You already know + love Julie Mollo’s work—remember the sweet + fruity retro looks that Katy Perry wore during the early days of her rise to pop stardom? Those were Julie!!
And now, we get a peek into what this fashion designer bride dreamed up for her own wedding day! Her dress? Her clutch? Her bouquet? All Julie creations.
“I had SO MUCH FUN!” says Julie of the creative parts of the wedding planning process. “Even though we did not want a big wedding, I’ve had many details of the day in my mind for years and was so happy to see it come to life! A lot of these design details were documented on my Instagram and TikTok and I loved being able to share the process with my audience.”
Julie and groom Anthony made an absolutely dreamy New York day of their intimate City Hall celebration in The Big Apple.
“We chose to have a very NYC wedding day,” Julie + Anthony say, “getting married at City Hall downtown and walking up to Freemans, a restaurant we love on the lower east side.”
Pizza. Cocktails. Strolling though their favorite neighborhoods. The whole day was everything a meaningful + exciting City Hall wedding should be. The couple even paid tribute to Julie’s late father when choosing their wedding date, tying the knot on the same day as Julie’s parents’ anniversary.
And these photos from Matthew Salacuse captured the joyful vibes + flawlessly funky wedding style SO perfectly.
Out And About In The City
“We have a clutch in our line called The Gwen Clutch (a clutch inspired by and gifted to my queen, Gwen Stefani),” says Julie of the bridal purse she created for herself. “It’s a customizable clutch with 3 letter old english letters of your choice – and I wanted my Gwen clutch to be bold and black and white and read MRS for our wedding day and match the XOXO old english hemline I had on my black and white dress!”
“When we got engaged, Anthony proposed with a stunning family heirloom ring, but the plan all along was to design our own,” Julie says of her journey to this gorgeous unique engagement ring. “I had in mind a big giant sparkly heart made of diamonds from all over my family and a wedding band that was a very simple arrow that slid right under the heart.”
“I contacted my friend Andi of Bright Bleu, who designs custom engagement rings, and brought her my ideas along with all sorts of family heirlooms that I had inherited over the years from my family. The collection included cuts off of a tennis bracelet, a pair of earrings, and 4 different rings from all over my family – great aunts, grandmothers and great grandmothers – it also included my late father’s wedding band- I wanted my engagement ring to be made out of that.”
“Andi disassembled the jewels and assembled an incredible team to design this super special ring. After approving CADs and learning so much about the jewelry industry, my rings were born. I truly wanted all materials in this new piece to already exist! It’s Perfect!”
We’re obsessed with Julie’s heart-shaped bouquet and LOVE the story of how she created it herself: “When I drew my wedding dress, I drew myself holding a heart shaped bouquet and thought- hmm, maybe I can make this happen.”
“After talking it out with 2 very crafty friends, a cage was made out of chicken wire and spray painted green. We fed fresh Trader Joes flowers through the cage to find the perfect angle and kept stuffing it to fill with fresh and felt flowers (Kasia from The Adventure Dept made me felt bleeding hearts, my favorite flower) It came out better (and heavier!) than I ever could have imagined!”
River Salon absolutely nailed it with Julie’s retro half-up half-down hairstyle. And the bold red lip bridal makeup by Sarah Loken? Perfection. The whole look pairs so beautifully with those black cat-eye bridal sunglasses!
Anthony brought so much sophisticated color with this olive green wedding suit from Indochino!
Check out How to Make Your Courthouse Wedding or Civil Ceremony Special if a small + special gathering like Julie + Anthony’s is speaking to you.
“My aesthetic has always been all about hearts and arrows, and we used a lot of that in our design details,” Julie says. “Instead of a ring, Anthony opted for a wedding ring tattoo from Unscripted Ink on his ring finger of my heart and arrow logo.”
Now for the story of this Julie’s stunning high low wedding dress (which she paired with the cutest black bow-adorned wedding heels by Jessica Simpson.)
“I am a fashion designer by trade and began my business designing and creating for pop stars, so you can imagine that my wedding dress design lived rent free in my brain for years, way before I met Anthony,” says Julie.
