Their own back garden and local community centre were the locations of choice for Danielle and Dylan’s Brooklyn wedding. The day had a real community feel with their friends, family and neighbours all coming together to celebrate their marriage. They had a decorating party the night before where around 40 of their loved ones came to eat pizza and help them dress the garden and hall. In total they spent less than $10,000. The bride’s dress came from BCBG Max Azaria and everything she wore with it was thrifted.
“Our wedding theme was ‘community!'”, Danielle told us. “We wanted to do everything ourselves and have our identities represented in every aspect of the day and pull from our talented community of artistic friends. We organised the wedding around our backyard space that was home to the deck we built together during quarantine. We have an unusually large backyard for New York and it was a huge source of safety and comfort for us during the early months of Covid.”
The couple walked down the aisle to Just Friends (Sunny) by Musiq Soulchild, a nod to their shared love of the Nutty Professor II soundtrack. They also wrote their own vows, with Dylan holding Danielle’s notebook as she was too shaky to hold both the notebook and the mic. The ceremony also featured a deeply personal moment when Dylan’s mum presented Danielle with a family heirloom: a capelet made from coal beads, worn by Dylan’s great-great-grandmother in the mid-1800s. “Dylan wrapped me in it during the ceremony as a symbol of enveloping me in love and welcoming me into his family,” Danielle said.
The reception was a full-on DIY fest, with friends and family coming together to set up and transform the local community centre into a reception space with a romantic school dance vibe. Paper lanterns and disco balls were hung from the ceiling, a balloon arch was made and the entire room was draped in tulle.
“One of the highlights of the reception was the photo booth”, the bride explained. “I own a film photo booth and service film photo booths all over the city. It’s a huge part of my life so we had a booth that served as our guestbook. Everyone was invited to take as many photos as they wanted, and then take a strip for themselves and leave the duplicate with us. The chemicals to process colour film are incredibly rare these days, so it was really special to give both ourselves and our guests a possibly once in a lifetime treat of a colour filmstrip.”
The after party was also incredible – they got fried chicken from around the corner and had a raging karaoke party. “The cops eventually shut us down, but only after I fell asleep on the couch!” she laughed.
Reflecting on their experience, Danielle and Dylan advise engaged couples to follow their hearts. “The aesthetics don’t matter as long as you’re being true to yourself,” Danielle concluded. “We had a large guest list and didn’t want to make any cuts to it, so every decision we made followed that priority. We literally invited every single person we wanted to be there. If we had to choose between a fancy venue and our friends being there, we would choose our friends every time.”
