Steal my amazing vendors! Brooklyn December 2025
I had the wedding of my dreams 6 months ago, all thanks to the incredible team of people that brought the vision to life. I found many of my vendors through reddit via recommendations or reviews, so I’d love to pay it forward and help people find their way to these incredible teams & companies. We had the privilege of having a 10/10 experience with each of our vendor teams and genuinely can’t sing each of their praises enough.
Planning: I cannot recommend Avalinda enough! Justine was an absolute godsend, none of the planning process and execution of our wedding day would have been possible without her and our coordinators Christina and Laura. I did not know much about the planning process or wedding industry going into our engagement, and Justine helped me to find the language to express my vision, helped me learn what to consider without overwhelming me, kept me on track (I am terribly disorganized and scatterbrained) without ever being condescending or creating stress, and went to bat for us every day to make our dream happen. She is lovely, knowledgeable, kind, patient, and will make the wedding of your dreams a reality. If there were any problems on my wedding day, I never found out because they handled that shit seamlessly. Here’s the Avalinda website & instagram.
Videography: Macey Keung is an artist and will render the love, fun, emotion, etc… of your day into a video that you will cherish for years to come. We almost did not hire a videographer, but my coworker showed me her wedding video from Macey and I emailed her to book within 15 seconds. I am so grateful she was available, because the videos she captured of our day are so precious and have given me the chance to relive so many different moments from the celebration. On top of being a wonderful creative and artist, Macey also had a wonderful presence with us on our day. You spend the whole day with your photographer/videographer, and we felt so comfortable and at ease spending the day with Macey, which made us comfortable to experience the day and not worry about performing for the camera. Check out her website & her instagram, she has examples of her teaser videos on her page you should definitely check out :-).
Florals: Studio Rien! We had our hardest time picking out our florist, in part because the sticker shock of florals hits extremely hard. Our planner Justine (Avalinda Planning) had prepared a few vendors for us to talk with, and had an inkling we would like Studio Rien the best - which we did! We had a handful of calls with Freyan, in which she asked us a lot of questions and let us talk about what we envisioned, helping to fill in some of the language and specifics we didn't have the terminology for (I now know what an ikebana is). The process felt really collaborative and we could tell how important it was to her to understand our vision/style to make sure she could hit the nail on the head. She also worked with us on budgetary restraints and told us what options we had available to us that aligned with both our vision and our budget that we may not have otherwise considered (she got us pink taper candles!!!). She was so lovely to work with and her team put together absolutely stunning pieces that transformed the space. Here’s their website & instagram.
Music/DJ: Please look no further than Non-Traditional Wedding DJs. They came highly recommended across Reddit, and we knew once we spoke with them that they would deliver the party we wanted to have. We hired Rafe Terrizzi and dude was absolutely cooking from clock-in to clock-out. They set up a series of lead-up phone calls, including one in which we read through a questionnaire we completed, to make sure they had their ducks in a row beat for beat for the day. Rafe made sure he knew what we wanted to hear (and maybe more importantly….not hear), if/when he should make announcements, what titles to use, etc… He provided mic/sound setup for the ceremony and speeches that worked flawlessly, and delivered on the music across every part of the day. The dancefloor was packed, I was sweating like an animal, and several of my friends have asked me for his name and contact information. I look forward to getting to attend another Rafe DJ’ed event because he’s an icon and a legend. Here’s non-traditional’s website and one of Rafe’s mixes (there are more available on the NT website I just really like this one)!
Saxophonist: We hired a saxophonist to accompany our DJ. We hired Riff from Expressway Music. Honestly I don’t know how he does it, we gave Riff virtually 0 instruction and he just knew what to do. He let it rip on the dancefloor and played sax along with our music and people went feral for him. Very cool and fun.
Venue: 74Wythe. 74Wythe is GORGEOUS and can house every aspect of your wedding. I personally cannot stand when you have to take ubers and buses between the events and wanted a venue that was a one stop shop. The main event space is on the roof top (only 4 floors), in an enclosed greenhouse-esque windowed structure overlooking the Manhattan skyline. The flow looked like this: Ceremony on the roof, cocktail hour downstairs, reception on the roof (space was flipped during cocktail hour), and after party in their speak-easy JBird Cocktails. Transitioning spaces for each event created a lot of excitement and helped people get into the energy of the space. Molly (the venue coordinator) was great to work with and had worked with almost all of our vendors previously, adding to the seamless flow of the day. Some logistic things that were important to us: the venue is handicap accessible, had a ton of bathrooms, and we did not have to put down a dancefloor in the space. There’s also an outdoor space on the roof (called The Crow’s Nest) and they let us serve cigarettes on platters so people could go outside and have a drunk cig. People have raved to me about our venue/wedding, and the venue really set the tone for a magical NYC event. Website & instagram! A note: they do in house bar & is included in your venue contract!
Cake: I very specifically wanted an insane hot pink cake and Bodega Cakes delivered something so iconic and beautiful. I can’t recommend enough using your wedding cake as an opportunity to do something silly and fun. The cake was also so delicious!! Highly recommend looking through their instagram even if you don’t want a custom cake, but just to check out their creations.
Catering: We worked with Dish, which came so highly recommended from people who have worked with them. We worked with Michael, who was absolutely wonderful. Food was something I really put on the backburner because I didn’t have a clear idea what I wanted, and just assumed all you’re allowed to serve at a wedding is a chicken breast. They asked us questions about our tastes and custom created a fun set of cocktail appetizers, Mediterranean buffet, and dessert menu for us, which got us really excited about our food. They also were the only vendor we spoke to that provided a final cost per person that matched exactly to our budget, which meant a lot to me. I already was planning to go with them, but that really sealed the deal that they listened and were considerate of the cost we outlined. The food was excellent and they timed everything perfectly so people never went hungry and we were able to get on the dancefloor as early as possible.
Photography: I’m going to share some photos so I want to shout-out our photographer Phyllis at WayOutVisuals, but want to note that she is a family friend and did our wedding as a favor to me, and typically does not work weddings! She’s the absolute best and crushed it, if you need work that more closely aligns with her portfolio (hotels, travel, hospitality), I highly recommend working with her! Welcome Party: We held a welcome party at the Nitehawk in Williamsburg. We rented a private theatre and played Scott Pilgrim vs. the world. It was super easy, you just have to drop off a blu-ray. We did a limited menu and bought everyone’s first drink. The service was great and they even did the marquee custom for us which was super sweet. People loved the private movie, then afterwards we went to Brooklyn Brewery for a beer (or ten). Vibes there were also electric, the staff is awesome and their beer is great.
Hair & Makeup: Willowhouse beauty made me and my party look and feel beautiful. They nailed the assignment, brought an amazing vibe to the bridal suite, and the looks lasted through the whole day. I found them to be on the more expensive side, but it was absolutely worth the investment. My bridesmaids still rave about how beautiful they felt at my wedding.
If you're looking into any of these vendors and have questions you want to run by me, I'm more than happy to help! Best of luck to all those getting engaged and planning their celebrations - I know it will be perfect! <3