Our Romantic Bohemian Catskills Wedding

Photo Credit: Every photo in this post, other than the goofy photobooth pics, was taken by Jean-Laurent Gaudy, which is why they look way more professional than my usual blog and Instagram photos.

My husband (HUSBAND!!!) Mark and I got married in upstate New York on a beautiful, sunny day in July 2018. We wanted to get married in the Catskills because it was the first place we had ever traveled together.  Since that first weekend trip together, it’s been our go-to place for getaways to escape the hustle and bustle of NYC.

Having a Catskills wedding meant that all of our guests would have to travel for our wedding. But we decided it was worth it, especially since a majority of our guests were coming in from out of the country anyways. I’m Canadian and Mark is English, and our guest list included people from Canada, England, Wales, Kenya and all over the USA.

Due to distance, our wedding week was the first time that our families had met each other and it was so incredibly special to have our loved ones together under the same (barn) roof.

THE VENUE

We were married at Handsome Hollow in Long Eddy, New York. We chose Handsome Hollow because we wanted a venue that naturally beautiful, hosted outdoor ceremonies and was within a three hour drive of NYC. We also didn’t want to rent out a completely raw space that would require us to bring everything in ourselves. For us, Handsome Hollow struck the perfect balance of having a relaxed atmosphere while also being incredibly elegant.

Handsome Hollow is set on 93 acres of land, which gave us plenty of options for our Catstkills wedding weekend. We opted to have our ceremony in a forest clearing on beautiful reclaimed wood benches, the cocktail hour near an old crumbling stone wall on the property, and the party in the meticulously restored 18th century barn. 

Handsome Hollow has a renovated 3 bedroom farmhouse on site and it’s basically my dream home. I stayed at the farmhouse all weekend with my two bridesmaids (my junior bridesmaid stayed with her family in an AirBnb) and Mark joined me on the Saturday night after the wedding. 

The thing that really struck me about Handsome Hollow is that every little detail has been thought of and addressed. The venue’s owners Kate and Huck have obviously put a ton of thought into how they designed their venue. For example, the farmhouse has a bathroom upstairs that is stocked with everything that a bride would usually have in her “emergency kit”. The venue also has a prop shed full of cute signs, lanterns and candleholders so we were able to put the finishing touches on our wedding setup without having to buy a ton of things we would just end up throwing out the next day.

It had poured rain the night before for part of our rehearsal dinner, so we had been a bit concerned about the weather. But it turned out that we had nothing to worry about. Even though we had a few mishaps along the way (like our caterer losing half of the menus for our table settings – luckily Mark had brought everything we needed to reprint them), our wedding day ended up being sunny and perfect.

OUR PHOTOGRAPHER

We hired the extremely talented Jean-Laurent Gaudy to take our wedding and engagement photos. My husband Mark is very creative and has discerning taste, so I knew that I had to find a photographer that both of us would be comfortable with. Mark didn’t want our wedding album to look like an Instagram account – which is hilarious to me in hindsight since I’m now a full-time Instagrammer whose feed is basically Mark’s design nightmare. So, even though you guys know I love saturated and whimsical photos, that wasn’t going to be in the cards for my wedding.

After skyping with Jean-Laurent, we knew we were in safe hands. I especially liked that he didn’t want us preparing a “shot list” of photos we wanted for our wedding. We were happy to trust that he would capture our day in his signature style. Also, I really didn’t want to put together a list of hundreds of overly posed photos that we “needed” of the evening. That seemed like a lot of unnecessary work and I had my hands full planning the wedding. We didn’t work with a wedding planner. Mark and I planned everything ourselves, and our venue provided day-of support. 

GETTING READY

My bridesmaids and I got ready in the farmhouse on the property. Of course, my mom joined us since she’s one of the girls! 

