HECK YEAH! I was eager to share this Secret Garden NoMad wedding in New York for a while now. Hands down, Whitney and Ryan are one of the most smiley couples I have worked with and it was so much fun to capture their laughs and witty jokes throughout their wedding day. I laughed out loud and teared up (yep, I cry during my couples’ weddings) as they exchanged their vows, shared great stories of friendship and love during the reception and danced the night away in midtown Manhattan.
Whitney is a talented wedding event planner herself, so you can imagine her own wedding had to be top notch. Everything from the Tinsel & Twine florals to Lael cakes and pastry, to hand painted roses on their chairs and chic chandeliers hanging from their tent’s ceiling was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
I think what made their day so much more special is the personal touch they added to all their details. Here are my top 3 lessons learned from their wedding
1. Personalized Accents
When it comes to gifts for guests or name cards, try adding a personal detail that you share with that particular guest. These can be silly or funny, because Hey! they say something only two of you know. At this intimate wedding I saw personalized dinner plates with hand drawn animals that were associated with each guest. Imagine their faces when they saw them – so much fun!
2. Using Humour
Weddings are always touching and tearjerking. Why not use humour to put your guests at ease? Whitney and Ryan decided to go creative at their wedding and gave each of their guest a funky baseball hat with “The A List” written on them. How cool is that?
3. Personal Stories
Weddings are meant to be celebrated with loved ones. Why not show how much you love them with wedding details that tell a story about you and your guests? Whether it’s name cards or a sweet table, you can always add a thing or two that will tell the story of your relationship with your guests. Whitney’s brother, for example, was wearing custom made cufflinks with a printed family photo from their childhood.
Below is the selection of my favourite shots from the wedding day. Whitney and Ryan celebrated both in New York and Toronto with their latter location at Airship 37. You can check out their Berkley celebration, which I also photographed here.
As seen on Style Me Pretty and MOD Wedding.
From The Bride…When we got engaged we went back and forth with what we wanted. We wanted something small and intimate, but we didn’t want to exclude people. So we settled on a 30 person New York wedding with best friends and family, and a bigger party back in Toronto the following weekend. New York was our “wedding”, so we wanted it to be perfect. We looked at venues from the Central Park Zoo to the New York Public Library…but nothing felt intimate and right. Then we came across the rooftop at the NoMad Hotel, which was magical. I wanted a wedding with a Secret Garden theme, outdoors, on a rooftop, and the NoMad checked every box! It was exactly what we wanted and the night was exactly as we had envisioned it. Mango Studios took photos that reflected the precise feel of the day. Working in the industry (as a wedding planner for 10 years no less!), I had high standards. Mango managed to exceed them. We have a ton of candids — legitimate memories that Mango somehow managed to capture on camera. Looking back at the photos, even though we only had 30 guests, Mango managed to convey our story: one full of love, happiness and intimacy.
