A love story like the ones seen on TV: Zoe and Kyle at one point were just two strangers at a tavern, and fast forward years later — they’re married. Their wedding was one for the Hoboken books — given that Zoe is a Hoboken BNR, it had elements of local vendors, Hoboken-themed spots — and the grand finale (or beginning, should we say): nuptials under the Hoboken 14th Street Viaduct. With several delays of their big day due to COVID-19 (4, to be exact), Zoe and Kyle decided to get married outside, and now are ready to tell their Hoboken love story.
(Photo credit: Danny U)
Hoboken Girl: What do you both do for a living?
Zoe Anthony: I am in preschool teacher here in Hoboken, and Kyle works in financial marketing.
HG: Tell us about where you grew up.
ZA: I was born and raised in Hoboken and still live here now. I have loved watching Hoboken change and evolve so much over the past three decades. I love how most of my family still lives here too and not a day that goes by that I don’t run into someone in my family on Washington Street.
K: I live in Hoboken now (and have for the last 9 years) but grew up in Toms River. I loved living so close to the beach.
HG: When/where did you and your partner meet? Can you share the story?
ZA: Kyle and I met at Mills Tavern in Hoboken on Labor Day Weekend 2017. We had both been out all day and while we were feeling a little too old to be out downtown, we were both convinced to end our nights at Mills Tavern. Kyle’s friend came up to me and introduced himself saying “hi, I like your glasses” to which I replied, “thank you, I like your friend” and pointed right at Kyle. I have been wearing red-tinted glasses because of my eye condition since I was three and it figures they become the reason I met my future husband! Kyle claims he has been shyly standing against a wall at bars for 10 years waiting for someone to talk to him and it finally worked.
HG: Was there an instant connection/chemistry between you two?
ZA: The connection was instant. We had our first date the next day at Robongi and then saw each other almost every single day for an entire year. One year later we were living together and two years later we were engaged. From the moment we met that night at Mills tavern, there was no doubt we wouldn’t end up together.
HG: How long have you been together?
ZA: A little over four years.
(Photo credit: Danny U)
^The couple had part of their celebration at Mill’s Tavern, where they met.
HG: Tell us about your proposal.
ZA: Kyle and I started playing basketball at night during the summer at Elysian park to get exercise. We started this game where one person shouts out “if I make this in, you have to …” examples included do the dishes, fold the laundry etc. On this particular summer night, Kyle said “if I make this in, you have to marry me” and then got down in one knee. Lucky for me, he didn’t make it in so I had a choice which was an obvious yes!
It was only us two on the basketball court that night. I always knew I didn’t want to get engaged in front of a bunch of people and Kyle is the same way. We celebrated with friends the next day at Mills Tavern, the spot where we met.
Read More: The Best Hoboken Engagement Photo Spots
HG: Did COVID-19 play a part in your engagement?
ZA: What started out as a 9-month engagement turned into a two-year engagement. We were planning to have our wedding in May 2020 and made the decision to postpone that to March. Fast forward two more postponed wedding dates until we finally felt like it was safe enough to host our wedding. Fourth times a charm! Through all the postponing our vendors were incredibly thoughtful and flexible with us which we will be forever grateful for.
The biggest change our wedding took on, besides four dates and multiple seasons, was that we went from indoor to completely outdoor. It was the biggest priority that our guests feel safe when celebrating with us.
(Photo credit: Danny U)
After a lot of brainstorming, we had a pretty out-of-the-box idea to host the entire wedding under the Viaduct. Vince, the amazing owner of our venue the Kolo Klub, made our dream truly come true. Working with the city and the state, Vince hosted a full wedding under the viaduct which had truly never been done before. Fruiti Fi, the smoothie shop, graciously became our bridal suite, Carpe Diem became our post-rehearsal dinner and pre-ceremony drink spot and the now-closed Bow Tie cinema became a display of our movie poster remakes. After planning a wedding four times you start to lose the magic but the time and energy everyone put in around us to pull off this event made it more special than we could have ever imagined.
HG: Tell us about your venue/location for the ceremony? Why there?
