Loulette Bride's designer turns her NYC wedding into a tropical paradise

A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 12

Being an industry pro and putting on your own wedding can be a daunting task. So many expectations by your friends, family, and most of all yourself! I can’t even imagine having to chose what to wear as a bridal designer, but Marteal – super cool designer behind Loulette Bride – shows us how it’s done in her tropical, jungle party in Brooklyn.

How does a bridal designer choose just one wedding dress? Well for starters, why not two fabulous custom gowns? And better yet, why not make bridal separates?! She imagined a collared crop top (so chic & unique!) with a flouncy, full skirt that is so twirl-worthy (I’ve tried them on! Marteal‘s skirts are so dreamy!)

For the reception, she went full force on the 3D floral trend, creating a sparkling dress with metallic leather flower appliques. Both gowns are so imaginative and beyond fun – perfect for their New Orleans jazz band jungle party!

Next on the to-do, turning their urban Williamsburg venue into a tropical paradise. Using their budget wisely, they rented foliage rather than purchased. Not only is this totally eco-friendly (yay!) but much cheaper for a bigger mass of greenery, and it totally filled their reception space.

Our Love Story

We met through mutual college and high school friends, who are now also engaged!

Leading up to the proposal, I had a feeling something might be happening soon, but Zach completely threw me off by telling me that he was hosting a surprise graduation party for completing my MBA. When he told me this, I said “Oh, I thought you were proposing…” and he laughed at the idea, said no way, and I believed him.

Later that day as I got ready for my “graduation party,” he told me to check out our roof quickly, and there he was on one knee. We cried and laughed, and went to a bar where all our friends and family were waiting for us. We celebrated with tacos, barhopping in our neighborhood, and a late night pizza dance party back at our apartment. It was perfect.

A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 17

The Dress

As a wedding dress designer myself, I felt a lot of pressure to have a pretty epic dress, as expectations were high and everyone wanted to know what I would wear! It was easier than I thought, honestly. I had the idea of a collared shirt that tied in front, paired with a huge skirt. So that’s what I made!

I also made myself a sparkly party dress using this fabric I found that was covered in laser cut, pink and champagne metallic leather flowers.

For my bridesmaids, I wanted to get them dresses as their gift, so I curated a group of vintage and second-hand gowns, all in shades of pinks and floral prints.

For the boys: Zach got a custom suit at Alton Lane, and the groomsmen all wore their own gray suits. We got them floral print ties from the General Knot, and fun pineapple socks.

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A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 11

The Wedding Vibes

For us, it was important that our wedding felt like us – comfortable, fun, uncomplicated. Our dream was a funky jungle disco, with plants galore and a New Orleans style horn band.

Our first priority was an epic dance party, which meant finding a cool and funky band that was not your standard wedding band. It happened to be the easiest thing to find and the first thing we booked, as we found our band, Hudson Horns, playing one night at Radegast where we happened to be having drinks one night.

A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 14

Favorite Moments

To make our wedding very “us,” we knew we wanted a short, fun ceremony in front of all our guests. But, we still wanted to do something that felt special and significant, and honored our families.

So, we first held an intimate ceremony, with only immediate family and closest friends, in the courtyard of Dobbin St. to sign the Ketbuah, say our more personal vows out loud, and exchange rings. Everyone was crying, and it was gorgeous and so special.

Then, we had the “informal” ceremony during cocktail hour. We didn’t set up chairs or anything; I just walked in with my dad while everyone had drinks in their hands. Everyone clapped when I walked in, it was THAT informal. We just said ‘I do,” stomped a glass together, had our dramatic kiss, and then the band started playing “Tequila.” We just joined in on the cocktail hour after that!

A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 42

Photo by KM Photo via Bridal Musings

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A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 45

The Photography

Kris is a good friend of mine, and shoots all of my collections for Loulette Bride. She is the most genuine and friendly person, and is super relaxed and easy going. We also wanted our pictures to be totally candid, and Kris is amazing at capturing those moments!

A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 4

The Honeymoon

It felt amazing to just be on our own, turn our phones off, and just be with each other after all the whirlwind of our wedding weekend.

We love to travel and have adventures together, so we went to Mexico, ate tacos for two weeks, experienced an earthquake, and explored three new cities.

A Designer Bride’s Hip Brooklyn Wedding With Tropical Vibes | KM Photo 20

Advice to Other Couples

The best budget saving thing we did was opting to not have a florist. Instead, bought cases of pineapples wholesale through my husband’s restaurant, and went to Caribbean Cuts in the flower district and picked out a bunch of leaves and flowers to make bouquets ourselves. We also rented palms trees from NYC Plant Rental to place around the room, which totally made our jungle vision come to life. Compared to a florist, renting trees is also super inexpensive, and eco-friendly!

I trusted my wedding coordinator, Brita Olsen, to style the loose leaves and pineapples on the tables. Being crafty myself, I made my own bouquet with the rest of the flowers and leaves, and helped all my bridesmaids make theirs while we were all getting our makeup and hair done. It proved to be a fun activity for everyone, and kept me calm as well!