15th October 2012
We literally ran out of the doors of the Wedding Preview Event and into a taxi to the airport. Our flight left at midnight and we hit the ground running back in NYC.
We were collected at the airport (I could quite get used to this) and delivered to the amazing Carlysle Hotel (yes, THE Carlysle) by 12 noon. Our room was soon ready and we walked in, did our excited dance, gawped at the HAND STITCHED personalised pillows and got straight into bed to try and grab half an hours sleep before we were picked up for the wedding at 2.
Our eyes were just closing when there was a knock at the door. I jumped up, answered the door to find room service with a platter of fruit with compliments of the Carlysle. We thanked the guy and ushered him out as fast as we could and laid back down to rest. We had just nodded off completely when there was another knock at the door. Alex went this time to find room service with a bottle of wine with a card. Again we politely thanked the waiter and looked at each other puzzled. We opened the card to find that the bottle of wine was from our friend Sandra in LA! She had found out where we were (from Facebook of course) and been so kind as to send us her thoughts and best wishes and of course, she knows how much we enjoy our wine!
We were too excited by then to try to sleep so we relaxed a little, grabbed a shower and packed up our things and went out to wait to be collected. After a little misunderstanding we grabbed a cab and turned up at the amazing Martha Stewart head quarters – Starrett-Lehigh in the meat packing district. The building was declared a New York City Landmark in 1986!
We were excitedly greeted by Esther who ushered inside and introduced us to Darcy Miller (Editorial Director of Martha Stewart weddings), Donna Newman our photographer and showed us around the huge white themed hall that was to be the venue for the 2012 annual market bridal party. It looked fantastic and was only just beginning to be decorated. We were shown to our room and introduced to our AMAZING hair stylist (from Valery Joseph Salon) who immediately got to work. Alex tried on his suit and someone whisked it away to hem the trousers and he was next in the seat for hair as I was taken to the better light for Derek Miller (Estee Lauder National Make up artist) make up artist to look at my face. He was beautiful and made me look pretty good too! As he applied my make up he explained about concealer being every womans life saver, I responded as I always would with ‘I must be the only woman of 30 without a life saver other than Alex’ and he only gasped a little and firmly pressed the concealer into my palm, curled my fingers around it and said ‘you have now’. He was such a gentleman and even Alex commented how handsome he was!
It was finally time to get dressed, I had been so excited for this moment as I got to wear a stunning Monique Lhullier gown! Alex was given a Baume and Mercier watch to wear and I was handed a beautiful pair of Tiffany earrings for the evening! Once dressed we met with Joe Switzer who would be filming the whole evening and we went up on the roof with Donna and Joe to take some pictures of the infamous New York Skyline. The Empire State building towered behind us as the mist turned into a light drizzle. We ran around getting as many shots as we could and then descended back into the transformed white hall. White couches, tables and chairs were strategically placed around the room, an elegant long white bar had sprung up in the centre of the room and was being adorned with cocktail glasses in every shape and size imaginable. The ice sculpture was being positioned at the head of the room and the last of the sheer white drapes were being hung. The place looked incredible! We took a few shots against some of the most fabulous photobooth back drops and then went back into our room for hair touch ups and to hide away until the big moment came.We could hear all of the excitement as people were arriving and exploring the vendors tables set up to show off their products. Amazing cakes, transfer tattoo’s, handwritten invitations, paper dresses and photo-booths. We had had a couple of glasses of wine by the time they were ready for us. We met with our human aisle behind the door and waited nervously for the cue. The human aisle was a great idea and was to get us through the 15000 strong audience! Two rows of people holding white ribbon walked ahead of us parting the crowd to let us walk through to the front of the hall. We walked through to phones and cameras flashing and music playing in the background. We got to the ‘altar’ in no time and were face to face with Martha Stewart! Martha and Darcy asked everyone to be quiet as we were holding a wedding ceremony and then quickly got down to business. Darcy had read the vows to us prior to the wedding and we really enjoyed that Martha ad-libbed with them. She asked us if we took each other in health and in health, in wealth and in wealth and good times and good times. We said our I do’s and Martha Stewart (!!!!!) pronounced us 2people1life. We were still hugging and smiling when from the side of us appeared Silvia Weinstock wheeling out the BIGGEST most beautiful cake I have ever seen. 3 tiers of white iced cake wrapped beautifully in handmade white icing roses and beads. Silvia handed us a knife to cut the cake which was filled with 3 different fillings, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla! We thanked her and she told us that she had been married over 60 years and that she wished us as much happiness as her and her husband had shared which got me to crying instantly!We met and thanked Martha and Steve Tyrell began to sing! I thought I had gone mad and couldn’t believe this was happening to us! We were afterwards ushered off to do some press interviews and some pictures on the ‘red carpet’ at the entrance with Darcy and Steve and then we were free to party and to enjoy a few nibbles of canapes that were being served. We wandered the vendors stands and even had our very own Martha Stewart tattoo’s for the evening. We chatted with several guests and ate some of the divine cake but we were exhausted, by now we had been awake for 40 hours. We went to change out of our borrowed glamour and sat with Joe as he finished editing our wedding video which is incredible! It is difficult to believe he shot it, edited and finished it within 8 hours!
We watched it with several of Martha Stewarts team and we all welled up even though we had all been physically there only moments ago!!
We said our goodbyes and slid out of the party as the last few guests were leaving. We bundled ourselves into our waiting car back to the Carlysle and decided we fancied burger and fries to finish off our hectic two day stint.
Once back at the hotel we asked the concierge for a recommendation and went back out into the crisp night and walked 5 blocks to a small burger joint where we shared a meal, walked back and collapsed into bed!
The day had still not sunk in as we drifted off to sleep. Im not sure even now as I write this that it has sunk in at all, we were married by THE Martha Stewart, wearing TOP wedding designer outfits, ate cake baked by Sylvia Weinstock and serenaded by ‘ Father of the Bride’s’ Steve Tryell!!! What an incredible mad memorable day. When we left our lives back in England it never crossed our wildest dreams that we would experience anything like this!
2012 Martha Stewart Weddings Bridal Market Party: 2 People 1 Life Wedding from Switzerfilm on Vimeo.
Cake – Sylvia Weinstock | Dress – Monique Lhuillier | Hair – Valery Joseph Salon | Make-up – Derek Miller | Music – Steve Tyrell | Officiate – Martha Stewart | Photographs – Donna Newman | Videographer – Swizerfilm |
Nice watch!
Thanks Ted! 🙂 Is Ted a pet name??
Bill and I enjoyed this wedding. WOW from Nicaraqua to Martha Stewert wedding. We have decided that your lot in life , besides being top Models would be “Wedding Planners” it,s a no brainer. Happy New Year! see you at the new place. Chris and Bill