Ashlee & Joseph
By Sandra Mardenfeld
Photography By Golden Moments
Ashlee and Joseph met through friends—sort of. Ashlee, a dental assistant, was on her friend’s MySpace page and she noticed Joseph’s information. After some virtual chatting, they began speaking on the phone. Finally, Ashlee and Joseph had their first movie date seeing Wedding Crashers together.
After dating for about six years, Joseph asked Ashlee’s father for permission to marry her. Their conversation actually came months before the proposal, which took place at a cousin’s birthday party in Cyprus. During the rooftop-deck celebration, family and friends used the DJ’s microphone to wish a personal happy birthday. Joseph took the opportunity not only to commemorate the day but also to tell Ashlee’s family how much he cared for them, how comfortable the relatives made him feel when arriving in Greece, and how everyone was such a wonderful addition to his life. Then he called Ashlee up to the microphone, got down on one knee, and proposed. “I started crying, my family started crying and cheering,” said Ashlee. “Then I was handed a dozen roses that Joseph bought for me earlier in the day. After that we had our first dance under the stars as a newly engaged couple.”
The festivities continued a week later with an engagement party in Cyprus. Ashlee’s family rented a restaurant and threw a Greek-styled celebration, with dancing and a band that featured a traditional Cypriot bouzouki (a plucked string instrument reminiscent to the mandolin) with 100 people attending the event. Later, the twosome hosted a party at Ashlee’s house in New York so all their local family and friends could rejoice with them as well.
Their wedding, on August 6, 2011, featured a simple ceremony without a mass at Saint Peter’s Church in Port Washington and was officiated by Father Patrick. The bride started crying as she repeated her vows. “The words are so deep and meaningful and I was so happy that I was saying these words that you hear all the time in the movies when people get married,” she said. “It finally was happening to me and I was speaking these words to my best friend who I adore.” Her husband echoed those sentiments saying, “As Ashlee entered the church and started to walk down the aisle, I began to get very teary eyed and sweaty. I could not control my emotions as I began to realize the magnitude of the situation.”
The bride wore a Marina K Couture dress (Cassandra II) from Bridal Reflections—a white satin duchesse strapless gown sporting a fully boned, lace-up back corset, guipure lace and Swarovski crystal beading on the bodice. Ashlee’s long veil was etched with a silver design along its edge. The bridesmaids’ short, strapless lapis dresses with ruching at the bodices provided a complement to the overall wedding color palette of plum, black and white. All the men wore Calvin Klein black tuxes with lapis vests and white shirts. Both the bride and her attendants carried white Calla lilies—although the bride’s version also contained small, white flowers with crystals on them. Pedestals Floral Decorators designed all the flowers, including the reception centerpieces of orchids and floating candles.
From the ceremony, the entire bridal party traveled in a white H2 Hummer limo to the reception at the Swan Club. Guests lingered on a rustic, Italian-looking patio at the venue for the cocktail hour, which featured foods such as coconut shrimp, Asian chicken satay, pasta primavera as well as carving and wok stations and a seafood bar. Later, although the party moved indoors, a wall-sized window allowed guests a constant view of the venue’s lake and garden. As tradition dictates in a Greek wedding, money was thrown on the dance floor and pinned to the bride and groom, allowing guests to sway and frolic amid the cash. At one point, two chairs pulled to the center of the dance floor acted as stages for various friends and family. “A huge circle was formed around the two chairs as people cheered for the next set of people to get up and dance on the chair,” said Ashlee. The kinetic lighting, which changed the room’s colors from purple to pink to green and then blue, pumped up the club atmosphere as did the Bose sound system, the light-up cube, and the two plasma screens provided by In The Mix. Guests were snapped in an on-site photo booth and took the pictures home as souvenirs. Dinner offered a choice of chicken, salmon or steak, a Viennese table, a coffee station and a signature cocktail named after the bride’s boxer, Jab. The Grape Jab a Roni, made with grape champagne with grape liqueur, was dedicated to the dog, whose picture was displayed at the bar.
The couple vacationed for two weeks at the Sandals’ Grande St. Lucian in St. Lucia, where they tried zip lining, jet skiing and ate by candlelight on the beach. Joseph even allowed a Tarantula to walk along his arm.
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