A Nature Filled Wedding in the Catskills
An intimate glimpse into our wedding
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All photos in this post are taken by the wonderful Ellie Patterson unless otherwise noted
September is always a big month for my little family. Marco and I started dating September 11th (I know…) and we got married September 3rd. Feeling a wee bit sentimental on my flight home from Portland, I found myself pouring over photos from our special day and thought it might be fun to share how we combined our love of travel, nature, food and family into our special day along with some little moments that brought me joy. Partially because it’s tangentially related to the things I cover in Wandering, but mostly because I love the photos and have yet to make a wedding album.
The Catskills
We landed on getting married upstate pretty quickly. We had people traveling from all over the world the celebrate with us and we figured no matter where we got married it would be inconvenient for somebody, so we just decided not to make it convenient for anybody.
In all seriousness, Marco never really fell in love with NYC the way I did so having our nuptials there didn’t feel right. Nature has played such a huge role in our relationship — we couldn’t imagine not saying our vows under the open sky. The added bonus was that our celebrations were spread out over four days so we felt like we had actual quality time with our guests. Hayfield was the first and only venue we saw in person and we immediately booked it after meeting the owner Christiana. She was the most lovely human to work with and made us feel at ease from beginning to end.
Our Home Away From Home
When Marco and I decided to get married in the Catskills, I had a laundry list of cute hotels and luxe airbnb’s on my list to check out. But the idea of staying in a hotel felt oddly impersonal to me. I wanted somewhere my family could enjoy breakfast the morning of the wedding, where our dog Millie could feel at home and where Marco and I could steal away for a few quiet moments during the busy weekend. When I discovered that a tiny cottage I’d had on my Catskills wishlist was just 2 minutes from our venue, I knew it was the perfect home base for our wedding weekend.
I have followed Ely and Danielle from The Hunter Houses for a while. This tiny cabin that they lovingly restored felt like a woodsy version of our NYC apartment, was small enough for just Marco and me, and had the most enchanting floating deck amidst a field of wildflowers — this is what sealed the deal for me tbh. I couldn’t stop picturing walking up to Marco for the first time surrounded by yellow and white blooms.
The Ceremony
Our wedding ceremony is one of those memories that will live rent free in my head until the day I die. Our dear friend and my old roommate officiated the wedding. She was so nervous, but I truly cannot imagine anyone doing a more perfect job. She watched us fall in love firsthand and was able to capture that story in a way I could only dream of.
"The most remarkable moment in life, is when you meet the person who makes you feel complete. The person that can immediately look into your soul and find comfort and peace. The person who makes the world a beautiful and magical place. The person with whom you share a bond so special, that it transcends normal relationships and becomes something so pure and so wonderful that you can't imagine spending another day without them. For Alex, that moment happened in 2019 while we were living together on the Upper West Side..."
Marco’s cousin opened with a reading from one of my favorite books (and musicals) The Secret Garden that perfectly captured why we wanted to get married surrounded by nature.
“One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever…
We decided early on to write our own vows. It was as sweetly sentimental as it sounds. There was not a dry eye in the house.
The Music
Music played a huge role in our ceremony. I’ve known since I was a kid that whenever my mom walked down the aisle, I wanted her escorted by my brother (my man of honor) and I wanted an instrumental version of “You're Nobody til Somebody Loves You” playing. It was my grandpa’s favorite song and my brother and her noticed the tune at the same moment walking down this aisle. In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have kept this as a surprise, because I would have been devastated if they hadn’t heard it, but they did and all was well.
My father walked me down the aisle to “Love Theme” from Cinema Paradiso (one of Marco and my first dates was snuggled up watching this film. It holds a special place in our hearts). I remember saying to my DJ during the planning process “there is a huge music swell that happens 1:54 into the song, if we could time it so that I turn the corner as that swell happens I can die happy.” She nailed it. My bridal party was a wreck and Marco said it was so sweet watching all of the italians recognize the tune as soon as it started playing.
During the ceremony my best friend Katie sang “Sea of Love” while Marco’s brother (and best man) played the guitar. Katie has one of the most beautiful folk voices, but I rarely get to hear her sing anymore since she left the industry. We spent the whole song trying not to look at each other because we were both hanging on by a thread. At the end she just stopped singing and let Christopher finish with the guitar.
For our first dance another best friend Bligh sang an acoustic version of Songbird by Eva Cassidy accompanied by her husband (and our dear friend) Pomme on the guitar. I’m not even sure if Marco clocked the music because he was so nervous about our dance, but it was one of my favorite moments of the night.
The Details
Marco for sure thought I had lost my mind when it came to all the little details of our wedding. The amount of blush paper and fabric samples we had delivered to our home, was not to be believed — What can I say? A Muddy pink is hard to find. This for me was the most fun element of wedding planning. From our petal and herb bar at the ceremony to a display of wedding photos from generations past, I cherished creating these little touchstones for our day. One of my favorite details was having everyone’s name handwritten on their menu as there place card.
To absolutely no one’s surprise I was drawn to a very bespoke design for our special day, and what I learned is that you can 100% do this on a budget. It takes a lot of time and research, but in the end I feel like it was all worth it. One of the most challenging things for me to source was our signage. I saw photo on pinterest of a linen sign floating in the wind, and knew I needed to replicate it for our wedding. I scoured etsy for options but they were all WAY out of budget. In the end I found a printer who specialized in DIY textiles and was able to get all of our signage for about 1/5 of the cost. I felt like I had won the lottery.
A Moment for the Mother’s
I had sticker shock for so much of the wedding planning process, but nothing compared to what folks were charging for a simple wedding cake. In the end my mother and I (mostly my mother) made our wedding cake. It was a family recipe and the most delicious wedding cake I have ever tasted. In addition to the cake, my mother in law made about 1000 italian cookies from scratch including my favorite, rainbow cookies. I will never forget my uncle going up to Marco’s mom and trying to convince her to open a bakery. Marco’s aunt brought the candied almonds from Italy — an italian wedding tradition.
Dancing Queens
By the time dinner was over, we were just ready to party. I had a strict rule on the dance floor…no slow songs. I wanted people partying until they dropped of exhaustion. My friend (and bridesman) Josh and I are known to do the Dirty Dancing lift as a party trick sometimes after a few drinks. He was outside on the lawn when the infamous chords of “Time of My Life” began. He sprinted inside just in time for our big moment. It’s a memory I will cherish forever.
Some thoughts on anxiety and weddings….
Our wedding weekend was one of the most joy filled weekends of my life. I remember at the end Marco and I just sobbing (like truly ugly crying) because we were so overwhelmed by all of the emotions. I don’t think I can properly express how insane it feels to have people spend their precious money, time and energy celebrating you and your love. It was a feeling I don’t think I could have prepared myself for.
As someone who has struggled with anxiety for most of her life, I am so lucky to have a husband who noticed when I was getting overwhelmed and would steal me away for a moment just the two of us. It was a true act of love, and something I recommend for anyone who finds themselves getting overstimulated during big events.
Photography…
Probably the single most important decision for us was finding a photographer. We were looking for someone with a photojournalistic approach to wedding photography. It was incredibly important for us to capture the candid and imperfect moments—the moments that other photographers might not see because they're too busy setting up a styled shot. We were lucky to be referred to Ellie over at Eloise Photography. She understood the assignment.
That’s all…if you’ve made it this far, you’re a real one. Thank you for going down memory lane with me. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to share all about how I am planning and packing for our upcoming trip to Italy. xo Alex
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Such a beautiful and meaningful wedding! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Everything about this is so dreamy!!! Thank you for sharing!!