The Grooms Wore Armani, Tom Ford, Versace, and Balmain for Their Wedding in the Central Park Zoo
In November of 2021, fashion stylist Andrew Mukamal connected with registered nurse Connor Bailey on Hinge, and the two had their first date over Thanksgiving weekend at Felice 83 on the Upper East Side. (At the time, both were living just a few blocks from the restaurant.) They started dating shortly thereafter and got engaged on July 22, 2023, in Central Park.
“After a typical Saturday lunch at The Mark, a few blocks from our apartment on East 76th Street, we walked into the park to spend the afternoon watching the roller skaters at the skate circle behind Sheep’s Meadow with a bottle of wine,” Andrew remembers. “We love the music they play—and the people watching. We settled into our usual spot under our favorite tree, and when Connor suggested I open the bottle of wine, I reached into the tote bag I had carefully packed that morning and pulled out a small Goyard ring box that contained a custom black ceramic band from Taffin that I’d designed and picked up months earlier. Sitting there on our big black blanket, hand in hand, I asked him to marry me. Tears in his eyes, and in a state of shock and surprise, he said, ‘Yes, of course.’ We kissed and opened the special bottle of Dom Pérignon I had packed instead of our usual rose to celebrate.”
The couple was married on August 31, 2024, under a floral arch of white hydrangeas created by Julia Testa in front of the sea lion tank in the Central Park Zoo. “[From the start,] we knew we wanted to get married in New York,” Andrew explains. “We were living there at the time and both of our families live on the East Coast in New York and Florida. We had visited the zoo in Central Park several times together—we both love animals—and spent countless hours enjoying the park together since the early days of our relationship.”
The zoo was only the second venue the couple looked at, and they knew it was the perfect place to celebrate their special day almost immediately. They started planning in September of 2023, and from the beginning, they had a clear idea of how they wanted the night to look and feel. To achieve that vision, they worked with Anita Pandian at Morton Street Events. “She had planned one of my best friend’s weddings at Blue Hill at Stone Barns a few years earlier, so we knew we were in good hands,” Andrew says.
In the lead-up, Andrew and Connor had their hair cut by their friend stylist Cervando Maldonado in LA two weeks ahead of the ceremony as they wanted a slightly grown-out look. They also had facials by Fabricio Ormonde in New York the day before the wedding.
The couple knew they wanted to wear black tie, and for the guest dress code to be all-black. For their own looks, they kept things timeless and classic. Connor wore a tailored tuxedo from Armani and Andrew was in a similarly classic Tom Ford tuxedo that his father helped him pick out before he passed away in 2017. “Although he couldn’t be there with us celebrating, it felt like the perfect way to honor his memory and have him there with me for such a special moment in my life,” Andrew says.
Manolo Blahnik was the footwear choice for both grooms, and their shoes were monogrammed with their wedding date on the inner heel. Andrew and Connor’s friend Lorraine Schwartz—who was a guest at the wedding along with her sister Ofira Sandberg—was the only jewelry designer they could imagine entrusting with their wedding bands. She created dome-shaped 18-karat yellow gold bands that were engraved with the couple’s initials and wedding date on the inside.
