Real New York Wedding | Kari + Andrew at Liberty State Park

We share oodles of real New York City area weddings on Merci, but every now and then there's a gorgeous celebration that pops in our inbox and I think, "Hey- if I were to redesign my wedding, I think I'd want to do it like that!"
Kari and Andrew's wedding is definitely one such fete... From the {Quatre Coeur} flowers to the {Patricia Kantzos} photography and every detail in between, this is truly one wonderfully chic, pretty and most importantly, perfectly heartfelt wedding. {Just check out Kari's amazing recap of their courtship and wedding planning below}. Enjoy!

Vendor list
Photography : Patricia Kantzos
Floral Design: Quatre Coeur
Ceremony/ Reception: Liberty House Restaurant
DJ: Marlon Morris - Mercury Entertainment
Cake: Carlos Bakery
Paper goods: Arturo Fine Stationery
Bride's dress: Oscar de la Renta
Shoes: Manolo Blahnik
Bridesmaids dress: Priscilla of Boston
Groom's suit: Hugo Boss
Hair: Adam Livermore
Make up: Aliyah Hargrove

From the Bride, Kari...
Andrew and I met at the Lifetime Fitness Running Club while training for the Green Bay and Madison Marathons. We soon realized we lived within a few blocks of each other and began running together several days a week outside of running club. An evening out with a mutual run club friend included a clever ploy to have us all watch a movie and just moments before it started our friend, Matt, decided he needed to go home-- leaving Andrew and I alone and also leading to our first kiss.

I visited my best friend the next morning to proclaim that I knew it was crazy but I was going to marry this boy! For the next several months Andrew and I spent time together either running, going on "unofficial" dates or spending time with his family - it was the true definition of a summer love. As the summer drew to an end, Andrew accepted a job in NYC and it was then I finally realized how much I was in love with him. We struggled to lead separate lives but a pre-planned trip to run the Las Vegas Marathon brought us back together in the December of 2008 and from that point forward we were together. I joined Andrew in NYC that coming May and on October 16, 2009 during a Friday night run {I must say I was being a bit of a brat} Andrew proposed overlooking the Manhattan skyline on the Reservoir in Central Park. Clad in our running gear we ran home to share the news with family and friends before heading off to a weekend at the Reform Club Inn in the Hamptons.

We spent the next 18 months planning each detail of our day together, which was an amazing experience. One thing we knew for sure was that we wanted to show our closest family and friends the City that we loved and the place where our love grew. We hosted our bridal party and family the evening before our wedding to our Friday night tradition of pizza and dessert and featured our favorite treats from over eight Manhattan bakeries.

We chose pale pink and soft gold as our colors to help create the romantic, soft and warm environment we hoped to blanket around our guests. We spent months writing every word of our ceremony and our vows but could have never imagined the most perfect, intimate and intense moment those very words would have been spoken in. The ceremony, like the proposal, overlooked the majestic Manhattan skyline. The arrangements from Quatre Coeur made up of soft pink peonies, roses and other romantic blooms perfectly outfitted the metallic gold overlays on every table and my bouquet was the perfect pale pink accessory to the metallic gold Manolo's my mom had surprised me with.

We envisioned our evening as a non-stop mingling and cocktail party where our guests could be relaxed and have fun, so we opted for 3 action food stations where guests could design their own meals and eat when the timing felt right. Sipping on our signature cocktail, a pomegranate margarita rimmed with gold salt, we danced the evening away only to run through a canopy of sparklers as the night came to an end. Our favors, cookies of course, were custom Eleni's Cookies with one of our favorite engagement photos painted on and were the perfect sweet treat for our guests to remember the night with.

All photos courtesy of Patricia Kantzos