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Bride

Bride (18)

The traditional white gown has become an unmistakable feature of the wedding ceremony for most women today. It is a statement intended to represent the height of elegance, sophistication, and external beauty — and being able to wear the finest dress on one’s wedding day is a dream to which most young women aspire.

 
 
Our Story
 
Nick and I went on our first date on October 4th, 2011 in New York City, but we quickly realized we had been leading parallel lives for years prior. We hung out at all the same places and can both recall being in the same place for a specific event or happening - multiple times. However, it took us meeting online to actually go out on a date. We hit it off right away and neither of us went back online after our first date.
 
Nick works in IT and I produce TV commercials. We both have hectic schedules at times, but always managed to make time for each other.
 
Being a Skidmore alum. I had a long-standing tradition of 
spending New Year’s Eve in Saratoga with my close friends from college. We would come in from whichever cities we were living in at the time to congregate at our favorite watering hole, Desperate Annie’s, and ring in the New Year together. Nick had only been to Saratoga to see concerts at SPAC but wanting to spend our first NYE together he came along to join in the tradition. 
 
That was the first time we said I love you. That next 
September we moved in together.
 
Our trips to Saratoga for NYE continued, plus we started making more trips for the track in the summer and foliage in the fall. On one such trip, October 1st, 2017 - six years after meeting - Nick planned an extra stop in Lake Placid. He proposed on top of Whiteface Mountain (after we both discovered I am afraid of heights – who knew!). We joke to this day that I only said yes so, he would bring me back down the mountain. Our favorite hockey team, the NY Rangers was in Lake Placid that weekend and were staying at our hotel. We saw it as a good omen as we are both diehard Rangers fans! 
 
I grew up in New York City and Nick grew up in Marcellus NY. To us Saratoga has always felt like a blend of where we both come from, probably why we enjoy spending time there so much. After visiting venues in NYC and the Syracuse/Finger Lakes area we decided to 
get married in Saratoga… the place we had shared so many good times in, together. Not only is it about midway between both of our hometowns but also, it is such a special place to us and we wanted to share it with those we care about most.
 
When we saw the space at Saratoga Polo Association, we knew we had found our venue. It is such a beautiful and unique location and it allowed us to have both indoor and outdoor components to our reception which was important to us. They were fantastic and so accommodating, they made it easy for us to customize our day, to feel personal and not just like another cookie cutter event. All our vendors were spectacular and worked so closely with us to make our day perfect! We could not have been in better hands and we can’t thank them all enough for making our wedding truly special and amazing.
 
The whole wedding weekend was magical. We felt so lucky to have family and friends come from all over to celebrate with us. People came from New York City, New Jersey, Syracuse, Boston, California, Washington DC and even Italy. We wanted some place that was easy for everyone to get to but also a fun destination. We got married on the Saturday before Columbus Day so our guests could make a mini vacation out of the trip if they wanted to. Having everyone come together in Saratoga for us was so touching and meaningful. We felt so fortunate to have so much love around us as we started our lives together as husband and wife.
 
Wedding date 
October 6, 2018  
 
Location 
Saratoga Polo Association
 
Photographer 
Leo Timoshuk
 
Stationery Suite 
Appycouple
 
Wedding gown 
A Love Story Bridal
 
Bridesmaids' dresses 
Chose their own
 
Tuxedo
JCrew 
 
Event Decorator
Rena & Rain or Shine Tent Co.
 
Rings 
Tiffany & Co. 
(for ceremony bride used gold band, 
5th generation to wed in it)
 
Hair & makeup 
Lipstick N Lashes 
 
flowers 
Rena's Fine Flowers 
 
Wedding planner 
Donna Connor @ On the Go 
 
Caterer 
B-Rad
 
Dessert
S'mores Station & Tiramisu by B-Rad 
 
Transportation
Premiere Transportation
 
Band 
Soul Session 
 
First dance 
'Into the Mystic ' by Van Morrison 
 
Honeymoon destination 
Crete Greece, Venice Italy, 
 
Lake Como Italy
Room Block & After Party
 
Embassy Suites
Rehearsal dinner & welcome drinks Hatties patio
 
Photos 
Congress Park, Adelphi and Saratoga Polo
 
Brunch/local brewery tour 
Saratoga Winery, Artisinal Brewery, 
R.S. Taylor (bus from Premiere) 
 
Special touches...
We set up S'mores tent and fire pits outside the reception tent and everyone got to make their own S'mores. We did a sabrage, a polo tradition,  and a dessert and aperitif table. My Uncle performed the ceremony. We shipped in sugared almonds from Ernesto Brusa in Italy as favors, a tradition of five wishes.
 
Advice to pass along...
Do what you like but more importantly don't do what you don't want to. It sounds silly but that's what made our day so special to us and all our friends and family. We didn't stress about the little things we just wanted to host a great weekend for everybody. It was magical to be surrounded by so much love in a place that is so special to us. We worked together to make every choice so that it felt like us.
 
On Saturday, April 27, 2019, my only daughter, my baby girl, Colleen, married the most wonderful man I could ever have hoped for her to meet and fall in love with. On that day, I had the pure pleasure and honor to be Mother of the Bride for the first – and last – time in my life to the most beautiful, intelligent, caring daughter any mom could ever ask for.
 
