Our Wedding... Location, For Real

Sometimes, you have to hit the Bridal Sanity reset button.

As I wrote about here, our wedding venue debacle was just what I needed. And once we decided to get married in NYC, things started to become a hell of a lot more fun... and easy.

I love good ambiance...who doesn't?... and determined that the best bang for our wedding buck when it came to getting the vibe we wanted, was to go to one of my favorite restaurants and ask if we could rent the entire space for the wedding.

We were on a budget, so creativity was king. The more I could cut out costs for decor, the more money we would have to spend on our guests' good time. Plus, I wouldn't have to deal with the merde (I'm so sophisticated) that is wedding inflation.

This approach killed a flock of seagulls with one stone. And after The Great Wedding Soul Suck, I wanted a one stop wedding shop.

By holding the entire wedding event at the restaurant, I wouldn't need to worry about renting buses, china, chairs, linens, or any of the other stuff that would have been a tedious and costly pain in the arse. And I would know that my wedding food would be delicious and that the drinks would be fabulous.

Basically, we wanted our guests fat, happy, tipsy, and bustin' moves in an amazing space.

So I reached out to Bobo, a beautiful restaurant in an old townhouse located in the heart of the West Village, and made the big ask. You may have seen Bobo before when it was featured in Domino magazine. This place is packed with style.

The Wedding Gods must have felt bad about the crazy crap they pulled in Cape May, because Bobo was ours for the wedding... and they were excited by the idea of us taking over the whole place for the event. Score!

We worked with their incredible event planner and determined that we could use the enclosed garden/deck space for the ceremony, the downstairs bar for cocktail hour and the dance party after dinner, and the dining room for dinner (duh).

Things had fallen into place... finally... and all we had to do was pick out the food and booze. This was hard because everything we tried was yummy. We decided on duck, steak au poivre frites, and sea bass. Best part - our guests could select what they wanted at the table (pre-ordering your dinner months in advance is a big commitment).

I made a few trips to Bobo over the following months and seriously felt like royalty each time I was there. I cannot recommend this place enough, and I have amazing memories of drinking wine with some of the talented people who helped me with the big day.

I trusted these guys to make it amazing. They did. The service was world class. The food, from cocktail hour to the midnight snacks, was so so good. The bartenders made craft cocktails that blew people away. The Bobo team was the phenomenal.

That night, we threw the best damn dinner party of our lives.

All photos were taken by Tec Petaja.