Modern Vintage

This week really flew by! Today I'd like to share some of my mini projects, as well as, personal touches I've included on my special day that really paid tribute to New York City, the city where my husband and I spent our entire, now almost, 12 years together.

For us, Central Park has played a huge role in our lives. In fact, we spent our first Valentine's day together at the Central Park Zoo (we were probably playing hooky ha!) and we used to celebrate my birthdays by having brunch at The Central Park Boathouse, and afterwards, we would spend the day row boating in the pond. So it made a lot of sense that Jay would get down on his knees and propose to me in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of a Central Park View Room on the 54th floor of The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in NYC. We spent a weekend at The Mandarin Oriental after we got engaged and never left the Time Warner Building where we had wonderful meals at Bar Masa, Bouchon Bakery, Asiate and the Mandarin Lounge. The first step I took in planning my wedding naturally, was to visit all the possible wedding venues in The Time Warner Center. We looked at the Mandarin Oriental's grand Ball Room on the 36th floor of Time Warner, Cafe Gray with it's pretty open kitchen dining space overlooking Columbus Circle, Per Se and Jazz At Lincoln Center's Allen Room. I would recommend any of those venues as they are all beautiful, but Per Se was clearly the choice for us. We wanted something intimate and we love to eat - especially great food, and thought it would be truly amazing to treat our guests to a meal at one of the three restaurants in NYC that's received 3 Michelin Stars.

Not only was everything about the restaurant perfect but, the service was outstanding. It's rare to find a restaurant that's so highly rated with service that makes you feel like family. We were never too shy to say we'd never tried a certain type of wine or ingredient before and even our guests noticed how great the staff were. We were treated so well and every detail was thought out for us, in fact, the restaurant's excellent event coordinator even went as far as booking my bridal suite - the exact room that I got engaged in at The Mandarin Oriental, 50 stories above Per Se (funny story, as I ran back to the room to change into my reception dress, my maid of honor and I took the elevator up with Kanye West).

photos by David Willems

We wanted everything to be super convenient so we had our rehearsal meal at Bouchon Bakery, also a Thomas Keller Restaurant (yes, we are Keller Groupies!). Logistically we couldn't have our rehearsal in the afternoon as Per Se's restaurant was open and serving a full house of diners. Instead, we rehearsed early in the morning and afterwards, took an escalator ride down one flight and enjoyed a delicious Rehearsal Brunch.

Again, Bouchon, like Per Se were very accommodating with customizing private event menus; we had a dessert that Per Se's Pastry Chef and also head dessert god at Bouchon, invented on a whim - it was a gorgeous dessert - Macaron au Cassis .

I sent over my motifs (a taxi cab clip art image from my invitation suite and a monogram my dear friend created for me) to Bouchon's private event coordinator and she had super adorable menus printed out and slipped them into chocolate brown window pocket cards from Kate's Paperie. It was very convenient that I planned my wedding colors around both Bouchon's and Per Se's colors - the menus looked great! I loved seeing our monogram, the one used on our Poster Programs and Wedding Reception Menu, being used and tying in so well with our rehearsal soiree.

In the midst of my last minute planning frenzy, I forgot about the rehearsal invitations and had to whip one up quickly. I requested a jpg of Bouchon's logo, found a cute wedding rehearsal poem online and created my own invitation.

Since I am such a huge fan of Bouchon Bakery, I worked with Per Se's chef and Event Coordinator on 6 custom macaron flavors for our favors. We wanted macarons in our wedding colors so we had two cream, two green and two chocolate brown macarons. The two cream flavors were peanut butter with a concord grape jelly filling, and almond-base cake with a Jasmine filling; the two chocolate brown flavors were chocolate cake with red velvet icing center, and Pumpkin Pie; lastly, the two green flavors were green tea with red bean filling, and green apple with a caramel center. They were packaged in clear rectangular boxes and my maid of honor and I created personalized tags for them.

photo by David Willems

We did a double tag, one chocolate brown with a silver "thanks" stamped on it, and the other, silver on the backside and white with a special "wedding" stamp design in chocolate brown on a white background. The two tags were fastened together with silver eyelets.

