We have a super special real wedding on the blog today — one so beautifully designed and executed that you’re definitely going to want to jump into the pictures and live there! This wedding didn’t just marry the happy couple, but also two iconic fashion capitals, so put the kettle on, settle in and let yourself be whisked away…
Style-savvy bride, Krissy, really put her skills from her amazing job as visual merchandising manager for dreamy Anthropologie bridal sister brand, BHLDN, to fantastic use. Her stunning design scheme brought together the urban cool of New York City with chic Parisian style. The colour palette was understated black and white with pops of colour — all captured in stunning detail by Brian Wright at French Grey Photography.
This trà©s chic real wedding took place against the oh-so-romantic backdrop of Paris, France, with a gorgeous ceremony in the outdoor courtyard of the Westin Vendà´me.
The wedding was packed with beautiful little heartfelt details. Krissy and Josh opted for champagne and strawberries instead of wedding cake, and for their favours bought everyone a Ladurà©e cookbook. Their copy doubled as the guest book.
When Krissy bought her Junko Yoshioka dress from Bridal Garden in NYC and customised it so that it would really show off her sublime Christian Louboutin heels (seriously though — just look at them), she never dreamed that mentioning this fact to her doctor would lead to the most amazing coincidence. We won’t ruin the surprise, but the story is absolutely amazing!
Despite Krissy’s parents sadly being unable to make it to the wedding due to her father falling ill, the couple forged ahead with their plans, bravely making the most of their beautiful big day. Enjoy this one folks!
How we met
Krissy, the bride: We met on a rooftop at a French bistro in Brooklyn. We dated for four years before getting married.
Choosing to get married in Paris, France
We got married in Paris, France. We had the ceremony in the outdoor courtyard of the Westin Vendà´me. The reception was held at Verjus near the Palais Royal.
The Westin had an amazing event team that handled every detail. The suite we choose was the most serene environment to get ready in and the ceremony was so beautifully curated.
Verjus was also amazing to work with. Laura understood us as a couple and helped make our big day feel like we were hosting the most amazing dinner party with our best friends and family. We helped customise the menu to be a five course meal with wine pairings.
French flair meets modern New York style
We stayed really true to ourselves as a couple. We never let anyone else persuade our selections as a lot of times the stress from weddings comes from trying to please everyone. We wanted to have some French flare with a little bit of our modern New Yorker style mixed in.
For the most part, I really love neutrals, so a lot of our selections were black and white with pops of colour here and there. We did not use a wedding planner so everything we bought to create the look of our wedding meant we needed to bring extra suitcases abroad.
The bonus to this is after the wedding they were empty and we were able to buy a few treats in Paris and Italy to take home. I asked my little sister go to Verjus with our best man’s wife Jenny to curate the space.
I am the corporate visual merchandising manager for Anthropologie’s wedding brand, BHLDN, so I am used to directing others on visual execution. I had charts, photos, post its – you name it – to make sure they knew what to do. I felt a little bit bossy and definitely got made fun of later but it was worth it!
Our invitation
I designed our invitation with Papersource. We were originally going to get married in the garden at the Palais Royal so we had a black and white stripe envelope liner. The invitations felt fresh and modern. We choose to give little info on the actual card and directed our guests to visit our Squarespace website. The website was fun because we were able to add maps, RSVP pages that went right to our emails and goofy stories. The other cool detail was we had custom stamps made with our engagement photo as the picture.
Hair + make up
Victoria Farr did my hair and make up and is a great partner to French Grey Events. I don’t wear a lot of make up, so it was important to me to have a natural look but still feel like a glowing bride.
Victoria achieved my look by starting out super subtle and having me say when I felt comfortable. With us living in different countries, we couldn’t do a test beforehand, so I felt so great in her hands because she understood me as a person. She also was super fun to hang out with that morning.
A Junko Yoshioka dress
My dress was from Bridal Garden in NYC and the designer is Junko Yoshioka.
I customised the dress by adding a high-low hemline and a huge bow on the back. I accidentally told Josh that my dress had a bow. He said he would have bet a million dollars it would anyway (I have a bow tattooed on my wrist). My mum once sent me a card during a really sad time and it said ” life isn’t always wrapped like a present but it is still a gift”. That always sticks with me, so bows are my little symbol of positivity.
The fabric what was really sold me on the dress. It is embossed with flowers and a gorgeous cream ombrà©. I knew I wanted to buy my dress at Bridal Garden because the proceeds go to a charity that provides money to help pay for school supplies and programs for under privileged children. After the wedding, I donated my dress back to them since I really believe in this cause.
I later changed into a short white peplum dress by Self Portrait.
A week before the wedding, my doctor on the Upper West side asked to see my dress and was so shocked… Junko was her best friend! The day after our wedding, Junko herself emailed me and said “I love what you did to my dress!”
Jewellery
Victoria Farr did my hair in a modern, messy French twist as per my request and her brilliant interpretation. I bought a pearl hair piece but we decided in the moment it felt too vintage for my modern look. Bobby pins…. lots of bobby pins.
As for as jewelry, I wore a rose gold chain with a pink pearl that Josh bought me in Greece and saved for that morning. My sister also bought me a plaque bracket with our wedding coordinates engraved that I paired with my Cartier love bracket. My engagement ring is a 100 year old estate piece from Doyle and Doyle in NYC and our bands are from Catbird in Brooklyn mixed with my great gram’s Art Deco band.
Christian Louboutin shoes
The shoes were the best part of my look. I bought them before the dress and actually altered my dress to highlight my Christian Louboutin lilac suede 100mm beauties! I am only 5’1″ so the sky is the limit for me and footwear.
