Rustic beach meets 80s galore in this totally awesome wedding celebration. When Emma came to us with her mother’s 1980s wedding dress, we knew it was destined for a stunning transformation. The goal? To blend the fun voluminousness of the original gown with the bride’s more modern style. Keep reading to see how Nathalie preserved the integrity of the gown while repurposing it to create Emma’s dream party dress!

The NK Experience

Choosing NK Bride

When Emma decided to reconstruct her mom’s wedding dress, she knew it required someone extraordinary. Seeking advice from friends, Emma put a poll on her Instagram and received a flood of expert tailor recommendations. After browsing websites and making calls, it was Emma’s mom who knew NK Bride was the perfect fit!

“Nathalie has the most amazing vibes,” her mom told Emma. “I immediately trusted her.”

The three women (and Arthur!) met in person at our Williamsburg studio, and Emma was hooked. “I just fell in love with the space, the story, and the energy of the two of them,” Emma shared. Our studio was supposed to be just one stop of many but ended up being the first and only!

The Vintage Dress

Emma’s mom got married in 1988 in Southern California, wearing a handcrafted gown. “Like many little girls, I grew up being obsessed with my parents' wedding album and have spent so much time in my life looking over it,” Emma reminisced. “It was even more meaningful knowing my mom had designed the dress herself!”

When it came to her own wedding, Emma knew the style of her mom’s gown wasn’t what she envisioned for her ceremony. But as a rad reception party dress? Definitely! “I got to think of my wedding as a two-act situation,” she explained. “We got to totally change up the vibe for the party.” It was an homage to her mom’s creativity, with her own style shining through.

The Process

As for inspiration, Emma simply wanted to embrace some bold, dramatic aspects of the vintage dress while modernizing it. “It was like ‘fairy-princessing’ it—taking it away from this overwhelming 80s gown into something that felt more like me.” One detail (which happens to be our favorite) simply couldn’t be parted with—the back. “I love pearls!” Emma shared with us. From constantly decorating with them to including one in her engagement ring, “It felt full-circle,” she explained.

The cascading pearls on the hemline were more of a challenge, but our bride appreciated Nathalie’s initiative to keep them. “I felt like she was really taking care to preserve pieces that would have been easier to discard,” Emma mentioned. After recutting the dress, Nathalie resewed each pearl strand to the new hemline by hand. Shortcuts? We don’t know her.

Working With Nathalie

Emma’s experience at NK Bride was nothing short of exceptional, primarily thanks to her work with Nathalie. “I was always so excited to see her, not only for the care she was giving the garments themselves, but it just felt like I'd known her forever.” As more of a last-minute wedding planner, Emma was a bit crunched for time, but Nathalie was happy to accommodate. “She was so patient and supportive of whatever my process was,” Emma shared.

Our bride even returned to the studio after her wedding to get her dress cleaned and was pleased that Nathalie was excited to hear all about her special day. “I'm sure she has a million clients, but she was really invested in what was going on with me,” Emma recalled. “Plus, she’s just so fun! It felt like a girls’ night out with her.” Sounds like our Nathalie!

The Reveal

Every visit to our studio was a dress reveal in and of itself. “I thought, ‘We could stop here—it’s already so beautiful,’” Emma shared. But Nathalie kept refining the design until it perfectly matched the bride’s vision.

When the look was complete, Emma got to try it on for her mom, who looked at her through teary eyes. She took immense pride in designing her dress, so seeing her daughter continue that tradition was a treat. “She had no qualms about cutting it up,” Emma told us. “She realized, ‘It's either going to sit in a box for the rest of its life, or we can imbue it with new meaning by having you [Emma] wear it again.’” Who says two queens can’t share a gown?

The Veil

Emma never imagined herself wearing a veil, but all that changed with one visit to our studio. While trying on her ceremony dress, which Nathalie was altering, our designer placed one of our Italian lace veils on her for the full experience, and there was no going back. “I immediately needed this veil,” Emma said. “Nathalie saw what I would have never been able to see.” Emma even took it a step further, taking Nathalie’s advice to pick a veil with a blusher. “I ended up loving it,” she said. “In the end, piling on the drama felt so right.”

Now, looking back on her big day, “I can't imagine not having a veil. My dress looks so sad without it.” Our accessory designer Ash created Emma’s veil to fit perfectly by customizing the blusher to Emma’s waist and matching the train of the veil with train of her wedding gown.

The accessory proved to be a worthwhile investment, too. “I got married on the beach, and I have photos of me running in the wind with it,” she said. “It held up beautifully—no tears, no snags, and it’s not even dirty.”

Future Heirloom Pieces

It looks like keeping the dress in the family will continue! Emma expressed how meaningful it is to carry on her mother’s legacy while also making her wedding dress uniquely her own. “I don’t need my future daughter to replicate my look exactly,” she noted. “While it's beautiful to pay homage to past women in your family, you want to look and feel your best and like yourself on your wedding day.”

