Lavender Thoughts: budget weddings

Showing posts with label budget weddings. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Manhattan Wedding Under $1000 Part Deux

Saturday, June 3rd, 2010

You have probably seen the sneak preview of this magical wedding and read the background of the couples relationship in the story Finding Love in Africa. It is now time for me to unveil the images from the day! These images have not been retouched so they aren’t yet in their true state of glory nonetheless you can still feel the love pouring out of each one.

The entire prep for this wedding was done in a few weeks upon the couples return from Africa. They had actually been stateside since May but it had taken a while to pick a convenient date and location that would accommodate the type of wedding they wanted to have. The couple had had a traditional African ceremony in Tanzania for the groom’s family and the bride’s parents. More photo’s of that wedding at a later date.

They choose to have an intimate wedding in the US since they had invited the entire village to their previous ceremony. I had persuaded the bride to let me be responsible for the look, flow, wardrobe and theme of the day. Things clicked when I spotted a gorgeous ivory Ralph Lauren dress; unfortunately it was four sizes too big for the petite bride. I went back a few weeks later, saw the same dress and decided to see how much it was as it was on a sale rack. The dress was $45 and change. I decided to buy it even though the bride had ordered a few dresses from J Crew. I figured if it didn’t work I would return it. When she put it on she knew it was the one. As in most cases we ended up spending more on alterations than the actual dress. It was altered to perfection by Remziye Perkin at Pinpoint Bridal on the Upper East Side.

Now that the dress was checked off our list it was time for shoes and accessories, which the bride borrowed from my closet. The groom’s outfit was put together by Kyle DeFord a stylist for Banana Republic. Outfits were done and we moved onto the food, which my husband and I prepared for the couple. We also opened up our one bedroom apartment and turned it into an intimate space that had a dining area for a formal sit down dinner and a lounge area for dancing and dessert. Our other brother had put together a playlist for the evening that incorporated the couple’s favorite tunes. The remaining wedding vendors were primarily in-kind. You can find the in-kind vendors that made the day such a success below.

The wedding was held on a holiday weekend and thus the Chelsea flower shops weren’t going to be open and so I had to get to the district bright and early the day before to make my purchase. I wish I had taken a picture of what our apartment looked like with the boxes and buckets of flowers scattered all over, but you can imagine. Unfortunately, the base of my tablescape was supposed to be pink and white hydrangea however all but four bunches had wilted. I guess it was a risk knowing how temperamental hydrangea can be. I think the flowers still looked ok, not as fruitful as I had imagined but they were quite nice and of course there was lavender incorporated in the tablescape, bouquet and boutonniere. I tried making lavender ice cubes to compliment the couple’s signature drink but they didn’t work out too well. C'est la vie.

Going from a complete disaster zone only 30min before the ceremony to the final product was such a tremendous experience. I think I enjoyed prepping this wedding more than my own because I could see first hand what was happening and how far we had come. I would like to thank my amazing husband for all of his hard work and dedication in the kitchen and for putting up with my loads of flowers and complete upheaval of the apartment. I knew that it would be a gift that they would remember for the rest of their lives. So thank you for allowing me to do so. And everyone thanks you for the amazing lamb stew!

I also wanted to thank all of the in-kind participants. First of all a huge thank you to Natasha Jahangir Photography who that captured the day and the couple’s emotions so gracefully. I want to thank Shawn the fiercest makeup artist there is and little did I know he was a force to reckon with in the kitchen. If it wasn’t for him helping with last min prep Aleks and I would have never been able to feed anyone. I also want to thank Kyle DeFord for taking Marissa and William under his fabulously stylish wing to ensure that William looked as amazing as he felt on the big day. Thanks as well to Nerissa Holder Hall from Clever Hive for passing along the recipe for the amazing signature drink and assisting these two lovebirds in the search for their first apartment as man and wife in Brooklyn, NY. The last thank you goes to Jordan Tanksley a true friend, former roommate, travel partner and confidant. It was only fitting that she present them to the world as husband and wife. And a special thanks to the friends and family who joined to make this an incredibly memorable day. ENJOY!

Marissa & William: A Central Park Wedding from Natasha Jahangir on Vimeo.

