There are some wedding videos that are just so emotional, so over-the-top or so absolutely stunning, we feel they deserve a bigger accolade on our site, like the title of Love Story of the Week! Adar and Tyrel have one of the coolest weddings we've ever seen. It was inspired by Brooklyn—the place where they met and fell in love—and included tons of nods to the area and its culture, including Brooklyn-born rapper Biggie!
Watch the video by Jordan Jeanty Studios and then scroll on for an inside look at Adar and Tyrel's planning process, tips and vendors!
1. How did you two meet?
At work! In 2012 we both worked for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. We were good friends for years which eventually turned into dating and now forever bond.
2. How did the proposal happen?
On Father’s Day weekend, Adar’s family gathered at a lake to pay respects to her late father at the site where his ashes laid. This day also happened to be the 45th anniversary of Tyrel’s late parents. Adar’s family, of course, was in on the proposal plan and Adar had zero clue this gathering had anything to do with her and Tyrel. After everyone went around sharing stories about Adar’s father, Tyrel went last. Although he’d never met Adar’s father, he recently read his book and wanted to contribute to the storytelling. Tyrel then dropped down on his knee in front of Adar’s entire family (15+ people ) with our angel parents above on Father’s Day weekend and proposed to Adar.
3. What are each of your favorite things about your relationship?
Adar: Effortless love, rooted in friendship, true teammates
Tyrel: Cohesion & connectivity, unapologetically us and our love for one another and expanded new families
4. What was the first thing you did as an engaged couple?
Celebrated engagement at the restaurant on the lake with family.
5. What was your budget?
Our budget for our wedding was $75-100K.
6. What were your top three priorities when planning your wedding?
Expressing our love and creativity while being unapologetically us, honoring our late parents and creating an environment that completely remixed the typical wedding experience for our guests
7. What did you each think the first time you saw each other on your wedding day?
Adar: During our first look (we met on a street corner in Brooklyn) I teared up right away. Tyrel looked so dapper. So confident and sure of his love for me. I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to soon be calling this man my husband.
Tyrel: It pays to wait for the one you love. Dreams do come true. Mom and Dad would be proud.
8. What personalized details did you add when writing your own vows?
Ok, so this was a very fun part of the ceremony. Tyrel rapped his! Yup, rapped! With his love for hip hop, poetry and clever play on words he memorized the entire thing. It was amazing!!! The energy in the room was unreal…my reaction was pretty priceless too. There were so many clever bars in there, since the wedding I’ve asked to read them over and over to process it all! My vows were read from my phone, I had so much to say and there was no way I’d remember it by heart. Mentioned some funny stories about when he was courting me and touched on my father’s voice that always played in my head “The one will treat you like a star… He does exist, he’s out there, just be patient” We both tied back to some Biggie Lyrics and used the teammate theme throughout.
9. You two had a very creative theme, can you tell us how you came up with it?
We met in Brooklyn, NY. BK plays such a big role in who we are as a couple. The culture, art, music, food, fashion and diversity are all things we can’t get enough of. It’s where we met, started a friendship and fell in love. So it was only right that we got married there ( despite moving to Los Angeles 8 months before ) and designed our theme around all things Brooklyn. When we announced were finally dating on social media it was an image of us in front of a Biggie mural with the caption, “If you don’t know, now you know” We feel like that definitely set the tone! Fast forward to our wedding prep—our save the date pics and invitations were Brooklyn/Biggie themed as well. We also did a fun rap video telling our love story to the melody of Juicy by Notorious B.I.G. that we used as a countdown to the wedding post on social media (also was Biggie’s Bday). Our wedding website displayed the lyrics!
10. Adar, that hooded dress was amazing! Can you tell us about your dress shopping journey and how you landed on this dress?
So I wore a beaded Ysa Makino gown purchased from Kleinfeld Bridal in NYC. I was obsessed with the oversized hood and its sheerness. I tweaked it, of course, with getting a keyhole cut out in the back to make it that much more unique and summer-wedding appropriate. I went to six other wedding dress places before saying yes to the dress at Kleinfeld. My heels were by Badgley Mischka, blue chandelier earrings from Etsy Shop Iloniti in NY and our jeweler 21C Designs created a custom pearl necklace/bracelet/hand jewelry piece with my late father’s ashes in the pendant. I wanted to make sure he was in my hand as I walked down the aisle. For the reception, I wore the beaded hood down, which gave the dress a totally different off the shoulder look!
