Real Wedding: Nicole & Mark
Hastings, New York
Cake: Dominick’s Nepperhan Italian Pastry Shop Floral Design: Emil Yedowitz Florists & Growers
Nicole Kenealy met Mark James doing business in New York City and quickly decided she wanted him to be a part of her life. She devised a plan to get to know him. She added Mark's email address to a list of friends and sent out invitations for a "cocktail hour" in the city. It took three tries to get Mark to go out, but when he finally did, he and Nicole stayed out talking until one o'clock on a Tuesday morning. Nicole wanted to make sure he would come out again, so at the end of the night, she boldly asked, "You do know why you're here tonight, right?" Mark coyly questioned, "Why?" and Nicole said, "Because you're mine." That night they shared their first kiss, and the next day Mark asked her to go on a "real date" marking the beginning of their romance.
A year and a half later, Mark purchased an engagement ring and planned to propose to Nicole in Grand Central Station. But that same day, Nicole came home from a bad day at work and was in a cranky mood. She put a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner, and started to tell him about her day. Excited about the ring in his pocket-which he had had for only four hours-and wanting to cheer up Nicole, Mark decided to propose in that moment. Nicole watched him pull out the ring and started screaming. "What are you doing? Is that a ring? What are you doing? We're about to eat frozen pizza! Are you proposing?" she exclaimed, finally calming down enough to let him ask her to marry him.
Their wedding was planned for October 24, 2009, and the first challenge they faced was deciding where it would be. Nicole is from Westchester, New York, and Mark is from Ohio, but both the bride and the groom were living in Manhattan. Since they both considered themselves "serious New Yorkers," they wanted to have their wedding in the state. To make sure the location was comfortable for all of their guests from Ohio and New York, they chose a restaurant on the Hudson River, just outside of the city. Harvest on Hudson is in an area that is "city and suburb friendly," making the perfect compromise for all guests to have a weekend away.
When the day of their wedding came, Nicole and Mark were surprised with an unexpected rainstorm. Nicole is skeptical of the notion that rain on your wedding day is good luck-"it's really just a bummer," she says. But the storm was just a minor glitch in their day, and it ended up resulting in some very misty, romantic photographs. The excitement of the occasion helped them get through it. "As long as you have a plan B," she says, "it doesn't matter."
In hindsight, she and Mark stress the importance of not taking the details of wedding planning and the wedding day too seriously. Nicole says the most important part of wedding planning is focusing on the fact that in the end, you will be married. "Make time for the two of you," she suggests, "whether you sneak in a glass of wine on a busy week night, or a quick walk around the block, remember why you're doing it all in the first place."
Since Nicole and Mark both work in, and met, in the book business, they consider themselves "serious book people," and they themed their wedding around famous love story classics. Their tables were named after books like "Wuthering Heights," "The Great Gatsby," and "Gone with the Wind." They also provided books with personalized bookmarks as wedding favors. Mark's wedding ring is now inscribed with the words "Because you're mine," a constant reminder of his and Nicole's own love story.