Susannah Vasu had known Andrew Dacey for only a few days, but by then she already knew she had met her future husband. The two first crossed paths in Nantucket after being introduced by a mutual friend. They joke that they bonded over the fact that they were adults summering with their parents. “We felt like two teenagers running around the island,” laughs Susannah. “We quickly decided we’d be each other’s outlet from our families and exchanged numbers.” After spending a week together, Susannah’s mother asked her over coffee how things were going. “I replied: ‘I think I’ve met the man I’m going to marry.’ She asked how I knew, and I said that I just had a feeling.”
When they first started dating, the New Yorkers split their time between her apartment in the West Village and his Upper East Side place. “It was the Tale of Two Cities,” she remembers. “Long Uber rides and many subway lines apart.” After more than a year together, she moved in with him uptown and the two later bought a house together in New Canaan, Connecticut, the town where the groom grew up. A few months after closing on their new home, he ended up proposing during a surprise trip to Charleston, South Carolina. “Yes, it was a bit of ‘the cart before the horse,’ as they say!” jokes Susannah. “I was getting ready for dinner and doing my makeup, and he summoned me out to the bedroom. He proceeded to get down on one knee—almost two, he was so nervous!—and asked me to marry him.”
For their wedding, Susannah knew she wanted a venue that felt classic, understated, and elegant and quickly decided on the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. “There’s something poetic about it,” she explains. “There’s nothing you really need to do to make it a beautiful setting.”
As the owner of V Public Relations, a boutique communications and events agency, the bride ended up planning her own wedding, with the help of her mother and Winged Foot’s coordinator, Lily Braswell. Her sister also contributed by creating the couple’s wedding crest, which ended up on the invitations, programs, menu, and table assignments.
The wedding’s sophisticated aesthetic extended to the bride’s dress, a gown designed by Sareh Nouri. To accessorize, Susannah chose an heirloom lace veil that once belonged to her great grandmother. “It’s been worn now by three generations,” she said. “It’s been preserved in its chic vintage Saks Fifth Avenue hat box.” Vintage diamond cushion-cut stud earrings and a pair of metallic Manolo Blahnik’s Hangisi d’Orsay pumps finished off the look. Meanwhile, the groom wore Ralph Lauren and classic Belgian loafers.
As luck would have it, the weather turned for the worse 24 hours before the wedding and the entire ceremony had to be changed at the very last minute. “The floor plan, lighting, room changes, everything,” remembers Susannah. High winds and rain made plans to tie the knot outside impossible. “Less ideal in terms of the florals, but it was beautiful nonetheless.” Guests were served hot apple cider as they entered the terrace to fight off the unexpected chill in the air.
In a touching moment, the bride’s mother walked Susannah down the aisle to Bach’s “Prelude No. 1 in C Major” played by a string trio. The intimate, family feel continued throughout the ceremony, as Drew’s brother, Michael, sang “La Vie En Rose” between readings. Once they were pronounced husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Dacey walked out to Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and went off in a getaway golf cart for a moment alone before greeting guests later at cocktails.
After drinks, everyone was ushered into the grand Mural Room overlooking the golf courses for dinner. They dined on burrata on a bed of arugula with roasted butternut squash, followed by filet mignon on a bed of crispy baby kale and potato gratin. After the meal, a nine-piece band got going and the couple hit the dance floor to Sam Cooke’s “Change Is Gonna Come.” “We are huge Sam Cooke fans,” the bride says. “Typically, you’ll find us at home on a Friday night, cooking and singing to his music—this song in particular.”
At the end of the night, after s’mores and milk were passed to guests, those still standing sang Christmas carols, Billy Joel, and show tunes while the bride’s pal since middle school tickled the ivories in the Winged Foot atrium. “The music played on . . . and on . . . and this special moment reminded me of those eternal ones my mother had mentioned in her loving toast to us earlier in the evening,” says Susannah. “It was pure magic!”
