A Magical Pink Wedding During a Blue Moon in Westhampton, New York

When Taylor Moskowitz first met Vlad Popik at an apartment party in New York City, she wasn’t quite herself. “I was wearing wearing a blonde bob from a wig party I was at earlier that day,” she remembers with a laugh. But, she took a risk and approached Vlad anyway. “I saw him from across the room—he was tall, handsome with big blue eyes—and I went right up to him to introduce myself. Even with the blonde bob he was intrigued!” She played hard to get for a few months before they started officially dating. 

Three years later, the duo took a trip to Napa Valley for Taylor’s 27th birthday. “Vlad had booked a wine tour and tasting at Newton Vineyard, which is known for its cascading hills, stunning landscaping, and French-style juniper trees,” Taylor remembers. “When we arrived at the vineyard, we were escorted to the edge of a mountaintop, where Vlad had coordinated to have a wine bottle nestled in the bushes. He reached down and pulled out the bottle. Only when I read the text engraved on the bottle did I realize what was happening. The bottle was etched with ‘Taylor, will you marry me?’” 

The proposal was straight out of a fairytale—so the bar was set high for their wedding. It wasn’t long before they found the perfect venue to set the scene: Taylor’s parent’s home in Westhampton, New York. “My parents moved to this home shortly after we got engaged, and from the first moment we saw the house, we knew we wanted to get married there,” the bride remembers. “The open water views are unbeatable, and we love that we can always come back to the place we got married.”

Both bride and groom are attorneys by day, but initially connected over a passion for the arts. “I wanted to express our creativity and artistic vision with design,” Taylor says of wedding planning. “I love getting into the nitty gritty and picking out personal elements. I am naturally a very creative, design-oriented person, so this was definitely within my wheelhouse.” She envisioned an angelic white ceremony to start, followed by a bright and bold reception for contrast. “I wanted to break up the different spaces with design elements to really surprise our guests as they flowed through the night.” 

And, what a night it was. The magical evening avoided a hurricane forecast and even coincided with a blue moon. Read on to see all the gorgeous details of their August 21, 2021 wedding, planned by Sara Landon Events and photographed by Amber Gress Photography.

Taylor knew from the very start what she was looking for. “I went to one single dress appointment,” she says. “Before the appointment, I had found four or five dresses that I liked, and only one dress I absolutely loved.” She saved the photos to her phone and only tried on one other dress before slipping into the Tony Ward mermaid style she had saved as a “love.”

“We bought it on the spot. I’m glad I went with my gut and committed to that dress in that first appointment,” she says. “Dress shopping can become a rabbit hole; there are so many stunning dresses out there that it can become overwhelming. I say when you find one you love, go for it! She made it her own by customizing the train to become detachable, and pairing it with a small bouquet of pink and cream roses to let the gown really shine. 

“Skincare is my thing, so when it came to wedding prep, I basically did it all,” Taylor says. “Microneedling treatments with PRP, chemical peels, aquagold treatments, facials, and an intense skincare regimen gave me the perfect skin for my wedding day.” On the day of, she opted for a glam makeup look that featured a nude and brown eye palette and nude lip. The top tool in her arsenal? “Armani Beauty foundation was key and lasted all night long!”

Vlad wore a custom tuxedo with a couple special inscriptions. “He had our wedding date stitched inside the collar of the jacket, and our initials stitched inside the chest of the jacket,” says the bride. Gold Cartier cufflinks finished the black-tie look.

“There was actually a hurricane warning the weekend our wedding was happening,” Taylor says. “I was oblivious to this because I didn’t want to check the weather or be stressed leading up to the big day. Unknowingly, our families were both in a semi-panic, concerned over the weather. Luck was on our side, as we didn’t get a single drop of rain—and it ended up being a blessing in disguise, because we had the most stunning overcast lighting for photos.” Case in point? Their lovely first look portraits. “This was the moment that everything felt real for the both of us.”

Their backyard ceremony had a “whimsical white garden” theme, overflowing with hydrangeas, orchids, roses, and baby’s breath in cream and off-white. “The white floral and birch wood chuppah felt like it was growing out of the ground; it was set on a white platform and the birch was winding up into the sky to look like a sculpture,” Taylor describes. “One perk of getting married at the house is that I was able to watch them create all of the design elements in real time, so I caught a glimpse of them creating the chuppah. It was truly like watching an orchestra or an artist at work.”

