A Stunning Sunset Ceremony on a Brooklyn Rooftop

As a digital producer with a background in design and fine art, Willa Gross is an expert at using visuals to set a mood and tell a story. So when it came time to plan her wedding to Beattie Carothers—a high-end metal fabricator she met on Tinder in 2014—the Brooklyn native knew just how to get started. She created the “Willa and Beattie Wedding Style Companion,” an intricately-detailed 19-page document specifying—in both words and pictures—everything from the desired vibe (“playful, modernist, authentic”) to the color scheme (pale neutrals accented with “poppy red...slightly ‘dirty’ yellows and mossy green”), to the event’s signature font (a stylishly retro typeface called Lydian). Once the couple enlisted the help of wedding planner Jove Meyer of Jove Meyer Events, Willa simply had to hit send and her vision was well on its way to becoming a reality. “I emailed it to Jove, and he said, ‘You have no idea how helpful this is!’” Willa says of her guidebook. “He shared it with all the vendors so we could be on the same page. I think it really made a big difference.”

Judging by the big day itself, she’s on to something. The nuptials, which took place in Brooklyn this past October, were, indeed, playful, modern, and authentic—not to mention unique and pretty enough to set off a major Pinterest frenzy. Keep reading for all the details of their Brooklyn rooftop ceremony and reception, as planned and designed by Jove Meyer and photographed by Forged in the North!

The bride wore a white, 3-D lace Naeem Khan column dress. "I loved the texture of the fabric, how minimal yet unexpected it was," she explains. Willa paired her stunning gown with shoes by Acne Studios, jewelry by Quarry, and a bouquet of wild cornflowers tied in a dusty blue ribbon. Her nails were painted in that "dirty yellow" she outlined in her original design scheme.

The couple did a first look on a nearby rooftop, followed by photos around the neighborhood, before the night's festivities got started.

The groom looked equally as stylish as the bride in a custom J. Mueser Bespoke suit. He designed his tie to match the overall color scheme with a dusty blue background and tiny mustard yellow polka dots on top.

Willa's five bridesmaids dressed in cream-colored jumpsuits by Just Female and marigold-hued Loeffler Randall shoes. “Finding something that all of them agreed to wear was possibly the hardest part of the whole wedding,” Willa says with a laugh “We went through so many options and complaints and buying and returning!”

Willa and Beattie signed their ketubah as their family members and friends served as witnesses.

The ceremony scene was set with dried palm fronds and more orange accents. The mustard yellow yarmulkes were personalized with the couple's names and wedding date.

The groom's nephew, William, acted as their ring bearer. He did an excellent job, perhaps because he knew that the rabbi was waiting at the end of the aisle with a lollipop (in exchange for the rings, of course).

The couple said their “I dos” at sunset on a Brooklyn rooftop, just a few doors down from the bowling alley where they had their first date. The chuppah with strung with chrysanthemum flowers in yellow, orange, pale pink, and white.

Willa and Beattie exchanged their vows—“we wrote them the night before,” she admits—and received the traditional seven blessings from Gross’s longtime family rabbi, Rachel Timoner.

Time to break the glass, kiss, and celebrate!

The couple customized their ceremony playlist with music by their favorite bands. The wedding walked to “I Found a Reason” by the Velvet Underground, while Willa entered to “Life's A Gas” by T. Rex.

After, everyone sipped Negronis and Manhattans (color-scheme appropriate, natch) with their 150 guests before heading downstairs for a family-style dinner. (They found their seats on a seating chart printed with the couple's signature font.)

While just about every aspect of the night was gorgeously camera-ready—florist Doan Ly hand-painted leaves and fruit for the dinner tables, to stunning effect; and the food, catered by Poppy’s, was as beautiful as it was delicious. Each table was also topped with several bowls of half-sour pickles, a tribute to the bride’s 93-year-old grandmother. “The one thing she remembers from her own wedding is that she wanted pickles and there weren’t any,” she says. “So we made sure to have them for her—and they were actually delicious.”

All of the night's dances were special, as they couple selected songs such as "Baby I Love You” by the Ramones and “Around the Town” by Gino Washington.

Toasts took place throughout dinner—with the most memorable being the best man's speech, which he made up on the spot. "It went surprisingly well," says the bride.

After dinner, Willa changed into a Rachel Comey skit and Topshop top for a night of dancing.

Some of Willa and Beattie’s favorite images of the evening turned out to be those captured by the old-school photo booth that they rented for the evening. “Our planner found the one place that still rents actual film photo booths, and it really blew me away,” she says. “Everyone got to keep their photo strips but we had someone scan them all first so we could have the images, too. Everybody looks amazing and one of my favorite photos of Beattie and I was the one from the booth.” Another winning hire: an ice cream truck, which served up scoops in lieu of a wedding cake. The dessert plan, says the bride, was courtesy of the groom—“Beattie pretty much handled the food and he loves ice cream”—but, probably not coincidentally, it was also right in line with her master plan. “I’m not sure why,” she says, “but a wedding cake just wasn’t part of my vision.”