Less than a year before, Matt had asked Colleen to be his wife during an impossibly magical trip to Lake Como. They were engaged at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, a 16th century Baroque chateau that can only be described as “fairytale.” Of course, the next 8 ½ months of wedding preparation often descended from the lofty splendor of Lake Como to a more frenetic pace. 
 
After a lot of careful investigating, visiting wedding venues from Bolton Landing to Montauk, the couple – who live in the West Village – opted to tie the knot in Manhattan, at the New York Athletic Club, an iconic Manhattan landmark known familiarly as the NYAC. While the destination was most convenient for the largest number of family and friends attending the nuptials, it meant that “MOB,” as my position is referred to in wedding jargon, would have limited ability to help my daughter prepare for the big day because I live three hours away in Ballston Spa.
 
While I did my best to help from a distance, it mostly came in the form of moral and emotional support, as Colleen almost singlehandedly put together a wedding for the record books – not a surprise to me. From the time she could walk, Colleen knew intuitively how to take charge, absorb information and formulate winning strategies and plans. Her diligence and determination to be the best she can be has taken her from a successful career in academics, athletics and dance to a burgeoning professional career. I knew she would tackle her wedding plans with the same attention to detail as she’s approached all challenges and responsibilities in her young life. 
 
From the church to the music, the venue, the food and the photographer, every detail was meticulously planned, with little left to chance… except the weather and fate.
 
Before we knew it, the wedding day was upon us. That morning, the bridesmaids, maid of honor, myself, my sister and Colleen’s future mother-in-law all gathered in a large room on the 9th floor of the NYAC, to submit to the female ritual of readying ourselves for the ceremony ahead. While all of us had, at one time or another during the preceding eight months, experienced varying levels of stress and pre-wedding nerves, on that particular Saturday morning, there was a calm, a peace and a serenity that was both unexpected and abundantly welcome. 
 
For the next four hours, we had our hair done and makeup applied as we nibbled on breakfast, sipped on champagne and mimosas, and shared stories of Colleen and Matt and our hopes for their future together. 
 
During those few hours, we fulfilled the age-old tradition of women gathering together to nurture, support, pass on family histories, reminisce about those who were no longer with us, and create bonds with others from different generations, different geographic locations and lifestyles, but who were all connected by their shared love of Colleen and Matt.
 
My stepdaughter and Colleen’s sister, Kim, was maid of honor, a role she took seriously and fulfilled with love and a quiet pride for the baby sister she was so thrilled to welcome into the world 29 years earlier. She was a rock that morning and for the rest of the day and evening, infusing her tasks with quiet joy, pride and bursting filial love for her baby sister.
 
Colleen’s mother-in-law, Lori, had already become a dear friend. The stereotype of the in-laws who can’t stand each other was just that. For me, meeting Lori for the first time over the telephone was like coming back to an old friend. We hit it off instantly and quickly became good friends. Having her there to share that special morning together was truly a blessing. This wedding was a first for us both and we swapped stories about our kids, the loves of our lives.  We talked excitedly about things we would do together as a newly blended family, enjoying the prospect of someday being grandmothers together and joking about sharing time with grandkids.
 
Colleen had also invited her aunt, my older sister, Helen, to be there that morning. Our mom, Colleen’s grandma, had passed away 18 years before, when Colleen was a young child. For my sister, myself and Colleen, it was a morning to reflect upon a woman who had exerted such a strong influence on all our lives. I had given Colleen the mother of pearl prayer book my mother carried for her own wedding. Having 
it there with us only heightened the feeling of ease and calm in the room. I felt my mother with us that morning. I knew how thrilled she would have been to see how her first granddaughter had grown into the beautiful, accomplished and loving woman she is now.
 
While there were so many remarkable moments from the wedding day and the celebration that ran late into the night, that quiet time in the morning spent with my daughter, our family and friends, is one of the moments I will cherish most from that day. It was transformational in so many ways. It is so much more than a group of women in slippers and robes with curlers in their hair and a mimosa in their hands. It is a time for women to share in the ritual of preparing for that next, most important step in a young woman’s and a young man’s life.
 
That morning was a priceless gift that my daughter gave to me on her special day. And my advice to all future MOBs in waiting is this: use that special time of preparation, before the wedding begins and all the craziness descends, to be in the moment with your own beautiful daughter. 
 
Celebrate the woman she has become. Remember those other women who have impacted your lives and the lives of your daughters. And capture the true joy and meaning of the day ahead. It’s not the church, the dress, the food, the music that matter. It’s the grace you see on your daughter’s face and the happiness you feel seeing the remarkable woman she has become.
 
Photos courtesy of Unique Lapin Photography
Josh’s Bubbie and Zayde, Yiddish for grandparents, married in Israel after being released from captivity in Eastern Europe at the end of the second world war.  Ten years later they began their life in the NYC boroughs, ultimately settling in Brooklyn and giving Josh’s father Jack the opportunity to find Janice, who agreed to go 
out with “the plumber.”  
 
