The Lovettes (Madeleine) ~ New York, New York and Some Big Decisions

Madeleine’s back with another Lovettes post for you on this fine Friday. Today she’s talking about her dreams for the couple’s New York elopement, as well as the way their plans have evolved over the last month or so. Do stop by and leave her some words of encouragement in the comments below.

When I was a little girl my dream wedding was always to elope to Vegas and have Elvis give me away. So when Tim and I first started planning The Big Day, getting hitched at the Graceland Wedding Chapel was definitely an option – however, over late night cups of coffee and Vegas wedding searches in bed I think we both started swaying towards returning to New York pretty much around the same time. It was a place we loved and shared the happiest of memories, and whenever we thought about it we felt such an abundance of excitement and ease.

Image source, clockwise from top left:  Fashion n Beauty, Claudia Rose Carter, Karolina Paczkowska, S6 Photography, S6 Photography

Thrilling as those thoughts were, it was genuinely really difficult to actually make the decision to have our marriage ceremony in America. Going abroad and having a ‘destination wedding’ would put leave time and financial pressure on our family and friends to attend, and us getting married really wasn’t about that. But it was still hard to choose what we wanted, over facilitating an occasion where it was a cert that our parents and nearest and dearest would be there to actually see us get married. Neither Tim nor I ever had visions of a traditional wedding, and personally the idea of saying my vows in front of a room full of people always overwhelmed me, so after a lot of reflection, Tim and I made the decision to let everyone know we were going to New York and give them a no pressure open invitation to our day.

Top 2 images via Ayabug, middie 2 images via Lynn-Kai Chao & bottom 2 images via Photo Philosophies + Ayabug

The ceremony would take place at City Hall, there would be only one witness, our photographer (to take pictures of the legal bit as it happens), the marvellous Jacquie Lew of Photo Philosophies – who I cannot praise and rate highly enough; and people were welcome to join us for an afternoon enjoying Brooklyn’s finest hospitality. Our ‘official’ reception would be being held in Whitstable when we returned home, but we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to be with us in New York – if it worked for them. The response we had was so supportive and we are beyond delighted that a handful of our friends and family will be making the 7000 mile round trip to share the day we say I Do with us on 3rd October, 2014.

Image source, clockwise from top left:  Grace Loves Lace, We Heart It, Claudia Rose Carter, Lilly Unique

The occasion will be very relaxed; we’re planning on taking a commuter boat or catching the subway from Williamsburg to City Hall where hopefully we can get married mid-morning, then we’ll probably munch mustardy hotdogs and toast with pink champagne in City Hall Park. Then I imagine we’ll catch a yellow cab back to our apartment and enjoy a mini-wedding celebrating with giant, tasselled balloons and cocktails on our rooftop overlooking the glorious Manhattan skyline, before spilling out into Brooklyn to visit a whirl of bars and speakeasy joints – I literally couldn’t ask for anything more for our day!

For our UK wedding venue – having moved to the Kent coast from London last year, Tim and I decided on The Lobster Shack in Whitstable (which we discovered one dark December via Love My Dress). Originally we planned to hold the reception three weeks after our elopement in late October; however last month, after much deliberation, we made another rather difficult decision – to postpone this until 21st May, 2015 (thankfully our insanely talented photographer Claudia Rose Carter was still available).

Image source, clockwise from top left:  Bash Please, Photo Philosophies, Asomedaywedding, Bash Please, French Made, Jimena Roquero

We are currently in the midst of looking to buy a house, I’m aiming to start my masters in November and Tim is in the middle of trying to get his financial qualifications. Everything was feeling really chaotic and we didn’t want to spend the next six months in a whirl of frenzy not enjoying this special time. I worried that we were letting the people down who were excited about sharing our marriage this year, but the relief Tim and I feel about making this decision means that ultimately it has been the right thing to do. It also gives us time to enjoy settling into married life which I am so excited to begin!

We’ll be having a humanist ceremony at our rustic seaside reception, followed by canapés and orange-strawed drinks on the pebbly beach, local grub, heart-felt speeches and (with a bit of luck) abandoned dancing into the small hours! I hope to remember my husband’s loved up face at dusk, my salty windswept veil, the booze soaked words, our dapper wedding party, the half empty champagne bottles, the fur coats and festoon lit fags, the without and the within that will tell the story of our day time and time again.

Image source, clockwise from top left:  Urban Outfitters,  The Fashion Alba, x2, Gods Own Junkyard

To Annabel and Franky’s wonderful Love My Dress readers, thank you so much for once again letting me share Tim and my journey amongst so many incredible posts and as part of the Lovette series (whose introductory posts have been such a joy to read). To have my words featured on such an inspiring and iconic wedding blog (300k+ followers on Facebook – incredible!) has been an absolute dream. I would love to hear about any other Love My Dress brides who either postponed their wedding or eloped and whether or not either decision was easy to make.

And if you have any tips for a glorious New York wedding day I would be forever grateful!

Love Madeleine