Wow, talk about an amazing ceremony backdrop! Captured by Agaton Strom Photographer, MaryLeigh and Sean were married this past October in Brooklyn in a beautiful ceremony on Pebble Beach, overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge and the New York City skyline. The couple had a unique and musical ceremony, with all their guests joining them in singing “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. Following the ceremony, the couple and their guests headed to a local restaurant for fabulous food and a night of dancing. Be sure to read about all the wonderful DIY details of the wedding below!

The story from the bride:

We met in Brooklyn in 2007, and live here together, so we wanted to have our wedding in the city and borough where our life together started, and for the wedding to highlight the things that we love about living in this city. We also have a shared passion for being on the water and spend most of our weekends in the summer on the Hudson, so all the events of the weekend took place on or near the water.

We wanted the look of our wedding to be very simple overall– we had the skyline and bridges surrounding us and didn’t think we needed much more. Everything that we had at the reception was meant to play more than one role. We love cheese, and so had “still life with cheese” centerpieces instead of flowers, which we told our guests to eat at dinner. The guest book was a pile of vintage NYC postcards that we had also used for our save the dates, and the escort cards doubled as little tokens for everyone to take home. The wooden planks that we made for runners we’ll be using to construct cabinets and shelves out of for our apartment.

The wedding was more hands on than we had expected, but it was really fun to plan and we were so lucky to have so many of our friends and family help us and contribute their amazing talents. My wonderful godmother did the calligraphy for the escort cards and the menus on each of the tables, and Sean’s sister created the table numbers out of extra invitations and also embellished my headpiece with extra stones and fabric from my dress to make it more special. My older sister hand painted all of the beautiful signs for the wedding after having her first baby the week before the wedding! Two of my best friends and bridesmaids took on the very important task of setting up the cheese centerpieces at Bubby’s, and made one of the most important details of the reception look perfect for us. We did some DIY work ourselves as well–Sean cut and stained the plank runners himself while I put together the escort cards using Muji City in a Bag figurines. We also spent a night gluing a larger tops on the centerpiece cake stands because they originally weren’t big enough for all the cheese we wanted! The crates for the pie table are vintage crates that we found upstate. Because we didn’t want to have a florist, my bridesmaids and I made our bouquets with flowers from our corner bodega in Crown Heights on the wedding day while we watched wedding movies and got ready, which was so fun.

At the ceremony, Sean’s brother officiated, our families stood behind us as witnesses, and our sisters gave readings, so it was very personal. We borrowed the idea of a sing-along from great friends who got married last year, and everyone attending sang “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys together. Later on we found out that strangers were stopping to sing along as well. We knew the ceremony was going to be a little wild, because on Pebble Beach the subway rattles by on the Manhattan Bridge pretty regularly and loudly. But we love that spot and hoped everyone would enjoy the view enough they wouldn’t mind everything else. Then my uncle surprised us in the middle of our vows by having an NYFD fire boat that he built come and put on a waterworks show on the East River. We had no idea that was going to happen, and it felt like a movie.

Photographer: Agaton Strom Photographer
Bridal Dress: Jenny Peckham
Bridal Dress Store: Jenny Packham Paris
Bridal Headpiece: Amanda Judge headband, hand embellished with extra jewels and fabric from the dress
Bridal Shoes: Loeffer Randall
Groom’s Suit + Shoes: Banana Republic Monogram
Groom’s tie:  French Connection, the same one he wore on their first date
Bridesmaid Dresses: solid color dress of their choice
Reception Venue + Catering: Bubby’s Brooklyn
Band: The Dreamland Orchestra with Todd Londagin
Invitation, Menu, Table Number Designer: Lion in the Sun Park Slope

All images by Agaton Strom Photographer