NY Athletic Club Wedding : Jackie & Mike : New York, Ny

The New York Athletic Club sits at the southeast corner of Central Park — 180 Central Park South — and it does not understate itself. The ballroom has a coffered and painted ceiling that runs the full length of the room, a dozen chandeliers, and windows that look directly into the park. It's the kind of room that sets an expectation for the evening before anyone sits down.

Jackie and Mike were married on a Saturday in June. Both got ready at the NYAC itself, on separate floors. The first look happened on the outdoor terrace. Mike had his back to her, turned around, saw her, and wiped his eye.

The ceremony was at St. Paul the Apostle on 59th Street — full Catholic Mass, tall nave, white orchid arrangements on pedestals at the altar. Jackie walked in on her father's arm to the Bridal Chorus, pink peonies in hand. Father Chris Krall officiated. There's a frame from the middle of the ceremony — the two of them seated side by side on the altar, turned slightly toward each other, congregation a blur behind them — that I kept coming back to in the edit.

After the ceremony it was time to hop in the iconic vintage checkered cab from Film Cars NY. These cars have been working the roads of NYC for decades including in countless movies like Home Alone 2. We drove across to Central Park and went straight down to Bethesda Terrace. The arcade tunnel frames the fountain through the arch and the light was hitting the stonework right for that time of afternoon. Then up to Bow Bridge — where Mike had proposed — which from the right distance reduces two people in a ballgown and a tuxedo to a very small detail against a lot of summer green. The veil was doing its own thing the entire time.

Lauren Zizza had the evening running exactly the way a room this size needs to run. Cocktail hour in the Card Room with the East Coast Band's piano and saxophone setup, then the full nine-piece for the reception. Jackie and Mike came in to "Jubel" — Mike's arm was up before he was fully through the door — and danced their first dance to Natalie Cole. There was a lift at the end. The room had circled the floor and it stayed there.

Venue: New York Athletic Club

Ceremony: St. Paul the Apostle

Planning: Lauren Zizza Events

Florals: Ariston Flowers

Band: East Coast Band

Cake: Empire Cake

Videography: First Day Films

Photobooth: Flux Photobooth

Hair: Jvalldi Styling

Makeup: Karla Duarte 

Pendry Natirar Wedding : Jamie & Jordan : Peapack, NJ

Some ceremonies feel written for their setting, and this one was. As the sun dropped low over the Somerset County hills, mist settling into the valley below, Jamie and Jordan stood beneath a chuppah heavy with garden roses, hydrangea, and delphinium, the kind of arrangement that looked like it had grown there. Rabbi Ethan Prosnit officiated, guests in yarmulkes filling rows of white folding chairs on the terrace, the view behind them doing most of the talking. Before the ceremony, the two signed the ketubah with their families gathered close, laughing through the nerves. They walked back out as married to "For Once in My Life," a Stevie Wonder recessional that set the tone for the night that followed.

Cocktail hour brought smoked salmon canapés stacked on crisps and scattered with microgreens and edible flowers, and portraits on the property while the light held. Then it was into the ballroom, where greenery and string lights hung low over long tables dressed in blush and lavender, candlelight doing the rest of the work. Every detail in that room ran on schedule and without a hitch, courtesy of Carrie Gold. Troy Curtis Entertainment kept the room moving from the first dance on — "How Sweet It Is" for Jamie and Jordan, "Blue Sky" for the father-daughter dance, Tina Turner for mother and son. Toasts landed somewhere between funny and full of feeling, the kind that get quoted back at Thanksgiving for years.

The hora took over the floor not long after, guests circling and lifting chairs, and by the time the night wound down into the mezinka, flower crowns were making their way around the room — laughter, not tradition, driving most of it. A three-tier cake, simple and pearled, waited its turn at the edge of the dance floor. Signature drinks made their rounds all night: a dirty vodka martini for Jordan, a paloma for Jamie, both a fitting shorthand for two people who know exactly what they like.

By the end of the night, the ballroom had that particular kind of chaos that means a wedding went well — ties loosened, shoes off, everyone still on the floor. Somerset County obliged with a soft, pink sky to send them off.

