“It was the night before I was starting my first job working on President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and I was out for dinner with a friend who convinced me to grab a drink and meet up with some others afterward,” says Samantha Tritsch, the now global chief of staff and vice president of the research and analytics arm of Edelman PR. “I ended up sitting next to Ryan [Fuld, a vice president at a real estate company], though I don’t really remember this first encounter. After seeing him again and falling head over heels, he reminded me that we’d actually been introduced previously and that he, therefore, was the one who ‘saw me first.’”
The two ran into each other several times over the course of a year and half before officially starting to date, marking the occasion with dinner at Italian restaurant Morandi in New York City’s West Village. They moved in together three months later, and Ryan proposed after they’d been dating for a year and a half.
Ryan had been doing a lot of real estate deals on the West Coast and asked Samantha if she wanted to join him on a trip to San Francisco to check out a piece of property. Luckily, her job gives her the flexibility to work on the road, so Samantha happily accepted. “My boss at the time, and all of my coworkers were totally in on it,” she says. “We landed Thursday evening and had dinner with friends. Ryan woke me up at 7:00 a.m. the next morning and told me we were going to Big Sur, a dream trip that I’d always wanted to do. He put together a playlist of our favorite songs, and we drove for three hours along Highway 1 until we got to the Big Sur Bakery, where he proposed with a custom Monique Péan ring; my favorite, blue hydrangeas; and pizza.”
The couple knew they wanted a fall wedding in New York. “Before our engagement, I was studying for the GREs, and we spent almost every weekend at the New York Public Library,” says Samantha. “Ryan would hang out with me and read the news. Once we decided on Manhattan, the library was the first and last venue we considered.”
They enlisted Jennifer Zabinski of Jennifer Zabinski Events and David Stark of David Stark Designs—“a true dream team” says Samantha—to achieve the vision they had for their wedding day. The couple hoped to find ways of incorporating a garden aesthetic and the feeling of dancing under the stars into the evening. They used a lot of blues (the bride’s favorite color) and hydrangeas (her favorite flower). Topiaries lined the steps of the library, and lovebird and celestial motifs were used throughout. “We’re inseparable so people call us lovebirds all the time,” says Samantha. “We started with our save the dates and invitations, and then my mom, who is an architect and designer, did the most amazing job bringing this vision to life even further. She actually sourced LED fabric that lit the walls of the ballroom so that they twinkled while everyone danced.”
Samantha worked with her best friend and bridesmaid, stylist Carly Schuster, on her lineup of looks for the wedding weekend. “I wanted to wear something classic that still made me feel like me,” says Samantha. She drew inspiration from Emilia Wickstead. “I was so inspired by what she designed and wore for her own wedding, and I wanted to create a similar look for my ceremony, which was going to take place in our temple, so I needed my shoulders to be covered.” She created a sheer bodysuit with Miriam Shay and Henry Tosca that went underneath her Oscar de la Renta dress and had matching embroidery around the neck and up the sleeve. She wore a long cathedral veil that was sheer enough so you could see the embroidery of her dress as she walked down the aisle but long enough to give the whole look some drama.
She finished off her ceremony look with her grandmother’s diamond stud earrings, which served as her something borrowed, and Charlotte Olympia cream heels. Her something new was a beaded Oscar de la Renta clutch, a gift from her little sister and maid of honor, Alex.
The bridesmaids were Samantha’s something blue. They started the day in light blue Eberjeys and then wore custom blue-gray silk crepe slip dresses by Delphine Manivet and beaded chokers for the wedding. “The dresses and necklaces were my gift to them for being in the wedding party,” says Samantha. Bridesmaid Maressa Criscito gifted Samantha a silk blue Olivia von Halle robe, which she wore to get ready in.
The bride worked with Ashley Rubell and Victor Henao on her hair and makeup. “Both are incredibly talented artists and now like family,” says the bride. “For hair, we were inspired by Katharine Ross à la The Graduate, but Ashley knew I needed a center part to feel like myself, so she created the most beautiful half-up look with a modern twist. Victor is the head makeup artist for Estée Lauder and basically created my makeup look on the spot. We went classic and brown for the ceremony and cocktail hour and then swapped the brown for black for a more dramatic effect when it came time to dance.” The groom wore a Tom Ford tuxedo and bow tie with Tod’s shoes. He gifted his groomsmen silk Turnbull & Asser bow ties.
The ceremony took place at Central Synagogue, Samantha’s family’s temple uptown. “We had two of my male cousins, and two of Ryan’s female cousins, walk our chuppah down the aisle—a tradition from Jerusalem where the moving chuppah symbolizes the start of us building our life together,” says Samantha. “We loved the symbolic nature of what this meant and worked with David [Stark] to find a beautiful gold fabric with tassels for the chuppah. The temple is so beautiful and colorful on its own that we wanted the floral arrangements to blend in to what was already there—a mix of pinks, creams, browns, and oranges.” Samantha walked down the aisle to “Secret Garden” by Bruce Springsteen, which Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl sang herself. “It was an incredible moment,” says Samantha.
After the ceremony, guests were transported to the library. Lanterns and topiaries lined the steps, giving guests a sneak peek into what was to come. Jennifer Zabinski and Carla Reuben of Creative Edge served up a cocktail menu of taco stations, sushi, and other small bites, while the Chris Norton band performed, singing lots of jazz and Frank Sinatra—giving the party a very old New York vibe.
Guests walked through the hallway of Astor Hall, which was lined with silver balls and hurricanes, when they heard the call to dinner. “The reception was like a perfect starry night,” says Samantha. “The room was a mix of long rectangular and circular tables lining the dance floor, which comfortably allowed us to seat 290 people with plenty of space for dancing and our 24-piece band, Vali Entertainment. The dance floor was marbleized with a white and black print. The stage looked as if it was connected to the library’s glass dome ceiling. It was truly spectacular,” says Samantha.
When guests arrived at their tables, they found haricots verts and angel hair breadsticks waiting for them, so they could start eating right away. Once speeches started, hot bowls of the couple’s favorite dish, penne alla vodka, came around to each person. For dinner, there was a choice of chicken Milanese or branzino. Desserts like mini milkshakes with shots, chocolate chip brownies, and mini apple cider donuts were passed later in the evening.
Samantha’s mom, Lori Kanter-Tritsch, and her partner of over nine years, William Lauder, gave the opening speech welcoming guests. “My mom gave a heartfelt toast,” says Samantha. “And, William closed the introduction with the most emotional conclusions: ‘Sam and Ryan, you defy mathematics. You prove that one plus one equals way more than two.’”
Midway through the evening, Samantha changed into her second dress. “In order to do some real dancing I needed something comfortable,” says Samantha. “Carly found this beautiful beaded Reem Acra blush dress online, and we knew as soon as she spotted it that it was ‘the one.’ We had to rush order it to get it in time but it was perfect—romantic, beady, and it twinkled against our starlit backdrop of the room.”
The newlyweds opened up the dance floor with “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Toploader. “It couldn’t have been a more fitting way to get the party started,” says Samantha. “Ryan and I took our dance lessons pretty seriously and the result was a choreographed number that had everyone laughing like crazy.”
Vali Entertainment kept the dance floor packed until midnight when DJ Sam French took over for the after-party, and salty foods like truffle grilled cheese, pizza bagels, and chicken fingers were served to keep the momentum going. Later, Samantha and Ryan made their way to the St. Regis. “We had a pretzel while waiting by the exit,” says Samantha. “Nothing says New York like a hot pretzel!”