Two Artists Wed on Block Island With Sunset Views

a man and woman kissing in a field of tall grass — Two Artists Wed on Block Island With Sunset ViewsJD Swiger

The planning of Celeste Sloman and Kyle Moriwaki’s wedding began with the idea of Block Island. Celeste’s family had owned a summer house there for decades, and marrying at a place that was so special to the two of them held an appeal that was missing from the Brooklyn venues they had toured.

“As we were planning the wedding, we kept going to Block Island and spending time. It sparked [the idea] that maybe we should have it there,” says Kyle. “It’s close-by enough for everyone to come visit, and it feels like a destination at the same time. Plus, it’s much cheaper. We would get married on the Sloman property. It just started making way more sense and feeling way more special.” They had 75 guests for an intimate ceremony with a dinner and reception at the nearby Narragansett Inn, and were able to use all local vendors, including some of whom Celeste, a photographer, had known for years.

Read on for all the details.

a group of birds flying in the sky — JD Swiger

The Invitations

Kyle, who is an art director, worked with his mother to create the invitations. “I illustrated the cards with flowers and various sea-related things that you would find on the beach. My mother has amazing penmanship, so she hand-wrote everyone’s names and addresses on the envelopes. It was very this tactile collaboration between the two of us, and obviously Celeste was there to help art direct,” he says. The groom’s mother also made paper cranes to hang all over the yard.

The Décor

Flowers were important to the couple, and Celeste was so happy to be able to work with floral designer Ayla Shade, whom she had known since they were children. “What we wanted to put the most money and thought into was our floral designer,” she says. “She has such an incredible taste level that we were able to work with her to design the visuals at the Narragansett and my property, and so that was super important, because she did such a great job.”

Shade created an arch of roses for the ceremony to take place under, as well as a floralscapes on the porch and in the trees. The couple and their guests put their own efforts into beautifying the property. “We had to do last-minute decorations. We were running around, we put all these paper lanterns in the trees. I didn’t really realize how long that would take, so a bunch of my friends came over and we were all hanging stuff up,” Celeste recalls. “It was so much fun. It was just an all-hands-on-deck situation, which was great because it took some of the pressure off. We were like, ‘Oh, we have to do things,’ instead of just sitting around and thinking.”

The Photos

Photographing a photographer is an intimidating task. The couple selected JD Swiger of John David Weddings in Texas, a friend of Celeste’s who was a bit nervous about the job. “I’ve just known him for years, so I trusted him to take our photographs,” she says. Fortunately, it went off without a hitch.

a man and woman kissing on a dirt road — JD Swiger

The Dress

“I was really struggling to find a dress—I looked at thousands and thousands of dresses, and I just couldn’t really see myself in any of them,” says Celeste. One day, she watched video of a recent Jacquemus fashion show and was dazzled. “It was this all-white collection, and the models were all walking on white salt flats in the south of France. I saw the dress, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the one.’ Then I thought, it’s probably going to be way out of my budget. But I looked it up and it was totally not. Yes, it was pricey, but it was within the realm of what I had budgeted for.”

Then came an agonizing wait for the dress to become available. There were two versions of it and the first one was only available in the smallest size offered. Celeste ordered it, but it didn’t quite fit. The next day, the other style, which had a train and was the one that she had preferred, became available in her size. She took it as a sign.

Making the Veil

Kyle made Celeste’s veil. Hours before the wedding, he finished gluing small pearls on top. “The veil that Kyle made for me was really special, and it was really amazing to wear that,” she says. “He’d been talking about doing it for so long, and when he was done, it looked so beautiful.”

The Morning Of

The groom spent the hours before the 3 P.M. ceremony focused on staying calm. “Properties on Block Island are sprawling hills, and just really beautiful to walk around. I was just spending time with some of the guests, but mostly just ambling and collecting myself,” he says. He wrote his vows an hour and a half before the ceremony. “I left it to last second, but I felt like that really helped me gather my thoughts and centered me in a way, putting on a little pressure. But it felt good.”

Celeste and Kyle loved being able to spend time together before the wedding. “I know a big thing with getting married with the couple is that they’re not supposed to see each other, or I’m not supposed to see her in her dress, but I was literally with Celeste helping her into her dress, just being in the room with her,” he says. “We didn’t want to really be apart from each other. It felt really good to be with each other, and holding each other, and just preparing ourselves mentally.”

The Guests

Celeste rented the property next door, where many of her college friends stayed for the whole week of the wedding. “It was just a really special experience to have people from all over the world in my backyard, basically,” she says. “I felt so much support that morning because all of my friends were there.”

The Ceremony

The couple married under the aforementioned floral arch. The service was officiated by the man who the couple credits with introducing them. “We met on a set of a job, and it was basically because of this guy recommending Celeste to my company, so we chose him,” Kyle says. “We just thought he would be the perfect person to marry us. He has such a big and funny personality.”

The Reception

After the ceremony, guests traveled by taxi from the Sloman home to the Narragansett Inn, a hotel set right on the water with the perfect sunset views. They had a cocktail hour outside with a jazz singer performing. “We had the porch and lawn that basically goes right up to the ocean, where everybody was standing out there watching the sunset,” Celeste says.

Her favorite restaurant on the island is The Oar, which shares an owner with the property and was able to cater the buffet dinner. “It was a very casual feeling. We didn’t have assigned seating, everyone could sit with who they wanted to basically, which worked out well,” says Kyle.

The Second Look

Celeste and Kyle did a City Hall marriage prior to the wedding, where she wore a YSL dress she found on Poshmark. “I bought the YSL dress for that wedding…so I brought it to Block Island. It has feathers on it, it’s very fabulous,” she says.

a man and woman walking next to a car at night — JD Swiger

The Next Day

“All I can think about is the next day, waking up and going back to the property and how, incredibly, we still had all the lanterns and cranes and everything, all the flowers. The arch was still there. We were just looking at it,” Kyle recalls. “All those days of planning beforehand, it was just such a melancholy feeling to know that all our best friends were there on that property, and all of a sudden it’s over. But God, there are so many amazing memories condensed into that one day that we’ll never forget.”