In the summer of 2015, Josh had just walked out of his dental residency, eager to get out and help new patients in practice. He was also ready to find his life sidekick.  The tinder search -narrowed to less than a one mile away radius, and there he found Erin, a whopping ten city blocks north of where he’d been living the last few years.  They met over a cocktail at the Writing Room, former hot spot “Elaine’s,” exactly five blocks from each other’s apartment.  It was slow to start, and probably a bit on the quiet side, as Josh tends to be at first, but it was comfortable, funny and interesting.  They continued to speak and go on fun dates in Central Park, feeding each other food they had prepared and attending live music concerts. 
 
There were many unknown connections between them via family and friends that came to light time and time again as they got to know each other better.  
 
Josh had officially received his NYS dental license within a week of meeting Erin and has had her by his side as a young associate working six days a week his first year in practice.  He learned a lot from working with his uncle, Abe Bronner, an experienced and successful dentist, but followed leads to other dental opportunities outside of south Brooklyn.  Over the next year he treated patients at offices in Huntington and Massapequa.  A “small-world” type of opportunity was stumbled upon last summer and the couple decided to pack up and head north after getting engaged, to Saratoga Springs, NY, where they currently reside. 
 
Josh has been practicing dentistry locally in Saratoga since moving to the area early in the fall.  Erin, having over ten years’ experience in property management in Manhattan, has begun to expand further into the real estate world and recently obtained her NYS real estate license.  
 
Erin, born and raised in Melville on the North Shore of Long Island, was living on the Upper East Side of 
Manhattan working for a property management firm. She became fast friends with a wonderful group of professional women, all single and in their 20s. The girls would often get together for dinner and drinks to catch up, talk about their jobs, organize summer trips to Montauk and bond over their recent dating experiences, sometimes juicy, other times disheartening but most of the time extremely comical. The women would give each other advice, encourage one another to stay positive and to never stop believing that “the one” was out there, despite the very 
challenging New York City dating scene. Their get together often felt like they were out of an episode of “Sex and the City.” The girls all unanimously agreed that their parents had a much easier time when they were single - 30 plus years ago.
 
Erin’s father, Dennis Keith Linde, of Canarsie Brooklyn, and his mother Maxine E. Friedman, of Bayside Queens, met on a blind date at 17 years of age and got married a few years later at age 21. A few years after their June 1975 wedding at Fresh Meadows Synagogue (Fresh Meadows, Queens), the couple purchased a very pretty and spacious colonial in the town of Melville on Long Island and had three beautiful children by age 30. Dennis owned an Auto Parts business and Maxine was an elementary school teacher (currently retired).
 
Erin, continuously encouraged by her friends, did not give up. She started chatting with Josh on “Tinder,” the dating app, which people would often label as the place to go for quick flings. Based on Josh’s online dating profile, he was attractive with a full head of dark hair, from the South Shore of Long Island, Jewish and a dentist. 
(in other words, every Jewish mother’s dream candidate for their single daughter!) 
 
Erin and Josh met on July 24TH 2015 for a casual drink on the upper east side. One drink date turned into a second dinner date to a third date walking around the reservoir in Central Park to a fourth date attending an outside concert to beach dates to summer bike rides with ices…barbeques with friends to family dinners and holidays spent together… Fast forward to August 3rd 2018, when Josh surprised Erin with a gorgeous diamond ring on the boardwalk overlooking the ocean in Long Beach, NY. The couple both feel very lucky and blessed to have met each other and know the future is bright! Both Erin and Josh are kind, sensitive, passionate individuals who truly love and care for one another, their friends and family. They encourage one another and are focused on continuous growth in their careers and personal lives.
 
The happiness and excitement of the beautiful engagement has been bittersweet for the couple… 
Erin lost her father, Dennis Linde, to pancreatic cancer a little less than 9 years ago. Josh never had the 
opportunity to meet Dennis, who Erin knows would have absolutely loved Josh and would have been honored to call him his son-in-law (and vice versa). Josh would have absolutely loved Dennis and be thrilled to have him as his father-in-law. Dennis was a passionate, loving, funny, sensitive, caring man. He had a very special energy that his family and friends miss immensely. Erin knows that though her father won’t be there in body to walk her down the aisle, he will be there in spirit and his love and energy will surround her and his family on this very special milestone.
 
Shortly before getting engaged, Josh was presented with a wonderful opportunity in Saratoga Springs, NY and the couple decided to move 3.5 hours north to start their new and very exciting adventure together! The couple just married on June 15th at Temple Avodah in Oceanside, New York.  They have been living in downtown Saratoga Springs for a little less than a year and have fallen in love with the town, the vibe, the people and culture. Erin and Josh both love to attend live concerts, enjoy beautiful scenic hikes, admire sunsets regularly, observe the beauty of nature and try new restaurants. The couple also enjoys jogging outside together while exploring and admiring the history and architecture of their new neighborhood. Erin and Josh are excited to build a beautiful life together
in their new and very special surroundings that they now call home! They truly feel blessed to have found one another, to be starting a new journey together as husband and wife and to call Saratoga Springs their new home! 
 
Photos by Niki Rossi Photography 
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