A Festive Florida Wedding With Two Cocktail Hours, Two Aisles, Two Rabbis, and Two Receptions
In August 2018, Madeleine Gerrick ventured on her first-ever Bumble date with LGBTQ+ mentor and documentary executive producer J Winkelried at the bar Lovers of Today in the East Village of New York City. “We spent the first night we ever met drinking cocktails in the corner booth singing oldies together,” says J.
Three-and-a-half years later, J planned a proposal that would lead them back to that pivotal spot in their romantic history. “I told Maddie that we were meeting friends downtown to carpool to a museum event together to Connecticut. But when we were walking by Tompkins Square Park to meet everyone, I said I wanted to quickly pop in,” they share. “We walked into the bar to ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ by The Beach Boys and there was a Lite Brite—something Maddie always wanted as a kid—that said ‘Marry Me?’ on the bar counter. I even looked up the menu ahead of time and asked the bartender to have the cocktails we drank that first night there waiting for us. I was such a nervous wreck that I left my glasses in the Uber we took there!”
Even though there was already a proposal, Maddie wanted J to experience that incredible surprise, too. She organized a huge group of their friends to attend a Yankees game together and had the words “J, let’s cheer on the Yankees together forever, marry me?” displayed on the Jumbotron. J shares, “I kept saying, ‘I can’t believe we got 20 of our friends to come to a Thursday night baseball game!’ Little did I know… If I had, I would have worn something nicer than my ‘George Costanza’ Yankees jersey. I love that being queer allows us to both experience the magic of a proposal. We think everyone should have that!”
When the to-be-weds began brainstorming their wedding vision, they first thought that as a queer couple, New York City would be the perfect location. “It’s our forever home and where we feel safest and happiest,” says J. “But we also knew we wanted a different type of wedding—one that was outdoors and at a venue that would allow us to customize our guests’ experiences outside of the traditional ‘ceremony-dinner-dancing’ party we often see.” When J’s parents offered up their family home in Florida to serve as the venue, the couple realized the beautiful property, which held so much meaning for the two of them, was the right fit. “At our intimate shabbat dinner the first night, our friends’ toast summed it up perfectly: ‘Welcome to Florida: the ultimate gay wedding destination!’ Even in a state where it is illegal to say the word gay [in schools], we knew it was important to celebrate ourselves and our love there because love will always win.”
Maddie and J worked with planner Marcy Blum to execute their wedding weekend experience. “We wanted our wedding to be fun, bright, entertaining yet relaxing, and offer more experiences than just dinner and dancing,” they explain. The celebrations began with the outdoor shabbat dinner on Friday night, followed by a “Palm Beach chic” welcome party at The Colony Hotel the next day.
The wedding day itself broke from traditional form, with plenty of key elements coming in pairs. The day began with the couple signing their ketubah with a small group, then joining the rest of their guests for a pre-wedding drink. “Everyone knows cocktail hour at weddings is sometimes the best part, so we thought, ‘Let’s have two!’ The pre-ceremony cocktail hour overlooked the beach, where the giant deck for the ceremony was,” share the couple.
