A Thunderstorm Was the Perfect Excuse for Two Cocktail Hours at This Chef Couple’s Wedding Upstate

The wedding had no dress code apart from wearing “semi-practical shoes” to account for the grass on the property. “Everyone looked amazing and so completely themselves, which is exactly what we wanted,” the couple shares. However, Sadie Mae and Anthony definitely stepped up their style for their trip down the aisle. Anthony wore a Prada jacket that the couple shopped for together. “We had so much fun trying on dozens of options in the store,” says Sadie. “Nearly every jacket they had in stock was carefully considered by him.” The rest of the outfit—including a custom shirt and pants by J. Mueser, Vaquero boots, and jade cufflinks—was a surprise to the bride. “Anthony has a very strong sense of self and of style, so I knew that he was going to look incredible,” she says. “He loved the process of bringing together his look—timeless, yet wholly him.”

Sadie Mae wanted to wear something “timeless and vintage” for the ceremony. “I combed through the internet for options, but nothing was feeling quite right," explains the bride. “My mom called one day and told me that, on a whim, she had taken my grandma’s dress out of the closet and that she thought it might be perfect.” The dress was from Priscilla of Boston and featured long sleeves, lace, and a bow on the back. ”My grandma was pregnant with my mom when she got married and she is no longer with us, so this felt all the more special," says Sadie Mae. “I brought the dress to friends Sophie and Claire, who run the brand SC103, who were so helpful in advising direction and insisting that I not ‘modernize’ the dress too much. Sophie sent me to her friend Mark Burnett, a tailor and designer based in New York, who carefully mended and altered the dress and also made my veil based on a photo of my grandmother’s.” She also made a visit to Happy Isles Salon for her after-party look: a vintage Dior dress in black and red. “It was the only official bridal appointment I had, as I already knew I was going to wear my grandma’s dress, but wanted the full experience of trying on dresses,” says Sadie Mae. “Finding the after-party dress was happily unexpected.”

In addition to planning for the wedding day, the couple also had a Vietnamese tea ceremony at Sadie Mae’s parents’ home in lieu of a formal dress rehearsal. “This was the first time that my parents were meeting some of Anthony’s relatives, who live in California. He has a really big family and we invited some of our friends, which meant my parents’ small backyard was filled to the brim,” says Sadie Mae. The couple says it was an all-hand-on-deck situation to string lanterns and create a canopy of greens in the space. ”Anthony’s mom went above and beyond, preparing so much food with his grandma and aunts [including] a banh mi charcuterie board, spring rolls, salads, and an entire baby pig that she ordered from a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey,” says the bride. “We definitely took some liberties and did things our own way, like switching out the traditional tea for shots of tequila halfway through.” The couple wanted to keep things traditional with their attire, so they both wore custom ao dai for the ceremony. “For this, we turned to our friend, Tin Nguyen, who is part of the New York-based brand CFGNY,” they share. “We trust his taste so much and knew that he would make us feel fabulous. We went to Mood Fabrics together to pick out material and then sent them off to the tailor that he works with in Saigon to execute his vision. He exceeded our wildest dreams.”

While all their plans were perfectly set for the wedding day, the weather decided to throw a curveball. “The whole morning was a combination of pure bliss and endless excitement, coupled with a looming ‘how we will manage to have 300 people outside in the pouring rain,’” says Sadie Mae. “We wound up borrowing dozens of tents from friends around town and our core group set to work putting them up, while it drizzled steadily the whole time.” There was a moment of clear skies as the couple had their first look outside of Sadie Mae’s home. “From there, most of our careful planning was totally derailed. As the last guests were being shuttled to the farm via a rented school bus, it started to absolutely downpour in a full-blown thunderstorm,” she remembers. “Everybody was soaking wet, huddled under tents or gathered in the barn. My mom and I were inside Joy’s house, which she had graciously allowed us to use as our dressing room. We couldn’t help but hysterically laugh at what we were seeing outside. From that moment on, the stress of it melted away completely—we laughed about it the whole way through.”

“The rain, while definitely dramatic, wound up being incredibly special,” reflects the bride. “It allowed our guests to bond and band together. It also meant that there was ample cocktail time before the ceremony, so the negroni fountain—crafted by Arley Marks—was heavily utilized. It allowed us to forego any chasing of perfection and to instead be completely in the moment.”

In a moment of clear skies, the guests gathered to watch Sadie Mae and Anthony each walk down the aisle of tall wild grass hand-in-hand with their parents. A childhood friend of Anthony’s, Ethan Cohen, arranged a group of musicians together to play “The Swan (‘Carnival of the Animals’)” by Camille Saint-Saëns for the procession. Their friend, artist and writer Justin Chance, officiated the ceremony as they stood in front of a backdrop of hanging lace. “He wrote the most moving, charming, and funny speech. There was not a dry eye in the crowd,” says the couple. “We both wrote our vows the morning of, which was not planned, but meant they were full of pure emotion. They were short and sweet, yet very personal.” After their first kiss, a band consisting of “local Nyack legends” Steven Bernstein and Frankie Dee played “Love and Happiness” by Al Green. “It was the perfect song to capture the joy in the air," they share. "As we reached the top of the aisle, a van pulled into the parking lot, and out came a procession of dragon dancers. This was a complete surprise orchestrated by Anthony’s mom!”

The newlyweds changed into their ao dai for their grand entrance into the reception. “We walked in between the rows of tables as guests were seated and were able to share so many hugs, high fives, and cheers along the way,” they recall. Unsurprisingly, the chefs put a lot of thought into the reception menu. “Dinner included rotisserie chickens from one our favorite local restaurants El Rey de Pollo, the most insanely delicious vegetable sides by our friend, the talented Italian chef Gerard Kennedy, and French fries, which we had perhaps foolishly spent hours cutting and prepping ourselves,” says Sadie Mae. “This was the only cooking I allowed us to do!” The evening continued with speeches, hugs, and first dances. “Afterwards, the DJ Kat Wang, got everyone to the dance floor and a proper dance party ensued.”

The party continued at the ballroom of the Westgate Motel—“a local fixture”—where most guests were staying. “The fact that people knew they could stumble back to their rooms so easily meant that everyone really let loose,” says Sadie Mae. “There was a heavily utilized cash bar and a lineup of friends who DJed. When they weren’t dancing, people would sneak outside for a cigarette and a beer in the parking lot, looking at the I-87 in front of them. It felt like we were all on a big vacation together. We danced hard until three o’clock in the morning.”

Looking back on the day, Sadie Mae and Anthony say they wouldn’t change a thing. “Even though the rain meant that some things got lost in the shuffle, it really did feel like the way it was meant to be,” the couple says.