The handsome groom
Josh had a suit custom made in NYC at Trunk Club in the Plaza Hotel. It was important for him to feel like himself and not wear a tux. I went with him to all of his appointments because I am his built-in personal stylist.
We also had our mutual best friend, Billy, join us for the initial meeting so I didn’t go too extreme. In typical Josh fashion he threw in a surprise curveball and had my initials and wedding date embroidered in his pants hem. We decided to do a first look and when I saw him standing there all done up I couldn’t help but hold back tears and felt so lucky he was going to be my husband.
No bridesmaids
We are a modern couple and I think most people actually don’t want to be a bridesmaid. They don’t want to wear the dress (no, you can’t wear it again) and don’t want all the stress. Having such a small wedding, every girl there was with me and that meant so much more. We did each pick one person to stand up there with us. My long time friend Krista wore a Tory Burch collection dress that was mint green and gold. I let her pick it out and it felt very Parisian.
Deciding not to have a chuppah
We decided not to have a chuppah since we had so many other logistics to work out across countries. We were able to work some other meaningful Jewish traditions into our wedding.
Our ceremony
We had so many elements that made our ceremony feel so personal and special. The moment that stood out was when the sun came out right in the middle of our vows.
My dad had a stroke a week before the wedding and both my parents ended up not making the trip to Paris. It was heartbreaking to not have my dad walk me down the aisle or to not see my mum while getting ready.
My close aunt and uncle were there to support me and it was so special for me to have him fill in to walk me down the aisle. The sunshine let me know my parents were there in spirit. It gave everyone goosebumps.
Our music choices
Josh’s great friend Johnny sang and played the guitar as we walked down the aisle. We chose the song Latch in the feeling of Sam Smith’s version as well as Beyonce’s Halo rearranged as a softer version.
The words to both those songs really resonated with us. We did not have any formal dancing at our wedding as it was more of a dinner party. We were able to make our own playlist on Spotify and stream it during dinner, which was so fun!
Flowers
French Grey Events designed the bouquet. Kasia is so talented! I sent her ideas, but she really brought the look to life. It was really important to me to have peonies in the mix and I wanted the flowers to match my shoes. The table pieces were created by Girls and Roses in Paris. I sent her photos, which she interpreted really well. I wanted small, scattered votives and vessels of really clean white flowers, including garden roses, hydrangeas and daisies.
Our fabulous photographer
Brian of French Grey Photography was our photographer. He is the husband to our officiant, Kasia. They were the perfect duo for me and Josh. Brian knew all the best places to go that felt special and not so touristy. We lived in Brooklyn at the time so it was also important to capture a little sense of that urban and modern photography. I saw Brian’s work on several websites and had to have him for our big day!
Champagne and strawberries
Neither of us are big cake people and we had a pretty filling meal with wine pairings. We went with champagne and strawberries instead of a wedding cake.
Entertainment
We did not have any entertainment other than when we were dragged out to the streets on our dinner chairs and hoisted up and down. I guess that is what you get with a big Jewish family! After dinner, all of our friends went to a local bar down the street and hung out with some local Parisians. It was unplanned and so much fun!
Favours
We bought everyone a Ladurà©e cookbook and our copy doubled as the guest book. We also had a Mast Brothers Brooklyn chocolate bar with calligraphy of our guests’ name on the tables as a place card. I created the thank you cards for the books, as well as hand calligraphing the chocolate bars.
Our secret wedding
Josh and I secretly got married legally in the US before the Paris wedding. We got married at the fountain in Central Park and our 10-year-old pug dog was the best man.
We drank champagne at Tavern on the Green and everything about that day was so filled with love. We both agreed that if all our wedding ever was was that day, we would have been perfectly happy. I think the fact that we were already married made our Paris ceremony less stressful.
Having our wedding in another country meant that not everyone was able to come and we had to keep the guest list pretty tight. We kept a “reserved” sign with a black pug illustration on the front chair for our little guy Stuart back home.
I think some of my favourite details were the gold party animals we had scattered on the dinner table and the champagne gummy bears to add a little more sparkle to the drinks.
Advice to brides and grooms currently planning their wedding
Seriously, don’t sweat the small stuff! Just take this time to be happy and go with the flow. A week before our wedding, the Paris government denied our permit to get married outside, so we just rolled with it and the Westin came through in a huge way.
Also find ways to make your family feel important, but don’t let everyone influence your decisions. The wedding is about two people coming together to start the rest of their lives and don’t lose sight of that.
Also, I highly recommend writing your own vows. I know it can seem like your feelings are really exposed, but I think something about being really open and vulnerable can be so beautiful. My vows took me a really long time to compose and I kept a running note in my iPhone of ideas.
A week before the wedding, it all came together. Josh wrote his a little later than me, like perhaps the morning of… but in the end, he said the most heartfelt and truthful things to me that I will always remember.
Krissy and Josh’s little white book
Photographer – Brian Wright at French Grey Photography
Venue for ceremony – Westin Paris
Venue for dinner reception – Verjus
Bride’s dresses – Junko Yoshioka from Bridal Garden and Self Portrait
Brides shoes – Christian Louboutin
Jewellery – engagement ring from Doyle and Doyle, Cartier love bracket and bands from Catbird
Grooms suit – Trunk Club in the Palace hotel
Hair + Make Up — Victoria Farr
Friend’s dress – Tory Burch
Flowers – bouquet by French Grey Events, at dinner reception by Girls and Roses
Favours – Mast Brothers chocolate bars and Ladurà©e books
Ceremony candle – Diptyque
Celebrant – Kasia Wright at French Grey Events
