Allegra Storatz, who started her own PR consulting company specializing in clean beauty and wellness brands, wouldn’t have met Chris Novick when she did if her college roommate hadn’t gotten swine flu and understandably derailed their plan to go back to Allegra’s hometown for Easter weekend. The freshman roomies decided to stay at Trinity College, and Chris was still at school because he had lacrosse practice. After meeting over that fateful period, they dated for eight years before he proposed during a vacation in Barbados.
On March 9, 2018, after a long day on the beach together, Chris led Allegra to a secluded table on the beach for pre-dinner champagne. He gave her a photo album filled with pictures of their whole relationship, from the weekend they first met to fun travels to graduating college to moving in and getting their puppy, Moose, together. “When I got to the end, I was sobbing already, and he stood up and got on one knee. I blacked out! Thankfully, he wrote down what he wanted to say, so I was able to re-read the proposal the next day,” Allegra says.
The groom chose a custom, navy tuxedo by Imparali to say “I do” to his bride. “A navy tux is so handsome, and I love how it looked next to all of his groomsmen in black,” she says. He also wore an engraved IWC watch that Allegra gifted to him on the morning of.
To walk down the aisle, the bride ended up choosing a Marchesa gown and customized the back and added more than five feet to the train for a little bit of drama. “Everyone gave me a hard time for such a long train, but in the end, it was my favorite part of the dress,” she says. As her “something borrowed,” she wore her Nonna’s vintage diamond and ruby pink ring, and Chris gifted her custom pear-cut diamond and pearl drop earrings, which he worked with her friend and jewelry designer, Sophie Ratner, to create. “They completed my look. I loved how the pearls were not identical—gave them character. I will always cherish them,” she says.
The bride always knew she wanted to get married in the Hamptons, where she grew up summering, and decided a reception on the water was a must. For the ceremony, they picked Sacred Hearts Basilica, where Allegra was baptized, and for the reception, they booked the Bridgehampton Tennis & Surf Club. And to help plan all the festivities, the couple hired Kimberly Pilson, of The Wedding Sitter, and her team.
On September 7, 2019, Allegra walked down the aisle with her father, and the full Catholic mass began. “Chris’s one word to describe the ceremony was ‘awe,’ and mine was ‘surreal’… it was an out-of-body experience,” she says. After the newlyweds shared their first kiss as husband and wife, the two snuck away to the beach for photos and then rejoined everyone at their reception space.
During dinner, among many hilarious and amazing speeches, the mother-of-the-bride stole the show when she walked out with a life-size cut-out of her daughter’s 80-lb. dog and began her toast. Once the seated portion of the night concluded, Silver Arrow Band got the party started.
The new Mr. and Mrs. had their first dance to “I Love You Always Forever” by Betty Who. “We wanted a non-traditional first dance song, and this has been one we’ve both loved since college. We ended up not taking dance lessons and totally winged it that night, which, I won’t lie, was very stressful but ended up being epic and so much fun in the moment,” the bride says.
The party continued at the local bar, 75 Main, where friends and family danced the night away. “Chris and I got maybe two hours of sleep, as we woke up at sunrise to meet our photographer at our favorite beach for a sunrise ‘wreck the dress swim.’ We brought a bottle of champagne, I put my dress back on, and Chris his tuxedo, and we went swimming,” Allegra explains.
