Blake & Wayne

How and when did you meet? What were your first impressions of each other?

Blake: In 2014 I was at my cousin’s bachelorette party and her friend asked if I was willing to be set up with a single friend she thought I might like. I’m not sure if she realized it at the time but the same cousin tried setting us up two years earlier and I shot the idea down! Anyway, the night I got home from the bachelorette party, I went to sleep early and woke up to a voicemail from Wayne. When I finally called him back we set a plan for dinner, which I thought was impressive since most of my first dates at that time were for drinks. He then followed up with a text asking for my address so he could coordinate sending a car to bring me to the restaurant. Although I made a joke of it and declined the offer, I knew that this was not going to be any ordinary first date.

Wayne: What can I say, chivalry is not dead! And look—it worked, right?

What was most important to you when planning your day?

Blake: It was really important that our wedding was fun. We knew it was going to be beautiful, but a wedding is about so much more than just the flowers and decor.

Wayne: Three things. 1) Food. Cocktail hour is always very important to me. There’s no good wedding without a good cocktail hour! 2) That it was going to be a fun, upbeat party. We were there to celebrate the best day of our lives with all our friends and family, and I wanted to take full advantage of that. 3) And most importantly, I wanted to make sure Blake got everything she wanted from her checklist.

Did planning your wedding teach you anything about yourself or your relationship?

Blake: I already knew this but wedding planning really showed me how laid back and easy going Wayne truly is. He doesn’t get worked up over the small stuff— a trait I could really learn from!

Who did you get ready with on your day?

Blake: I got ready with my six best friends, my sister, two sister-in- laws, my mom, mother-in-law and my three nieces. It was the best day ever. My friends slept in the room with me the night before and we woke up at 4 AM. We were all so excited we couldn’t sleep so ordered coffee through room service and stayed up laughing for hours. Once hair and makeup arrived at 9 AM the day flew by. The day would not have been the same without everyone by my side. I wish I could do it all over again—100 more times!

How did it feel when you saw each other for the first time on your day?

Blake: No matter what Wayne does, he always makes me laugh. Leading up to the day we joked that when we saw each other for the first time Wayne would say something to make me laugh and we wouldn’t be able to get as emotional and in the moment as we would want. When the time came, though, it was just right. I of course had tears welling up in my eyes. In true Wayne fashion he said something that lightened the mood while still making me feel special.

Wayne: I was so anxious and excited to see her all day. I was getting updates from all her friends on how beautiful she looked and how amazing everything was going and I couldn’t wait until I actually saw her. When I finally did see her, I got really choked up. She looked so amazing, beyond my expectations!

What moments from the ceremony held the most significance for you?

Blake: There were so many amazing moments I don’t even know where to start! For one, my best friend since childhood sang as I walked down the aisle and she absolutely blew everyone away. She hasn’t sung since high school so it was a big shock to everyone that she even had this killer voice. Everyone in the audience gave a standing ovation, and I’m still not sure if it was for me or for her. Two months later, I still watch the videos on repeat and it’s amazing to see everyone’s facial expressions as they realize that it was Maddy singing and not a recording.

Equally special were our vows. Wayne was hesitant about the idea of speaking our own vows in front of everyone. He is typically very private with his feelings, so it was out of his comfort zone to declare his love for me in front of 250 people. That said, I’m so happy we did. It made the ceremony ours and allowed everyone there to be able to get to know us individually, as well as as a couple, more than they did previously.

Wayne: Hearing our vows to each other was the most significant part of the ceremony for me—and I think for everyone in attendance as well. The religious aspect of the ceremony. is always really nice, but hearing and expressing the actual reasons why we were getting married and why we love each other so much brought so much meaning to the day.

What details did you include to make your day feel personalized?

Blake: A number of things! For one, everyone who knows Wayne knows he loves to have a good time. And to Wayne a good time means sparklers. We were told we could not bring sparklers into The Plaza, so we tried to come up with other ways of bringing that feeling into action. I knew I wanted to pass out special cocktails on the dance floor and then my planner (Bianca Blag) had the amazing idea to pass out drinks in beverage bags. We put light-up ice cubes in them and had them printed with “Lets Get Geffen Lit!” It was so fun. We also passed out selfie sticks with tags that said “Share the Geffen Love.” With our last name Geffen we had a lot of fun using it to play on words, as you can tell with our hashtag, #WereGeffenMarried.

At the end of the night, we always had the intention of passing out Dominos pizza (my personal favorite). Wayne’s friends took it one step further. They surprised us by running into the party with sparklers, a massive bottle of Whispering Angel and McDonald’s chicken nuggets on a silver platter. The rest of the night is history! Every picture from the second the Dominos was delivered to the end of the party includes two pieces of pizza (minimum) in hand and someone chugging from a massive bottle of wine. We still get stopped by random people who tell us they saw we had McDonald’s, Dominos and sparklers and that it looked “epic.”

Wayne: We incorporated Blake’s Poppie’s tallis into our chuppah, which meant a lot to us. I never got to meet him but I have heard such amazing things about him that it was nice to feel like he was still there for our day.

Blake worked so hard planning our dream wedding. She thought of everything and everyone had the best time because of it. That said, I do also give my friends a lot of credit for topping off the night with the most perfect surprise.

If you were allowed to keep only one souvenir or memento from your day, what would it be?

Blake: I wish I could bundle up our happiness and the love in that room into a bottle and keep it forever. I hope to always be even half as happy as I was on that day.

Wayne: My wife?

What other moments from your day stand out the most in your memory?

Blake: Walking around Central Park taking pictures was awesome. There must have been 300-plus people watching and following us. I truly felt like a celebrity! Also, my first look with my dad. He cried like a baby the entire day for my sister’s wedding, but was sure that he prepared himself enough for mine so that he would not shed a tear. He made jokes leading up to it that he was so excited for my “going-away party.” But that is not what happened! As he walked to see me for the first time, he was already crying. I will forever remember that moment.

Wayne: Seeing Blake for the first time… and when my friends surprised me with sparklers, McDonald’s and a 4x magnum bottle of rosé!

Would you do anything differently?

Blake: There is so much planning leading up to the wedding and you think you’ve thought of everything but something is bound to go wrong. The OCD publicist side of me could give you a list of things I wish happened differently but in reality all of the hiccups are so minor in the grand scheme of things that most people probably didn’t even notice.

Wayne: No, it was perfect. I want to do it all over again!

What is the most important thing you have learned from one another?

Blake: You have to marry your best friend—someone who truly understands you and has the same vision for life as you do. I can’t imagine going through all of this with someone who was not on and by my side through it all!

Wayne: A happy wife is a happy life!