Of course, McGrath and Karen go way back. “She is so dear to me,” the bride says. “She did the beauty for my first Vogue cover. She is genuinely a true friend of mine, and it was so important to have her be a part of everything. Anyone who knows her knows she brings so much joy to everything. She helped me forget all of my nerves.”
When it started raining at 4 p.m., the bride admits the worry began to set in. “There was a lot of back-and-forth, and we were panicking up until about 15 minutes before the ceremony,” Karen says. “On the way to the wedding ceremony, I was locked to my phone, texting Lee: ‘We have to do it now! We have a 45-minute window.’ And, thankfully, it all worked out.”
For those within the music industry, Electric Lady Studios is an iconic and historic institution. “The beautiful music that has been made here…I can’t even begin to describe how many great pieces of music have been made here,” Karen says. “Lee, my husband—I love saying that—his team, and planner Brenna McKamey pulled out all the stops to make the rooftop look beautiful. When we realized it was going to rain, he built a contingency plan. They worked up until three hours before the ceremony and built a temporary rain shelter.”
On the roof, there were florals by Rosecrans and Flowers by Ford everywhere and a bar at the corner. “The mood was perfect,” Karen says. “It felt like a quintessential New York wedding. It wasn’t formal. We didn’t want anything formal. The dress code was ‘late-summer garden party,’ and the wedding colors were off-white, pale blue, and then, of course, florals. We told guests to come in whatever makes them comfortable—we’re not following tradition.” Meanwhile, set designer Mary Howard also came by and lent a hand at the eleventh hour to help prop out all of the spaces. “I wanted to make the studio feel like a jazz club—like Cafe Carlyle—with cocktail tables and a warm, cozy feel,” Karen says. “She came in and really helped us with all of that.”
At the start of the ceremony, Karen’s son and daughter walked down the aisle, followed by her young niece and nephew. “They are 5 and 7, and I had to bribe them with gummy worms,” she says, laughing. “I told them that there’s gummy worms before and gummy worms after!”