I had such a fun time making these tags, and after doing so, became slightly obsessed with rubber-stamps. So...I created a tag for my kissing bellsas well. I found a sweet stamp at Lee's Art that reads "kissing makes you beautiful" and thought it would be perfect; I also loved the vintage feel of the font.

  Photo by David Willems

Another project I took on was creating something that would let my guests know about the self-portrait studio, as it was tucked inside the restaurant's smallest private dining area. I've always liked the notion of raffle tickets and wanted to somehow incorporate them. Inspired by something I saw in Martha Stewart Weddings, I came up with a card that had a raffle ticket attached to it via tiny brads.

These photo-studio tickets were displayed on each place setting atop the menus and alongside some great NYC trivia cards that a lot of guests enjoyed reading. Again, I liked the Art Deco font on these cards and thought it would work really well with the entire look of our tabletop design and tie in well with our NYC theme and Cross Street table names.

Photo by David Willems 

As our last ode to NYC, we decided to take photos in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn where we would catch, in the background, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. We took a limo ride immediately after our wedding with the Best Man and his wife and had a lot of fun having our photos taken; it was the perfect way to end our day.

Thanks so much for visiting my site and following my Wedding Week special. If you have any comments or questions (want some feedbacks on some of my vendors or more information) please feel free to post them or contact me.  

photos by david willems 

Today's wedding week focus are flowers, ambiance and, the cake!

First up, Flowers. My favorite florist and Per Se's exclusive man, Luis Collazo, has fans that include Barbara Walters and Donald Trump but, is as down to earth as any incredibly talented person can be. In fact, I had no qualms discussing ways to cut-back on my floral budget for the wedding with him. Luis was not only my choice designer for his beautiful designs but, also, as Per Se's exclusive florist, I knew I could some how incorporate the restaurant's weekly arrangements seamlessly with my wedding's floral design. With that in mind, I asked that Per Se's arrangements for the week somehow matched my wedding colors and Luis and I decided on cream and off-white arrangements for my ceremony room, the bar and cocktail hour area and small chic centerpieces that worked to enhance the beauty of the nine-course dishes being served. The end result, I was only responsible for the ceremony and cocktail hour arrangements as well as personal bouquets and boutonniere.

Luis also worked with Per Se's pastry chef on the perfect look for my cake. Tons of sugar flowers were created to match my ceremony arrangements and bouquet. During my tasting and meals at Per Se prior to my wedding, I noticed they used all off-white dishes marked by patterned textures like herringbone, swirls and architectural lines. I knew I wanted an ivory cake and thought it would be great to mimic the dish patterns by swaping solid and basket-weave fondant covered tiers. I was blown away when I saw the finished product. On my last meeting with Per Se, we decided that we would like the cake to be served as any dessert would at Per Se would; the slices were plated beautifully with all it's appropriate trimmings.

We kept the centerpieces quite simple (the way Per Se's usual table arrangements are) to let the dishes shine. The dining room is so beautiful as well as the spectacular view of Central Park and Columbus Circle that we felt it would be ostentatious to have it any other way.

In keeping with the design of the restaurant, I searched for unique ways to display wedding essentials like the guest book and card box. I found a beautiful lidded glass jar at Pottery Barn and used that as a container for Vintage NY Postcards for guests to leave messages on in lieu of a traditional guestbook and instead of a card box, I bought a large lantern also from Potterybarn.  

Because my husband and I spent our entire lives in NYC. we chose to name our tables after cross streets of locations that are important to us (see my invitation stamps as well as my invitation suite for more on our cross streets motif). Our seating cards had a message inside requesting guests to "meet us on the corner of..." and that name of their table.

The seating cards and table cards are both from Crane's triple paneled line of entertainment accessories. Instead of traditional hand calligraphy, I wanted a vintage-deco look for these cards, and chose Kate Paperie's laser calligraphy services(my fabulous friend Nina in custom printing at the 57th Street location helped me pick out this great font!). Lastly, to display my table signs, I found some great wine cork place card holders that were very chic for a foodie event.

