A Halloween party held in a warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in 2015, was not where Adam Metzger expected to meet the love of his life. Adam, vice president at a New York City real estate development firm, was about to leave when Kimmy Scotti, friend of a mutual friend, arrived. “Kimmy waltzed in and said hello to my friends,” says Adam. “Her smile and her energy instantly gave me confidence. I guess it was the chemistry from across the room, and we started to dance.”
Kimmy, a partner at venture capital firm 8VC, says their meeting was made particularly memorable by an unintended kiss. “We were making our way towards each other, and we went to kiss on cheeks but leaned in the same direction and landed on lips. Definitely sparks flew.”
It took them a year before they began dating in earnest, but once they did, they were inseparable—and two months later, they moved in together.
When it came time to propose, Adam planned a musical surprise. He chose her 33rd birthday party in May 2018, surrounded by friends and family who had flown in for the event, which they hosted at their Flatiron loft. He had clued in the guests that he planned to propose, and when they were ushered out onto the private roof terrace, Kimmy was the only one in the dark. Adam, who had been a member of The Duke’s Men of Yale (now called the Doox of Yale) a capella group at his alma mater, rewrote the lyrics to Kimmy’s favorite song, Talking Head’s This Must Be the Place, to reflect her and their relationship. At the final verse, he got down on one knee and proposed.
“It was a question of how was I going to do this and really make a splash and have some fun—and create a moment that she's going remember fondly forever. I was not set on doing a song or performance, but I just thought the opportunity was too good to pass up,” says Adam.
Kimmy says the party and proposal was in keeping with their relationship. “I think our friends would say that we were creative and fun and really warm and and loving towards one another and you can kind of feel that when you're around us,” she says.
Adam did some serious research to find the perfect engagement ring for Kimmy. Knowing that she cares about sustainability and she’s a technology investor, he selected a lab-grown diamond from Ada Diamonds, which also happens to be one of 8VC’s investments. The solid gold band was made by The Moonstoned, and the interior has a hand-engraved bee—their nickname for each other—along with their initials and the date of their wedding.
It was Adam who wanted a Halloween wedding. The couple decided on an October 30th ceremony, with a Halloween party the next evening. With only five months to plan the entire event, Kimmy and Adam partnered with BAZAAR Bride top planner Annie Lee at Daughter of Design, while Belathée Photography (also of BAZAAR Bride's top photographers list) handled the couple’s photography; videography was done by McKenzie Miller Film.
The couple, with 250 guests in attendance, were married at Central Synagogue on the Upper East Side by Rabbi Lisa Rubin, who had guided Kimmy through the process to convert to Judaism.
They kept the ceremony decorations simple to allow the soaring architecture of the synagogue to shine through. Their handheld chuppah’s tallit of white linen, designed by friends Jesse and Meredith Finkelstein, featured the astronomical configuration of the stars over New York City at the moment of their marriage, hand-embroidered in gold.
L’Atelier Rouge’s Caroline Bailly, who designed the florals for all their events, created interior floral arrangements and used white roses to decorate the chuppah’s poles. Because Kimmy’s family and many of the couple’s friends aren’t Jewish, Kimmy worked with Carey Galliani at The Idea Emporium to create small booklets that detailed all of the traditional Jewish wedding rituals.
The couple got ready at The Bowery Hotel, where Charlie Riddle and Jackie Seabrooke for White Rose Collective did Kimmy’s make-up and styled her hair. The bride wore a Reem Acra wedding dress of cream scuba silk from Mark Ingram Atelier. Although her personal style tends towards intricate details, her dress journey took an unexpected turn. “Before I went to the studio, I sent them a note saying, ‘I'm really looking for something lace, with 3D flowers...if it has sequins, that would be good, and if it lights up, excellent.’”
But at the very moment when she was paying for one dress after thinking she'd landed on 'the one,' her saleswoman Ayana suggested she try on just one more. “We had such a nice relationship and rapport. And she said, ‘Would you just put on one more dress for me?’ And of course I said yes. She brought out this dress and I put it on and turned around, and my mother and my mother-in-law both had their hands on their chests and kind of gasping. I said, ‘Oh, this is the dress.’ and they replied, “Oh, yes, that's the dress’.”
