Celebrating Two Years!

Photography by Edwina Hay

As of today, we have been married for two years! Sometimes it feels way longer, but I mean that in the best way possible. We were at our friends Matt and Marissa's wedding this past Friday, and a picture was taken of us that I think captures how we are already a seventy year old couple loudly bickering in public. Sigh, I thought it would take so much longer before it came to that. But I got 'pinions (something I state frequently when giving my 'pinions), and Paul either agrees or disagrees. Clearly, I think this was a moment of disagreement...

Our friends' wedding was actually more of an elopement. Matt referred to it as a guerrilla wedding, which was pretty accurate. They invited friends to meet them at a bar they frequent to witness and celebrate as one of their online-ordained friends married them. The bar took it in stride and managed to find some Hostess cupcakes, Oreos and whipped cream that they made into an impromptu wedding cake for the couple. It ended up being a perfect night celebrated exactly how they wanted to celebrate it.

Because it was an elopement, they did away with all of the wedding traditions. But seeing as Matt was best man at our wedding, Paul dubbed himself best man of theirs. And as a wedding gift, Paul arranged for a photographer friend of ours to shoot their wedding. We know how much we loved remembering the night as we looked through all the pictures, not to mention seeing all the moments we missed! Plus it would be something that they could share with friends and family that weren't able to be there. We got a sneak peak, and considering how much joy and fun and spontaneity was captured in the pictures, I'm pretty confident that they will be thrilled with them. 

Their wedding made me nostalgic, so I went through and found some of my favorite moments from ours:

When the whole church erupted in cheers as we were announced husband and wife

This moment

When this little girl asked me if I was a princess

When I got to make out in the park with this handsome fella

Continuing a family tradition and having Paul's uncle and aunt perform at our cocktail hour

Dancing to our wedding song Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny

Dancing with Glo- the ultimate dancing queen

Belting my heart out with my Texas girls to our favorite Country songs

Paul booty dancin' me until I noticed everyone was watching 

Rappers At My Wedding

One of my favorite things about the wedding photos was seeing our worlds come together and how perfectly everyone got along. Captured in the pictures was so much joy and legitimate happiness for us. While this makes sense for a wedding, you have to keep in mind that I have a conservative, Italian family who is not always so open minded. Paul and I were more than a little nervous about our families colliding catastrophically at the wedding. But instead, everyone got along seamlessly. Even racist grandma was caught beaming while holding onto the arm of Paul's cousin as she watched us cut our wedding cake. Paul and I joke that our love helped the world get a little less racist that day.

Obviously, with Paul's line of work, many of his closest friends are rappers. Considering that the older generations are not always a fan of 'that rap music', I also loved seeing pictures and hearing the stories of rappers interacting with our families. Apparently, PremRock dubbed himself "the Merrill whisperer" that night after dancing with both my mom AND my grandma. 

Going through the wedding photos, I found some of those captured moments, as well as a few other gems:

Rappers That Break It Down With Your Mom (rap name: S.Breeze)

Rappers That Wanna Know If They Can Cut In (dj name: Mo Niklz)

Rappers That Are The Merrill Whisperer (rap name: PremRock)

Rappers That Take Their Beers Seriously (rap name: Uncommon Nasa)

Rappers That Are Also Your Wedding DJ (rap name: Tah Phrum Duh Bush)

Rappers That Are Also Vikings (rap name: Pastense)

Rappers That Keep Their Identity Hidden Even In Wedding Pictures (rap name: Billy Woods)

Rappers That Schmooze With The Rents (rap name: PremRock)

Rappers That Your Mama Is Gonna Love (rap name: Pastense)

The Fanny Pack Guy At Our Wedding

Since it’s been a year, Paul and I figured we should finally choose pictures for our wedding photo album. I've put this off for so long now. This should be a fun task, but when you plan a wedding for so long and so obsessively, once it’s over, you kind of don’t want to do any more work on it.