11. That ceiling installation is unlike anything we've seen before—how did you come up with this?
We created a faux floral chandelier made up of over 400 white flowers ( ordered from Alibaba.com), blush color satin ribbon individually glued to each stem, surrounded by a ring of bicycle wheels sprayed in rose gold all suspending from a net. This chandelier hung beautifully over the aisle and drew your eye up to accent the tall ceilings of the industrial loft. At the top of the aisle on navy pedestals were two bouquets of flowers inside of vintage gumball machines turned into vases. Lanterns with white candles lined the aisle and led to our milk crate pile alter. As we collected boom boxes and bicycle wheels for the centerpieces, we also were on the lookout for 80+ milk crates. After spraying them all rose gold, we then stacked and zip tied them in columns at different heights. On the day of the wedding, LaParis from Brooklyn Brooms added gorgeous florals woven throughout the crates to create a really funky cool alter done the Brooklyn Chic kind of way! Behind the pile of crates was a navy drape (to mask all of the tables and equipment behind it) and 4 large empty picture frames with continued accents of florals in the corners.
12. Same with your cake, was it a spraypaint can? It's so different from your typical wedding cake, which we love, how did this come about?
Our cake was designed by B Cakes in Brooklyn NY. We selected them for their out-of-the-box unique designs and fun flavor options. We wanted our cake to be shaped like a graffiti spray can that says Spread Love with flowers coming from the nozzle. B Cakes were pumped about the idea and up for the challenge! After a few sketch revisions, we connected them with our florist to design the floral part of the design. This collaboration made for a beautiful and quite tasty piece of art! At the tables, we had an assortment of desserts including some of my favorite Nutella filled chocolate balls.
13. We love how y'all included \"Spread Love\" in details throughout your wedding. How did you decide where this phrase would come in and what's the meaning behind this phrase for you as a couple?
\"Spread Love\" was obviously fitting with being iconic Biggie lyrics, but also what our wedding day was all about. We wanted our guests to feel the love from us and to share it with the world. From our \"Spread Love\" spray can table escort cards we made to the wedding cake, floor decals, custom denim hats and totes and thank you cards with scratch-off tickets…\"Spread Love\" was everywhere! We tied it all together with Brooklyn chic decor ( boombox and bike rim centerpieces, cassette tape menus, graffiti guests book, boombox sweetheart bench banquet just to name a few. Our DIY (I like to say TIY—‘tweak it yourself’) wedding was created with love. Unapologetically us!
12. What's your top tip to all soonlyweds out there planning their weddings?
Be unapologetically you! Don’t let outside voices and opinions change your vision. It’s YOUR day!
13. Why would you suggest hiring a videographer?
It flies by sooo fast! There are so many moments that you miss. Having Jordan Jeanty was one of the best decisions we made. It brings so much joy to watch our wedding back time and time again. He really captured US.
14. What is your favorite memory from your wedding day?
Our brother and sister officiating the ceremony, nieces playing All Of Me by John Legend while surrounded by all of our loved ones was priceless. For our reception, it definitely was our first dance to Lucas Graham ‘Love Someone’, dancing to those lyrics in that moment was magical. Soon after the guest rushed the floor so fast to get the party started. We’ve never seen anything like it!
17. Who were your favorite wedding vendors and why?
Although lots of our wedding was DIY…We had so many vendors we loved! Our band Hudson Horns and DJ Spynfo were phenomenal entertainment who kept the party rockin’ all night. Videographer and photographer Jordan Jeanty & Kesha Lambert captured our vibe in the most beautiful raw way. ESP Entertainment was critical to wedding flow and all rentals, lighting and amazing staff for setup, room flip and breakdown. We’re forever grateful for their contribution to our big day.
To watch more wedding videos by Jordan Jeanty Studios, click below.