A look back: Remembering a beautiful bride and a beautiful wedding

I was heartbroken to learn of the devastatingly untimely passing of one of our beautiful brides, Holly Kensicki Lind on March 1, 2011. We planned and designed Holly and Keith's wedding in September 2007 just as Holly was recovering from a series of surgeries and treatments to fight the cancer with which she was diagnosed shortly before her engagement to her grade school sweetheart Keith. It was a pleasure to work with her and her lovely family and I always marveled at her strength, fortitude and positivity throughout the planning process. On her wedding day, Holly was beaming, healthy and strong and my team and I loved being part of an amazing celebration.

I am so lucky that part of my job is to get to know my clients intimately and personally, to know their families and their stories, to share a time of excitement and joy and to be a partner in creating one of the most significant days in their lives. As much relief as I feel when we have successfully completed a beautiful wedding, I truly miss the daily interactions with my brides and grooms. They are as much a part of my life as I am a part of theirs.

In the years since Holly and Keith's wedding, I have shown examples of their menus, programs, flowers, cake and lighting to dozens of clients. I have told the story of how Holly's sister's invitation was tampered with somewhere in the post office and instead of receiving the beautiful invite inside, she received an envelope full of magazine clippings and fraudulent credit cards. I have altered the way I order chocolate covered pretzels for a candy station since the 8 pounds of pretzels we ordered for their wedding was so much that it came in a garbage bag!

I remember their wedding, and all of my clients' weddings, much like I remember my own - a blur of excitement, a whirlwind of activity, a rush of joy and, when it is over, a satisfying sigh of relief. I remember Holly as a beautiful bride on her first day of being someone's wife, as she basked in the glow of her own happiness and the happiness of others. I wanted to share these photos with you so that you, too, can know her [or remember her] just the same.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Keith and to their daughter Avery.












Thanks to Sarah Merians for retrieving these photos from her archives for this post.

NewlyWish at The Wedding Party

Each year, hundreds of newly engaged women flock to The Wedding Library/Martha Stewart Weddings' Wedding Party event at the New York Palace Hotel, so, of course, my friends at NewlyWish wanted to make a splash and show off all of the fabulosity to be found through their boutique registry service. So, it was fun as always to collaborate with founder Amanda Allen to use some of the NewlyWish merchants' beautiful tabletop items to create a spectacular dinner table display. That was the easy part, though, since the challenge was how to show the diversity of merchandise that is available through NewlyWish - particularly those things that you wouldn't put on a dinner table! Luckily, inspiration from an upcoming wedding design dawned on me and I realized that we could style mini merchandise vignettes in simple white cubbies from Taylor Creative Props to give the brides a little taste of all of the many beautiful things that NewlyWish has to offer.

The look was bold and whimsical which made it pop in the busy room with many other wedding vendors on display - just what we hoped for! Once again, I am grateful that Amanda invited me to work with these beautiful items and style them into something unique and special. It was great fun to be part of their amazing success at such a prestigious event and I am already looking forward to our next project together!



The entire tabletop was inspired by these amazing black and white plates from Bobby Berk Home. They are bold and graphic and just downright fun, so I had to just go with it and make the whole table fun! Those black and white anemones, literally standing on end in a bed of hot pink roses, couldn't have been a more perfect fit for this look.



I layered a charger plate, dinner plate and salad plate to show off more of NewlyWish's merchandise, but also to have a perfect way to include the pink napkin in a way that would create contrast between the plates.



I had a really good time making these escort cards... I had that roll of cute black and white patterned ribbon in my ribbon drawer for at least two years, and was elated to finally have the perfect spot for it (shown around the centerpiece container as well). What can I say? Crafts make me giddy!



Adjacent to the dinner table display were the vignettes displaying all that NewlyWish has to offer.





Ever since my last NewlyWish styling gig, I've been obsessed with styling food, so I really wanted to make sure to show as many vignettes as possible with real food components to offer context to the merchandise.



As soon as I thought of the cubby idea, I knew that rolled towels had to be involved. Since my gym doesn't inspire me to work out, at least it inspires me to design!

All photos by Sofia Negron

I know you must be hungry to see some new wedding work on here, so sit tight... the season is upon us! Just a few more weeks til I'm in full swing and it will be weddings galore. Til then, let me know what else you'd like to hear about and see - I am always in need of some blog-writing inspiration!

Hillary and Miles

The fall is always such a busy time that I find the whole season passes before I even have a moment to reflect on the beautiful events that we've done. Hillary and Miles were married in September and one of my all-time favorite New York venues, The Foundry. Their style is modern and clean with an affinity toward light colors, so the choice of venue for this couple created a clear juxtaposition with their personal aesthetics... and made a fun project for me! I was pleased to collaborate on this design with the lovely Marilyn of Belle Fleur in NYC.

Because we were using and re-using the same two spaces (the indoor Foundry and the outdoor courtyard) for different parts of the evening, my goal was to create a different look for each space each time guests re-entered it. Elegant draping masked much of the Foundry as guests arrived and entered the tent for ceremony. When they returned to the Foundry for cocktails, the draping had disappeared to reveal the beautiful brick work that is the Foundry's defining characteristic.



When guests re-entered the tent for dinner, richly patterned light created a magical atmosphere that gave a warm feel for the feast-style tables. The landscape of flowers and candles combined the sleek, modern look to which the couple was drawn with some more textural elements that connected the look to the rugged textures native to the venue.



For the evening's final transformation, guests re-entered the Foundry for dancing and dessert and were greeted with bold, rich colors and patterns which elevated the mood for hours of celebration into the wee hours of the morning.



Of course, no wedding would be complete without the inclusion of some fantastic late night treats. In addition to our fabulous "Custom Candy Shoppe" the bride and groom requested an appearance from New York staple Mr. Softee for a super-sweet finish to an amazing night. All of that on top of a drop-dead gorgeous cake from the one and only Sylvia Weinstock.


All photos by Christian Oth.