Wedding | Audrey & Dash

Jun 25

7 min read

Tell us a little about yourselves!

Dash and I (Audrey) are both native New Yorkers, where we currently reside in Brooklyn with our three legged pup, Henry (aka. Hank, Henri, Hens). Dash grew up in Brooklyn Heights and Audrey was born in Tribeca but was raised in the Hudson Valley in Garrison, New York. One of the immediate things that has been the throughline of our relationship is the connection the Hudson River. That line leads our relationship up the Hudson River to Germantown New York, where Dash’s Grandmother, Joan Davidson bought Midwood (A Historic Livingston manor) in the early 80’s as a haven for her 4 children and 12 grandchildren to congregate and celebrate life.

Dash grew up on pavement and a Brooklyn promenade but spent his childhood jumping at the chance to visit Midwood Germantown on weekends and summers, connecting with nature and his many cousins. In parallel Audrey spent her childhood experiencing nature, while yearning to be back in NYC, where she eventually attended Fashion School at FIT. We always joke that Dash is a city mouse who yearned to be a country mouse and Audrey is a country mouse yearning to be a city mouse. Together, we have built a life in the city but make intentional space to leave room for some upstate magic and connection to nature.

Audrey works in fashion, where she is a Director of Merchandising at the Gap where she designs and builds strategy for the Family Accessories Division across adult, kid and baby accessories. While she creates for a living, her real passion lies preserving – where she is always vintage sourcing across clothing, accessories and furniture. There is a running joke that we live among many ghosts in our house, attached to our sourced objects that only our dog, Henry can see.

Dash owns his own Real Estate Development with focuses on historical real-estate restoration across the states of Maine, New York and Connecticut.

Dash and Audrey met at age 30 through Hinge which was dissimilar to their friends who had found love across highschool, college and work. We both love history and we each had our own interesting dating ‘histories’ that we brought into our relationships. ‘We both really knew who we were and what drove us when we met, which allowed for us to really build a life, while “preserving” who we are’. History is important and we strive to honor that in everything we do, including our historical home renovation project in Brooklyn and preserving his grandmothers compound upstate. Which leads us to where we decided to get married….

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

Audrey the introvert wanted a quiet and intimate city hall wedding and Dash the social animal wanted a 3 day rager to celebrate. The happy compromise was Midwood in Germantown, where the Hudson River continued to connect us.

Dash envisioned a compound adventure so we decided to blend nature, history, adventure and nature by celebrating across the two manors – Midwood (Friday welcome) and Southwood Estate (Saturday Ceremony) and shuttle guests with golf carts. We wanted ease for our NYC and Hudson Valley guests to drive in and spend the weekend celebrating and also connecting with nature.

How many guests did you have?

Between The 50 person rehearsal, and then open invite welcome dinner and dim sum and the Saturday events, we had ~200 people join us.

What was your budget?

Transparently, we were woefully unaware what it takes to put on a wedding. We started at $100k and ended up netting closer to $300k because I (Audrey) could not sacrifice/cut the aesthetic details like the serpentine tables, linen menus, tablescape full of heirloom tomatoes and fresh artichokes (that the guests were encouraged to take), Napkins with our beloved Henry dog on them and in contrast, Dash would not bend on the pomp and circumstance, like: a magician, 100+ tiki torches forth lining the driveway between Southwood and Midwood, fleet of golf carts to shepard guests back and forth and a secret speakeasy within his Grandmothers house, historically named, Midwood.

It was certainly a snowball – but the CFO (Dash) let his Creative Director (Audrey) conjure up a detail oriented weekend in partnership with vendors that felt true to us and understood the vision.

Tell us about your outfits.

We both express ourselves through our aesthetics. Dash the social peacock likes to weave his kooky sense of style with his outward sense of humor and laughter. Audrey who prefers more intimate 1:1s, expresses herself through tiny details that allow a window to who she is.

Dash: Wore a white double breasted seersucker Todd Snyder suit on Friday and then a custom made Suit from a NYC icon: Mr. Ned. Dash surprised Audrey with their initials and wedding date embroidered onto his tux shirt. He wore Louboutin shoes gifted to him by Audrey for the event.

