Copious congratulations on your recent nuptials, Steve! Here’s wishing you all the best in your life together.

It was a wonderful celebration and the love for you two from those who were there was palpable! So happy for you two!

Would it be damning with faint prasie to say that that is the hippest wedding cake I’ve ever seen?

Congratulations to both of you!

Wow! Okay, in order:
Bruce, as always, you have a way with words. Thanks, too, to Derek and Mwanji. Honored by your presence on our magical evening, Elizabeth, as well as by Martin’s kind visit here.
Darcy, the cake was Dr. LP’s doing: it was three layers of traditional Sicilian cassata, basically a light sponge cake moistened with liqueur, filled with cannoli cream and covered in a sweet shell. In this particular case, it was also covered with chocolate chips and the same fresh-cut flowers that were in the bridal bouquets and on the dining tables. The cake came from one of the very traditional Italian bakeries on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but I’m afraid I don’t know which one.
Lisa, you should see some of the official photos: The Doc looks like a classic film star, and I cleaned up fairly well myself. The dress was cause for mild scandal among some more-conservative family members, but was a huge hit with most guests (and, naturally, myself).
Thanks kindly, Steve. And Vince, I don’t know exactly what all was played at the reception; I hired Bruce Tantum, editor of the clubs section in Time Out New York, as our DJ. Bruce is a professional DJ, but not a professional wedding DJ, and the difference was telling: no Chicken Dance, no “Electric Slide.” I remember some classic soul, some Sinatra, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You,” Led Zeppelin’s “Dancing Days.” Europe’s “The Final Countdown” represented the Doc’s ’80s Jersey Girl roots, while my own sordid past was acknowledged with Kiss’s “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” Our first dance was “A Smile in a Whisper” by Fairground Attraction.
More music: Guitarist Paul Meyers played solo before the ceremony, and led his Brazilian trio during cocktail hour. As for the ceremony itself, LP and I entered after our friend Katherine Teitler (who took the photograph above) played a bewitching rendition of Jacques Ibert’s Pièce for solo flute. Midway through the ceremony, baritone saxophonist Claire Daly played Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes” a la Coltrane behind my best man’s recitation of part of Kahlil Gilbran’s “The Prophet.” (It was as if that infamous Richard Harris record had never existed.) And Sheila Jordan improvised a brief benediction that made me completely giddy, and still does.