Katell

We attended Emily and Jeremy's wedding today held at the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx in New York. It was a beautiful venue and Matt and I truly enjoyed seeing two of our friends get married. The ceremony started at around 11 30 and was held outside in a small courtyard. There were chairs on either side for guests with a rose petal-lined aisle for the bridal party to walk down. They had a harp as their only music which was beautiful (it's one of my favorite instruments) and a short, simple ceremony. One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was that, instead of traditional readings, the justice of the peace read two excerpts that related to the couple as well as a summary of their relationship together. After the vows and exchange of rings, they did a sand ceremony combining two different colors of sand (plum and white) in a single container. It was a short, but very meaningful ceremony that Matt and I greatly enjoyed.

Immediately after the ceremony they had their cocktail hour in a tented and heated patio. They had great food at a few different stations as well as passed hors d'oeuvres that were all delicious. After cocktail hour, we were ushered into a beautiful ballroom with the dance floor in the center. They had gorgeous floral centerpieces made of all different purple and white flowers surrounded by small candles. The couple entered to Bruno Mars' "Marry You" and went into their first dance, which they asked everyone to join them in after a minute or so. They spaced the three courses out starting with two different tapas one of which was shrimp. We had salad after that and a choice of three different plates for dinner. I had the salmon which was amazing and Matt got the beef which was so tender he could cut it with a butter knife. The couple cut their cake after that and the dance floor was opened up to everyone. Dessert was served as a slice of cake along with another type of cake with vanilla ice cream and strawberries, baked apples with sliced nuts, and a chocolate covered strawberry. It was honestly the best dessert I think I have ever had and I highly recommend every restaurant adopting this policy of several small dessert options on one plate. For favors, the couples had a small pumpkin with a cute tag tied around the stem in lieu of the season! After all of the food, the DJ announced the father-daughter dance and then the mother-son dance. Matt and I left shortly after since we had to drive back home, but they did do a bouquet toss which one of the girls at our table ended up with. The couple also had a photobooth at the reception that was a lot of fun. They had a lot of props and a large enough area to fit groups of people!

Congratulations to the newlyweds and we wish them a lifetime of love and happiness!

And, now, for the pictures:

escort card

photobooth card

favor tag