By Amelie Mauduit, Special Markets Editor
When Ariel and James were planning their wedding, they wanted an unconventional and free-spirited celebration, but they were also intent on preserving a bit of Jewish tradition… It’s certainly not an uncommon request, but we love their take on it: An extremely intimate religious ceremony, followed by {what else?} a fun Coney Island photo session. The results are a hip combination of fashion, ferris wheels and a Brooklyn love story, wonderfully captured by Cengiz from Adagion Studio .
Ceremony site: Temple Beth Elohim
Officiant: Rabbi Andy Bachman
Dress: BCBG
Ariel and James definitely didn’t hesitate to play with their outfits. For the four-person religious ceremony, the bride wore an elegant floor-length Nicole Miller gown, but later switched to a flirty BCBG cocktail mini {affectionately nicknamed “the chicken dress” by the couple}. The groom wore a traditional black suit from Banana Republic, which he tastefully customized with a pair of vintage black suspenders with white polka-dots, purchased at the Brooklyn flea, and a pair of Adidas Rod laver sneakers.
From the bride:
We’ve made a custom of what we call “urban hiking”, walking 20 miles on a given day to slowly and intimately become familiar with all parts of New York City. Early on in our relationship, we fell in love with Coney Island. It was beautiful in a decrepit and seedy way that we uniquely appreciate so we wanted to celebrate our union by braving the rides at Coney Island’s boardwalk and amusement park. The iconic ferris wheel, Deno’s WonderWheel, already had a special place in our heart. What I love about the ferris wheel photo is it is absolutely arresting. The colors are beautiful, the setting is wild, there are all things and objects and colors and movement all around our cage, and yet, in the middle of the craziness we’re still, and with all the visual stimuli around us, our photographer was able to capture a moment where our eyes lock and nothing else around us matters.
The ceremony was extremely intimate, just me, my husband, my mother, my father and our rabbi inside the amber lit Beth Elohim Synogogue. Many elements of our wedding were untraditional; being married in a synagogue by a rabbi was the one traditional element that I stood by.
All photos courtesy of Adagion Studio