Audrey: For Friday, Wore a 1920’s hand beaded gown that was sourced by Eva at Cha Cha Linda Vintage and Saturday a two piece corseted outfit by Danielle Frankel with black netted Jimmy Choos (white shoes were not an option, I have a hard time buying things that can only be worn once).

For the speakeasy afterparty (complete with a jazz band and Mcdonalds), Audrey wore purple velvet Jimmy Choos, an unbranded jacket she found on Real Real 3 days before the wedding and a thrifted ostrich feather Alice & Olivia mini skirt.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

Celebration, comfort and elements of the things we love. Weddings are expensive, time consuming and frankly – very fleeting. We joked that they are low ROI considering its over in a weekend. For Dash, it was having a band that got people dancing and abundant bars for guests to inebriate while celebrating. For Audrey it was all about the details – elements of their dog Henry in the napkins, serpentine tables for guests to stay connected – family style food servings and edible table scapes. We wanted guests to be transported into a setting that felt reminiscent of Gatsby – like they were trapped in a renaissance painting on the scenic Hudson. A shared aspect was the participation of our friends and family.

We had around 15 open mic speeches – MC’d by our two best friends and the wedding was officiated by Dash’s oldest friend Emily Rappaport who brought the house down in tears to her beautiful ode to us (people asked her if she was for hire for future weddings and batmitzvahs after). Dash’s siblings (Gideon and Eliza) and Audrey’s best friend (and basically sister), Crystal read speeches throughout the night and Audrey’s brother Skyler read an excerpt from Harry Potter during the ceremony. Cue the intro into magic…

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

Magic, history & Chinese food are honestly the three biggest loves in Dash and Audrey’s life (besides Henry). For the Friday night we had our vendor recreate the menu of our two favourite Brooklyn based Chinese restaurants – Kings Country Imperial and Antidote. For Saturday we recreated our favorite Caravaggio – Basket of Fruit (which we had on our wedding invitations and wedding website) through tablescapes and vintage furniture rentals.

Lastly, this brings us to magic… we are frequent magic show attendees. We found an amazing 19 year old local magician named Dylan (who we told everyone was Audrey’s cousin) who mingled with the guests and pulled out magic tricks during the cocktail hour after the ceremony. We wanted the element of magic to be a surprise and delight.

Any tips for couples getting married?

Start with a clear vision but level set that it’s going to evolve during the process. Who you are when you start planning isn’t who you end up in the end and that’s a bit of a euphemism for your future together. You evolve, grow, (cry a bit, laugh a lot), and then wake up on the Sunday after – the same people. You feel like you birthed an event that you get to carry with you as an ode to your future together.

I guess what we are trying to say is… always make space for the unexpected. You can plan yourself into a tizzy but things are going to happen (the caterer and bathroom attendant getting into a slapping fight, your two best friends finally hooking up, your divorced parents making amends after 15 years of no contact) – and you just have to leave room for magic.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

We had a four pronged vendor trifecta that were non negotiable to the couple:

Photography & Video – Harper Pictures. She was the first person we hired. Audrey fell in love with her documentary photographer style. She has a magic way of fading into the background and capturing moments that wouldn’t happen with outward photography. It was very important that nothing look too posed. We wanted organic moments to shine.

Food – Fig & Pig. Tammy & Holly were the amazing chefs who helped our meals come to life. Everything they offer is grown and raised in the Hudson Valley.

Flowers – Flower Blossom Design. Kim is quite literally the funniest person we have ever met. She is creative, collaborative and very transparent about what is possible. When our wedding planner, Cathy told her that she had a couple that wanted to hire her – she said she was done with weddings. After we showed her our cornucopia mood board – she said ok – f*** it – we’re making an edible tablescape. She is incredible.

Band – Daddy Pop is a 10 person tri state area band that make you feel like you are at a concert. We saw them at our friends wedding and knew we had to hire them after everyone was on the dancefloor and Dash was standing transfixed, bumping his fist as if he was at a Springsteen concert. We also had an amazing Harpist, Elizabeth Huntley, that played Lana Del Rey’s “Radio” while Audrey walked down the aisle!