A Chic Dinner Party Wedding With a Signature Scent in New York City's West Village

When Josh Zacharias booked a business trip to New York City in the summer of 2012, he also attempted to impress Hannah Horvath, whom he’d met at Indiana University and stayed in contact with since. “He booked an impressive hotel and secured the best reservations,” Hannah remembers. Yet, “overwhelmed by the ‘woo-ing’ of it all, I got cold feet on that first night.” The next night—his last night in town—Josh convinced her to go out and they headed to Momofuku Ko for their official first date. “We closed the place down,” she says. “As they mopped the floors around us, we made plans to see each other again, and again, and again.” They dated long-distance for three years before settling in Manhattan together.  

“While dating long distance, Josh and I would try to meet in different cities from our own,” Hannah remembers. “We kept returning to La Jolla, California, for weekends by the beach. During one of these trips, we discovered a private lookout point over the ocean where we would bring a bottle of wine and catch the most brilliant sunsets.” In November 2019, Josh brought Hannah to that special spot and got down on one knee. “It was perfect, a private moment shared just between us and some barking sea lions.”

Even before micro weddings became trendy, Hannah and Josh knew they would have an intimate, dinner-party wedding. “For us, it was always Sant Ambroeus West Village,” Hannah says. “Sant Ambroeus is our neighborhood spot and sits on the most magical corner of the West Village, nestled among historic brownstones and tree-lined streets. We live around the corner, and since cooking isn’t my forte, Sant Ambroeus has become an extension of our own kitchen.” 

Much of their vendor list came together in a similar fashion. “We envisioned all of our beloved West Village spots playing a role in the experience: our favorite restaurant for dinner, our favorite bakery—the croissants!—for our cake, and even our favorite bespoke suit atelier, which has been a Christopher Street mainstay for almost a decade,” Hannah says. “The goal was to create an evening that felt authentic and intimate, full of the famous charm and anything-can-happen character that can only be found in the West Village. We wanted to invite our guests into our world to create the truest reflection of ‘us.’”

Planning began with mood boards and saved photos, and ended with vendors the bride valued so much that she could tell them simply to “do your thing.” “Having vendors whose talents you trust and who know your own preferences makes a world of difference,” she advises. “This is perfectly displayed in the evening’s photos, which were taken without a shot list and total trust in the talent of Corey Tenold.” The resulting aesthetic was classic, old-world, and oh-so-romantic. Read on to see all the chic deets, planned by Gregory Blake of Gregory Blake Sams Events.

While most brides spend the months leading up to the wedding growing out their hair, Hannah went in the other direction. “Just days before the wedding, my friend and trusted hairstylist Jacob Rozenberg took off several inches, creating a razored blunt bob,” Hannah shares. “On the actual day, I turned to stylist Ryan Austin for unfussy, piece-y texture and face framing bends with lots of movement.” 

Her beauty was inspired by looks from the Chanel Haute Couture Spring Summer 2018 show with “luminous skin, pink flushed cheeks, and rose-kissed lips that felt entirely romantic and even a bit coy,” Hannah says. “We focused on creating the perfect bridal pout by blending several Chanel lipstick shades that were close to my natural lip color, yet rosy and fresh feeling.”

Hannah works in fine fragrance marketing, so “I knew my final accessory would be a signature scent,” she says. “My closest friend, mentor, and colleague, master perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux composed a custom fragrance for this occasion. I challenged Rodrigo to reimagine my mother’s perfume, Annick Goutal Petite Chérie, making it reflective of my personal style while maintaining the nostalgic feeling it has for me.”

“I wanted something vintage and unconditionally timeless,” Hannah says. “I began my search online, knowing that a vintage piece would have already stood the test of time.” She came across an ivory Dolce & Gabbana Couture dress from the early ’90s and knew instantly it was the one. “The seller was in London, though. Short of flying to London, I did the next best thing: I took out a ribbon and measured myself at home. My measurements were near exact to the listing on their site," she remembers. "I ordered it in that very moment, and without ever trying it on, my wedding dress was on its way across the pond.”

She paired the look with freshwater baroque pearl earrings by New York jewelry designer Ted Muehling, borrowed from her mother. “Wearing Ted Muehling was a sentimental nod to my parents’ relationship: My father has gifted my mother his pieces for every occasion since they first started dating over 40 years ago.”

For their first look, “we chose to meet at the corner of the street we live on in the West Village,” Hannah shares. “I walked down Charles Street in my gown, while Josh stood with his back turned as I approached. I tapped his shoulder, and when he turned around, we shared a few whispers to each other before posing for photos. This was one of our rare private moments—albeit with a photographer—on an otherwise busy day. Having this moment was the perfect reminder of the two people we’re doing this for: each other.”