She gets to start a new tradition too! “We don't have a veil in my family. So, I get to add to the lineage, and hopefully, my daughter, sister, or somebody will want to wear it as well.”

Finding the One

Emma met her now husband, David, on Hinge during COVID. “The first handful of our dates were just going on walks in masks. Pretty unromantic and sad,” she laughed. Though uneventful, this time in their lives allowed the pair to really get to know each other. “The fact that we had so few additional distractions made it clear that we really just got along and could hang out for a long time with nothing to do,” Emma concluded.

After only six months of living together, the couple was engaged—a testament to the ease of their relationship. “The comfort that we were able to cultivate with each other as life got stressful was a really grounding force,” she stated. “That’s what I wanted for my marriage. For it to be a site of peace, not drama.”

The Proposal

David surprised Emma with his proposal on a 4th of July staycation at the Rockaway Hotel right by the shore. “The beach has always been a central part of our relationship. We go any chance we get,” she informed us. Excited to check out the grounds, the two went for a stroll on the boardwalk, and when she turned around, David was down on one knee! Emma recalled all of the passersby clapping and cheering. “It was really, really sweet.” They ended the magical night with tropical drinks at their favorite bar.

As for the pearl ring, David had free rein. “I had no hand in picking it out or anything, so it all felt very romantic,” Emma said. Seeing as they’re both creative people, she trusted him to make the perfect choice—and he did. Go, David!

The Wedding Theme

After short and sweet City Hall nuptials in 2023, Emma and David were in the perfect headspace for a larger celebration in 2024. Wanting to get married in the home they love—aka New York—the couple searched far and wide for the perfect venue, but “nothing felt like us,” Emma told us—except for one place: their staycation oasis, The Rockaway Hotel. “It was so meaningful to us for our family to see this place that we loved, that we were like, ‘Let's just do it all again!’”

The theme? “All beach everything!” Decorated with tons of shells, wispy grasses, and dried flowers, Emma and David created a summer beach party in October. Their archway made of driftwood and fairy lights added a rustic and whimsical touch as well.

The Ceremony

The ceremony took place on the same rooftop patio where the couple had dinner after getting engaged. Creams, pinks, and oranges were the central colors, with a wildflower bouquet keeping with the ocean vibes while giving a slight nod to fall.

Officiating the wedding was Emma’s most influential old professor. “It was amazing to have an officiant who speaks for their job and could really hold it down. That was really special for me,” she remembered. The pair decided that the entire ceremony would consist of their families sharing whatever was important to them. For Emma’s sister, that meant doing a thoughtful reading from The Little Prince. David’s mother read an uplifting Christian blessing. As for David’s dad, a talented musician, he brought his guitar and led a sing-along to a song from Emma’s favorite movie—The Sound of Music. Culminating with Emma and David reciting the vows they wrote, the ceremony was a beautiful ode to family bonds.

The Reception

In lieu of a sit-down affair, the newlyweds opted for a cocktail and dinner reception consisting of many different food stations. Everyone was free to eat, roam, and mingle for two hours before dispersing to freshen up before the party.

When it was time for the guests to reconvene, they all proceeded down the boardwalk together and arrived at Connolly’s bar to await the guests of honor. Emma and David entered in style with a choreographed dance, surprising everyone. “Now I was in my mom's dress. It was a great way to signal that we were in a new zone—a new chapter of the night,” Emma explained. “We went full 80s! Everything was red roses, disco balls, pearls, and gold and silver shimmery—that 80s glam tacky vibe,” she laughed.

Everybody had a blast dancing the night away while sipping on frozen piña coladas, another revisit to David’s proposal. “It was not really planned that way, but it's wild in retrospect to see that we actually replicated our engagement at our wedding.”

The Cake

“We had this huge, white ornate, very 80s cake with a bride and groom topper, and everyone just loved it. It looked like the emoji!” It was a classic vanilla cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. Sounds totally tubular!

Memorable Moments

In all the excitement, two standout moments from the big day come to Emma’s mind. The first was during the ceremony, just before sunset, when the gorgeous peachy colors of golden hour glistened on the horizon. “This was the mental picture that I was hoping would all come together. This moment ensconced in warm light over the water, surrounded by family and friends. It felt like a picture of Heaven.” The definition of picture-perfect.

The second unforgettable moment happened during the dance party at the bar, seeing everyone have the time of their lives. Emma was pleasantly surprised by how present she was, enjoying the celebration and surrendering control rather than worrying about logistics. “I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe everybody here is someone who loves us.’ It was what you always want a night out to feel like, and it was actually happening.”

At first, the couple debated whether or not they even wanted to have this big wedding since they already had the legal one. Was it worth asking everyone to celebrate again? “I can't even imagine not having done it and saying ‘yes’ at every point”—to the dress, the veil, and more. “Doing the things we knew we really wanted was worth it. I’m so glad we did it.” And we’re so glad that we could be a part of it!