Guastavino’s Fairytale Wedding – Alex and Zach

Alex and Zach were married at Guastavino’s on October 17, a black tie evening wedding for two hundred guests under the tiled arches beside the Queensboro Bridge. It was an interfaith ceremony, a Jewish wedding at Guastavino’s with a Catholic half, run by a rabbi and a priest together. They had been together six years by then, and Guastavino’s was the only venue they looked at.

That one fact explains most of the day. They wanted a room that did not need rescuing, and they did not want a hotel ballroom. They went to see it with Alex’s parents, stood under the ceiling, went through the food options, and booked it before they left. Everything chosen afterward was chosen to sit inside the architecture rather than compete with it.

Alex planned the wedding herself. There was no planner. A friend of her boss pointed her toward a handful of vendors worth knowing, Holly, the coordinator at Guastavino’s, ran the on-site logistics, and Alex did the rest. Most of it was locked down inside the first two months of the engagement, because in New York the venue, the band and the photographer go early.

The ceremony, with a rabbi and a priest

Call time was seven o’clock, and the ceremony began at seven thirty upstairs.

Alex’s mother is Italian and Catholic, her father is Jewish, and Zach is Jewish. She grew up celebrating all of it, so there was never a version of this ceremony with only one clergy member in the room. They were married by a rabbi and a priest together, Rabbi Stephen Stein and Father Robert Allmen, found through family friends who had recently had an interfaith wedding of their own. The two men had been working side by side for more than thirty years and it showed. They were funny, they were quick, and they carried two hundred people without ever making the ceremony feel like a negotiation between two faiths.

The Jewish elements were all there: the chuppah, the talit, the glass broken underfoot at the end. Alex’s Catholic side had their half of the ceremony too, which is what you get when you run two clergy instead of asking one of them to cover both.

Both of Alex’s parents walked her down the aisle. She was married wearing her grandmother Joan’s wedding band, which mattered to her more than anything else she put on that day.

The chuppah was lucite, topped with ferns and green leaves, so it read as a clean rectangle of green suspended above them rather than a floral structure. Bastille Flowers and Events lit the space with candles, running them up every staircase, down the hallways and along the walls, with large cylinder vases of floating candles down the aisle and gathered around the chuppah.

Hank Lane played the ceremony on acoustic guitar and strings. The families, Zach and the bridal party came in to Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars. Alex walked to Canon in D, which was her mother’s one request for something traditional. They went back up the aisle to Katy Perry’s Firework, which sounds better on an acoustic guitar than it has any right to.

Black and white, and almost no flowers

Alex is not a flower person, and she built the whole wedding around that. The palette was black and white, and the volume came from greenery and candlelight instead of blooms. She wanted a room she would not look back on and be able to date.

Her bouquet was calla lilies, her favorite, clean and modern against a very traditional dress. The bridesmaids carried miniature versions of it. The groomsmen wore single callas, and Zach’s had a stephanotis tucked into it.

The tables were deliberately not uniform. Long rectangular tables carried tall cylinder vases of green branches with lower satellite arrangements below them: peeled white roses, calla lilies in both black and white, hydrangeas, black and white anemones, ferns threaded through. Between the arrangements sat floating candles, mercury vases and tall lucite candelabras. The round tables ran variations on the same set. One version used four satellite arrangements, one large with every flower in it and three small ones holding a single flower each. Another dropped flowers through lucite pillar candles at staggered heights. The mix of high and low was the point.

Alex kept the house white linens, because everything was black and white and frills were not part of it. The place settings were modern white china with silver flatware, the menus were black, and the table numbers were white calligraphy on black paper in clear lucite frames.

The stationery came from Village Invites. Alex found her calligrapher, Jane at Southern Calligraphy, on Etsy, and had her write the couple’s names by hand. Village Invites set that calligraphy against a modern all caps block font and ran the whole suite in black and white. The envelopes were black with white calligraphy and fern stamps. The menus were screen printed on soft matte black paper.

The save the dates used a black and white Kelly Wearstler print called Channels, and that print then ran through the rest of the wedding, on the pillows on the cocktail hour couches and on the thank you notes afterward.

The reception

Cocktail hour was downstairs, which is one of the practical gifts of this building. The ceremony happens upstairs and the room gets turned over for dinner while everyone is a floor below. There were no signature cocktails. There was a full premium bar, and Guastavino’s squeezes juice to order, so a grapefruit and vodka arrives with the grapefruit squeezed in front of you. Acoustic guitar and strings again.

Two things in the reception room did most of the work.

The first was the dance floor, black and white checkerboard, which Alex had to talk her father into. It pulls the whole palette together and it is the single element in this wedding that changes the photographs. By the end of the night he agreed it was the best thing they bought.

The second was a custom neon sign by Neon and More, hung above the reception bar under a stone arch. In white script it reads Your love is bright as ever, the first line of their first dance song. It went home with them afterward.

Every candle from the ceremony was carried down and redistributed around the walls of the reception room.

Dinner opened with a shredded kale and brussels sprout salad in a mustard vinaigrette, then halibut and tenderloin with a quiet vegetarian option. Dessert did not stop. There was the cake, chocolate molten lava cake and New York cheesecake, and then passed miniatures that came out onto the dance floor: Magnolia’s banana pudding, churros and small s’mores.

The cake was four tiers of smooth white fondant with black strokes laid across it, also in fondant, drawn from that same Channels print. Fresh peeled roses on top. The tiers alternated red velvet with cream cheese filling and chocolate with vanilla mascarpone, because the venue let them alternate and they each picked one.

