colorful fabric. Don’t miss any of the DIY touches in this wedding by viewing the full gallery here, all fabulously photographed by Anna Naphtali.

From A Polished Plan:
I remember my first phone conversation with the bride, Whitney, vividly. She described the vision of her wedding day as lots of DIY touches, shabby chic details, colorful fabric & patterns and … oh yeah, the reception was going to be held in a school cafeteria. Huh? She was a little overwhelmed at the prospect of pulling together a beautiful wedding, while on a budget, inside a school cafeteria, and quite honestly — so was I. But her enthusiasm and energy were contagious, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of something so special and so unique.

On the Venue:
Originally founded under a different name, Renbrook School has been a working school in West Hartford, Connecticut since 1935. After out growing several buildings, the estate of Frederick B. Rentschler, founder of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, allowed the school to rent the family home on Albany Avenue. In 1958 the school moved to its new location and renamed itself ‘Renbrook’ after the original name of the Rentschler estate.

Whit is a lover of all things fabric and patterned and pretty so we used that as our jumping off point for the design. And even though the wedding was taking place at a school, and both Whitney & Mark worked professionally in the field of education, the “typical” school theme of vintage books and chalkboards was far from her their mind! The school cafeteria, where the reception was held, was quite literally a blank slate upon which to build our color story of robins egg blue and shades of pink. Using a neutral background of textured and earthy linens, we pulled pieces from Whit’s colorful fabric collection into pennant flags, table numbers & runners, and embroidery hoop wall art

Fresh flowers from a local farm were casually arranged in milk glass and rustic wooden boxes for the centerpieces. Escort cards were strung on a vintage window atop a family heirloom quilt and place cards were cleverly stuck on colored paper straw in the water glass. We created a playful table arrangement using rectangular and circular tables, a large dance floor with a lounge area and dessert bar and installed grapevine wreaths, string lighting, and fabric swag treatments on the ceiling. The result was truly magical and you had to blink twice to remind yourself you were actually standing in a school cafeteria!

As you can see, embroidery hoops and fabric can be used in different ways to decorate your wedding. All that is needed to create this simple wall hanging for your wedding are embroidery hoops, fabric and string! You could even decorate the windows using lace to allow the light to shine through!

Photographer: Anna Naphtali
Venue: Renbrook School
DJ: Ripcord
Flowers: Windham Gardens Farm
Lighting: Social Decor
Prop or Furniture Rentals: Party Rental Ltd
Caterer: Sage Catering

Eva and Adrian both spent their childhood on the beautiful island of Saint Maarten, and yet during those early years they never met. Both of them moved away but they occasionally returned to visit the island. On one such visit they finally met for the first time. Their relationship started as a whimsical crush and slowly developed into a forever love. 13 years later, despite the hardships of long distance, they said “I do”.

Read on to hear so much more from Eva about their special day, especially their full budget breakdown. Don’t miss a single detail from this chic wedding at Bear Flag Farm by viewing the full gallery here, all magnificently captured by the ever so talented Shelly Kroeger Photography.

From the Bride:
In the days leading up to the wedding, I remember receiving a phone call from Tina Reikes of Bear Flag Farm indicating that the weather forecast was going to be a hot one. Though we wanted an open air outdoor ceremony, we decided to put up tents so that our guests would be comfortable — the tents were beautiful and added to the coziness of intimate ceremony. Mother nature always has a way of testing us! The day of the wedding was super sunny, breezy and cool.

Adrian and I fell in love with Bear Flag Farm and when it came to decorations and theme, we did not want to take away from the beauty that would be around us. Rather, we chose a subtle color palette and style that we felt would complement the fields, vineyards and orchards at Bear Flag. In searching for inspiration, we loved the vintage garden/rustic look but wanted also a romantic feel. We were also not fans of having a super matchy concept where all aspects of the decor were identical to one another.

Looking back at our wedding pictures, it was “cold” for the Caribbean guests. Of course Tina and her team thought of everything — she had fleece blankets placed near the sofa lounge section. To this day my guests say that Tina and her team thought of everything! It was a little detail that was greatly appreciated by all.

We love this increasingly popular drink idea utilizing mason jars and darling striped straws. This wedding took it one step further and specialized each straw with a cute saying. Super easy and super cute!

The day of the wedding was stress-free for all and I could tell that our guests enjoyed being at Bear Flag. Initially when we would mention that we were getting married on a farm- that concept threw them for a loop. I don’t think anyone could have imagined how tranquil, chic and beautiful Bear Flag Farm could be. I think our families and guests were blown away. To be honest — the entire day was perfect and beyond what I could have ever imagined.

Check out the wedding film from Imperial Video Productions below to get a closer look at this chic wedding!

Photographer: Shelly Kroeger Photography
Coordinator, Event Designer, Flowers & Venue: Bear Flag Farm
Makeup: SF Bridal Makeup
Cake: Freeport Bakery
Caterer: Grace Lee Events
Cinematography: Imperial Video Productions
Dress Designer: Paloma Blanca
Groom's Attire: Club Monaco

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