Vendor Credits

Photography: Brian Hatton Photography

Videography: Frank Ahn Films

Venue: Pendry Natirar

Florist & Decor: David Mitchell Fine Events

Band: Troy Curtis Entertainment

Lighting & Planning: Carrie Gold Events

Hair: Brittany Roveda

Makeup: Cara Gardner

Photo Booth: BNEvent Group

Rentals: Broadway Party Rental

Stationery: Etched in Sloane

Brooklyn Winery Wedding : Jen & Nate : Brooklyn, NY

Jen and Nate started the day at Hunters Point South Park, out on the cantilevered pathway that seems to stretch straight across the East River, the Williamsburg Bridge towers rising up behind them and the skyline stacked in the distance — the kind of backdrop that makes a simple hand-in-hand walk look like something out of a film. From there the wedding party regrouped at Domino Park, fourteen of Jen and Nate's closest people gathered under a woven canopy with the bridge looming overhead, laughing so hard mid-photo that half of them didn't make it into frame with their eyes open.

Brooklyn Winery has a way of making a room feel lived-in before anything's even happened in it. Exposed brick, reclaimed wood, a wall of hanging greenery that climbs almost to the ceiling — it reads less like a rented-out event space and more like somewhere you'd stumble into on a Saturday afternoon and not want to leave. That's the room Jen and Nate got married in: warm, a little wild around the edges, string lights threaded through the plants overhead.

The ketubah signing happened at a long wood table under that same warm light, friends leaning in over Nate's shoulder as he signed, Jen watching with her hand already laced through his. Two grandmothers found each other before the ceremony and held hands like they'd been saving up all day for it. The ceremony itself ran right under the plant wall, Frank and Bailey Bolton — friends of the couple — officiating in place of clergy, the room hushed and green and glowing.

Cocktail hour moved easy for an hour before dinner: beef tartare passed on wooden boards, menus printed with the date and a green goddess salad to start. Dinner sat everyone at candlelit farm tables under the same living wall, the sweetheart table framed by cascading orange, pink, and yellow florals from Rosehip Social that spilled almost to the floor — the kind of arrangement that makes the whole room smell like a garden. Toasts ran the length of the table, wine glasses raised, the room laughing along before anyone even sat back down.

Then the smaller room lit up — a disco ball overhead, the crowd packed in tight, everyone still in their toasting clothes and dancing like it. Nate had his bow tie half undone by midnight. Jen was mid-spin, laughing at someone off-camera. It's the kind of energy that doesn't happen unless the room lets it — and Brooklyn Winery, brick and green and candlelit, gave them exactly that.

Congratulations, Jen and Nate.

🥂 Photography — Brian Hatton

🏛️ Venue — Brooklyn Winery

📋 Planning — Event Joy

💐 Florals — Rosehip Social

💄 Hair & Makeup — Bisou Beauty Team

🎧 DJ — Non Traditional Wedding DJs

🎥 Videography — James Liu Films

🤵 Groom's Attire — Black Lapel

💡 Lighting — Universal Light and Sound

Sleepy Hollow Country Club Wedding : Lauren & Jack : Briarcliff Manor, NY

Lauren wanted the day to feel timeless, romantic, and elevated with a refined evening feel — and Sleepy Hollow Country Club gave her exactly that kind of range without ever having to leave the property. The 1911 mansion in Briarcliff Manor sits high above the Hudson, its Italian Renaissance facade framed by old trees and a golf course that rolls straight down toward the water, and by the time the light started to go gold over the Palisades, it felt like the house had been waiting all day for that exact hour.

Lauren got ready upstairs in a Danielle Frankel gown, architectural through the bodice and soft everywhere else, paired with Christian Dior heels she'd have on her feet well past midnight. Her father's first look happened on the staircase in front of the Tiffany windows, that particular slant of colored light landing across the hallway right as he turned the corner and saw her — the kind of moment that doesn't need staging, just someone in the right spot with a camera already raised. Jack had his own version of it fifteen minutes later, in the private courtyard behind the club, the two of them alone for a few minutes before either family pulled them back into the day.

