By infusing both Persian and Anglo-Indian traditions, this cute as can be couple created a unique and totally personal ceremony that was beyond special, not to mention gorgeous! The colorful blooms and mercury glass make for the perfect centerpieces and stand out beautifully against the all white interior of the tent. I don’t know about you, but I’m totally smitten with all pretty images by Alyssa Rose Photography and you can see even more right here in the full gallery!
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From the Bride… Although Jesse and I both grew up on the West Coast and love our hometowns dearly — I’m from Vancouver, British Columbia, and Jesse is from Richland, Washington — we wanted our wedding to be in New York, where we met and where we live. We decided right away that we wanted an outdoor wedding in the springtime, somewhere with gardens, meadows, trees, the river and a big, clear-of-buildings sky (a pretty tall order, I’ll admit!) After a few weeks of looking at venues in New York’s Hudson Valley, we found Boscobel House & Gardens, a stunning historical site overlooking the Hudson River. When we visited it for the first time, it was still the dead of winter, but we could see that the grounds would be beautiful in the spring — There were huge oak trees and sprawling meadows, and in the warm weather, there would be rows of cherry trees, peonies, daffodils, and tulips. We knew immediately it was the perfect place.
Jesse and I wanted our wedding to be romantic, colorful, and, above all, fun. Our approach to wedding planning was to find vendors who “got” us and then let them loose to do their thing. This approach meant that we didn’t know exactly how things were going to look or come together at the wedding. Some of my favorite moments of the wedding were the surprises — seeing my bouquet for the first time, seeing the centerpieces for the first time, the way the tent was decorated — and marveling at how beautifully everything had come together from just a few nebulous ideas from Jesse and me and the enormous talent of all of our vendors.
My father is Persian and my mother is Anglo-Indian, so it was important for me to incorporate cultural elements into the wedding as well. My “something borrowed” was a pair of my mother’s silver Indian anklets, and my “something blue” was a Middle Eastern charm that stitched into my dress to ward off the evil eye. To honor my Persian heritage, we chose to have a Persian wedding ceremony. In Persian wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom are seated before a “sofreh aghd” or wedding spread of symbolic items. They are surrounded by close friends and family who take turns holding a silk cloth over the heads of the couple and grinding sugar over the silk to symbolize sweetness raining down on the bride and groom. It felt so special to have our family and friends surrounding us as we said our vows to each other in a ceremony of traditions dating back thousands of years.
We have so many beautiful, happy memories of our wedding day — waking up to the first truly warm day of the spring, the bridesmaids and I speeding in a golf cart to make it to the ceremony site, Jesse tearing up as I walked down the aisle to an acoustic guitar and violin version of Regina Spektor’s “Us,” Jesse and I escaping to the fields behind the reception tent for a quiet moment at sunset, me running (in my heels!) from the bathroom through the meadow to make it back to the reception tent in time to leap into Jesse’s arms for the last chorus of “Jesse’s Girl” — but nothing was more special than holding my husband’s hand during the reception and realizing that every single person with us that day was there because they loved us and we loved them.
Wedding Photography: Alyssa Rose Photography / Wedding Venue: Boscobel House & Gardens in Garrison, New York / Floral Design: Linda Baldwin Flowers & Decor / Event Coordination: Events That Matter / Officiant: Carrie Wykoff of Events That Matter / Catering: Oliver Kita Fine Catering / Sofreh Aghd (Persian Wedding Spread): Ghazal Sofreh Aghd / Ceremony Musicians + DJ: BOK-Music / Table Numbers: Mason Rabbits Paperie / Programs, Escort Cards + Menus: By Invitation Only / Favor Bags: Lost Bridge Designs / Chair Signs: Our Hobby to Your Home / Wedding Dress: Wtoo via Lovely Bridal Shop / Bride’s Shoes: Enzo Angiolini / Bride’s Rings: Mark Schneider Design / Bride’s Hair Accessories: whichgoose / Hair + Makeup: Beauty by Nicole / Groom’s Wedding Ring: Benchmark Rings