ZA: Our ceremony and reception both took place under the bridge. I actually didn’t know what it would look like until I was physically walking down the aisle. Laura Clare, our florist here in Hoboken, took a blank canvas under a bridge and truly transformed it into a wedding venue. There were so many moving pieces we could not even give Laura an accurate table count until 5 days before the wedding! We will be forever grateful for her creativity and flexibility in helping us bring our vision to life.
HG: How many people did you have at your wedding?
ZA: We had 125 guests attend our wedding.
(Photo credit: Danny U)
HG: What was your favorite moment of the day?
ZA: It is nearly impossible to pick one moment because the entire day felt so perfect. I would say my two favorites though were our ceremony and when we took photos with all of my old students. For our ceremony, it was really important for us to exchange vows we wrote. There was not a dry eye in the crowd after we each poured our hearts out. We even both had the exact same line.
Secondly, during our pictures, we stopped by Shipyard park where a bunch of my old students were waiting. I’ve been teaching in Hoboken for the past five years and having my students be a part of my big day was so important to me. They showed up dressed up and threw confetti and it was just the sweetest moment.
HG: Tell us about working with a local event planner, Jordan Lacey. What was that process like?
ZA: We weren’t set on having a wedding coordinator until our fourth wedding date when we realized it was absolutely necessary given how unique the wedding venue was. A wedding of this size had never been done before under the Viaduct and we knew we needed someone who could coordinator all of the moving pieces that would take place on our big day. I posted in the Hoboken Girl Facebook page and the response was overwhelming. I interviewed many people but no one quite compared to Jordan Lacey. We truly don’t know if the day would have turned out the way it did without Jordan there! Whether you’re hosting a wedding at a well known wedding venue, or under a bridge, Jordan is for sure the best for the job.
HG: Did you use any local vendors?
ZA: In addition to Jordan, our goal was to hire as many local vendors as possible.
Originally we had hired Bobby Flowers, a Hoboken legend and amazing florist, but sadly he passed after our second wedding date. We then hired Hoboken florist Laura Clare who was the epitome of adaptive and flexible. The photos of the space speak for themselves, but she is simply amazing!
Our photographer who won us over after just two minutes of conversation was Hoboken born and raised photographer Danny U. His photos truly capture how perfect our day was and we felt like we gained a photographer and a friend that day.
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Our violinist who played beautifully during our ceremony was Hoboken resident Joseph Ong. We knew we wanted live music during the ceremony and we found him through a mutual friend. We had a small cake made by a local friend who’s in pastry school, Maxine Crego, and it was so delicious. We also had Mr. Softee who parks his truck just down the block stop by to provide all of the guests with their famous soft serve. We used a local print shop Print Hoboken to print movie-sized posters of us recreating iconic movies and hung them where Bow tie used to hang theirs. On the day of the wedding, Mills Tavern agreed to open the bar just for us to take a few photos there.
(Photo credit: Danny U)
Every vendor and local business truly rallied behind us but no one put in quite the amount of time, effort and energy that Vince Crysler, of the Kolo Klub, did in order to make this day happen. We heard horror stories of other couples losing their venues, losing money, and working with venues that were incredibly inflexible during Covid. Vince Crysler and the team at the Kolo Klub could not have been more opposite. Everything from renting tables, chairs, bars and even a bathroom to figuring out how to feed 125 people 5-star cuisine under a bridge, there is no one that could pull it off quite like Vince. What we once thought would be a small, simple wedding in a beautiful little space turned into a pretty complicated event with so many moving pieces and we owe the success of it all to Vince.
HG: Any advice for couples planning a wedding locally or in general?
ZA: Our advice to anyone planning a wedding is hire people who have a true passion for what they do and who you genuinely enjoy being around because they are the people you surround yourself with throughout your big day. For example, Jordan, our coordinator, was with us from the moment we woke up to the very end of the wedding and we couldn’t imagine having anyone else there with us by our side. When your vendors become your friends, you know you chose them right!
(Photo credit: Danny U)
HG: What are you looking forward to most as a married couple?
ZA: We are most looking forward to continuing to grow our little family one day. Right now it’s just us and our puppy (appropriately named Kolo after the Kolo Klub) and we cannot wait to one day expand our family of three.
