Cori & Steven | Maritime Parc | Jersey City, NJ

“Above & Beyond”

We were both in NYC after college, going out with mutual friends and that’s how we met. On our first date, Steven asked me to go to Hillstone, a restaurant on Park Avenue South that’s since become our favorite restaurant. We’ve been together seven years.

The proposal actually started at my last job. My manager handed me a letter and said to open it in the elevator. I thought I was getting fired. But Steven was sending me on a mini scavenger hunt.The first clue was to go to the restaurant where we had our first date. My friend was waiting at Hillstone with my next clue, which brought the two of us back to Steven's and my apartment.

We had a rooftop overlooking the city where Steven had a sign that said “Marry Me” with rose petals in the shape of a heart and a photographer. We came back down and both our families were there! We had champagne and a really nice dinner at il Cantinori.

Steven is from Long Island, I’m from New Jersey, and we felt the city would be a good place to have our wedding but we didn’t find anything we loved so we went to Jersey City and saw a few venues. Maritime Parc was the first venue we loved. It was very modern and had the city view, incorporating where we lived and where we met.

The venue was unbelievable. They still feel like family. Priscila Gruberman, the sales manager, is wonderful. We met her when we toured the venue. She never said “No.” Everything we asked for, she said we can do it. Everyone at Maritime went above and beyond. We are very picky with food and style and they made everything work for us.

My parents spoke a bit with Marc Haskell, the CEO, who was super nice. We also worked with Alexis. Then she went on maternity leave and Jette took over in the last month to tie up all the loose ends. But of course, Priscila was at our wedding and after-party.

We wanted our rabbi to give a glimpse into our relationship and she really captured that. We had a silver-mirrored theme throughout the night and for our ceremony we had a mirrored aisle. Our chuppah had baby’s breath, roses, candle pillars on the aisles, and a violinist and a cellist. We said our own vows which was really nice.

When Steven went to break the glass at the end of the ceremony, it took five times. The guests were cheering like crazy when he finally broke the glass. It made everything really fun.

For cocktail hour, we had an Asian station, a pasta station, a sushi station, a raw bar, baby lamb chops, and an ice sculpture; all things we added. We also had charcuteries and a tapas station, passed hors d’oeuvres, and two signature drinks which were really fun. One was a dirty gin martini with blue cheese olives, and again Maritime Parc got the blue cheese olives because we requested that. The other one was a spicy pineapple margarita.

My favorite items were the sushi and the lamb chops, which were amazing. The grilling station had mini cedar plank salmon steaks, ribs, and skirt steak, which people said was unbelievable.

I wanted everything white and simple. Prestige Luxury Rentals built a mirrored 18-inch stage for the band which was awesome. We had a long table for our friends with 32 people and really big candelabras with 10 candles in each. The middle of the table had more roses and candles. At other tables we had six-foot trees with glass candles hanging down. We also had a lot of white flowers and candles.

We had two entrées. One was a duo of beef with NY strip steak and braised short ribs served with creamed spinach and truffled potato puree. Guests could also choose pan-seared branzino with broccolini and truffled potato puree in a white wine buerre blanc sauce. Both dishes were unbelievable. We did a vanilla cake with dark chocolate ganache filling and vanilla icing. Steven is gluten-free, so they got him a special gluten-free cake. They were really accommodating about that.

We had the best vendors in the world. The venue was amazing, the band was fantastic, and the dance floor was packed the whole night. Shoutout to our florist, Deb from Peonies to Paintchips, for the flowers and the tables. My month-of coordinator, Kasey Ferrante of The Wedding Plan and Company was amazing and her assistant, Gina, also was great. My photographer and cinematographer were with us every step of the way. My mom came with me to every single appointment.

We are really so lucky to have such great families and friends between the groomsmen and the bridesmaids. Having all our living grandparents and our families there was really very special. And finally, a well-deserved shoutout to our parents, who were all so generous.

Maritime Parc, Jersey City, NJ, 201.413.0050, maritimeparc.com