She completed her outfit with Gucci Daisy satin emerald green pumps and Dior Tribales pearls detailed with little bees. She wore a white Cathedral veil with a blusher and silk piping and an antique gold and hand-set Swarovski coronet by Jennifer Behr. Kimmy and Adam's wedding rings are custom gold band and and antique diamond band both by The Moonstoned. The bride complemented her look with a simple gathering of lilies of the valley.
Kimmy's 'something old' was a gold safety pin with a little heart, a Valentine’s Day gift from her stepbrothers from the first year of their parents’ marriage. The new was her clutch, a gift from her mother-in-law, a custom Edie Parker with her Hebrew name “Chava Esther” on the front; the borrowed was her sister’s wedding band, and the blue was a vintage book called “The Jewish Bride,” a gift from Kimmy’s best friend who had found it a flea market in San Francisco.
The look certainly worked its magic on Adam. “I think that was one of the two times that I was really overwhelmed with emotion during that day, when Kimmy walked out onto the terrace at the hotel and her veil was blowing in the wind. My jaw dropped and my heart dropped as well—I definitely got those butterflies,” says Adam.
Adam wanted to wear something with flair that would take him from the synagogue to the next evening’s party. “That was the challenge to find something classic, but also a bit unusual.”
He found the perfect look at Gucci in Milan, a custom black tuxedo with tails and a double height collar shirt with a Gucci cream silk papillon bow tie. He wore Bottega Veneta velvet woven tuxedo slippers, and he accessorized with mother of pearl cufflinks and studs, a surprise gift from the mother of the bride. The tails felt right and fit like a glove, he says. “It was traditional enough for the synagogue but also was a hint of what was to come in the 24 hours to follow that wedding. Also, tails were comfortable for me because I used to wear them during my a capella days; they were my throwback to that as well since I was going to perform with the group during the Halloween party.”
He made his entrance to the Imperial March theme from Star Wars to hit the right note of seriousness and fun. “Our wedding was conventional in many ways, but it was also very playful,” says Adam.
Following the wedding, the couple hosted a formal yet intimate dinner at Greenwich Village’s Casa Apicii, which they rented out for their 120 guests. The Italian restaurant—chosen in part to reflect Kimmy’s Italian heritage—features secret hideaways and a romantic and warm color palette, which was complimented by warm yellow, peach, and pink flowers and berries arranged in different vintage crystal bud vases along the center of the tables. Each table also featured an illustration by friend Chamberlin Newsome. The wedding cake was a gluten-free almond genoise with layers of raspberry jam and almond cream from Brooklyn’s Colson Patisserie.
The next evening, the couple’s wedding-Halloween party was held at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on the Lower East Side, a former synagogue built in 1849 in the Neo-Gothic style, and now a storied event space. Kimmy and Adam loved the building’s vibe. “The space is just so perfect for Halloween. It's so spooky feeling, and Adam fell in love with it,” says Kimmy.
Playing on Kimmy’s Hebrew name—Chava is the Hebrew name of the Old Testament's “Eve”—and that she was marrying Adam, they decided on a dark Garden of Eden theme, “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil.” Their outfits completed the theme; Kimmy dressed as an angel and Adam as an archangel. At Adam’s suggestion, the couple wore 8 foot tall his-and-her wings, Kimmy’s white and his a custom black pair based on a design Kimmy sketched, from Liona Flowers.
Adam knows how to make an entrance, and knew that the occasion called for something dramatic. “I wanted us to make the most fun entrance possible and in a room full of over 300 people, a little bit of makeup was not going do it,” he says. “It just felt right and fun to have her be the shining light Angel and for me to be the Dark Angel because I can get a little bit gloomy sometimes and she's a beam of light.”
The bride felt the same way. “The effect of our costumes, Angel and Archangel, was so impactful! Both of us in eight-foot tall wings walking from The Bowery Hotel to the venue on the Lower East Side because of the insane Halloween parade traffic was one of my favorite parts of the night. Little kids kept stopping us and asking ‘What are you?’ and I would tell them ‘A bride!’ and then they would turn to their parents and say “I want to be a bride next year!’,” says Kimmy.
Kimmy began the evening with an Oscar de la Renta matching short-sleeve crop top and floor length skirt of white tulle and silver sequins and mirrors. She wore Miu Miu white satin and crystal sandals, jewelry from Alexander McQueen, and a Jennifer Behr custom silver halo along with moon and star hair pins of more Swarovski crystals.