 Stay tuned tomorrow for more on my DIY projects and in-depth details about my favors (it was quite a project!).

Ah...the food. What can I say? The food was really the shining star of my wedding and picking out the dishes was probably my favorite part of planning.

Aside from the flowing champagne and an open bar, we had 5 amazing passed canapes for our cocktail hour. Logistically, Per Se has a perfect setup for weddings (that is, if you are planning a more intimate wedding and don't care to have a dance floor - though, it is definitely possible to coordinate it to fit). There is a beautiful garden entrance and front reception area that leads straight to the larger private dining space, perfect for a ceremony. The bar area is adjacent to the ceremony room and beyond that is the main dining room and small private dining room at the very opposite end. This worked out beautifully; as the day progressed, more and more of Per Se's gorgeous space was revealed to the guests.

We had a string quartet (Hire Conservatory Alumni) for an hour for guest arrival and the ceremony, and at cocktail hour through the end of the reception, we had a live performance by The Supper Club (managed by Stuart White Productions). Marty Silkeys, the lead vocalist and pianist, accompanied by a female vocalist performed some divine classic jazz favorites. My entrance song was Brown Eyed Girl and we requested Makin' Whoopie for our cake cutting song.

photos by David Willems 

Back to the food...for cocktail hour, we served Cornet of marinated salmon, Gruyere cheese Gougeres, Foie Gras, Roulade of Liberty Valley Peking Duck, and Lemon Arancini. Brides and grooms who love to eat, ask your venue to save aside some cocktail hour favorites for you since you'll be busy greeting guests and posing for photos.

Photos by David Willems

We coordinated nine courses (there were of course, vegetarian and kosher options offered) that would take close to 4 hours to consume...yes, 4 hours seems a little long for a meal, but at Per Se, the food is truly an amazing culinary experience...the meal, a theatrical unfolding of one masterpiece after another. First, the seated canape, a white truffle-oil infused custard served in an eggshell - delish! A signature Keller canape served at both Per Se and French Laundry. The first course was a black truffle Agnolotti, followed by a fish course of Crispy Skin Striped Bass Fillet, then a gorgeous "Beets and Leeks" Lobster course topped with a potato flower. Our fifth course, one of my favorites and an eye opener for most of my guests, a Pork Belly dish; our last meat course was a beautiful Snake River Farm's "Coalotte De Beouf" with crispy Marrow Bone, we then had a cheese course followed by a palette cleanser course of Lemongrass Sorbet (Per Se's young and talented pastry chef created this to celebrate my Thai heritage). Our dessert of choice was Per Se's signature "coffee and donuts" a sugar donut paired with espresso semi-freddo. (Stay tune tomorrow for my glorious cake when I cover wedding design essentials" and some of my DIY projects).

photos by David Willems

There was lots of eating and drinking and guests didn't mind not dancing. The air was filled with sounds of wine being poured, great conversation and live Jazz Standards. But just in case that wasn't enough, we set up a Portrait Studio in Per Se's smaller private dining room. The room was perfect for this, it was an all glass room with lush brown curtains (a great backdrop for photos) and a glamorous view of Columbus Circle and Central Park. Our photographer brought an assistant who helped setup shots while guests had a hand-held clicker for snapping random fun shots of themselves. We placed a chalkboard in the room so guests can photograph themselves with makeshift signs that were anything from marriage advice to a plea for an invitation to come along with us on our honeymoon.   

Please come back tomorrow for my feature on essentials like the cake, flowers, favors and a look at some of my DIY projects. 

Today's feature covers fashion and beauty and you'll find some great bargain hunting tidbits I hope are useful!

I found my ceremony dress, a Fall 2005 Badgley Mishka originally retailing at $9,600, on the first day of Bergdorf Goodman's bridal sample sale for $2,500 (how did I find out about the sale? I subscribe to New York Magazine's Best Bets, Fashion Calendar and Wedding alerts). The dress, more than a few sizes too large and missing some Sawrovski crystals, was taken to Madame Paulette (you can cut your budget on a bunch of details, but tailoring is key, a beautiful gown can be disastrous if it doesn't fit well) and with a 15% discount given to me at the Bergdorf sale, my total alterations cost a little over $1000.

photos by David Willems

I wore a pair of diamond studs, borrowed from my Aunt and a Vintage Deco Bracelet from Carole Tanenbaum's Collection. For shoes, I bought a pair of cream slingbacks by Jimmy Choo at the Jimmy Choo sample sale saving about 60% from the original price (again, NY Mag!).