Josh worked with J. Mueser Bespoke, a neighborhood menswear shop specializing in Neapolitan tailoring, on a refined and classic look: navy wool fresco suit and white cotton poplin spread collar shirt. “For the final touch, Josh wore his own sentimental heirloom: his late grandfather’s gold Rolex Day-Date with President bracelet.”

“The admiring passersby and cheering diners on nearby patios truly made this feel like a wedding of the neighborhood,” Hannah says. “In those moments, it was impossible not to feel the ‘perfect New York evening’ of it all.”

“We cleared the restaurant for a standing ceremony, and florist Nicolette Camille used flowers at peak bloom,” Hannah says. “She created displays of fragrant garden roses, dahlias, butterfly ranunculus, pink peppercorn, astilbe, ornamental pear, and rose geranium. The aromas were meant to complement my custom wedding fragrance and envelope our cozy space with an additional layer of magic.”

The aisle wasn’t long, but Hannah and her father extended it. “He walked me the short block from our apartment over to the restaurant,” she says. “True to our relationship, he made me laugh along the way with a few of his jokes. I was not nervous at all; walking from home with my dad felt comfortable and familiar—exactly what I wanted in that moment.”

“Our best friend, Bernard Leed, led the ceremony,” Hannah says. “Bernard is a screenwriter, so we knew he would create something deeply personal and full of his own wit. Rather than make the distinction [of a bridal party], we requested that all of our guests gather together and stand around us for our vows. It felt incredible to be surrounded by our loved ones in that way and helped establish the evening’s intimate tone. Everyone was family.”

Hannah and her master perfumer named the scent he’d created—filled with notes of pear d’anjou, Bulgarian rose and Provencal Mimosa—Ninth of October, for the wedding date. “The scent was proudly displayed in the Sant Ambroeus washroom for our guests to admire and enjoy.”

Solo violinist Filip Pogády performed everything from “Hallelujah” for the ceremony, to oldies and Dua Lipa at cocktail hour. 

“The restaurant was transformed to accommodate the dinner party of our dreams,” Hannah says. “This meant more garden roses—15 varieties, to be exact—and green vines with hints of ivory, gold, and silver. The warm tones of Sant Ambroeus guided the look of the evening; we enhanced the space with flourished hand calligraphy, gold engraved accents, and antique sterling silver candlesticks with ivory tapers to illuminate the evening.” Master Calligrapher Bernard Maisner created old-world menus and place cards.

“It’s safe to say our entire wedding was influenced by visions of cacio e pepe and martinis,” Hannah says with a laugh. “While our wedding was about celebrating our marriage, it was also very much about having phenomenal food.” Their 40 guests indulged in veal ragù Bolognese, bone marrow risotto, branzino with asparagus and roasted pumpkin, scaloppini di pollo with porcini mushrooms, and grass-fed côte de boeuf. 

Meanwhile, speeches had everyone entertained. “After both of our fathers and my grandfather made a speech during dinner, Rodrigo gave an impromptu toast that spoke of our shared craft, perfume, and its power to be a universal language of love,” Hannah recalls. “It was a special moment that was deeply personal, powerful, and delivered in the romantic way that only a master perfumer can.”

A trio of petite cakes came from West Village bakery Mah Ze Dahr and featured ladyfinger layers soaked in vanilla syrup with fresh strawberries and mascarpone cream. “Given the intimate nature of our wedding, we were able to buy items that normally would have been rented,” Hannah says. “Our vintage Maison Jansen cake cart was a Craigslist score, which we drove several hours to pick up just a few weeks before. On that same road trip, we discovered our sterling silver cake stands, originally from a hotel in Paris, in an antique store in Hudson, New York. We loved the hunt, and now each of these items will be a meaningful keepsake used for future entertaining.”

“I had been searching high and low for the perfect dancing dress and found my hand-beaded, silk Chanel in the farthest corner of the internet: eBay,” Hannah says. “I was ecstatic to receive and authenticate the dress—and to later find the runway images of Linda Evangelista closing the Chanel Spring-Summer ’96 show in the exact look.” 

Their romantic wedding had been a celebration of the neighborhood—and, with the afterparty, it got even closer to home. “After our reception, guests walked over to our second venue, the penthouse apartment in our own building, for an afterparty,” Hannah says. “We rented the space for the weekend and loved the idea of literally bringing the evening back home. The vision was to recreate one of our favorite nightclubs, ACME, which we frequented in our early dating years. The party was complete with antique sterling silver compotes of cigarettes, a disco ball, and lots of tequila. We hired the resident ACME DJ to play into the early hours of morning.” 

When it’s all said and done, “the people make the party,” Hannah reminisces. “Nothing felt easier than being around the friends and family who have shaped our world.”