From Tux, one of the grooms:
My name is Tux (it’s a nickname, my real name is Christopher) and my husband’s name is Russell. We were married outdoors at the Clermont State Historic Site in Germantown, NY. We were engaged on New Years Eve 2012 and married on June 1, 2013. Russell is originally from Los Angeles and I’m from the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. We both live in Brooklyn with our dog Doris who walked down the aisle with the flower girls at our wedding. Russell’s Aunt Mimi officiated the wedding, and our wedding party was full of our sisters, their children and our best girlfriends. We had a rustic country wedding and our colors were gray, white and green.
I used to work in event planning for AIDS Walk New York, and I used my experience to my advantage and planned my own wedding. We gave ourselves 17 months to plan, prepare and save, and we tried to DIY as many of the elements of our wedding as possible. We’re casual people so we went for a relaxed casual outdoor theme for the wedding. Our wedding party was given a color scheme (gray dresses with green accessories) to work with and were allowed to chose their own dresses that fit their bodies and personalities. All of our bouquets, boutonnieres and arrangements were made from wildflowers we purchased with our maids of honor from the farmers market in Kingston, NY, and they were all arranged by our family and wedding party. We had quilted mason jars as glassware and our favors were jars of apple butter that I made myself. We had a pig roast and BBQ and for dessert served pies, cookies and a 4-tiered white swiss dot wedding cake. The bar was stocked with signature cocktails, beer and wines that I chose from the Finger Lakes region where I grew up. Our first dance was to “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.
Even though the wedding was on the first day of June, it ended up being over 90 degrees that day, so after our ceremony we both changed into shorts to be more comfortable throughout the day. We didn’t think to take this into consideration when planning our date, but the 17-year East Coast cicada was out during the time of our wedding. They weren’t really a nuisance, but they were definitely present and added a “natural” hum to the soundtrack of our day. The kids at the wedding had a lot of fun with them! A week after the wedding we honeymooned in Barcelona! We had a truly beautiful experience that we’ll never forget.
WEDDING VENDORS
Photography: Jordan Jankun Photography
Flowers: Kingston, NY farmers market from The River Garden, arranged by wedding party
Ceremony & Reception Location: Clermont State Historic Site, Germantown, NY
Invitations: Alix Sorrell
Caterer: Hickory BBQ Smokehouse
Cake: Corsino Cakes
DJs: DJ Cody Wayne, DJ Catskillz
