It Was a Balloon Bouquet + a Pink Gucci Dress for This Lovely, Low-Key NYC Elopement

Nina + Lucas knew for sure that they wanted to spend their lives together, but the idea of a wedding – big or small – never really filled either of them with excitement. 

Enter: the timelessly romantic, impulsively adventurous City Hall Elopement.

With a trip already on the books to The Big Apple and a new urge to make it “officially official” brewing in them, the idea of a casual yet meaningful courthouse wedding started to make sense to the couple. Friends who happened to be in NYC at the same time would serve as witnesses, and the rest was exciting, urban elopement history.

To capture the mid-week magic of their marriage in Manhattan, Nina + Lucas went with Sylvie Rosokoff. “We had fewer than a dozen pictures of us together after more than five years, so we knew we needed professional help to document the day,” the couple remembers. “The idea of getting wedding photos in a lot of traditional urban locations—the subway, the bodega—really appealed to us, and Sylvie had an incredible portfolio that spoke to this particular vision.”

The wedding date? A quiet Thursday afternoon in August. The attire? Pre-loved designer looks + custom pieces they intend to keep in rotation in their wardrobe forever. And the flowers? Balloons. Balloons!! What could be more brilliant!

“Overall, we wanted to keep the day feeling pretty low key and private — almost like an extended date night,” Nina + Lucas remember, whose home base for the adventure was lower Manhattan’s chic Ludlow Hotel. “We just wanted to spend a day walking around the city and eating at arguably our two favorite restaurants in NYC, Thai Diner and Atoboy. The fact that, in between those two great meals, we got to get married at New York City Office of the City Clerk was just the cherry on top.”

Their charming celebration was just so NYC. Looking at Sylvie’s energy-filled photos you can practically hear the taxicabs honking and the subway rumbling.

“Some days it does feel like New York loves you,” say Nina + Lucas, “and this was one of those days.”

“As we were planning to wed during NYC’s muggiest month, we became a little worried about a possible bouquet quickly wilting over the course of the day,” Nina + Lucas recall. “We are not superstitious, but this did not feel like it would be a good omen for the start of our married life.”

“Nina was toying with the idea to maybe DIY a balloon bouquet, and we mentioned this to Sylvie. Sylvie had previously worked with Koren Harpaz and suggested that he would be a perfect artist to work with (and prevent Nina from entering Squeaky DIY Hell in our hotel room). We shared some color palette and flower shape ideas, and he more than took it from there.”

“Officially Official”

Our Favorite Memory
We had a lot of highlights that Sylvie captured in her photos, but something that jumped out to us that we weren’t necessarily expecting, was just the overall experience of getting married at Manhattan City Clerk’s office. Unlike other wedding venues, at “the DMV of love” you are waiting alongside dozens of other couples excitedly waiting for the same 40-second wedding ceremony. It really gave the day such a feeling of community and shared joy, and we got to see so many amazing wedding day outfits! That same feeling continued as we walked around Canal Street and the Lower East Side, with complete strangers continuously coming up to congratulate us and wish us well. Some days it does feel like New York loves you, and this was one of those days. (Mostly, we think we were the beneficiaries of people’s excitement about the beautiful balloon bouquets that Koren made for us.)

“From the beginning, neither wearing a wedding dress nor wearing white really spoke to me,” Nina shares. “I wanted to wear something that I felt pretty in, but I didn’t have a specific vision for what that meant. I didn’t feel particularly compelled to buy something new, but I made the fatal mistake of browsing The RealReal casually and pretty quickly falling in love with this Gucci dress.”

“I immediately loved the joyful colors, the beautiful embroidery, and the classic wearable shape. It was on deep discount because of irreparable staining, which made it affordable, so I ordered it not necessarily believing it would work out. But it arrived and it fit perfectly (and I honestly still can’t find the stain).”

“As a graduate student who also has the distinction of not having grown since age 13, I don’t buy a lot of new-to-me clothes, and this felt like an opportunity to buy something I would continue to wear and cherish. If you don’t mind signs of wear, you can really find incredible deals from consignment retailers and also reduce waste. So I got to indulge two of my favorite hobbies, saving money and feeling self-righteous.”

We love a sustainable celebration! Explore our collections of eco-friendly wedding planning ideas and eco-conscious wedding dress brands to start thinking green like Nina.

