Jason & Morgan at The Grove

For Morgan and Jason, the best part of their glamorous wedding at The Grove was having their two adorable daughters as the flower girls.

Their Story

“Jason and I had both moved to Manhattan in 2012, and we met at a bar called Bounce,” says Morgan. “We ended up having a big group of friends and we would all go out in NYC together.  I worked in finance, and after a year, my boss was going to take myself and my co-workers on a work trip to Nantucket. I decided to bring Jason as my plus one, since we were good friends. On our trip, no one believed us that we were not dating (which was the truth). But soon after that trip, we started dating. Later on, Jason had told me that he never wanted to date any one again when he met me.”

“We lived in multiple apartments together in NYC. Jason works at HSBC where he does residential mortgages, and I worked in finance at multiple investment banks, while having a fashion and lifestyle blog as well. My blog name on Instagram is @fashionfriesx.”

Their  Proposal & Engagement

“After almost four years of dating, and countless trips to the Bahamas (our favorite vacation spot), I was patiently waiting for Jay to propose,” says Morgan. “I never thought it was going to happen, and didn’t know what I was going to do. One night before we were leaving for a vacation to the Bahamas, I came home crying to my mom saying that Jason was never going to propose and that I didn’t want to go on vacation again only to be let down that he wasn’t going to propose. My mom convinced me to still go on vacation and said that we would talk about everything once we got back from the Bahamas. We left for vacation the next morning, and sure enough, during dinner at The Atlantis, Jason proposed. I have never been more shocked in my life –  I had absolutely no idea that was going to happen and I think the fact that I was completely caught off guard made it even better. I called my mom hysterically crying! She had no idea and almost fainted. We then realized that Jay had told my dad, but made him promise that he wouldn’t tell my mom, since Jason knew that my mom would have told me and would have not been able to keep the secret!”

“After getting engaged in December 2018, we quickly planned to have our wedding at The Grove in Cedar Grove and picked our date—Saturday, April 18, 2020. Little did we know that soon after we received all of the RSVPs back for our wedding and had 222 guests coming, Covid-19 would happen. We had to make the hard decision of postponing our wedding (we were one of the first couples that were in this situation). We knew that health was way more important than anything else, so we notified our guests, and since we had no idea what was about to happen, we picked a new date in July 2020. A few days after, that didn’t sit well with us, so we decided to change our date again, further out this time, to January 2021. We legally got married in August 2020 and when we found out I was pregnant we postponed our wedding again. This time we picked March 2022 thinking that would be more than enough time, and we would have our one-year-old daughter at our wedding which would be so special! I re-planned everything, sent out invitations again, but then, a new variant of Covid-19 came out just during the time my RSVPs were due back. My parents didn’t feel comfortable having the wedding, so we postponed again. We picked one final wedding date (our fourth one)—August 19, 2023. I also got pregnant again in 2022, and had another daughter, which meant I had but two adorable flower girls at my wedding.”

“Also, sadly, a week before Covid-19 had started, Jason’s mom, Deborah, had passed away after battling cancer. We were so devastated that this had happened just a month before our original wedding. Thankfully, Deborah was able to be at my bridal shower in February 2020 which meant a lot to Jason.”

Their Grove Wedding

“I could not have asked for a better wedding and venue,” says Morgan. “The Grove was absolutely amazing. They were so understanding of my date changes, and extremely accommodating.”

“My day was so amazing! We started out getting ready at 8am at The Grove. I love that The Grove allowed us to get ready at the venue, which made everything so much easier. My family and bridesmaids all got our hair and makeup done, took tons of great pictures by our amazing photographer Mikey Romeo, and then Jason and I had our first look on the stairs at The Grove. My bridesmaids kept their original bridesmaid dresses which were black and from Lulus. I loved them so much because they were dresses that I knew my bridesmaids could get good use out of and wear again and they were $100. My mom wore a stunning black dress as well from Castle Couture.”

“My chuppa and flowers were done by Marquis Florals by Kim and they were the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen! I originally had picked white and blush flowers, but when I met with Kim right before my actual wedding date, I decided to go with all white flowers. They were so full and beautiful and the chuppa had gorgeous floating flowers and was just stunning.”