But it’s been nice to go through the pictures again and reminisce. While doing that, we kept laughing at how many pictures we found where ‘fanny pack guy’, as we have taken to calling him, is lurking in the background. FPG was the groundskeeper for the church. He was supposed to open it up and make sure everything was set up properly, but somehow he managed to become a notorious character at our wedding.

We had a series of mishaps that led to FPG’s infamy. Everyone tells you that no matter how much you plan, there will always be things that go wrong. This is truth. The zipper on my sisters dress busted literally right before the bridesmaids were supposed to walk down the aisle. My amazing bridesmaids managed to sew her back in, but, of course, this delayed the wedding. And this is where FPG enters...

Our parents had already been escorted to their seats and the runner had just been laid down, but FPG decides to stop the organist and walk down the aisle to inform the priest of the situation. In his khaki shorts, half-tucked shirt, and fanny pack. Oh, yes. Poor Paul had that split second of wondering if he was getting stood up at the alter.

Then FPG tried to rush the ceremony. It was like a tug of war between my coordinator and FPG. He was yelling at the bridesmaids to “go” before their cues, and she was telling them “no”. In his effort to pick up the pace, he signaled the organist to start the wedding march early. So everyone in the church stands up expecting me to walk out, but it’s my sister instead.

FPG was a real jerk. He apparently made jokes to Paul and the groomsmen before the ceremony about how most marriages end in divorce. And he started to turn off the lights in the church as our guests were still leaving. Apparently FPG had places to go, and we were slowing him down.

Lessons learned: Always read product reviews. I later found numerous complaints about the bridesmaid dresses having faulty zippers. Always carry a spare needle and thread in case of emergency. And lastly, if a guy wearing a fanny pack shows up, well, you just have to roll with the punches. There’s nothing you can do when someone thinks it’s OK to wear a fanny pack at your wedding.

A Wedding Anniversary Staycation

This weekend Paul and I celebrated our first year wedding anniversary! When we chose to get married Memorial Day weekend, we didn't really consider the fact that our anniversary would forever be such an expensive weekend to travel. Oops. So we ended up doing a staycation.

In the end, we were both happy with our decision to stay here. We did touristy things in our own city. But with the perk of not actually being tourists. We went to museums and ate at restaurants we had been wanting to try.

One of the highlights was finally eating at Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens, where I had lobster over squid ink pasta and Paul had duck meatloaf. They’re known for their fried chicken and cheddar waffles. And if lobster hadn't been the special for the night (I just love it so damn much), that’s what I had my heart set on ordering. Looks like we just have to go back.

For our actual anniversary, we went to Tom Colicchio’s restaurant, Riverpark, in the city. It overlooks the East River (and by default the FDR), so it has beautiful views of the river and Long Island City. Octopus for the appetizer, bacon wrapped prawns for me, and rabbit for Paul. His dish was basically the whole rabbit- including the kidney and tiny, tiny little rabbit ribs. They were so cute. And delicious. Since it was our anniversary, the waitress surprised us with chocolate mousse with a liquid chocolate center for dessert. It doesn't get much better.

Although we stayed here, we made it feel like a real vacation. We ordered the fancy $12 cocktails when we went out and even took cabs a few times. What luxury! Paul even managed to not be a workaholic and stayed out of the studio the whole weekend. When you live in NYC, sometimes you forget that this city is a destination for other people. Every now and then, we really do need to take a weekend to enjoy what we have right here.

An Industrial Engagement Shoot

Today marks eleven months since Paul and I got married. I cannot believe it’s almost been a full year! So I figured I would do a wedding-related post today. My super talented photographer friend Candace Camuglia offered to do an engagement shoot for us. Not only is it way more fun to do a photo shoot when your friend is the photographer, but Candace has a special knack for making the whole experience not awkward. Because engagement shoots have a tendency to be seriously awkward.