Those incredible maroon suede wedding shoes? Heeled loafers by Prada that Nina also scored on The RealReal!

Btw, we know her pretty pink mini dress look has you daydreaming, so don’t miss our list of the 41 Best Courthouse Wedding Dresses and Epic City Hall Bridal Outfits and our roundup of the 35 Best Blush and Pink Wedding Dresses We Love.

Wedding nail PERFECTION! The otherworldly shimmer of glazed donut nails and chrome nails can be such a great way to add some subtle glitz to a bridal vibe.

Newlyweds Around Town

“As soon as we planned to get married in NYC in August, I began having nightmares of visibly sweating through whatever suit I wore on the day and ruining Sylvie’s great photos,” Lucas says of his summer wedding suit strategy. “So I was thinking about lighter, more breathable fabrics.”

“Since online data privacy is practically nonexistent at this point, within minutes of typing the words ‘linen suit men’ into a search engine, I started getting hyper-targeted advertisements from a bunch of online retailers. Sartoro had amazing reviews on their suits—especially their linen offerings—and a tailored sizing process that worked great for me, so I went with them and they didn’t disappoint.”

We know Nina + Lucas’s iconically New York wedding photos will have some lovebirds looking to hop the next flight to LGA. Take a look through this vibrant pink NYC elopement, this retro-modern New York elopement, and this Wes-Anderson-meets-Gucci NYC elopement shoot to see some of our other favorite NYC elopement inspo!

From sweet city scenes like this one to “I do’s” on snowy mountainsides or active volcanos and, we’re constantly featuring unique + creative elopements from around the globe!

In Love at The Ludlow

Best part about staying at The Ludlow? It’s right around the corner from Katz’s Deli 😋

Just look at this lovely little wedding cake by Yuri Munir!! Have you ever seen anything cuter?!

We honestly cannot get over the whimsy of these balloon florals. “Not only did Koren make two amazing balloon bouquets,” the couple remembers of how this idea came together, “but he did so immediately after an overnight flight from Dubai—he arrived at the airport, immediately drove to pick up the proper palette of colors, whipped together our balloon flowers, and then biked the creations to us at City Hall. Truly above and beyond; he deserves all the (balloon) flowers.”

Take a peek at this breathtaking balloon installation wedding and this colorful, surrealist tent wedding for some other spectacular balloon moments from weddings we love.

Our Advice
— The elopement is kind of like a wedding in reverse: the biggest and most careful phase of planning isn’t in the elopement itself but rather in the rollout to friends and family. That said, once you decide to elope, keep it to yourself and do a proper, old-school elopement. If loved ones know that you’re eloping, and they’re not invited, it’s reasonable that they’d be upset! But if you elope and they’re none the wiser, when you share the news, the excitement will outweigh any FOMO on their part. Also, after a certain point and a certain age, people are secretly a little bit pleased to not have to sacrifice a weekend to go to another wedding. 
— While weddings have certain marks you really have to hit for your guests in order to maintain the guest-host social contract, eloping is truly your day. For us, we thought about the wedding week as a little vacation in NYC that happened to have a day in the middle where we committed to spending the rest of our lives together. So, prioritize what you care about and forget everything else. For us, this meant pictures from the day so that we could share the joy of our wedding with everyone after the fact, the incredible balloon flower that Koren made, and a fun dinner with our witnesses afterwards. 
— One of the enormous benefits of eloping is that you can decide exactly how much planning you want to do. We spent 3 hours planning everything, including finding our photographer. Pro tip is to get yourself a photographer (like Sylvie) who specializes in elopements and knows the ins and outs of the process in your area. One Weird Thing about elopements, compared to weddings, is you actually aren’t inundated with a ton of unwanted advice, or even any advice at all. It’s good to have someone in your camp who can tell you when exactly you need to file papers online and in-person, when and how you should show up on wedding day itself, and how to make sure you’re properly packed and set up for a smooth wedding day.
— Consider eloping on a weekday. There’s something really cool and grounding about having your wedding and then, just minutes later, getting to stand on a busy Manhattan street corner, crushing a hot dog while some workers put up scaffolding. 

Congratulations, Nina + Lucas! Your sweet NYC elopement will have us in a New York state of mind for a while. If you need us, we’ll be practicing our best balloon flower-making skills. 💐 All the very best from GWS!