Emily & Colm

* Emily, Nonprofit & Colm, Finance * Photographer: Paul Rowley and Family & Friends * Soundtrack for reading, officially: “Rainy Night in Soho” by The Pogues * Soundtrack for reading, unofficially: “Call Me Maybe” by the inimitable Carly Rae Jepsen *

One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: A debaucherous celebration of our international romance featuring a Brooklyn backdrop and buckets o’ beer.

The Info—PhotographyPaul Rowley (the groom’s cousin); Family & Friends / VenueJackie’s Fifth Amendment / Emily’s Dress: ASOS / Emily’s Shoes: Petunia by Seychelles / Emily’s Hair: Easy Braided Updo, executed by a friend / Colm’s Suit: Charles Tyrwhitt / Colm’s Shoes: Park Avenue by Allen Edmonds

Other cool stuff we should know about: If you’re curious as to why this looks like the most informal, drunken mess of a wedding, I’m going to blame it on the fact that my husband is Irish. Cultural stereotypes aside, we decided to do a civil ceremony celebration on September 28th so we could get started on Green Card paperwork as Colm’s work visa runs out next summer before our more family-oriented (read: Catholic with billions of cousins) wedding at my parents’ home in July. The ceremony was an excellent opportunity to bring all of our friends in NYC together in the Better Borough and share our love and everything that makes Brooklyn great.

We obviously started out at the Marriage Bureau in Downtown Brooklyn which is basically like the DMV with a pleasant, friendly staff who don’t seem like they want to gouge their eyes out with rusty spoons even though they do the same thing every damn day. From there we went to brunch at Fort Defiance in Red Hook, our favorite BK hood. After brunch, we headed down to Louis Valentino Jr. Pier to take some Instagram-worthy photos of front of Lady Liberty. As you can see, Colm’s cousin Paul did a beautiful job—it definitely doesn’t hurt that he happens to be an award-winning filmmaker. (He generally doesn’t do wedding photography but I included his website in case anyone’s interested in checking out his other work.)

Our last stop in Red Hook was (of course) at the Irish pub Rocky O’Sullivan’s. From there we tried to make friends with a bunch of feral cats in the vacant lot next door and having failed at that went on to our final destination in Park Slope which is the now-infamous Jackie’s Fifth Amendment. The bar staff had decorated the back room with loads of amazingly kitschy figurines and garlands. We ordered about fifteen pizzas and probably hundreds of buckets of nips (or ponies depending on your provenance). We danced to Robyn, Carly Rae, Collective Soul, you name it. All in all, it was a blast and we’re so lucky to have such awesome friends.

Favorite thing about the wedding: Shoving pizza into each other’s faces instead of cake.

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