This Saturday My good friend Val and her fiancé Alex got married up at Alder Manor in Yonkers.... If you don't know Alder Manor is a beautiful old historical building That was once a Summer home then became a Convent School and is now used for movies videos and photo shoots...its stuck somewhere between grey gardens and Great Expectations and is filled with decaying glamour and the ghosts of the past...supposedly LITERALLY ghosts as well.....
i was asked by Val to not only make her headpiece for the wedding but to help "style" the rooms and create ambiance around the beautiful flower arrangements {not made by me} and in the rooms to make them feel even more hauntingly beautiful....SO My friend Jessica and i loaded up my car and headed "upstate" for an adventure...
Here is Val in the headpiece i made her...constructed from roughly 300-400 small animal ribbons with antler ends as centers I created this delicate and feminine headpiece for her that could satiate her love for bones and the macabre but also be femme and glam...I think by the look on he rface i did a great job!!!
some beautiful outdoor shots...
Jessica and i had to wait awhile for the florist to finish so we explored the upper floors of the Mansion....Thers an indoor 2nd floor pool...a pipe organ and countless creepy rooms filled with empty tubs...toppled over buckets...and just enough light streaming through the gloom to create and even more eerie effect than if it was purely dark...there were some corridors Jessica just wouldn't explore....too ominous for her
Gorgeous original wallpaper....
the light somehow creates more shadow....
Jessica looks like Mia Farrow in "Rosemarys baby" here...creeping down a shadowy staircase....
This was the hall Jessica refused to venture down...would you?!??!?!
We also helped VAl get dressed and snapped some photos before she went outside...She was SERVING us in from of the fan in her Vintage Marchessa gown and her custom PUREVILE! headpiece...our little girl looked so beautiful and glamourous....
Here is Val and her parents walking down the aisle...the ceremony was brief but hysterical...presided over by a friend of theirs who was ordained for the occasion...it reminded me of what a fun loving couple they were...and their vows were just as touching as the service was comical...a perfect balance....and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.....just gorgeous.....Val couldn't stop smiling the entire time...it was inspiring
So the florist did these arrangements....but Val wanted me to add some pieces to them to make them feel a little more dramatic like an old masters painting...So i added books from the Manors library as well as bottles and mercury glass that Val collected over the past months......skull candles and even a piece of taxidermy i procured for the night from a closet from one of the upper floors.....and when day transformed into night the vignettes became even more magical lit by the flickering yellow candlelight....
Val and Alex's setting had a little extra care given it as well as a skull.....
the mantle was one of my favorite moments....it had just the right touch of decadence and decay...
I also enjoyed setting up this table of photos of Val and Alex through their courting years as well as family wedding photos...a lovely sentimental touch...it seemed like the spirits of their ancestors were there watching over them ....
this couch...too big for my car or else it would have been MINE!!!
and as the night drew to a close...the candles lit the way and the newly married bride and groom descended the stairs and the festivities began.......it was a truly wonderful day...an amazing party flu of fine food...friends and family...and laughter...and we left exhausted...sweaty and tipsy...but most definitely happy...
Sop thank you again to VAl and Alex for letting me be a part of their wedding and best of luck to you both!!! You most definitely deserve it!!!
XOXO
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