Because I bought my dress before I booked Per Se, I decided I would need a second, more forgiving dress, for my reception as we were treating ourselves and our guests to a 9 course meal. I ended up with a Lilac Notte by Marchesa gown purchased from Bergdorf as well. Though I loved my ceremony gown, I think the Marchesa was more my style and I felt extremely comfortable and beautiful in it. Marchesa's gorgeous lines: Notte and Marchesa are not only hot on the Red Carpet but gorgeous for the carefree bride that's less traditional. The entire Notte line carries dresses under $2000 and many come in Ivory or Cream. Check out Marchesa.com for some mouth watering gowns! Rumor has it, Marchesa might be coming out with a Bridal line soon. Before I ended up with my gown of choice, I loved checking out Stylebug.com for some great bargains on designer gowns.

photo by David Willems 

I wore a pair of strappy silver Jimmy Choos with my second gown. They were also from Bergdorf and I got them in June during their first markdown; I saved 40%! With evening shoes, I would always suggest waiting for sales, as unlike classic styles that sell out quickly, you will almost always fine a great selection of dressy styles on sale. Department stores typically start their Summer markdowns right after Memorial Day and Fall markdowns right around Thanksgiving.

photo by David Willems

My Bridesmaids wore Nicole Miller Gowns that I purchased from Nordstrom.com which always carries this particular style and a couple other gowns year round and will markdown older colors as the new season's colors come in. Funny enough, though I planned on dressing my ladies in chocolate brown, the mocha brown was on sale and I ended up with three mocha brown dresses for under $450 (each retail for $238 regularly). As they were floor-length gowns, I felt we could scrimp on the shoes and chose a pair of Massimo strappy heels from Taget ($19.99 per pair).

photos by David Willems

My very particular groom, wore a Zegna classic single button tux from Bergdorf and the groomsmen were sent to Jack Silver Formal Wear in Columbus Circle for their rentals. Jack Silver is great; they picked out a dashing style for my father - he's never looked so handsome. Because of their proximity to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Theater District, Jack Silver is the main formal wear rental vendor for performers and can accommodate last minute emergencies.

For my makeup, I tried out a few makeup artists at the counters of my favorite makeup brands at Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York. I ended up with Chris, a Bobbi Brown specialist at Bergdorf Goodman (if you are interested in contacting her, please send me an email). You've probably heard this before but, trying out makeup looks at counters in department stores is a great way to figure out what look you want at a fraction of the cost of booking a makeup trial at a salon. For my hair, my stylist who works at a major hair salon in the Upper East Side did an amazing job. For over 6 months, I went to see her for blowouts and updo's I would otherwise get for dinners, weddings, and parties and we tried out different looks, keeping in mind that one of them would inevitably be my wedding day hair style. This was a great way for me to cut back on spending trial-hairstyles that would have cost near $500 at most NYC salons. I worked out a fee with her and on my special day, there she was, knocking on my hotel room door at 8am (if you would like more info please email me).

Instead of wearing a veil, I opted for a crystal clip that I found at Henri Bendels. Check out their hair accessories section on the first floor, my clip was less than $50 (much cheaper than something you would find at a Bridal shops).

photos by David Willems 

Thanks for checking out my Wedding Special and stay tuned for tomorrow's feature on food and entertainment!

Here it is!!! Last week on my 6 month wedding anniversary, I decided that I would love to share some of my favorite wedding moments with my readers during a special full week report on Modern Vintage.

Of course, having thrown a wedding centered around food, I thought it appropriate to run my Wedding Week feature the same week as Food Network's Wedding Week.  Don't miss all the great shows including Ace of Cake's wedding cake special (I am fortunate enough to have sampled his delicious and super-cool slot machine cake at my dear friend's 7/7/07 wedding last July).