Her second dress for the party was the result of a fortuitous meeting. She had been at a tech conference in London in June 2018 where she met Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri and CMO Robert Triefus. She happened to be dressed completely in Gucci at the time, making quite an impression in a sea of hoodies. Triefus extended an invitation to the Gucci boutique in Milan, where Adam had already decided to select his wedding outfit. While Adam was being fitted for his tails, she was treated to a display of Gucci’s dress collection. “I walked into this beautiful room and they pulled all of these white dresses and pieces from the archive they thought I would like, and told me they would make anything in white for me. I ended up with a custom third gown; it was such a great experience because I got to go back to Milan a couple of times for fittings and to pick the dress up. They just looked after me so well each time—and ruined my wedding diet with a lot of pasta," jokes Kimmy.
She selected a full length gown with a detachable cape from the Gucci archive, which Gucci custom made for her in cream silk. Swarovski crystals were used to make three bows that encircle the neckline, bodice and waist.
For an extra touch of glamorous mystery, make-up artist Michael Mejia applied small Swarovski crystals around Kimmy’s and Adam’s eyes to create a shimmering mask. The application took about four hours each. They also wore matching king and queen skull rings by Alexander McQueen that Kimmy had purchased in Paris during her bachelorette weekend.
The guests were greeted by the Doox of Yale singing on the venue’s entrance stairs. Once the doors were closed at 8.30 sharp, they mounted the stage and performed an arrangement of one of Kimmy’s favorite songs, What a Good Boy by the Barenaked Ladies. Adam, who had been tucked away in a closet at the back of the stage for the entire 45 minutes during cocktails, made a dramatic entrance. “Adam came out of the doors in his wings and joined them on stage and sang with them. There's a part of the song that’s about a good girl’s character. While they were singing, I appeared at the back of the room and it was such a fun thing to do, walk through this crowd of all of our friends and family who were so shocked to see us in these wings and crystals,” says Kimmy.
The color scheme was romantic and moody with rich reds, purples, and fuchsia, accented with greenery and sprawling displays of fruit. The décor was full of surprises, from cracked open pomegranates, to apples under bell jars, with gorgeous vintage velvet sofas and pillows throughout the space, and trees lining the room. A plant wall full of branches and roses, a wedding gift from L’Atelier Rouge’s Caroline Bailly, was the backdrop for the photo booth. A custom Garden of Metzger neon sign from Hi, Neon hung from the second story balcony.
The couple's dark Garden of Eden was completed with a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which bloomed out of the bar where guests sipped on signature cocktails, dubbed “Knowledge” and “Innocence.” The food was by Real Food Catering. Kimmy and Adam wanted a feeling of abundant decadence, with overflowing platters and tables of food. Given that it was Halloween, plenty of Halloween candy and little desserts were served, all accompanied by signs reading “Forbidden Feast” on the tables.
The cake continued the unconventional concept of the celebration, with a 5-tier Ron Ben-Israel confection of red ganache with flowers and little jeweled edible snakes peeking out from the petals. The interior was whimsical and nostalgic: funfetti and Oreo cream icing. “The cake really looked serious from the outside, but the inside was so playful,” says Kimmy.
The entertainment for the 330 guests included burlesque performers, a contortionist, a snake charmer, and a belly dancer with a live boa constrictor, as well as astrology, tarot card, and palm readings held in private nooks. Friend and DJ Christopher Sealey provided the music.
The couple was overjoyed that their guests so enthusiastically embraced the spirit of Wedding-Halloween. “The best part for me was that all the guests really leaned into the costumes and you can see it in the pictures. And it meant so much to us that everyone, even our families, really got into it and the evening was so fun,” says Kimmy.
The two nights realized the dichotomy of a good relationship, says Kimmy—intimate, loving, and exciting. “Our wedding had all the lightness and sweetness and love, and then the second night really had the moodiness and sexiness.”
"On November 1st, we awoke late in the morning, finding it hard to believe that yesterday was real,” says Adam. They then departed for a “mini-moon” in Montréal, where they spent a relaxing long weekend at the Ritz-Carlton, walking on the Old Port’s cobblestones, visiting the famous Notre-Dame Basilica, and enjoying delicious meals at Garde Manger and Arthur’s Nosh Bar. “We found ourselves wondering: is this the best latke in the world, or are we just in love?"
