Sarah Finlayson & Anthony Banasiak
As chief creative officer of special events company The Revel Group, Sarah Finlayson knows the wedding circuit well, but she never once imagined her own. So last October, when her boyfriend, 41-year-old writer Anthony Banasiak, proposed in their Avondale apartment, one thing was certain: The wedding would have to stay true to their unconventional style. “At every turn, I asked, ‘What would a bride do?’ ” says Finlayson, 38. “And I did the exact opposite.”
The couple set the date — Feb. 13, almost five years after the day they met — for a black-tie affair at Revel Fulton Market (1215W. Fulton Market). The 115 guests, all decked out in black and white, entered the 30,000-square-foot venue, which was divided into different stages, starting with the entry, where the couple’s engagement photos were projected onto the floor. “We kept looking for ways that we could reveal the next part of the night so that it felt like a journey,” Finlayson says.
After the ceremony, attendees signed the guestbook, a vintage dictionary Finlayson found on Etsy. “We asked guests to find a word and write on the page why it reminded them of us,” she says. Megan Taylor DJ’ed from behind a gold-tufted bar as everyone entered the lounge, and later, guests sat down for a seven-course dinner underneath a chandelier crafted from 2,000 white roses.
The night concluded with an energetic dance party, as guests threw white, black-lit confetti on the happy newlyweds.