Natalie and Dan were married at the incredibly designed, vintage-style Metropolitan Building in New York City. The day was filled with joyful moments, special details and a little bit of theatrics…
For Natalie and Dan there was only one perfect place to celebrate their wedding, and that was the Metropolitan Building. Natalie shares, “Dan and I had decided early on that we wanted a small, intimate, vintage wedding in New York. The Metropolitan Building was the first (and only) venue we visited. The minute we stepped foot on the second floor, we were in awe and knew right away that this was the place that we wanted to celebrate our union in marriage with family and friends. It is a beautiful space with French decor, gorgeous floor-to-ceiling library shelves, chandeliers, hand-painted hardwood floors, and old world charm that you couldn’t replicate if you tried. The entire third floor of the building is essentially a giant prop room full of vintage antiques and furniture that we were able to use to decorate our floor on the day of our wedding. The rest of our decor–including the flowers, signage, and space design–were DIY and truly a group effort. My mother and New York-based bridesmaids/bridesman designed and executed every element perfectly and did so on a strict budget. It truly felt like we were King and Queen for a day in this magical, vintage castle.”
I have to agree. I’ve been wanting to photograph a wedding at the Metropolitan Building for years. It was a dream come true to photograph this incredible space–a photographer’s playground–and to shoot for such an awesome couple made it even more wonderful!
Each member of the bridal party received monogrammed champagne glasses.
Dan’s style incorporated a nod to his British heritage with flag cufflinks along with his new home in the states, American flag socks.
Dan shares, “My favorite moment of the day was our first look. I hadn’t seen Natalie very much in the few days prior to our wedding (except for the rehearsal dinner) as she was staying with her sister at a hotel, and my best men were staying with me at our apartment in Astoria. I missed her so much and couldn’t wait to have a special moment, just the two of us. Once she tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around we both burst into tears. She looked absolutely stunning. We were both speechless and just stood there gazing into each other’s eyes. It was romantic, and wonderful to steal away these few precious moments in the wake of our big celebration.”
One of the most iconic rooms in the Metropolitan Building is the Hall of Mirrors.
“In November 2013,” Natalie shares, “Dan was feeling pretty restless in his day-to-day routine, and decided he wanted to change up his life for a little while and go on an adventure. Next thing he knew, he had booked a plane ticket to New York City to study improvisational comedy for three months. He had been performing for years in the UK, but wanted to experience the thriving comedy scene in the Big Apple. Around the same time, I had just started taking improv classes. I come from a musical theater background, so when I saw that there was a musical improv class, I jumped on it. As fate would have it, Dan was also enrolled in that class and the rest is history. It was truly a whirlwind romance. We had our first date a week after we met, and were inseparable from that moment on. Of course, after three months Dan had to move back to the UK, but our relationship never faltered. I was lucky enough to have a job that allowed me to travel somewhat, so I visited Dan in the UK for a few weeks at a time every 2 to 3 months. In the times that we weren’t together, we Skyped almost every day. It sounds so cheesy, but Dan and I knew we had something special, so we weren’t about to let something as silly as the ocean get in the way of our love.”
Improv has been an important part of their history, and was also included in the wedding day with their official wedding hashtag #yesandtolove. “Yes, and…” is the most basic “rule” in improvisational comedy. It suggests that a performer should accept what another performer has stated (“yes”) and then expand on that line of thinking (“and”) to build a scene. The “yes, and…” theme continued as a part of funny stories and sweet toasts given throughout the evening.
Natalie tells the story of their engagement, “Dan was living in London at the time, and had just flown over to New York for a two-week visit for Christmas. His birthday happened to fall within those weeks, so I planned a big day full of surprises for him. Little did I know he had a surprise of his own. One of the places I took him to was the American Museum of Natural History, a favorite date spot of ours from when we first met. As we descended the stairs in the whale room (The Milstean Hall of Ocean Life), Dan told me he loved me and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Once we were perfectly positioned underneath the blue whale, he dropped to his knee and opened up a little black box to reveal the most beautiful ring I had ever seen – a vintage sapphire ring with cluster diamonds purchased from a vintage Jewelers in East London. I was so shocked and happy, I almost forgot to say “yes!” It was one of the best days of my life. Once we left the museum we celebrated with a glass of prosecco, and then continued on with the plans I had already made for his birthday, which then became a joint celebration of our engagement.”
Natalie continues, “It’s hard to choose my favorite moment, because the whole day was perfect, but one of my favorite moments was surprising Dan by singing during our recessional. Just after our priest had officially presented us as Mr. and Mrs. Titmuss, music started playing, and I remember Dan turned to me and asked if we should start walking back down the aisle. As I shook my head “no,” my sister slyly handed me the microphone and I broke out into a parody version of “Marry You” by Bruno Mars. It was so wonderful to see his face light up when I started singing. It was a fun and joyful way to transition from our beautiful and emotional ceremony into the “party” portion of the evening!”
“Hey baby, I’m glad I just married you!”
The band played La Vie en Rose for their first dance.
“Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be la vie en rose.”
Natalie shares, “After Dan and I got engaged, we officially applied for him to move to the United States on a K-1 Visa (fiancé visa). After about 6 months of paperwork, immigration interviews, and living across the pond, he was finally approved and moved to New York on July 4, 2015. With a K-1 Visa, the government requires you to get married within three months of being in the country or your conditional status expires. Since we didn’t want to plan and organize a full wedding in three months, we decided to get legally married at city hall for bureaucratic purposes and then plan the wedding of our dreams to happen exactly one year later. On our “legal wedding day,” we went out for a nice celebratory dinner. Once we finished, our waiter told us if we wanted a really good dessert, we should go across the street to an artisanal donut shop called Dough, and I’m so glad he did because the donuts are seriously little slices of heaven. Since these donuts had served as our “cake” on our legal wedding day, we thought having them at our real wedding would be fitting.”
Flavors included hibiscus, passion fruit with cocoa nibs, café au lait, mocha almond crunch and glazed. YUM!
Congratulations Natalie and Dan!
Special thanks to the team:
Venue: The Metropolitan Building
Venue Coordinator: Carlos Ortiz, The Metropolitan Building
Catering: Maia Pearl Catering
Officiant: Father Robert Feeney
Flowers: Jonathan Gilland
Makeup/Hair: Steven Harris
Bridesmaid Dresses: Adrianna Papell
Wedding Dress: Suburban Bridal
Wedding Shoes: Seychelles
Groom’s Suit: Ted Baker London
Groom’s Shoes: Gordon Rush
Ties: The Tie Bar
DJ: Peter Lori Entertainment, feat. Ryan Farnsworth
Band: Dan Reitz
Invitation: Wedding Paper Divas
Save the Date: Minted
Donuts: Dough
Wedding Candle Favors: Etsy Bitter Willoughby
Photographer: Jessica Schmitt Photography
