A Timeless New York City Wedding Officiated by Juju Chang

Steve and Craig met in December of 2017 at their gym on the Upper West Side. Over coffee dates and long walks, the couple’s shared dedication to fitness turned into something deeper. On the morning of October 1, 2023, the couple enjoyed one of those walks along the Hudson River Pier. “Steve said he had a surprise, revealing Stevie Nicks tickets at Madison Square Garden that night,” Craig says. “Then, Steve followed up with the engagement ring from Cartier.”

On October 5, 2024, Steve and Craig hosted their black-tie wedding with 200 guests at Guastavino’s in New York City. Although they considered other venues closer to home, they fell in love with the architecture, garden, and New York vibe that this location offered. “First off, we needed a venue that we felt represented us and we found that in the uniqueness of Guastavino’s,” Steve says. “Getting married under the 59th St. Bridge at Guastavino’s made sense to us.”

They chose a color scheme of rich forest green as a nod to one of the rooms in their apartment. With help from Ness McGovern, their wedding coordinator, Steve and Craig brought their vision of a “dramatic, intimate, and romantic” wedding to life. Read on to see photos by Bo Shim that captured every detail—from the textured table linens to the couple’s initials projected above the stone arch where they said “I do.”

Steve and Craig worked with Custom Invitations by JoAnn to create sleek black and white invitations, ceremony programs, and other day-of paper goods featuring a custom monogram of their first initials. The clean, modern design was the perfect fit for their New York City nuptials.

The grooms got ready together on the morning of their wedding. Both Steve and Craig envisioned a classic look, so they decided to go custom, creating made-for-them tuxedos at Tom Ford. “The team at Tom Ford took great care of us throughout the entire process!” Steve says. “Their made-to-measure is unparalleled.”

Steve accessorized with a pin his sister gifted him with the letters C and S and a butterfly as a nod to their shared love of Mariah Carey. “My watch was Breitling and my cufflinks were Prada,” he adds. He also asked his longtime hairstylist, Frederic Boudet, to help with his hair on the big day.

Craig accessorized with a Rolex watch, Cartier love bracelet, David Yurman box chain necklace, and Tom Ford shoes. “My sisters gave me a pin for the interior of my jacket with a picture of my late brother and me,” Craig says. “It was beautiful and very important to me.” He also had his longtime hairstylist, Jenssa from Groom House, style his hair for the day.

Guests were treated to flutes of Champagne as they arrived at Guastavino’s ahead of the couple’s ceremony. Before the ceremony began, Steve and Craig were whisked away with their photographer, Bo Shim, for portraits with the iconic Queensboro Bridge in the background.

A full-sized free standing tree created with live camellia branches served as the couple’s ceremony backdrop. The venue’s catalan vaulted tile ceilings created a dramatic ambience, and the couple personalized the vast space by projecting their monogram onto the stone arch.

Steve and Craig asked Juju Chang, an anchor at ABC News and former colleague of Steve’s, to officiate the wedding. They each walked down the aisle with their parents at their sides; Steve to an acoustic version of “Always Be My Baby” by Mariah Carey and Craig to “All of Me” by John Legend. “We spent a lot of time developing the ceremony that we felt honored our relationships and all of our friends and family that have contributed to it,” Steve says. “Our friends are like our family and we wanted to incorporate them into our ceremony.”

Although the couple is not Jewish, they chose to include the Jewish tradition of the seven blessings and asked their friends to give them these blessings during the ceremony. They exchanged heartfelt vows and celebrated back down the aisle to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift performed by a violinist and pianist.

Guests made their way down a dramatic spiral staircase, which was lit with clusters of tea candles and decorated with greenery, on their way to cocktail hour. “Being that the venue is all stone and glass, we wanted to use an abundant amount of foliage to offset the industrial textures of the space,” Craig says.

The reception took place in the same space as the ceremony, so the altar was flipped to serve as the bar. “The tree was kept in place to frame this space and serve as a visual focal point for this corner of the room,” Steve explains. The tables were topped with champagne-colored silk linens, black napkins, white menus, and three unique centerpiece styles. Some tables had sleek glass candelabras with winding vines and florals around the base, some had low arrangements with lush floral and foliage, and others held tall camellia branches at varied heights to bring the eye toward the arched ceilings at Guastavino’s, which are some of the tallest in New York City.

“Since ‘black’ does not naturally exist in many flower varieties, we used very dark purple and burgundy against a contrasting white,” Steve says. “Floral arrangements can oftentimes read more ‘feminine,’ especially with soft, fluffy textures, so we chose to use more sculptured flowers instead, like calla lilies, dahlias, astrantia, and anemones.”

Since they went to a Stevie Nicks concert the night they got engaged, Steve and Craig chose “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac as the soundtrack to their first dance. “We entered the reception to that song and had our first dance right then,” Craig says.

Craig and his mom danced to “Sweetest Devotion” by Adlee, and Steve danced with his mom to Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of my Life.” “Having all of our friends, family, and colleagues all together in one place for the evening was truly special,” Steve says. “We felt like celebrities for the night.”

The couple hired Sugar Lane, an energetic band that played everything from Madonna to Lady Gaga and everything in between. “We knew we had put together one helluva party when, at midnight, all our remaining guests were shouting ‘one more!’ when the band finished playing their last song,” Steve says.