“The main design detail of my wedding dress – the XOXO old English hemline- came to me in a dream over a decade ago. The bodice underwent a couple of changes as I was designing, creating & fitting but the overall design was a dream come true.”
“I opted for a white cotton sateen with a high-low skirt lined with super shiny black satin on the inside. Cotton sateen is my favorite material to work with- easy to sew, easy to wear and super comfortable and breathable with a little bit of stretch. Comfort and fit was paramount, I did not want to be fidgeting or fussing with my dress during our wedding day, I wanted to enjoy our day in a dress I loved!”
Our Favorite Memory
From the bride: "For me, Julie, it was seeing Anthony for the first time and actually looking into his eyes while we were getting married.
We also loved taking photos and had so much fun walking around our city looking our absolute best. Anthony was shocked by how much fun he had taking photos. We had a very NYC photoshoot after we got married with a collaborator of Anthony's and a photographer we respect so much, Matthew Salacuse. He really captured the essence of the day and captured us as a couple in our city. We had so much fun walking through Chinatown and up the bowery with our closest friends in tow and really had a blast being US."
“I was so inspired this year and had so much fun creating all of the things I’ve always wanted to make,” Julie says. “I felt such joy in creating for such a specifically celebratory occasion and want to lean into that much more in my business.”
“I am so excited to launch a new collection specific to weddings and go back to my fashion design roots. Even though I’ve always loved love and been so inspired by the idea of love, meeting and marrying the love of my life and being in the actual moment was better than I ever could have imagined!”
Julie recently launched her wedding collection, Arrow by Julie Mollo, and she can’t wait to design for your wedding, too!
An Interactive Guest Book
“I knew we wanted a unique guest book and I had the idea to make us into custom paper dolls, so I drew Anthony & I in our underwear and our dog Emma and designed a sheet of clear vinyl stickers with outfits for each of us to wear,” Julie remembers. “I scaled the stickers to my drawings and ordered our guest book so that everyone who signed it could write us a message and dress us in whatever they wanted. It was so fun to see who kept us classy and well-dressed and who dressed us in dog collars.”
“This was so fun and interactive for everyone who attended our parties and our guests loved it – it’s a book that will sit on our coffee table forever and I’m so glad I did it. I am so excited to launch this as a future product and want to do this for more than myself – it’s an idea that can be produced into a single sheet for a bridal shower or bachelorette, or a guest book, favor or more! I’m so excited to bring this idea to life with another couple!”
Only In NYC
Who needs wedding cake when you can have a slice of wedding pie (…PIZZA pie that is!). Such a quintessentially NYC wedding snack!
Our Advice
HAVE FUN! DO YOU! You're doing city hall because you don't want the big giant thing - grab your closest people and enjoy whatever you do to celebrate- for us, because our families live in different states, we had 2 big engagement parties that acted as our receptions months before our wedding day - one in Massachusetts in late April and one in New Jersey in June. We knew we wanted to celebrate with and see all of our people this year but we also knew we didn't want a whole to-do for our actual day. We allowed each of our families to throw the party they wanted and then our wedding day was for us with our 20 closest people!
“I have always loved photos of brides in motorcycle jackets and I wanted to incorporate Anthony’s tattoo, and my logo, on the back of the jacket,” Julie says of her edgy personalized leather bridal jacket look. “The heart and arrow on the back said everything it needed to- the day was all about love.”
Congratulations, Julie + Anthony, on your super creative City Hall wedding day! 💘 All of us at GWS wish you nothing but the best!
Wedding Vendors
Photography: Matthew Salacuse // Venue: Freemans // Event Design: Julie Mollo // Wedding Planner: Julie Mollo // Florals: Julie Mollo // Wedding Dress: Julie Mollo // Dress Boutique: Julie Mollo // Wedding Suit: indochino custom // Hairpiece: moms veil tulle + new bow // Bride's Shoes: Jessica Simpson // Bride's Ring: Bright Bleu // Hair Stylist: L Miller // Makeup Artist: Sarah Loken // Groom's Ring: Tattoo by Saint // Handmade Details: Julie Mollo // ring designer/collaborator: NETHERCOTT // felt flowers: The Adventure Dept.
