My friend Alpha Smoot just got married in New York and had such a lovely, low-key wedding (including the Natural History Museum and a tiny restaurant). We wanted to take our family to our favorite places and have them experience New York the way we do, she told me. Here are a few photos…
Says Alpha:
We planned a small wedding so it would feel intimate. There were 13 of us total: my family and Zacks, plus my best friend. I love a big party, but I usually feel bad that I only get to chat with people for a few minutes at a time. We were hoping to be able to spend one-on-one time with all our relatives.
Zack loves my nieces, so we organized something fun with them in the morning, before the ceremony. We went to the Natural History Museum. Its kid friendly; they could run around and get their energy out. We did a ring exchange for the kids.
My dress was from Steven Alan [similar here]. It was $100 on sale! We were shopping last winter, and I just tried it on and liked it. It was an easy decision, not labored; thats how we hoped our whole wedding would be. My sandals and oxfords came from Madewell. Zacks suit is from J.Crew. I went to the flower market the day before with my mom and sister, and we picked out a garden variety rose, which turned out so loose and perfect. We also both got wedding haircuts from my friend Rubi, which was a special treat that week.
One of my favorite moments was walking to the wedding ceremony with our nieces; we were all starving and thirsty so we stopped for some street dogs and a pretzel. Totally hit the spot!
We met our families at our church on the Upper West Side, and, after the ceremony, all took taxis downtown to Navy. The day we had gotten engaged, Zack and I had spontaneously gone to Navy for dinner. We had both loved it and thought it felt so amazing and low-key.
We ended up buying out the restaurant. It felt really special to have it all to ourselves for a couple hours. We let the chef, Camille Becerra, set the menu, which highlighted the best of her brunch menu. She also surprised us with an amazing wedding cake. I figured it would be whatever seasonal dessert they had. It was such a sweet moment.
Zack and I kept saying, our wedding feels exactly how we wanted it to feel! It was a pleasant surprise; we had thought it might feel stressful or weird.
Dinner was over at 5 p.m., but we were all still in the mood to hang out. So we took our families to the Freedom Tower observation deck. The sun was starting to set. It was beautiful.
After we parted ways with our guests, we wanted to keep walking, so we stopped at Shake Shack. We fell in love with the city all over again as everyone on the street recognized that we were a bride and groom and offered their congratulations. The next afternoon, we went to see a movie with our families. All in all, our wedding weekend just felt like us, and it was exactly what we were hoping for!
Thank you so much (and congratulations), Alpha and Zack!
P.S. Another relaxed NYC wedding, and our wedding in downtown Manhattan. Also, what would you do differently if you got married again?
(Photos by Seth Smoot, plus a few by Kendra Smoot)
