Laura and Tim's Wedding at Haven's Kitchen in NYC

Bouncing up and down in a crosstown cab, all smiles and sunshine. “I’m gonna destroy this dress—I’ll lay down in the grass, on a New York City bench, wherever!” Definitely not common words we expect to hear coming from a bride on her wedding day—but Laura was and is not your everyday bride.

In fact, everything about Laura and Tim’s winter wedding in NYC was anything but your conventional wedding experience; from only three months of planning to coordinating guests flying in from all over the globe, their heartfelt and absolutely stunning intimate wedding will have us bouncing and smiling in the sunshine for a long time to come.

You may have seen the post about Laura and Tim’s rainy NYC engagement photos, where I explained how they decided to get married on such short notice. If you haven’t, the backstory goes like this: after they got engaged in November 2019, they popped into an antique ring shop to pick out some vintage wedding bands for each other, when they stumbled across a ring with the date “2/22/30” engraved on the inside. They joked about how it would be cute to celebrate this other couple’s 90-year anniversary on 2/22/20 and thought it would end there.

It didn’t.

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My experience on their wedding day began in Tim’s hotel room in the wonderfully charming Freehand Hotel in the Flatirons district of Manhattan. With only a narrow window casting sunlight into the room from the alleyway, the mood was calm and dramatic. Tim opened a small care package from Laura containing a pair of goofy socks stitched with images of ramen noodles, a silly black cat pin that read “good luck,” and the real gem of the bounty: a short, heartfelt letter that had a print of Laura posing for one of those awkward glamour shots in high school. In a perfect representation of their relationship and their wedding day, that letter carried as much lightness and levity as it did genuine care and love.

We snapped their first look in the foyer of the restaurant downstairs, occasionally holding the door for hungry New Yorkers that we dare not deprive of brunch. Afterwards, Laura and Tim shared a quick drink at the bar to coat themselves in a thick layer of liquid courage armor before we journeyed to the tourist-heavy Highline in the Meatpacking District for some intimate photos. In the cab we bounced but on the path we strutted, stopping here and there for some authentic New York City shots. As we made our way to Haven’s Kitchen we carried the same casual and light gait that Laura spoke with in her letter to Tim.

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Haven’s Kitchen opens into a cozy, chic, cafe in the front, with a clean open kitchen with stainless steel tables used for teaching cooking classes in the back. On the left, a stairway bends up to the second floor with a wooden Victorian-style bannister leading the way. The second floor has a wide open dance floor on one side and a white granite bar and cozy cocktail area on the other.

Adorned into every nook and cranny were trinkets of Laura and Tim’s relationship with an eclectic mix of kangaroos (Tim is Australian), Star Wars references, and other personal keepsakes. Finally, the top floor is a pristinely white, flexible and customizable space that can double as a location for the reception and ceremony. Laura and Tim, with the help of the amazing staff used every inch of this intimate wedding venue in New York City to celebrate their love.

Despite only having three months to plan and execute their wedding, Laura and Tim have shown how a strong couple can literally and figuratively absorb the bumps in the road and come out smiling in sunshine on the other side. They have shown that you don’t have to be conventional and can instead invent tradition or celebrate love in whichever way you see fit. Embrace what the world gives you with an open mind and hard work and love will do the rest.