A New Years Eve Wedding at The Briarcliff Manor
Jim and Alyse truly had a magical night here with us at The Briarcliff Manor! Celebrating their love on New Years Eve with all their loved ones was the perfect way to bring in the New Year! Read all about their journey of love, Jim’s Christmas Day proposal and how they ended up here celebrating their perfect day together.
Question: How did you two first meet?
Answer: We met 5 years ago in a bar in downtown White Plains after work. He was out with his work friends and I was with 2 of my girlfriends from work. We started chatting and exchanged numbers.
Question: What was your first impression of each other?
Answer: Bride: – He had amazing blue eyes and such an easy smile. I thought he was friendly and very easy to talk to.
Groom: – She was very sweet and genuine from the very beginning and so easy to talk to.
Question: What was your first date?
Answer: We met at the Palisades Mall at Starbucks for coffee after work. We ended up talking for almost 3 hours.
Question: Who said ‘I love you’ first?
Answer: Jim said “I love you” first on our first New Year’s Eve together. I said it right afterwards.
Question: What is the most memorable date that you two shared?
Answer: Bride: – I have 2: The first would be the time Jim took me to Paul O’Neill day at Yankees Stadium for my birthday. He was my favorite player growing up and I may have dropped a few hints that I wanted to go. Afterwards, he let me talk him into going straight into the city for dinner and then we got last minute tickets to see Newsies. It kind of sums up how a lot of our dates would go in the city. We would head in with one thought of something to do and then just see where the day or night would take us. The second was when we were in Italy with his family. When we were in Capri, we broke off from the group for one solo date night. We found a little family owned pizzeria not far from our hotel that had the best bruschetta. We sat outside as we ate, and people watched. We enjoyed the walk back and stopped at for Gelato. It was just the perfect Italian evening.
Groom: – We have shared many great dates together. I still look back fondly of one of our earlier dates where she woke up early to watch me run a half marathon in Central Park. It was in mid-January so there was snow on the ground, and it was 14 degrees. Afterwards we went out for brunch to defrost.
Question: What are your nicknames for each other?
Answer: We have gone from Boyfriend/Girlfriend to Fiancé to Husband & Hubster to Wifey & Wifester. Also, since we met, Jim has been in my phone as Jiminy Cricket and I just can’t change it.
Question: Is there a favorite spot you two share?
Answer: Before we moved to Florida, I think we took for granted how easy it was to go into Manhattan to see a show or go to Central Park, or a museum. Now that we live so far away, it is very special to us to go back and when we are up north visiting out families. In Florida, we are still exploring the different areas of our new home, but our safe go to is a trip to one of the Disney Parks to try a new experience or restaurant.
Question: Who met the in-laws first?
Answer: Jim met my parents first on our first New Year’s Eve together. He also was interrogated that same night by my older brother and then my cousin stopped by to check him out because she heard he was over. I’m lucky they didn’t scare him away.
Question: What are your favorite things about each other?
Answer: Bride: – My favorite thing about Jim is that I can talk to him about anything and he is up to try any crazy idea I come up with.
Groom: – Alyse is so compassionate and loving. She adores her family and treats her niece and nephews like her own children. She is a great wife and will be a great mother.
Question: Do you have a special tradition on Valentine’s Day?
Answer: Every Valentine’s Day has been a little different. Typically, it involves exchanging cards and Jim will get me flowers and chocolate. This year we did a couple’s workout together at OrangeTheory and then went to a NerdNight event.
Question: When did you know that you were going to propose to her?
Answer: After moving to Orlando and slowly settling into our life together the time just felt right. I was initially debating as to when I was going to propose
Question: What was your proposal like? Where was it?
Answer: Jim proposed on Christmas morning at my parents’ house in front of the Christmas tree. It was before everyone got there so it was just the two of us. I had just given him his Christmas gift and instead of giving me a gift, he dropped down on one knee and proposed.
Question: How did you feel when he proposed?
Answer: I was shocked. He took me completely by surprise. I had no idea that he was going to propose. I asked “Seriously!??” about 5 times. He still makes fun of me for that reaction.
Question: How long have the both of you known each other?
Answer: Just over five years
Question: What was your favorite part of your wedding day?
Answer: My favorite part was seeing everything come together and everyone enjoying themselves. We spent a year planning and wondering if we making the right decisions and it came together beautifully. I have trouble picking out one thing because I loved everything about our wedding day. I would not change a thing.
Question: How would you describe the style or theme of your wedding?
Answer: It was winter holidays, romantic and sparkly-fun. We wanted to really play into the holidays and celebrate that it was New Year’s Eve.
Question: What did you look most forward to? The wedding day, the ceremony, the honeymoon?
Answer: Bride: – I love the entire holiday season, and I saw our wedding as a great way to top it all off. I was looking forward to getting both our families together to celebrate our wedding and ringing in the New Year together.
Groom: – I am soo excited start this next chapter together, we are building a house and I cannot wait to grow into a family and will always know I will have someone to share the rest of my life with together.
Question: What was the most fun detail of your wedding to plan?
Answer: I enjoyed the entire process of planning the wedding. It took some time but once I came up with the vision, it was fun to find elements to make it come together. My favorite thing to plan might have been the invitations. I had seen something on Pinterest, but could not find it anywhere. Luckily, my Matron of Honor is extremely talented and was able to recreate the invitation and then create the RSVP card, hotel info card, and band to go along with it. The invitation had elements that were important to us like referencing Disney’s “once upon a time” and “happily ever after” and since we were getting married on New Year’s Eve, we included a clock set to midnight.
Question: What was the most unique detail at your wedding?
Answer: I think the most unique detail was our Wedding Guestbook. We took a collection of photos from our relationship and created a book for everyone to sign.
Question: What was your something borrowed, something new and something blue?
Answer: Something new was my dress, my something old and blue was a handkerchief I held that belonged to my Great-Grandmother.
Question: To the Groom: What were you thinking when you saw her walking down the aisle?
Answer: How beautiful she looked and how lucky I am to have her for the rest of my life.
Question: Is there anything from your wedding day that you will keep as memorabilia?
Answer: There are a few things from our wedding that we are keeping as memorabilia: our guestbook is now our coffee table book, I preserved my wedding dress and bouquet, and our cake topper was our Mickey and Minnie Bride and Groom statue my brother & sister-in-law gave us.
Question: What is “your song” and why?
Answer: Our song was our entrance song: Shut up and Dance by Walk the Moon. The year that song came out, we had so many wedding and events that every time it came on I pulled Jim out onto the dance floor. It became our song from that time on.
Question: Who was your maid of honor and why?
Answer: My Matron of Honor was my best friend from college, Aileen. We met each other Freshman year and lived together during Senior year. We have been through so much together that we are more like sisters than friends.
Question: Who was your best man and why?
Answer: My brother Tommy is not only my only brother but an obvious choice for my best man. Tom is the hardest working, well rounded and an all-around great guy that I admire immensely.
Question: Did you have your honeymoon yet? How was it? Where was it?
Answer: We have not gone on our honeymoon yet. We are in the process of building a house so the honeymoon is on the backburner. We are looking forward to doing a tour of either Scotland or Ireland.
Question: How would you describe your wedding day in one sentence?
Answer: Our wedding day was a celebration of where our relationship had been and where we are going with our family and friends surrounding us.
Who did your…
-Makeup – Jillian Babcock
-Hair – my amazing Sister-in-Law, Kelly DiGaetano
-Dress Designer – Jewel by David’s Bridal
Entertainment – Bok Music
Photographer – Magical Memories
Décor – Décor By Vincenza
Bakery – A Little Cake
