Ruby & Rob

I think I'm going burst form all the pure love and happiness oozing out of this intimate New York wedding. Ruby and Rob are just the sweetest couple, casually roaming around this gorgeous city with their nearest and dearest, having the absolute time of their lives visiting all their favourite haunts in their fabulous wedding attire. The lovely Claire Penn was there to capture all the joy, which was absolutely meant to be and comes with a tale of it's own, but I won't spoil it for you - just be sure to read on because it's a goodie. Ready to feel the love? thought so.

Destination

Ruby The Bride: We wanted our day to be special for our guests. We kept our wedding party small so that it would stay an intimate wedding, even within the big setting of NYC. We had a relatively small budget to spend on our wedding as we’d already started planning a holiday to New York. After looking at how easy and inexpensive it was to get married there, we decided that we would combine our holiday, wedding and honeymoon. We chose areas of New York that we wanted to visit, but that would also be beautiful settings for our photographs. I’d never been to NYC before. Rob had as a child and all of our guests had been to NYC before, so they were able to give us ideas as to where to go. We love our cocktails, and often base trips around finding interesting cocktail bars. Therefore the Campbell Apartment was top of the list, and being in Grand Central Station, it just added to why we should go there. Food, architecture and alcohol all under one roof, just perfect!

Dress

My friends uncle has his own wedding dress shop, which I decided to visit. I didn’t think that I would find the perfect dress on my first visit. I wanted a dress that was glamorous but practical, seeing as it had to fit into a suitcase. I love the style of dresses from around the 1930s/1940s and when I tried on my Anoushka G. dress, I knew that it was perfect for me. I wanted to keep my jewellery to a minimum so I only wore my engagement ring and a pair of pearl drop earrings that I bought from Etsy. I have quite short legs, so I wanted to add some height without the ache of wearing heels whilst walking around New York. I found a pair of Pour La Victoire flatforms that matched the blue of my sapphire engagement ring, and added a bit of sparkle to them with some rhinestones. On the day my mum did my hair for me. She hasn’t braided my hair in over 15 years, but we gave it a go and it was perfect the first time!

The Grooms Fashion & accessories

Rob never wears a suit, so he really wanted to go all out and wear a three piece. We found Rob’s suit and tie from T.M.Lewin and paired it with a shirt from Ted Baker, shoes from https://www.clarks.co.uk/Mens/All-Styles/c/m102, and socks and belt from H&M.

The Venue

We got married in the Manhattan branch of the City Clerks Office. We chose to get married there as we loved the quirkiness of it all. The fact that you took a ticket, as if you were at a deli meat counter, then waited for your number to appear on the screen, then going to go through to the chapel area, before waiting to be called in to get married, was exactly the sort of wedding we were after. Relaxed, easy and very little for us to have to think about. It was made even more perfect for us by the fact that the ceremony only lasts about 90 seconds! The rest of the day was what it was all about for us, celebrating being together in a City that we’ve always wanted to visit since the start of our relationship.

Flowers

The bouquet of flowers was actually a bunch of roses that were sent as a gift from my uncle Steve and his family who couldn’t make the day. I used a ribbon from the train of my dress and made them into a bouquet, so that although they couldn’t be there to celebrate in person, they were still a part of our day.

Ceremony

The ceremony was the shortest one that I’ve ever encountered. I’d read prior to our day that the ceremony wouldn’t last more than a few minutes and we were disappointed! We’d arranged to FaceTime my uncle and cousin so that they could watch with everyone else. We’d been joking with him that ceremony would only last around 90 seconds. One of my favourite moments was just after they’d declared us husband and wife my uncle via FaceTime laughed and said “Wow, that really was 90 seconds, I’d only just sat down!”

Food

By the time we’d gotten married we were absolutely starving, so we started off our married life by eating $2 hotdogs from a vendor by the Brooklyn Bridge. My mum and dad had visited NYC just a few months before our wedding. They’d been raving about the cakes that they got from Magnolia Bakery. We decided to get some food from the foodcourt in Grand Central station so that everyone could have some choice in what they ate (we prefer comfort food over restaurant dining!). There’s a Magnolia Bakery in Grand Central so myself and Rob went off and bought everyone a slice of cake that we thought they’d like. My parents were right, the cakes there are amazing! We’d looked at a few options for our evening meal that would be near to the Top of the Rock. We decided on Fig and Olive as it had a stylish decor, a variety of food that would suit everyones tastes and a good selection of cocktails, which was essential for Rob and myself.

Photographer

We’d met Claire at my brother Tom's barn wedding nearly a year previously. We loved the photographs that she captured of the day, but knew that we’d never be able to afford to fly someone as amazing as Claire over to NYC with us, let alone actually have Claire photograph the day. It must have only been a few days after we’d invited our family to the wedding… I got a phone call from my very excited brother. He told me that he’d been chatting to Claire and she mentioned that she’d booked a wedding in NYC… the Friday before we planned to get married! Well that sealed the deal for us, not only was Claire going to be in NYC but at the exact same time. If you believe in fate, then this was it! Claire captured purely beautiful photographs of our day. Every time I look at them, I feel like I’m there all over again. If we’d not booked Claire I don’t think our wedding would have been the same. She fitted right in and felt just as much a guest as our photographer. (She also had a really dodgy ankle but carried on in great spirits regardless, walking over 20K steps around NYC with us that day!)