All's Well That Ends Well

So, a few of you may have heard about a little bit of drama that came our way this past April when a long-beloved venue in New York City closed due to structural damage just days before we were to produce a wedding there.  Yup - not a typo - DAYS.  The media got wind of it and so did many friends in the wedding industry and, needless to say, there was a lot of buzz swirling around us and this very lovely couple, Lisa and Keith, who were really just trying to mind their own business and get married.

But, sometimes things do not go as planned, and sometimes we need to dig deep and call upon our thirteen years of event planning know-how to make it all happen.  Here's the very abridged version of how it went down...

Monday at 11 PM - news story breaks (on every news outlet in NY!) that Angel Orensanz was evacuated during an event due to a structural problem

Tuesday at 7 AM - Department of Buildings closes the venue with no further information and I start calling venues to see who has availability for that Saturday

Tuesday at 3 PM - Venue visits begin... Cedar Lake, Williamsburg Savings Bank, Skylight One Hanson all fit the bill, but the bride does not "connect" with any of them

Wednesday at 10 AM - Visit to The Highline Hotel... sparks fly! Book it!

Wednesday at noon - calls to new lighting, sound and staging companies, calls to tent companies, re-jigging of rental orders (4 different rental companies on this beauty!), calls to transportation companies

Thursday at noon - new contracts signed, timeline re-worked, new floorplans made, all vendors advised of all changes

Friday at noon - changes continue.... through 6 PM when we had to mandate a stop on all additions, changes and tweaks

Saturday at 8 AM - load-in, set-up and.... GO!

It was a busy and stressful few days, even more so for the bride and groom and their families than for me and my team, but we were all burning the midnight oil to make it happen. We were very lucky to have the support of a lot of great vendor partners as well as many friends throughout the industry. But, here's the good news.... or the great news.... despite it all, this was a spectacular wedding.  Dare I say, maybe even more spectacular than in its original iteration.  The stakes were high for us - especially with the whole wedding community and the press looking on - but from that first moment on Monday night when I heard the news and knew what would have to be done, I had the utmost confidence that we would pull it off. And I'm pretty sure we did (phew!).

My motto is and has always been "all's well that ends well" and I have to admit that no wedding has ever proven it more than this beauty for Lisa and Keith:

Bride in Monique Lhullier holding one of my favorite bouquets we've ever made!

Our escort mirrors re-imagined with a floral accent on top.

Floral chuppah with crystal strands to add sparkle... not to mention a fully glittered rose gold runner from The Original Runner Company!

Tiered program booklets with a floral motif inspired by the couple's spectacular 

invitations from Ceci New York.

I can take no credit for these super-chic yarmulkes... the bride ordered these all on her own!

The Highline Hotel cleans up pretty nice I'd say!

Hundreds of taper candles made for a major wow factor.

Half of the tables had champagne sequin cloths to the floor and the other half 

were wooden tables with copper sequin runners.  

The bride's amazing mom embroidered every napkin with each guest's

 name - these were the placecards!

Ridiculously gorgeous cake by Ron Ben-Israel

All photos from the talented Glen Allsop of Christian Oth Studio.

All's. Well. That. Ends. Well. Period.