Alyssa Martorana and Ilan Beitscher met at their mutual friends' wedding, of all places. "Prior to the wedding, the groom had been sending my Instagram profile to all of the single friends he had—even accidentally sending me my own profile about a week prior in the midst of his matchmaking," Alyssa laughs. Several introductions were made to her throughout the wedding day, but it wasn't until the after-party, when she met Ilan. They went on their first date two days later.
After two-and-a-half years together, Ilan proposed during a ballroom dance lesson. The two had been planning surprise dates for each other for months, and they'd talked about a dance class, as she'd grown up dancing. After learning a few moves, Ilan began to spin her around, and she noticed a photographer and violinist and began to piece things together. He got down on one knee, and once engaged, their immediate families came into the studio to celebrate.
With friends and family around Long Island and New Jersey, Alyssa's father suggested they look at venues in Montauk. "My parents live on the North Fork of Long Island, so I have spent lots of time out on the east end," she says. "As soon as we toured Gurney’s, even in the dead of January winter, we knew it was the perfect place."
As the bride has a background in fashion and design, she had a clear vision for the wedding's aesthetic. The weekend kicked off with a colorful shabbat dinner with the couple's immediate families and best friends, followed by a beach club day. "I initially proposed the idea to get married in Italy, which Ilan quickly nixed as he wanted to make sure we had the most important guests there, so for our rehearsal/welcome dinner I brought Italy to Montauk," Alyssa explains. "For the wedding day, this really all revolved around my love for the antique hydrangeas which were the star of the show for our florals."
Naturally, the bride's fashion choices were equally thoughtful. Alyssa wore a New Arrivals not-so-bridal dress and Rene Caovilla heels to the shabbat dinner. The next day, she partied by the ocean in a full Lisa Marie Fernandez look. "I threw on a pair of sheer Reformation pants over the bottoms to make my arrival to the party, Gucci platform flip flops, and some vintage style Le Spec sunnies to play on the pin-up girl silhouette of the swimsuit," she says. The welcome dinner called for Alyssa to wear her "something blue" Proenza Schouler dress, styled with Jimmy Choos and a Chanel bag.
Alyssa fell in love with her Vera Wang Jean wedding dress the second she first tried it on. "I had a tight timeline to select a dress, after deciding on a venue only nine months out from our date," she explains. "Once we put on the veil with the floral appliqué it was a done deal. I was obsessed. I knew I wanted to wear my dress for longer than just the ceremony before changing, so my bridal attendant and I had so much fun playing with different accessories for me to play with before changing into my second dress. We landed on a bolero for the ceremony, custom off-the-shoulder tulle sleeves for cocktail hour, and sheer gloves for my reception entrance and dinner." On the day-of, hairstylist Gabrielle of Marissa Molnar and makeup artist Stephanie Perez made her look like the most beautiful version of herself.
The bride ended the evening in a Nensi Dojaka dress with Saint Laurent platforms, followed by a sheer Retrofete mini and sneakers. On the other hand, the groom stuck to one trusted label to kit him with custom looks for the entire weekend, Suitsupply.
To bring everything together for their late-summer wedding, the couple turned to Sara Landon Events as the creative force behind the design and execution. Kristina Adams and Weddings by Nato lensed every special moment, while Karli Strohschein set the tone with an illustrated invitation suite.
On September 15, 2024, the beachside ceremony began. "Ilan started ugly crying at the front of the line before we even started our processional, so our families were hysterically laughing as I yelled at him from the back to pull it together for the photos," Alyssa jokes. The bride walked down the aisle to Ellie Goulding's "How Long Will I Love You," before the Jewish ceremony formally commenced under a floral chuppah by Wildflower Floral Events.
After being announced as officially married, the newlyweds joined their guests for a seated reception dinner, under an At Your Service tent, followed by an informal cutting of their single-layered The Cake Don vanilla with chocolate fudge confection. Alyssa also surprised Ilan with a New York Rangers–themed groom's cake—an ode to his love of hockey.
Once dinner was complete, there was a special dance to "The Nights" by Avicii with DJ Martin D'Arce. "Since Ilan was the last of his siblings to be married, we chose to do this dance with both of our immediate families in lieu of a traditional mezinka, where you honor the parents for marrying off their last child," Alyssa explains. "After this, once the dancing started, it truly didn’t stop. We had friends delivering us water to the dance floor all night." The party didn't end until 1:00 a.m.—the couple truly danced into newlywed life!
