Inside Cult Downtown Designer Sandy Liang’s Two Weddings in Queens and Coastal Maine

A month later, over the weekend of June 23, they held a second wedding at Dorian’s family home in Lincolnville, Maine. The couple worked with planner Molly O’Rourke, founder of One & Supp, to craft a coastal New England affair with a downtown creative edge. “Maine is our happy place, and I wanted to share that with our close friends,” says Sandy. “The idea was to have it feel like a giant sleepover for a weekend, but dressed up.”

On Friday they had a welcome party on the beach, where guests ate lobster rolls and skipped rocks until the sun went down. The next day Sandy and Dorian held a cocktail and dinner party under a tent in the Booths’ backyard.

The bride wore a gown of her own design, called the Ponyo dress. Made of silk taffeta—“if a princess were a fabric, this would be it,” elaborates Sandy—the Ponyo featured elbow-length sleeves and a cape. She paired it with Mikimoto pearls and a dramatic veil, while Arneson adorned her long raven hair with bows. “One of my core inspirations will forever be Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola,” Sandy says. “I wanted to channel that energy into my wedding look. I’m used to always being behind the scenes, so it was so much fun to be the girl getting dressed up.” In lieu of a bouquet, she had a single allium with a black ribbon by florist Miguel Yatco. As she walked along a winding path of tall grass and wildflowers, covered with mist coming off the ocean, Dorian was waiting in a suit from Bhambi’s Custom Tailors. (Little did the couple know that Dorian’s father had been painstakingly mowing the lawn for the past month to create such an idyllic setting for the reception: “There was a lot of care poured into the whole situation. I loved how we were enclosed by all the tall grass and you had to sort of wander into the tent,” she said.)

Sandy enlisted the expertise of several accomplished friends throughout the evening: James Beard Award–winning chef Danny Bowien, along with Portland-based chef Paolo Laboa, catered her dinner. Paolo’s son Simone baked the couple’s giant white sheet cake, which sat upon a board crafted by her father-in-law. Centa, a Lisbon-based creative studio that works with Loewe and Zara, made giant ribbon centerpieces for the tables that sat alongside calla lilies tied to ivory candles and vintage silverware the bride sourced herself. “I am so lucky to have so many talented people in my life who I roped into doing this whole thing with me,” she says.

Guests dined on a gourmet feast of lobster with burrata, fish steamed in parchment, grilled beef with charcoaled chili, and eggplant caponata as rain poured down around them. The mercurial weather, says Sandy, made an impeccably moody atmosphere: “It felt cozy and dreamy—a very special moment for me.”

Sandy and Dorian say their predominant feelings about their two weddings is a simple one: happy. “I was happy to see my family happy,” Sandy says. “Flushing was a lot of fun, and I loved what we did in Maine. Being in that environment was very surreal.”

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