Natasha Jahangir Photography

In-Kind Credits

Photography: Natasha Jahangir Photography

Makeup: Shawn Lovejoy Artistry

Officiant: Jordan Tanksley

Catering: Aleks & Brianna Rubin

Grooms Stylist: Kyle DeFord

Music: Andrew Lipovsky

Flowers: Lavender Thoughts

Tablescape

Sources

Bride’s Dress: Ralph Lauren

Alterations: Pinpoint Bridal

Sash: David’s Bridal

Shoes: Prada, something borrowed :)

Groom’s Outfit: Banana Republic

Shoes: Aldo Shoes

Cake: Two Little Red Hens

Tables, Chairs & Linens: West Side Party Rentals

Flowers: roses, calla lilies, hydrangea,
peonies and of course lavender

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Finding Love in Africa

Marissa and William's Story From my Point of View: The piece was originally written for a Crate & Barrel $100,000 wedding contest while they were still waiting for visa approval in Tanzania. They did not win the contest but still managed to have a rockin’ wedding for under $1000 in New York’s Central Park on July 3^rd, 2010. Wedding images are forthcoming.

And so it begins…

After graduation from Cornell University, my sister Marissa Lipovsky (Rissa), wanted to work with inner city youth in NYC. She moved to the big city and began teaching with a program called NYC Teaching Fellows. She taught for three years all while saving up to travel the world for a year after her teaching commitment was complete. And that she did! The girls from her crew team all agreed in college that they would climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2008. Naturally she used this for the starting point of her year-long journey. She set out to travel all over and volunteer her teaching skills to many of the local schools throughout East, and South Africa, Thailand, Bali, Cambodia, and Vietnam however, she unexpectedly added much more to her one-year travel itinerary.

She arrived in Tanzania Aug 2008. Within two days she had managed to find the love of her life. I know this because I had a dream about it before she told anyone that she had met this amazing man.

Marissa met William while she was in the local village stocking up on supplies for her trip up Kili. William saw Marissa and suggested that she try on some of the clothes that he was selling. I hear that they both knew upon their eyes meeting that there was some reason that they had to talk to each other.

In just the fashion that my crazy little baby sister would - she ended up going back to William’s local village so that he could show her around. Little did she know, his village was a two-hour trip away. At dinner time Marissa didn't even realize (once again, typical) that it was dark and she had spent the entire day with William and his friend Good Luck. She also didn't know how to get back to town where she was to be meeting all of her friends for dinner. Hours and hours passed by, with no Rissa in sight. I hear that Kathleen and Robin two of her closest friends were absolutely terrified as she was nowhere to be found. Riss never told anyone that she was going to go see William’s village. She finally got home late that night once all of her terrified Cornellians were at home getting ready for bed.

When she walked through the door the girls knew that she was safe but they now wanted to kill her for disappearing and not telling anyone where she was going. But Riss was mentally somewhere else! She was glowing, she had the biggest smile on her face - and they knew, oh shit what did she just get herself into?

She told them the story of the nice young Tanzanian who took her around to the shops at the town they were in near the base of the mountain. And how he suggested that she come to visit his home. Not realizing that she had been gone for almost a day. She proceeded to talk about Williams hospitality, the food that they ate, the beautiful landscape, the bus ride, the beautiful little children that were running about, and this "Good Luck" character that was Williams best friend and house-mate.

Needless to say it was pretty certain that they had all had enough for the night. Marissa continued to talk to and visit William before and after she summitted Kili. But all too soon, for the two lovebirds, her time was up. She was scheduled to continue the rest of her travels. The first stop - The THANDA Project in South Africa. Even though she just met the love of her life, educating the most under funded and underserved children in the world was top priority for her. Off she went to SA to volunteer with THANDA, which means love in Zulu. She then proceeded to travel to south east Asia, spending a nightmarish few weeks doing a detoxifying cleanse in Thailand, many days and nights hiking, swimming, camping, getting food poisoning in Cambodia with her best friend and former roommate Jordan Tanksley, and multiple week long, silent meditation retreats.

She was planning on doing an entire tour of Europe. She met our brother in Ireland for a week of surfing and Guinness and our Mother in Amsterdam and they proceeded down to Italy where they decided to eat their way through Florence. All the while she had an insatiable urge to get back to Africa!

After almost two years and many, many, many, many back and forths about the globe. She and William have finally received a Visa to The States. The only issue is that they need to get married within three months of being in the country. Since Aleks and I planned our wedding in a month and a half in Manhattan I am sure that the timeframe is doable. However the cash that has been exhausted on this journey to find her soulmate and travel the world is not so easy to come by.

And if this contest doesn't work out a small, elegant ceremony and reception is sure to be just what these two lovebirds need to kick off their lives together in the US. We may have to do some fundraising though ;) Enjoy the images from Africa!

Marissa & William: The Beginning