“My band was Bobby Attiko from Hank Lane. He is the best band, and all of my wedding dates were always picked around him, because his band and him have so much energy, and there really is no other band like them. Everyone told me that it was the best band that they had ever seen, and no one wanted my wedding to end. My dad and I danced to ‘My Wish’ by Rascal Flatts. Jay did a dance with our oldest daughter, Taytum, who is two years old, but I ended up joining their dance because she wanted us all to be together. Our wedding favors were a candy box that said ‘Love is Sweet’ and they were filled with champagne bubble gels.”

“My hair was done by Senada, and her sister, Drita, did my makeup. I loved the way both of them did my hair and makeup. I told them I wanted to look classy, elegant, with some Hollywood glam waves in my hair, but I also wanted everything to look natural and not too much.”

Why The Grove?

“I chose my venue because I always listen to my mom, and my mom said this was the only place I was allowed to get married—ha!,” says Morgan. “Seriously though, I am so glad that I listened to her. We chose The Grove because it was beautiful, elegant, classy and  everyone was wonderful to work with especially Jason from The Grove, and most importantly, they give you so much food from cocktail hour to the Viennese table. I also love that they only allow one wedding per day, and you really feel like you are treated like a queen that day. You also have the option to get married outside or inside and you can even decide that day depending on the weather. The grounds are beautiful for pictures, and there is a historic house that is beautiful.”

The Menu

“Our cocktail hour had every food you can think of,” says Morgan, “including Tomahawk steaks, sushi, an antipasto table, a wine and cheese station, a pasta station, a risotto station, a dim sum bar, a glazed peking duck bar, a cuban mojito station, a meat carving station, a slider and float bar, a fish carving station, a day boat catch, a Mediterranean display, grilled artisan pizza, a tequila bar with top shelf tequila, a comfort food station, a Bollywood station, a potato martini bar, a Southern Italian village station, a Valencia paella bar, a Southern barbecue bar, the public house station, a Caribbean station, a poke station and more.”

“Our first course was burrata and heirloom tomato and basil oil and petit arugula. Our main course was a choice of filet mignon, Boston baked day boat cod, or lemon and rosemary grilled break of chicken, along with a vegetarian entree. The Viennese table included: European and Mediterranean pastries, a Belgian waffle station, bananas foster, dessert grilled cheese, a gelato and milkshake station, seasonal crepe station, a chocolate fountain, a fresh donut station, butler passed desserts and more. Our cake was vanilla, red velvet and cannoli flavored.”

Bridal Style

“Every single person described my gown the same exact way—they said it was so me,” says Morgan. “I have always loved a lot of glitz and I always wear things that make me stand out, and that is exactly what my Pnina Tornai dress from Kleinfelds was. When I saw it, I just knew it was the one. I have never seen a more stunning dress in my life. My mom said she knew it was the one as well the second she saw it. It had glitz and glam but was elegant at the same time!  My dress had genuine Swarovski crystals on it, which made me feel like a million dollars.

Favorite Moment

“My favorite moment was having my two daughters, Taytum (2) and Jordyn (4 months) be a part of my special day,” says Morgan. “Just seeing them in their little robes (that they refused to keep on for more than 1 minute), and in their matching flower girl dresses (which only lasted a short time as well), just made me so happy! The dance that Jason, myself, and our older daughter did, to the song ‘Memories’ by Maroon 5, in honor of Jason’s late mom, was very special.”

Favorite Detail

“The maitre d from The Grove is the one detail I couldn’t live without,” says Morgan. “I felt like I was in The Devil Wears Prada because she literally did every thing for me from 8am in the morning, until 1am. She made sure I had everything I needed, helped me with everything from putting my shoes on to making sure I was where I needed to be at all times. She was absolutely amazing. It’s so important to have someone like that with you all day.”

Advice

“Make sure your flower girl naps so she isn’t cranky when she walks down the aisle,” says Morgan. “Don’t stress out. Everything just always comes together at the end. Make sure to take pictures earlier so you can enjoy some of cocktail hour. Have your makeup person come back for a touch up, it really helps.”

Honeymoon

“We were supposed to go to Greece back in 2020 after the original wedding, but that never happened,” says Morgan. “We hope to take that trip some day.”