Their first dance was XO, the John Mayer cover rather than the Beyoncé original, sung by the band’s lead singer.

The band was seven pieces, which is the right size for this room. The brief was current top forty with classic rock, some rap, some house, and Billy Joel. They got Miami 2017 by request, and Titanium, and everything in between, and the floor stayed full.

Late in the night the party changed gear. Multicolored wayfarers with hearts and the couple’s initials went around the floor, servers came out with miniature bottles of Patrón on ice with limes and straws, and the extra desserts landed. The favors were Krispy Kreme donuts.

There was no grand exit. They took an Uber home.

Getting ready, and the dress

Alex expected to wear something fitted and fashion forward, probably off the rack. She had always loved Elie Saab couture and assumed she would buy from him directly, and then she found his line for Pronovias. She went to try gowns on with a friend on a whim, without her parents there, and found a sample that had only ever been used for a photoshoot. It was too big and it needed real work, but she could see it. She bought it that afternoon and had it altered to her taste.

It is close to a ballgown, which is not where she started, covered in three dimensional floral appliqués, with lace and detachable straps she wanted for the ceremony. The tulle skirt is her favorite part of it.

Her hair stayed down in loose waves, because she never wears it up and was not going to start. Her makeup was natural, lashes and a light nude lip.

There were seven bridesmaids, including both a matron of honor and a maid of honor, and Alex told them to wear a long black dress of their own choosing. She wanted them comfortable and she wanted them in something they would wear again, so she did not ask to see the dresses in advance. The matron of honor found hers at Reformation, another wore Elizabeth and James. The only instruction was to keep the jewelry minimal.

There were seven groomsmen. Zach already owned a tuxedo and had planned to wear it, until they saw a grosgrain Burberry jacket at Bloomingdale’s that fit him like it had been made for him and happened to come out of the same factory as his Theory tuxedo pants. He wore an Eton pleated tuxedo shirt with black studs. The groomsmen wore black tuxedos and black studs and, like the bridesmaids, were left to sort out the details themselves.

There were no children in the wedding party.

The rings deserve their own paragraph. Alex has worked in fine jewelry for years and is, by her own account, particular about it. The engagement ring was made by a friend from high school, Jessica Namdar, delicate, with sharp prongs set north, south, east and west. Their wedding bands were made at Jennifer Fisher, where Alex works. She took the house chainlink band, shrank it and set it with pavé white diamonds. Zach’s is a plain white gold comfort fit. They had the insides engraved with messages neither of them read until the wedding day.

The bridal party rode over in a refurbished bus from New York Trolley Co., wooden benches and room for everyone.

The team behind the day

Creative team: Venue: Guastavino’s Videography: Eduardo Duran Films Florist: Bastille Flowers & Events Priest: Father Robert Allmen Rabbi: Rabbi Stephen Stein Bridal gown: Elie by Elie Saab Bridal boutique: Pronovias Hair: Jessica Crocetto Make-up: Imane Fiocchi Shoes: Jimmy Choo Engagement ring: Custom by Jessica Namdar Wedding bands: Custom by Jennifer Fisher Jewelry Bridal jewelry: Jennifer Fisher Bridesmaids dresses: Elizabeth and James, Reformation, Shoshanna Groom’s attire: Burberry, Theory Groomsmen attire: Hugo Boss Stationery: Village Invites Place cards: Southern Calligraphy Rental equipment: Party Rental LTD and SM Event Group Lighting: Gala Productions Band: Hank Lane Band – Brooklyn Sound Favors: Krispy Kreme Transportation: NY Trolley Co Accommodations: The Grand Hyatt Hotel

Neon sign: Neon and More. Planning: Alex, with on-site coordination by Holly at Guastavino’s.

Frequently asked questions

What does a wedding at Guastavino’s cost?

Guastavino’s does not publish one number, and any figure you find secondhand will be out of date, so ask the venue directly for current pricing. What is worth understanding is what moves that number. Guastavino’s caters in house and provides its own furniture, which removes an entire category of rental spend that a raw space pushes back onto you. Date does a lot of the rest, since a Saturday evening in October prices differently from a Friday in January, and after that it is guest count and bar level. Alex and Zach hosted two hundred people at a black tie evening wedding with a full premium bar, a seven piece band and a rented dance floor, which is a useful shape to price against even though the numbers themselves were theirs.

Can you hold both the ceremony and the reception at Guastavino’s?

Yes, and the building is built for it. There are two floors. Alex and Zach were married upstairs at seven thirty, everyone moved downstairs for cocktail hour, and the ceremony space was reset for dinner and dancing while they were down there. Nobody travels between venues and there is no gap to manage.

Do you need a wedding planner for a Guastavino’s wedding?

Not necessarily. Alex planned this wedding without one. Guastavino’s provides a coordinator who handles the floor plan, the day of logistics and the food, which covers the part most couples worry about, and because the venue caters and supplies furniture there are simply fewer vendors to coordinate. If you are organized and quick at making decisions, the venue team plus a capable maid of honor can be enough. If you are not, hire someone.

How many guests fit at Guastavino’s?

Alex and Zach seated two hundred for dinner with a seven piece band and a full dance floor, and the room did not feel tight. Capacity varies with the layout you choose and with whether you are using one floor or both, so confirm the current numbers with the venue for the floor plan you have in mind.