We went to Bushwick specifically for this giant boombox graffiti art that we wanted to use as a backdrop. Candace and I had seen it when we were out there for Bushwick Open Studios earlier in the year. I’ve always liked graffiti art, but we also figured it would be perfect for an engaged rap producer. Unfortunately, when we got there, it had been painted over. Super lame. But, we found some other walls with cool graffiti and a lot of industrial spots that looked pretty awesome. Here are my favorites...

You can find more of her photography, including her editorial work, here. Don’t be surprised to find more than a few pictures of yours truly. Getting to be a muse for Candace is always fun, cause it usually involves putting on some of my favorite vintage clothing.

Pinkies Up! The Year We Belonged To A Social Club

Paul and I had our wedding reception at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn, which meant we had to join and become members of a social club. We didn't really know what we were getting into. Although the club has a distinguished history and has hosted U.S. presidents, senators, etc., it’s located in Park Slope and is a bit of a fixer upper, so we thought there would be some sense of irony or self awareness. Not too much.

I still “like” the Montauk Club on Facebook, so I see their posts and they just put out a reminder for their upcoming new members dinner. After we joined, attending the new members dinner was when we realized it was a legit social club. Paul and I showed up and immediately noticed that most of the people there were old and white. For real, Paul was the only black person there who wasn't a server. But the best part was the entertainment for the night. They brought in the Princeton Tigertones, an A Capella group, to sing us jaunty showtunes all night long! And when they did the Princeton fight song, several of the old men stood up at their tables and chanted along. 

The Tigertones in all their glory.

Shortly after becoming a member, I accidentally joined the entertainment committee. I attended one meeting to suggest some improvements I thought would make the club function better as a wedding venue. That didn't go so well. They don’t do food tastings and they don’t have a full set of matching chairs. I mean, come on, if you’re a wedding venue, you sort of have to offer those things, right?

Because of that one meeting, I was forever on the email list. Luckily, they were often amusing. My favorite email was regarding the planning of the Super Bowl party. Seeing as it is a social club, there is a dress code. But one of the members asked if the dress code could be ignored for the Super Bowl. The response from the head of the committee was: “This is the Montauk Club. If you want to wear a jersey and drink Budweiser's, I recommend going to one of the many bars on Flatbush.” Pssh, what a pleb! He should know better than trying to wear some sweats and drink a Bud at the Montauk!

Needless to say, after our wedding, we did not renew our membership. It is a beautiful space and I loved the atmosphere of the building, but we just might not be the social club types.

Greetings From...

I got a vintage postcard in the mail the other day from my friend Candace. It was of a park in Berlin and she had written “wish we were here!” on the back. I love that. Sending a postcard to someone from an awesome place saying “wish you were here” is thoughtful, but you know it leads to some slight envy for the receiver. Candace’s postcard was sort of like getting an invitation for an adventure though.

She knows I love vintage postcards. I have a small collection of them. I got obsessed with these vintage embroidered Spanish costume postcards, and I bought a whole series of them. I think they are beautiful. They have so many things I love all rolled into one.. postcards, embroidery, vintage clothing, costumes, Spain..!


We also have a few that depict places in Brooklyn that we love, like the art museum, the botanic gardens, the bridge, etc. For our wedding save-the-date, Paul and I reproduced our postcard of the Brooklyn Bridge. We got married in a Victorian era social club in Brooklyn with a lot of history, so I liked that a vintage postcard conveyed the location and also the tone of the wedding.

Candace and I were roommates before I lived with Paul. She responded to my Craigslist post for a roommate, and we hit the jackpot. She is by far the best thing I ever found on Craigslist. Not only is she an awesome person, but she’s also an amazing artist. For me, her photography is the stand out, but she dabbles in just about every medium (peruse her portfolio!). She signed and dated the postcard, something you often do when writing letters, but since she is an artist, the line has been blurred for me. I consider her sending the postcard as an act of art. Sort of like a performance piece.