I went for an ethereal and slightly undone bridal look that was sort of a a Midsummer Night’s Dream meets boho bride. You can read more about my dress (which was by Sarah Seven and purchased from Lovely Bride), hair and makeup here.  My hairstylist was Avery-Christine Golson and my makeup artist was Monique Chiavaro of Makeup by Monique.

I wore a fringe-trimmed robe was from Plum Pretty Sugar before putting on my wedding dress. My bridesmaids and mom wore similar floral robes that didn’t have the fringe trim.

THE FLOWERS

I actually had no idea what our flowers were going to look like until our wedding day! We got married during a very hectic time in my life – it was a couple of months after I had quit my corporate job and only a month after we bought and moved into our dream home. So I gave our florist Farmhand Flowers some Pinterest inspo, told her I loved pink, yellow, orange and red, and decided to trust her vision for our flowers.

When the flowers arrived on our wedding day, I was completely blown away. The flowers had the laid back elegance I was hoping for, and the colors were beautiful without being too understated or too in-your-face. Farmhand Flowers grows their own flowers, so everything in our floral arrangements was in season. 

OUR WEDDING PARTY

I had three bridesmaids: my sister Alex, my best friend Melissa and my niece Katie. My sister doesn’t have kids, but by marrying Mark I inherited 9 nieces and nephews! Yep, that’s pretty much an entire sports team! The younger nieces and nephews were the cutest flower girls and mini groomsmen of all time. I’m not sharing photos of them because I’m not sure that their parents want their kids faces all over the internet. But I promise you they were adorable. 

I wanted my bridesmaids to feel beautiful and comfortable on our wedding day. So, I created a Pinterest board of potential dresses and jumpsuits and worked with each bridesmaid to pick a lightweight and easy floral outfit that worked for her body type and that she actually liked. Alex and Melissa both picked pieces from Band of Gypsies  – Melissa wore a dress and my sister wore a walk through jumpsuit. My junior bridesmaid Katie is from the UK and picked a dress from New Look. My bridesmaid wore whatever shoes and accessories they wanted. I trust their taste!

Mark and his groomsmen  – his brother, best friend and cousin – got ready separately at a nearby AirBnb. They then headed to Handsome Hollow to take some pics on the property before our first look. We didn’t want a matchy-matchy vibe in our wedding party, so our groomsmen wore navy blue suits, white shirts and ties that they already owned.

OUR FIRST LOOK

I’m not a superstitious person and neither is Mark, so we had no concerns about seeing each other before the wedding ceremony. We opted to have a “first look” and then do most of our wedding photos before the ceremony. That way, we didn’t have to miss cocktail hour which is always my favorite part of weddings!

The first look was such a sweet and private moment before our wedding ceremony. I’m so glad I had a few minutes with Mark to see each other before the ceremony. Seeing him before the ceremony made me realize that I had no nerves at all and was 100% sure that I wanted to marry him. 

FAMILY PHOTOS

We took family photos after the first look and before the ceremony. We all clean up okay. And how beautiful does my grandma look?!? My grandma was originally a bit concerned by our decision to have a Catskills wedding – she was picturing more of a formal hotel affair – but she came around once she saw how beautiful our venue was and she had a great time that weekend. 

THE CEREMONY

We had a short but sweet secular ceremony in the forest clearing at Handsome Hollow. Our ceremony was under 15 minutes. 

Both of my parents walked me down the aisle. The funniest part of the wedding was when one of my young nieces/flower girls socked me in the face with rose petals as I got to the end of the aisle. I definitely wasn’t expecting that!

Our friend Joey officiated. Mark and I wrote our own vows and his were so sweet and heartfelt that I still tear up a bit when I think about them.

In our excitement, Mark and I totally messed up signing the marriage certificate (note to my engaged readers – New York State will not accept a marriage license if it’s signed in sparkly blue pen). Luckily, we were able to correct it after our honeymoon and we are definitely legally married. WHEW!

