Sandy Liang is married! The designer tied the knot to boyfriend Dorian Booth back in May, and they commemorated the occasion with not one but three events—a city hall ceremony to make it official, a traditional Chinese banquet at Sandy’s father’s restaurant in Queens, and a big party in Dorian’s home state of Maine. But Sandy holds the city hall ceremony near and dear, so we asked her to tell us all about it.

Dear ITG,

From when I was young, I never had the fairy tale, walking-down-the-aisle vision. My thing was always, ‘we're going to do city hall and get drinks with friends after.’ To me, having those parameters was more exciting and fun to work around.

I had this idea of wearing a Chanel suit—the months leading up to the wedding I was living in this YOGMO, You Only Get Married Once mindset. I found this awesome vintage Chanel suit on The Real Real. It was white and gray, with flecks of pink. It was so beautiful and it was my size—magic. And for shoes, I got the classic Chanel slingbacks with a little heel in white patent.

I got to go to Mikimoto for jewelry, and I found these really cute pearl huggies with tiny diamond, pearl-shaped drops. And a pearl necklace. I learned so much about pearls looking through all the different necklaces. The one that I wore has a pink hue and is ultra shiny—it was unlike any other pearl I've worn before.

For my hair, my really good friend Lizzie came over to my apartment and we did a little hair test. We tried an updo, we tried braids—I'm a braid girl typically. We landed on a French twist thing, and then I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of my hair accessories. There is this long dramatic bow I make called the Palermo Bow, so we popped that on and it was so cute.

I wasn't experimental with makeup until I turned 30. I was super self conscious throughout my 20s—I didn't want to look like I was trying too hard or too kooky. But when I turned 30 I thought, 'life is too short, I'm going to do what I want.' I started doing waterline eyeliner and it just changed my life. For city hall it was perfect. I was wearing an intense cat eye with a white liner along the waterline and a nude-y lip—Gen G in my Fuzz—which was done by Katie Jane Hughes. I'm very particular about my eyebrow shape, and I used my own Japanese dual-tip eyebrow pencil and Boy Brow. For my skin, Katie only used concealer on me—looking back at photos I have to say my skin looks amazing.

I completely forgot to get my nails done until the night before, so I asked my friend Jade from @wuwunails to come over the next morning and help. It was insane how last minute this wedding was [laughs] But that morning was such a fun little gathering—with Jade, and then Katie and Lizzy. Dorian’s dad was also there, and so was my sister. Nothing felt frantic or crazy. My friend Miguel from @agosmuni is so talented with flowers, and he brought over three different lengths of calla lily and had me pick one. And then we got an Uber to city hall.

We got there thinking it would be easy because the marriage license part was so easy, but that day there was a line. It was like a Supreme drop. But when we got in, we saw the longest, most beautiful hallway of happy people. It's like the only happy government building anywhere. They called our name and we went into a small room with the officiant and the mood became very serious all of a sudden. I don't remember a lot of it, but I do remember [the officiant] saying, 'you're not going to look at me, you're only going to look at each other, and then you're going to say this.’ I remember looking at him, and our parents looking at us, and it was very tender and sweet.

Afterwards, my dad gave us each red packets of lucky money. We took some photos, and then we walked back to the apartment. Then we went to my dad's restaurant to eat some dim sum.

A few weeks later we had a party in Maine where [Dorian]'s from, but city hall truly was my favorite event because I felt like I was just with Dorian having fun. The two of us looking at each other at city hall, walking home... There was something so beautiful and seamless about it all.

xSandy

photos via the author