Groovy Dinner Party in Chelsea

Jeremy Coleman & Trent Hurst
Studio 450 Penthouse
August 18, 2007

They got a dog together. That’s how Trent and Jeremy went from being a four-day-a-week couple to a seven-day-a-week couple, and not too long after that, a married couple. “Instead of a come-and-adore-us wedding, we wanted an amazing dinner party: No gifts (we said we’d sell them on eBay), no toasts, and just the right amount of high-end and kitsch,” says Jeremy. Their biggest homemade project was their wedding program, designed to resemble a Broadway Playbill. “We wrote fun biographies for each guest, like they do for cast members.” Their music was DIY as well: “We sent an e-mail saying ‘We’re putting together a six-hour mix tape, what would you like on it?’ and got a lot of requests.” Their only debate was over who they’d seat at the head table. “We thought, should we have a lottery? A pair of empty seats for us at each? At one point, we thought we should just put our seats on a conveyor belt, and weave throughout the room.”

THE DETAILS


Grooms’ Tuxedos: Burberry and Barneys New York Private Label
Grooms’ Shirts: Ermenegildo Zegna
Grooms’ Ties: Bulgari
Event Designer: Matthew Robbins of Artfool
Caterer: Marcey Brownstein Catering
Officiant: Rev. David Bocock
Music: D.J. NYC

We got our tuxedos from Woodbury Common”they”re not identical because we didn”t want to be twins. Trent learned to tie a Windsor knot on YouTube.

Click to Read Their Story
Photographs by Sharon Schuster

We splurged on the caterer: We had a soup bar, a bubble tea appetizer, a trio of heirloom-tomato-and-white-peach Tatin, tartare of minted feta and watermelon, and a salad of baby lettuce with sweet-basil vinaigrette. For the Brits (Jeremy”s family) we had a little fish and chips thing and two tea bars.

You never really have time to talk to everyone at these things, but to look out and see someone you love from one part of your life with someone he”s never met before, whom you love from another part of your life ” that was one of the coolest parts about the night.

We also had a mini-dessert sampler, to be eaten in a certain order: espresso pots, cr”me br”l”e, bitter-orange panna cotta, cookies, marshmallows, and Mexican chocolate.

They told us to number our tables and we were horrified by the idea, so we gave each table a meaningful name instead: New York Sports Club (which is where we met and where Trent wordlessly handed me a piece of paper with his phone number on it); 824 North Olive, Trent”s first house; Boyz “N Berries, Trent”s volleyball team … Trent seated people of like interests together.

Trent is allergic to flowers, so we put weird plants in quirky antique pots instead. Nothing matched; it was fantastic.

Groovy Dinner Party in Chelsea