COCKTAIL HOUR

I was adamant that Mark and I not miss our cocktail hour. Mostly because there’s nothing I love more than cocktails and tiny portions of really delicious and unhealthy food. Our cocktail hour was held outdoors next to a romantic crumbling stone wall on the Handsome Hollow property.

Servers passed around St. Germaine cocktails and we also had a full bar open. Our passed appetizers included grilled chorizo with roasted red pepper, grilled rosemary shrimp, mini grilled cheese with chilled gaspacho shooters, watermelon and feta skewers, steak crostini and smoked salmon with creme fraiche on filo pastry.

Our signature cocktails for the rest of the evening were a whisky peach smash, since Mark and I are both bourbon fans, and vodka thyme lemonade. 

OUR RECEPTION

Our wedding dinner and reception was held inside the barn at Handsome Hollow. Mark is an amazing graphic designer and designed and printed all of our place cards, table numbers and menus. He also made our save the dates and invitations and designed our wedding website.

We opted to use Handsome Hollow’s long wooden farm tables, and go for simple place settings that would allow the flowers to be the focus. Since all of our guests had to travel for our wedding,  we didn’t want to give our guests favors that they felt obligated to lug home. Instead, we assembled mini boxes of s’more ingredients so that guests could make s’mores at the bonfire we had later in the evening. 

Both Mark and I agreed that there’s nothing worse than super long wedding speeches full of inside jokes that your guests don’t understand (ok maybe running out of alcohol would be worse). Jim, our best man, Alex, my sister and bridesmaid, and Melissa, my best friend and bridesmaid, all gave toasts that were short and sweet. My dad then brought down the house with a completely hilarious speech that stunned Mark, who hadn’t realized that my introverted dad has a wickedly funny sense of humor.

Dinner was served family style. We started with a mixed greens salad with goat cheese. The main courses were braised short ribs with caramelized onions, roasted chicken breast with preserved lemons and thyme pan jus and baked salmon with caper citrus butter.

As sides, we served roasted pesto potatoes, grilled seasonal vegetables and corn succotash. So many people told me that they didn’t have time to eat at their wedding, but I definitely did. Rhinecliff Event Catering was our caterer, and to be honest the food at our wedding was even better than the food we had at our pre-wedding tasting!

We didn’t have a wedding cake, and instead served milk and cookies, lemon bars and mini brownies for desert.

MAGIC HOUR

Our photographer grabbed us as the sun started to set so that we could take photos during the magic hour. Even though we had taken most of our wedding photos before the ceremony, I’m so happy we snuck out to take more photos when the light was perfect.

THE PHOTOBOOTH

Every wedding guest loves a photobooth, so we brought in Rose & Dale Photo Co.’s airstream trailer for our Catskills wedding.  I originally wasn’t going to have Nina from Rose & Dale Photo Co. bring her silly photobooth props but I’m so glad I did. The pics of our guests from that night are PRICELESS and luckily I have copies of all of them for post-wedding blackmail purposes.  

P-A-R-T-Y

Even though the bar had been open since the ceremony ended at 5:15 pm, the party really got going after dinner. Our DJ played a mix of ’70s soul and ’80s classics (the good ones not the bad ones) and our guests danced until the final bus came to shuttle them back to their hotels. I changed into a mini dress by Keepsake the Label because wearing a dress with a train gets old after a few hours!

We had a bonfire where guests made s’mores but I somehow TOTALLY MISSED THIS PART because I was too busy dancing.

Towards the end of the night, our caterer passed around silver platters of grilled cheese sandwiches and I’m pretty sure I ate 3 of them.

Once our guests left, Mark and I spent the night at Handsome Hollow’s farm house and then headed back to NYC the next morning to catch our honeymoon flight to Bali. You can read all about our honeymoon here. 

Our Catskills wedding was more perfect than I could have imagined. I think they key thing was that I didn’t sweat the small stuff and just focused on having a memorable night with all my of our friends and family under one roof.

xx

Vicki 

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