Tell us a little about yourselves!
We live and work in New York City’s East Village. Together we run a design studio, Byse, where we craft brand identities, websites, and experiences. Spencer is a DJ and partner at Positively Records.
We met eight years ago at Northeastern University. Spencer was writing for a music magazine, got us tickets to Echo and the Bunnymen, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
In May 2022 Spencer suggested we meet for lunch at Elizabeth Street Garden. There, he surprised Emily by asking her to marry him. This was so unexpected that she joked, “I would love to, but you would have to have a ring” - to which he revealed a box containing a Japanese pearl surrounded by diamonds. She agreed.
Why did you decide to get married where you did?
When initially discussing location, we wanted to get married in Spencer’s home state of California. After looking at venues and trying to coordinate from New York, it began to feel like planning a destination wedding. We took a step back and thought we would try looking at venues in New York to allow us the proximity to be closely involved in planning.
Working creatively together as professionals, planning our wedding felt like a natural extension of our design practice. We wanted a venue with a hands off approach to the specifics of our wedding day, so we could include our own vendors and friends. It felt like an opportunity to share a piece of our life together in New York with friends and family.
In conversation, a friend mentioned attending a wedding at the Angel Orensanz Foundation twenty years prior. After opening the map we realized it was just two blocks away from our apartment. We fell in love with the idea of getting married just around the corner. The first time we visited, we immediately knew it was where we would get married.
How many guests did you have?
128.
Tell us about your outfits.
Emily wore an ivory, silk wool 1930’s inspired sleeveless gown by Danielle Frankel with a lace bolero. She wore white Ralph Lauren slingsbacks, orchard drop earrings by Andrew O’Dell Jewelry, and a veil she purchased on Etsy. For dancing, she changed into a Paco Rabanne chainmail dress with gold and silver discs.
Spencer wore a thrifted black Calvin Klein tuxedo with a white Hugo Boss dress shirt, a batwing Turnbull and Asser bow tie, his father’s mother-of-pearl cufflinks, and a matte black pair of John Fluevog shoes with patent leather detailing.
What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?
There were many personal elements and details we wanted to include in our wedding, like Emily throwing a ceramic centerpiece for florals at each dinner table and nearly every vinyl record played during the ceremony and reception coming from our personal collection. Another important aspect was creating an undeniably contemporary wedding with deep references to tradition. We were inspired by the weddings both of our parents had in the 90’s which had mixes of the new and the old. We felt like our venue (being a deconsecrated synagogue from the 1800’s) imposed a lot of seriousness and traditional wedding aesthetics, which we leveraged to have more freedom in other elements of our wedding.
We wanted to create a high-low experience for our guests with traditional elements like a Black-Tie attire, oysters, a jazz band during dinner, which contrasted nicely with family-style dinner, a sheet wedding cake, and a DJ before the ceremony.
Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?
From the moment guests arrived, our DJ Rachel set the tone spinning contemplative music that allowed guests a moment of reprieve before the ceremony. Right before the ceremony, the entire room fell silent (unplanned!), sharing in the experience of listening to Andre 3000’s ambient flute record New Blue Sun.
Emily’s engagement ring is a Japanese pearl. Throughout her life, pearls have found their way to her — from her great grandmother’s necklace dotted with delicate pearls and her mother’s drop pearl earrings, to her grandmother’s pinky ring and parent’s early gift of a pearl and lapis lazuli necklace. As a nod to her ring, during cocktail hour we served oysters.
Over cocktail hour, Rachel spun a mix of records from our collection that were meaningful to us and records she had brought to set the tone of our pre-dinner drinks. Guests walked upstairs to a second floor balcony that surrounded the main floor for cocktail hour. One of our favorite memories is taking photos downstairs while friends and family looked down, waving and singing along to the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Upstairs, we had chess boards surrounded by pillows for guests to sit and play a match.
We wanted dinner to be one great big dinner party, so we opted for family style service to create that feeling. We had a jazz band play during dinner. Our friend Eddie of Pintura Studio screen printed a custom napkin with our insignia for each guest, which we slipped a menu into that the two of us designed. Spencer’s mom hand-wrote every place card.
At the end of dinner, we began dancing with our first dances, followed by Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy to bring the party to the dance floor. For the next four hours, the dance floor was full as Raw Q spun hits spanning multiple decades. Around 10pm, we cut a sheet cake with cherries and had fresh fruit, Montenegro and coffee.
Any tips for couples getting married?
Your wedding vendors know a lot more about weddings than you do. Have a clear vision to communicate and be firm about elements that are really important to you, but trust each vendor with their craft (especially when it comes to making decisions about logistics and if you have a high guest count). Hire people that will do an amazing job and trust them to deliver.
Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?
Parker’s Pictures – amazing wedding photographer. Made the day stress free and shot almost entirely on film! Shooting our wedding on film was something that we really wanted and Parker made it look and feel effortless.
L8blmr - delivered indescribably beautiful florals. Lara is an expert florist with no shortage of great ideas to make your day special.
Louise Griffin – our day of coordinator. Did an outstanding job and it was the first wedding she coordinated.
Juste Hors D’Oeuvres - Marylin and her team served great food for a large number of guests in a logistically challenging space. She had great insight and suggestions in many aspects of planning the flow of the evening. Marylin and her team went above and beyond.
Ringo Salon – Master of his craft. Has brilliant creative vision and is able to translate ideas in your head into reality. Had many hairstyles to do day-of and executed them all by himself in a tight timeline, he even had time left over to fix a bridesmaid hair snafu and style the groom.
Angel Orensanz Foundation - Roberto and his team were extremely helpful and communicative throughout the entire planning process. Could not ask for a better venue.
We had a number of extremely talented friends who contributed to make our wedding feel especially personal. Pete, the Best Man who music directed the evening, Ethan who photographed our couple’s portraits and scouted our lovely photo spot, Pintura Studio - created beautiful, personalized napkins for dinner, Rachel and Raw Q - DJ’d the entire night, Rebecca, Emily’s sister and maid of honor - did Emily’s makeup and Rusty Supper Club who catered our Rehearsal Dinner.
Photographer: Parker’s Pictures @parkers.pictures | Planning & Styling: by the couple | Day of Coordinator: Louise Griffin @louisegriffin_11 | Flora: L8blmr @_l8blmr | Ceremony & Reception Location: Angel Orensanz Foundation @angelorensanzfoundation | Officiant: Spencer's Sister | Hire: Big Dawg Rentals @bigdawgpartyrentals | Makeup: by Emily's sister | Hair: Ringo Salon @ringosalon_126ludlow_street | Catering & Beverages: Juste Hors D’Oeuvres | Cake: Bin 141 @bin141nyc | Stationery: Byse @byse.studio | Music Director: Pete Jonas @peteajonas | Jazz Band: The Crazier Frog @thecrazierfrog | DJ: Raw Q @rawqnyc & DJ Rachel | Second Shooter: Sarah Morill @sarahmorrillphoto | Photographer (Portraits - not shown): Ethan Barber @ethanbarber.co | Napkins: Pintura Studio @pinturastudio | Dress: Danielle Frankel @daniellefrankelstudio | Suit: Calvin Klein @calvinklein | Veil: Etsy White And Ivory @etsy | Reception Dress: Paco Rabanne @pacorabanne | Engagement Ring: Kataoka Jewelry | Shoes: Calvin Klein @calvinklein (Emily) & John Fluevog (Spencer) | Earrings: Andrew O’Dell Jewelry,