Katherine Hazleton & Craig Nazzaro
The Bronx Zoo
October 17, 2009
Katherine and Craig share their Union Square apartment with two cats, a dog, and a hedgehog. So when they got engaged (after dating for nine years) and Katherine’s mom suggested the Bronx Zoo, it made perfect sense. “In high school I even had a potbellied pig!” she recalls. The pair were the first to marry in the zoo’s ecofriendly Lion House, where guests drank hot chocolate and cider outside during a sea-lion demonstration before the vows. Georgia-born Katherine embellished the menu with her mom’s own recipes: pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and biscuits. And no Southern bride’s wedding would be complete without a groom’s cake. “If a single gal eats the groom’s cake, she’ll have good luck,” says Katherine. “It’s like catching the bouquet,” Craig adds. At evening’s end, they headed to the Waldorf-Astoria—where Katherine’s grandmother spent her own wedding night—but not before a little photo-booth goofing with hand puppets they’d brought as props. “We wanted real animals,” Katherine recalls, “but the zoo wouldn’t allow it.”
As told to Thessaly La Force.
The Details
Bride’s Gown: Melissa Sweet
Hair: Mudhoney Salon
Makeup: Chris Crenshaw
Bride’s Shoes: Valentino
Invitations: Crane & Co.
Groom’s Cake: A Simple Cake
Music: Alex Donner Band
Katherine Hazleton & Craig NazzaroPhotographs by Jenny Ebert
“We wanted guests to have an edible treat to take home with them. Animal crackers seemed fun and whimsical. We ordered them from the Market Square Food Company”the same brand that’s sold at the zoo.”
“This wasn’t something I’d been dreaming about all my life; that’s why I wore the whimsical tea-length dress. We didn’t have a lot of traditional stuff going on: All the flower arrangements were plants, no bridesmaids or groomsmen, and our neighbors officiated.”
