How did you meet?
We met a few times before dating. We worked at the same company but missed each other by a few months so had met in passing at company happy hours and industry events. I actually thought he was a bit standoffish when we had previously met so I did not imagine we would end up dating let alone spending the rest of our lives together. We ended up dating 3 years later after matching on Bumble. Our first date was at Joseph Leonard a wine bar in the west village. Our first date ended up being 5+ hours long. That was almost 5 years ago and we have been together ever since.
What is your proposal story?
Aaron asked me to walk the dog and said he wasn’t feeling well so he would need a long walk. So I walked and walked and walked the dog. Little did I know the dog was not sick and Aaron was using that time to set up the apartment. When I came back there were about 30 candles lit throughout our apartment and rose petals in sections throughout the apartment. Aaron does spontaneous romantic things sometimes so I actually didn’t think he was proposing.
He walked me to each rose petal area in the apartment and explained why that area was significant and a memory he had of me there that made it special. He proposed in our living room and had our security camera from outside set up to capture the moment. The camera though of course went into night mode the second he got on one knee. So we have a very funny night mode version of the events. It was private and perfect. After that, we went to dinner in the West Village and ended the night with a surprise engagement party and my all-time favorite karaoke!
Tell us about your attire choices.
When we realized we were not going to be able to have our original wedding due to COVID our goals were two things 1. make it safe for our immediate family i.e. all outdoors, very small group, COVID tests & social distancing 2. make it more of an intimate dinner party with a wedding attached. Something where everyone felt relaxed (much needed during these times) joyful and welcome.
Our outfits were casual simple and were meant to embody the timelessness of an NYC elopement. My dress was a white wrap dress with no embellishment and Aaron wore sneakers a blazer and slacks. The evening became much more simple, elegant, and intimate and we wanted our outfits to represent that
What were your favorite parts of the day?
There were so many. Walking through west village and being treated like royalty. There were actual standing ovations. We are not ones to love the spotlight directly on us so at times we felt a little uncomfortable with all the cheering, but also in a time when the city was so in need of love and hope it was great to see everyone coming toghether with such joy.
The evening itself was so special because we were able to spend so much time with our immediate family. Typically weddings are such a blur, but because of the small dinner party feel of ours, we were able to spend quality time with everyone (including our dog who was invited up after the ceremony).
Aarons best friend was basically born to give speeches and his toast to us was so perfect. The whole evening was everything we wanted and more
Describe some of your details.
We ended up using many of our vendors from our original wedding so we received discounts! We added decor and had a ton of extra help from such lovely people in the industry.
Having the ceremony take place as the sun set was so romantic and special. We still got to include many Jewish traditions into our rooftop ceremony including saying our vows under the chuppah and smashing the glass!
Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?
If you have to change your large wedding because of COVID you won’t regret just doing the darn thing. I am so glad we didn’t wait and the small ceremony ended up being so much more meaningful than we could ever have imagined. A big party is great, but marrying the love of your life is what will make it special.
