A gorgeous downtown wedding, complete with amazing local vendors, “Morticia Addams goes to Pottery Barn” details, and lots of great food. Read on to see and hear about all of the details of Katelyn and Alexander’s day, with beautiful images by Teresa Bushey!
THE COUPLE: Katelyn (maiden name: Cardone) & Alexander Schnackenberg
Tell us about yourselves!
I (Katelyn) grew up in Glens Falls, NY, attending school in the Glens Falls School District. I am both a SUNY Adirondack and SUNY Oswego Alumni with a BFA in Graphic Design.
Alexander grew up in Glen, NY, attending school at Fonda-Fultonville. He graduated from the University of Albany with a BS in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. He currently works as a software engineer for Jahnel Group Inc., based out of Schenectady.
Mural Pictured by Artists Rob Harriman and Hannah Williams
Where did you meet?
We met online; our first date started at Raul's before ending up at the Bourbon Room. We both bonded over our love for tacos and old fashioneds.
What do you two like to do together?
We both enjoy photography; I have done work professionally, and for Alex it's more of a hobby and excuse to travel.
In the last month and a half before the wedding, we found a local dance instructor (Aaron Coulson at ACEntertainment out of Hudson Falls) and discovered we both really love to dance, so we plan to keep taking lessons and continue dancing as a way to grow together.
We love going to local trivia nights - the Bourbon Room and Mean Max being some of our favorite haunts.
We love to cook together, we are always trying different things in the kitchen and at our home bar. Our friends never leave our house hungry or sober.
Any fun facts about you as a couple?
We love to host and entertain, and we enjoy being the center of making plans. We keep our friends and families in weekly rotations. We are equally social with different skills - Alex is the cook/bartender, and I set the tone with music, entertainment, and refer to myself as the "charcuterie queen."
We both love to travel. Alex has traveled / lived in Africa, Colombia, Panama and Brazil; I traveled to New Zealand for a 4 month stay. With Covid taking up more than half of our relationship, we have not had the opportunity to travel internationally other than Montreal, but that will all change in the coming months.
Florals by Epithet Floral • Mural Pictured by Artists Rob Harriman and Hannah Williams
THE PROPOSAL
Originally Alex had really wanted us to travel to Italy and had envisioned delivering the proposal in Rome. Covid of course dashed those plans, and Alex ended up popping the question on the shores of Lake George. He lured me to a "Christmas card photo shoot," where my aunt was going to use her camera to take some photos of us by the lake. Little did I know that Alex had the ring in his pocket the whole time, and he surprised both me and my aunt. It was because my Aunt Larissa had her camera on her that we were able to catalog the whole thing, and because it was in November, we had the lake all to ourselves.
THE WEDDING: September 17th, 2021
What were your favorite parts (and the most challenging parts) of the planning process?
For Alex, the best part was working with Doc's to throw a really great reception, complete with signature cocktails and endless amounts of food. We both come from families that have strong connections to their roots; I am Italian and Alex is German. We both knew that we did not want the food to stop and went from cocktail hour to dinner to dessert , and ended the night with a "Taco - to- go" bar on the way out.
What ended up being challenging was worrying too much about making friends and loved ones "happy guests" (probably no more than any other couple). Covid put a lot of pressure on the guest count and the size of the venue we chose. We were careful to establish boundaries and hold the wedding we wanted, and everyone who came enjoyed themselves immensely.
Tell us about the venue!
If you have not been yet, The Park Theater is stunning! For myself (Alex humbly admits that I handled all the aesthetics), I wanted a restored building that had all the modern amenities. We are frequent patrons of Doc’s, so it was a quick decision for us. The Art Deco details that gave the room character, the amazing food, and Ethan, the best bartender in downtown Glens Falls, combined with their amazing event coordinator, Megan - it really was the best of everything for us.
What was your vision for the occasion?
When I first initiated contact with our florist, Epithet Floral, I described our wedding as "Morticia Addams goes to Pottery Barn," which is what we got. I envisioned brass candlesticks, brass pedestal centerpieces, black on black table settings, and gold accents wherever they could. My favorite decor item was the giant brass vessels that held enormous centerpieces in the entry and gift table, and the two vintage mirrors I thrifted and my Maid of Honor, Katie used her creativity to create decals that would create signage for the reception. The florals were perfection. We wanted lush, dark greenery, paired with dark reds and ivory zinnias and dahlias, we only asked for no pink. Our florist, Emily Rubin, is a floral goddess. If you are a 518 bride, she is remarkable and so talented, and incredibly easy to work with.
Tell us about all of the details of the day!
I went to nine bridal stores between here and Albany, and I found them all to be lacking variety for a plus size bride. On Instagram, I started following Something Bleu, a boutique bridal store in downtown Saratoga Springs. On their stories, they announced a trunk show for Studio Levana - a designer that I had been following for a while and noticed that it was the designer for most of the dresses on my Pinterest board. When I saw the dress on Something Bleu's story, and they announced that they would have their trunk show the following weekend, I immediately made an appointment. I walked in, looked at my bridal consultant Liza, and said "make me a sexy milk maid, like an Alphonse Mucha painting." I tried on the dress I wanted, and two more, looped back to the first dress and left without it. It took less than an hour for me to realize that I made a mistake not buying it, and I called the store, and came back for the dress - and the rest was history.
