I promise that ThePreppyMAG won’t turn into all wedding content all the time but as I thought about chronicling the new experiences life has brought me over the last year, this part is kinda inevitable. I’ll also add that planning a post-pandemic wedding in NYC is turning out to be WAY harder than I expected so I hope my little tips and tricks I share here can be helpful to other NYC Brides in need.

Back in the Fall, our parents threw us the most gorgeous engagement party brunch for our closest friends & family. Tom and I originally didn’t even want an engagement party but after a year and a half of not being able to see our friends & family we figured we should take any excuse to celebrate with them.

The Venue: Tom & I wanted to invite our family & friends to take part in one of our favorite activities in NYC– boozy brunch. To do so, we took over one of our favorite brunch places in SoHo, NOMO Kitchen. We have spent many a weekend in this venue so it felt very fitting to be the place we brought our families together for the first time.

Since we’re also having a NYC wedding in December 2022, we wanted there to be distinct differences between both events. Our wedding will be in midtown so we knew we wanted a downtown venue. Our wedding will be a late evening affair so a brunch felt right. Same goes for the decor, we’re planning a pretty formal affair so I wanted this event to be infused with a lot of urban touches and color, hence the graffiti wall and tablescapes.

Dress (Alexia Maria) | Shoes (Bella Belle)

What I Wore: This may be my favorite part of the entire day (sorry Tom). This dress is custom made by Alexia Maria and it was SO special to wear. The simplicity of the white silk paired with the over-the-top bows on the sleeves perfectly depicts my personal style and my vision for my wedding moving forward.

While I belabored what dress I wanted to wear to the party, the shoes were a much easier find. In fact, they came to me via an Instagram ad. They are from Bella Belle, which I understand is a very popular wedding shoe company. I loved that they were close toed while also very delicate and dainty.

Blazer (Bonobos)

What Tom Wore: Since our wedding will be a pretty formal affair, I wanted Tom to have a pretty casual look so he chose a pretty easy pair of jeans and a white button-up. However, it didn’t feel special enough for such a joyous occasion. At the last minute, we added this Bonobos navy velvet blazer, which was the perfect edition. This deep navy color was so sleek and the velvet was a great Fall-inspired touch.

As elegant and perfect the affair the best part may just have been the ‘after-party.’ After all of the mimosas were sipped and the waffles were eaten, my family and closest friends headed up to the rooftop at the NOMO Hotel for a dance party before heading to one of my favorite dive bars in Soho (yes, in this exact outfit). It was perfectly us.