Ceremony ran 5:30 to 6:00 on the front lawn, rows of white folding chairs facing the mansion with the river and the hills behind it, gold urns at the aisle's edge holding loose, garden-cut arrangements of peach and blush from Forever in Bloom that didn't look overworked so much as gathered. A live painter had arrived earlier that afternoon and worked off to the side through the vows, building the scene in real time the way the guests were living it. Sunset landed at 8:07, right in the middle of dinner, and the terrace cocktail hour that preceded it ran long enough to catch the first shift in the light — string lights coming on gradually against a sky that kept changing color while people found their seats and caught up.

Inside the tent, the room went from soft daylight to candlelight almost without anyone noticing, tall pastel arrangements anchoring each table under two crystal chandeliers, the kind of lighting that makes a big room feel close. Lauren and Jack were announced into their first dance a little after seven, and her father stepped in on violin right after — not a detail you get to write very often. The father-daughter dance rolled straight into a mother-son dance before the room broke for the first course.

From there the night moved through its usual rhythm and then some: guests locking arms in a circle, someone's uncle getting hoisted overhead mid-song, light-up wands passed through the crowd later as the band leaned into its last stretch. Cake cutting came around 9:30 — Ron Ben-Israel's tiers pulled just off to the side of the dance floor for a quick photo rather than a full room moment, then back to dancing.

And at the end of the night, Lauren's father brought the car around for the classic photo exit — Jack and Lauren pulling off into the dark in a vintage Porsche while the whole party spilled out to watch, headlights cutting across the driveway before the two of them looped back to change and head off in a town car for the after-party.

Brian Hatton Photography - brianhattonweddings.com
Danielle Frankel — daniellefrankelstudio.com
Forever in Bloom — foreverinbloomonline.com
Ron Ben-Israel Cakes — weddingcakes.com
Hank Lane Music / Kevin Osborne Band — hanklane.com
First Day Films — firstdayfilms.com
Bridal by Alexandria — bridalbyalexandria.com
Katie Schlichting, Day-Of Wedding Coordinator
Sleepy Hollow Country Club — sleepyhollowcc.org

NY Historical Society Wedding : Liz & Evan : New York, NY

Elizabeth and Evan got married on a Saturday evening in April at the New York Historical Society, tucked into the Upper West Side just across from Central Park — the kind of New York wedding that feels effortless because every detail was so clearly considered.

After getting ready, the day started blocks away in the park. Triplets Bridge, the Ladies Pavilion at the water's edge, the stone arch at West 77th — spring canopy just coming in, that first fresh green against grey stone and yellow cabs. Guests filtered into the Smith Lobby for cocktails, then moved into the PDK Library for the ceremony: rows of chairs, a hydrangea-lined aisle, a floral arch framed against the room's original stained glass. Officiant Alex Hance led the ceremony to Hans Zimmer's Interstellar theme, Elizabeth walked in to a string quartet version of "Can't Help Falling in Love," and the room emptied out to Avicii's "Levels" — phones down the entire time, which changes the way a room watches a wedding. You could feel it.

Cocktails moved through the Skylight Gallery and past the museum's Tiffany lamp collection — not staged, just there, glowing behind the guests the whole time. Dinner was in Dexter Hall, under a two-story Picasso, with floral print linens, gold tapers, and low hydrangea centerpieces echoing the ceremony flowers. Melarosa built the whole palette in blues, whites, and greens — quiet, garden-toned, nothing overworked.

Then the library transformed. Black and white checkerboard floor down, GYE took the stage, and the first dance to Kygo's "Firestone" opened a night that didn't let up — father-daughter to Celine Dion, mother-son sliding from "Stand By Me" into "I Want You Back," and at 11pm, Evan and Elizabeth stepped behind the decks themselves for a surprise DJ set that the room will be talking about for years. Cake cutting came late, to Benson Boone, a four-tier white cake from One the Cake standing at the center of it all. Brunch the next morning at Park Loggia closed things out slow, the way the best weekends do.

Photography: Brian Hatton

Planning: EAP Weddings

Venue: New York Historical Society

Catering: Great Performances

Florals: Melarosa

Video: First Day Films

Band: GYE / Soundtrack Central

Beauty: VickyC5

Cake: One The Cake

Dance Floor: Dance Floor Kings

Lighting: L&M

Photo Booth: 321 Photo Booth NYC