For the bridesmaids, I wanted them all to choose a black dress of their choosing. I envisioned a "AHS Coven" moment, and figured that black would be the easiest color to find, in a million different styles, price points, and sizes. I wanted it to be easy for them. The groomsmen and groom all bought their suits from J.Reid Menswear so that they would all match. They were so professional and easy to work with.
Our cake was a small tier cake. A bunch of my family members (myself included) have Celiac Disease, so the cake had to be gluten free. Instead of subjecting everyone to gluten free cake, we chose to do macarons (they are traditionally gluten free by default) from Alchemy Bagel as our wedding dessert. We love supporting them - we purchase our weekly bread from Alchemy every week at the Farmers Market, and almost always purchase the special release macaron boxes they offer from time to time. It was a no-brainer for us to choose them, and we were able to choose six different dessert flavors for our guests to choose from. They were incredible and guests raved about them. We especially loved that everyone could still dance with one macaron in each hand - it kept the party going!
As for unique details, we had my Nana be the Flower Queen (traditionally called the flower girl), and she was escorted down the aisle by my mother, Cathleen. We opted out of doing favors and had a photo booth set up where guests could all take photos home with them. An additional take home was the taco bar on the way out - at that point we had had an open bar for four hours, so the tacos were met with rave reviews.
We had signature cocktails that Ethan, the bartender at Doc's, created especially for us. He came up with what we thought were our perfect drinks; I am a G+T girl, Alex loves an old fashioned, and we both love Sangria. Ethan even went as far as too make us a signature mocktail, to cater to our multiple guests who do not drink alcohol.
Doc’s helped us curate an amazing menu! One of our favorite highlights was how they worked in Alex's German heritage into the cocktail hour. We had soft pretzels with Oktoberfest beer sauce, potato pancakes with beet infused sour cream, and bratwurst stuffed puff pastry with roasted apple butter - his family was astounded at how delicious they were!
We opted to not do the traditional garter toss and did not do a bouquet toss (that thing was expensive!!), and instead chose to do an anniversary dance, where all the married couples come to the dance floor and eventually after the DJ kept calling out numbers of years married, we ended on my Great Aunt Rose and Great Uncle Richie, who have been married 61 years - and the crowd went wild! We also celebrated the birthday and anniversaries of our wedding guests who attended - our way of extending our gratitude for them choosing to spend their special day with us, celebrating our wedding.
What were your favorite moments from the day?
Alex's favorite moment was standing in front of the altar in St. Mary's reciting our vows to one another. Another favorite moment was at the end of a great reception, our DJ had told us the last song he would play would Metallica's "Enter Sandman", and when that came on it was just a huge wave of relief as the anxiety of the previous months just lifted and we realized we really had done it.
One of my favorite moments was doing a first look with my bridesmaids who had not seen my wedding dress yet. Another favorite, of course, was doing my first look with Alex on the roof of The Queensbury Hotel. Alex's reaction was to burst into laughter when he first turned around, which made me immediately start laughing too.
The speeches at the reception are what really resonate with me. The kind words and memories shared on that day are moments and words that I will carry in my mind forever.
How about a honeymoon?
I just started a job in July, so I didn't have a lot of vacation time accrued (although my company was very generous anyway in granting me about a week and a half off). We settled on a mini-moon in the Finger Lakes for a few days. Our timing was perfect because the weather had just started cooling off and we had a great time in the area (we even ran into a worker at a winery who told us they had gone to Lake George for *their* honeymoon!). It also happened to be the first week of harvest at the wineries in the Finger Lakes, and we loved how we could watch how it was all being done, while admiring the stunning views of the Finger Lakes from every winery we went too.
Do you have any advice to share with a future bride and groom?
Throw the wedding you want, stay within your means, and don't stress about what anyone tells you that you have to do. Marriage isn't about the wedding, the wedding is about celebrating you and your decision to enter into a partnership with your love.
...with that said we probably still went a little overboard with some of the details (I am not sorry).
Vendor Credits
We ended up having almost all of our vendors based out of Glens Falls, but we really didn't set out to do things that way! We really found the local options to be superior to what we could find elsewhere, and we're really excited to live in such a great community!
Venue: The Park Theater
Food/Catering: Doc's Restaurant
Event Coordinator: Megan Ryder
Bartender: Ethan McKee
Cake: Alchemy Bagel Company
Gown: Something Bleu Bridal; Designer: Studio Levana
Suits: J. Reid Menswear
Donuts: Birch Bark Eatery
Hair: Angela Tucker - Salon 305
Esthetician: PamperedbyCatelyn- Catelyn McCann- 518 Beauty Room
Photographer: Teresa Bushey
Florals: Epithet Floral
Band : T&T- Tony & Tom
DJ : George Miller - 2GuysDJ
Ring Designer: Northeastern Fine Jewelers
Rentals: Action Photo Booth
Rooms: The Queensbury Hotel
Rehearsal Dinner: Morgan & Company
Ceremony: St. Mary's Catholic Church
Choreographer: ACEntertainment - Aaron Coulson
Murals Pictured by Artists Rob Harriman and Hannah Williams