“As guests arrived, we had a vintage white wood cart with staff serving welcome drinks: citrus-infused water or sparkling rose in a coupe, with a custom coaster with our photo on top," says Taylor.

Taylor walked down the aisle with both her mother and father, one on each arm. “I’m very close with both of my parents, and I knew it would mean the world to both of them to walk me down together,” she says. “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri wafted through the summer air. 

The couple did write their own vows but decided to keep them private, sharing them with each other only after the wedding while on a minimoon in Montauk. “It was a very emotional and special moment for us,” Taylor says. For the wedding day, they followed Jewish tradition with a ceremony officiated by a rabbi. Then, they timed their recessional song—“Marry You” by Bruno Mars—perfectly. “We started it near the chorus so it was very dramatic when Vlad smashed the glass and we kissed,” she says.

In stark contrast to the all-white ceremony, the reception was vibrant with cool-toned pink hues. “The theme was romantic and sexy, with a flair of Miami, since we both love the city and I went to college at the University of Miami,” Taylor says. “I wanted the tent to be filled with different elements of interest, so that no matter where our guests were seated or looking, there was beauty all around them.”

Varying centerpiece designs added dimension: baby’s breath “clouds” dripping with purple orchids, roses in vases, tall candelabras, floating candles, and floral balls in shades of pink. “The showstopper of the room was the rose dance floor—it truly felt like we were all floating in a sea of roses,” Taylor says. Hanging above, an enormous baby’s breath installation was interspersed with disco balls to catch the light and add a touch of whimsy.

Mirrored tables featured white chargers, while linen-topped rounds got mirrored chargers. “Every place setting had a beautiful rainbow-threaded napkin, tied in a knot with a miniature rose,” Taylor says. Even the glassware was tinted pink.

“During our cocktail hour, Vlad and I stepped aside to go see our reception tent for the first time,” Taylor recalls. “We had our DJ play our song as we entered, and we practiced our first dance alone in the tent with just us, our planner, DJ, and photographer. It was so romantic, and one of the highlights of our evening.”  It wasn’t just any dance: The duo learned a choreographed routine from New York Rockette Natalie Reid to “Find Someone Like You” by Snoh Aalegra.

As her gift to Vlad, Taylor surprised him with a live painter at the reception. “We flew in the talented Jason Gaillard on a red eye,” she says. “It was truly serendipitous, as he realized only when he was arriving to our street that he had actually proposed to his now wife over 20 years before on that same exact street, two houses down!”

When dancing picked up, Taylor changed into a feathery frock—Cult Gaia’s Valé Dress—and a lower pair of Rene Caovilla heels. “We actually changed my hair five different times [throughout the day],” she says. “Before the reception we pulled my hair down and added some more wave. Then, mid-reception, we pulled my hair back again into a low pony. I loved every style and was so happy with how my hair looked for each moment of the night.”

Alternating tiers of chocolate and vanilla cake with cookies and cream icing were adorned with silver pearl details and colorful fresh florals for the couple's wedding cake. They made cake cutting a moment with a custom neon sign bearing their wedding slogan, “Forever Love.” 

“Lighting was the most important thing to me, above design and floral," Taylor says. "I wanted the room to be very dimly lit, to feel candlelit. Then as the night went on, we added pink uplighting in the room to transform the feel into a big party.” Nature played a part in the lighting, too. “It happened to be a blue moon that night, which is extremely rare. It was so bright that it truly lit up the night for the entire party. We ended up removing the back wall of the tent mid-party to reveal the bay 20 feet away, and the bright moon reflecting off the water. It was absolutely stunning.”

"The room was full of so much love; it felt intimate yet also like a big party with all of our favorite people in one room,” Taylor says. "It was truly a magical night.” But, the magic was only beginning. “The day after the wedding, there was a huge rainbow that covered the entire sky, which we had never seen before while living at that house. It felt like a sign—and made the entire weekend feel that much more meaningful.”