I was thinking about how I could possibly cover, in only 5 postings, my one and a half year's work planning what was to be the best day of my life thus far and I came to the conclusion that I should start off by writing about my ceremony. Beyond the DIY projects, the flowers, the stationery, and of course the food...what's most important on anyone's special day is their ceremony, the moment you make your promise of unconditional love and commitment to your partner for life. It's also the part of your wedding that marks off the start of a full day's/night's celebration.

So here we go!

photo by David Willems

This is the entrance to Per Se. My husband and I are huge foodies and there seemed no place more perfect than Per Se for our wedding. We loved the entrance of the restaurant with it's mini garden - a perfect way to make a wonderful impression as guests arrive. My photographer, David Willems, took some wonderful "entrance" photos of guests that reminded me a lot of "red carpet" shots -  this was sheer genius on his part; after all, my guests looked fabulous. Afterwards, looking at these photos brought back the wonderful feelings of excitement and anticipation. So when planning your wedding, think about the entrance way/arrival area for your ceremony or reception. Such a miniscule factor, but it's something that can really set the tone of your day.

photo by David Willems

What I loved most about the little garden in front of the restaurant is that it was the perfect place for me to meet my dad before heading inside and down the aisle. When planning your wedding, take a moment to think about an appropriate place to meet your father or parents...or if you're taking photos with your groom before hand, think about a location that you can look back on as a special place where you can experience a meaningful moment in private with your loved ones. Such a small detail to think about but when it's all said and done, my heart warms up every time I go back to Per Se and walk through their garden entrance.  

photo by David Willems

As the guests settled in, programs and sashes filled with silk petals were handed out. If your ceremony and reception is held in one location, a great way to get in that tradition of tossing petals or rice is during your recessional. Hand out sashes or cones of whatever you wish to be tossed to guests sitting near the aisle.

For more info on my programs pictured above please see my posting on Poster Programs.

photo by David Willems

Our ceremony took place in the larger private dining room of Per Se. Since the room is a bit small - we figured we should use what could be considered a disadvantage to...well...our advantage. We decided to play up the intimate space with loads of candles. The room is also filled with a lot of mirrors which made the entire space look surreal - there was this wonderful ethereal dream-like-glow in the space and that really intensified my ceremony for me. 

photo by David Willems

I chose cream and off-white flowers because I wanted a somewhat clean and modern look but still have a very classic and vintage vibe. I worked with Per Se's florist (the ridiculously talented Luis Collazo of Lotus) because I knew he would know best how to make Per Se's space as beautiful as possible. Even more, I didn't just pick Per Se for the food but for the atmosphere as well, and I wanted to keep that look and feel. When you're booking your dream venue, realize that you decided to pick that venue for a reason and keep your planning simple by not trying to turn your venue into something it's not. Sticking with the inherent design of your venue's space will make your event more seamless and most likely keep your costs low. In fact, I decided what my wedding colors were based on Per Se's colors. I even went as far as requesting the exact Pantone color number for their stationery and menus so I can match my wedding stationery colors perfectly with the restaurant's colors creating perfect harmony.

photo by David Willems

We had a wonderful multi-ethnic-inter-faith ceremony performed by Rabbi Burt Siegel  whose words were so passionate and beautiful and who spent many hours getting to know us prior to our wedding. What's more, Rabbi Burt has this amazingly commanding and Shakespearean voice (I had to ask him to do a Sonnet reading). The moment we were pronounced husband and wife, our String Quartet played our song, Five for Fighting's One Hundred Years. It was the happiest moment of my life. Please check out my posting on Hire Conservatory Alumni for more information on the fantastic musicians that made my day so special. Afterwards, we planned a photo shoot in the kitchen. It was our moment to take it all in and, when I started my wedding planning, I was most inspired by Bobby Flay's wedding at Daniel and loved the photo of him and his wife in the kitchen with chef Boulud and his team. So after one quiet minute together (when my husband was able to check out my dress for the first time), we headed to the kitchen where we were greeted by Chef Keller and his team and we took some amazing photos right in the place where all the magic happens!