Carly Kuhn, the artist also known as The Cartorialist, and Danny Matz were set up by their childhood friends and couple Brandon and Michele. After 17 months together, Danny proposed on quite a superstitious day—Friday the 13th in March of 2020. He told Carly he had a work party in New York, so they flew to the city, where she grew up. At the end of the work week, he took her to Central Park and got down on one knee. “That night, we went out to our favorite Italian restaurant, Parma—probably the last time we ate inside at a restaurant!” Carly exclaims. “Our families had initially planned a surprise engagement party at my parents’ house, but because of COVID, they had to cancel last minute. The silver lining was both our families had extra time together.”
At the end of August, the couple decided to have an intimate wedding with their immediate families that December. “Ultimately, we knew we didn’t want to have a long engagement and wanted to start a family sooner rather than later,” Carly says. For Danny, the most important aspect was that his grandmother, “Boo Boo,” had to attend, so they brought the wedding to Boo Boo’s in Boca and also live-streamed it on YouTube.
Since the mother of the bride grew up in Miami Beach, she had a connection to planner Carlos from Boca by Design. “Fortunately, Carlos and his team were a one stop shop,” Carly shares. “The process was pretty seamless. I made some Pinterest boards, shared them with Carlos, and my mom, my mother-in-law, and I had a bunch of Zoom meetings. We got lucky with Carlos that he got my vision right away.”
Once they had a coordinator, Carly, of course, created a custom invitation featuring an illustration of herself, Danny, and their dog, Lucca, that she sent to guests through Paperless Post.
Before they left for Florida, the couple got their marriage license at the Honda Civic Center in Anaheim. “We drove from L.A. there, arrived to a sign [that read] ‘I Got Hitched at the Honda Center,’ and we rolled up to will call window three to sign our marriage license,” Carly explains. “Some people were decked out in wedding attire…We wore full sweatshirt [and] sweatpants attire—wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
For her ceremony, Carly knew she wanted to get her wedding dress from Loho Bride. “Christy, Loho’s founder, and I had followed each other on Instagram for a while, so when I finally got engaged, I was so excited to go there,” the bride explains. Because of COVID, the boutique was closed for many months, but during that time, Christy and Carly discovered they were neighbors and became friends through socially distanced walks together.
In August, Carly went to the open boutique, and when she tried on Cushnie’s Clara gown, she—and her mother and future mother-in-law over FaceTime—knew it was the one. “It was simple, timeless, no fuss, but still special,” the bride says. “And a cute coincidence, the designer of Cushnie’s name is also Carly!”
To the rehearsal dinner, Carly wore her mother’s wedding dress, which was vintage when her mother bought it, so it was almost 100 years old. And the next day, she paired her bridal gown with her mother’s Donna Karan silver shoes. “I’m lucky my mom has passed down a lot of very cool clothes to me,” Carly shares. Because of COVID, the bride had her hair done by Dustie Ramirez outside and did her own makeup with help from YouTube tutorials.
Danny kept it classic with a blue suit from Suitsupply, a white button-down from Ermenegildo Zegna, and Gucci loafers. “Lucky for guys, all three items will be in the rotation for many future outings, I’m sure,” Carly says.
On December 20th, the bride didn’t know if she would cry, but the second she heard her and Danny’s song, “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves, and saw her future-husband tearing up, she lost it. One of Danny’s family rabbis from Michigan was in Florida, so luckily, he was able to perform the Jewish ceremony outside of Boo Boo’s home.
It was definitely a ‘go with the flow’ kind of wedding,” Carly explains. “My dress’s train started to come off right when I got up there, and my mom attempted to help put it back on, and I just said, ‘Ah, it’s made its appearance,’ and I just took it off and gave it to her.”
After the traditional seven circles and exchanging vows, Danny broke the glass, and the newlyweds walked down the aisle to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Then both fathers gave their toasts, as they wanted to have at least these two on the live-stream to help their friends and family on YouTube feel like more of a part of the evening. Carly’s dad even performed a song on the keyboard that he’d written. A cocktail hour and dinner by Silver Sac Catering followed the fathers’ words. The tables were set with custom linen napkins from Atelier Saucier, and the menus were handwritten by the mother of the bride.
The new Mr. and Mrs. had their first dance to “Some Kind of Wonderful” by Carole King, and after dessert, Carly’s brother played the theme song to the show Curb Your Enthusiasm to break the ice for the second half of the evening. “And somehow, even with only a few people, we managed to not just dance the Horah, but Danny and I were lifted up on chairs—yes, maybe only for about two seconds, but nonetheless, we did it!” Carly exclaims.
Looking back at everything now, Carly is so grateful they were able to have their wedding. “It was perfect in all its perfectly imperfect ways,” she says. “While a party with all my friends and family would have been so much fun, no doubt, this wedding was something that was truly special.”
