Wild weddings and a designers downtown digs...here comes the spring!

Hippie Ever After

Stone Fox Bride is the anti Vera Wang, a wedding shop for funky wives-to-be looking for less frill and more chill
by Alison Prato Photography by Tom Corbett

makeup by anna webber for vapour organic beauty

Molly Guy, seated inside her bridal showroom, is shaking up the world of weddings with offbeat looks like the Nomia silk brace dress (on model, $2,100) and Elan Vital veil by Le Paola Peu ($1,500).

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During fittings, brides are fted with snacks (above) including oranges, Darjeeling or rosewater-cardamom tea and a customblend trail mix. True blushing brides might choose an unconventional Ryan Roche halter dress ($1,820) paired with a Stacey veil by Le Paola Peu ($1,000, right).

Just before the countdown to midnight on New Years Eve 2010, Chicago-born writer Molly Guy was sitting at a table in a divey Thai restaurant on vacation in Big Sky, Montana, bawling into her hot-and-sour soup. I was like, Its New Years Eve, I dont have any career plans. I dont know what the f--- Im going to do this year, she recalls today with a smile, lunching at Le Pain Quotidien in Union Square. We call it the Crying in My Soup Night. Then came that proverbial a-ha moment. Shed been harboring the notion of starting a cool bridal store, an alternative to the cheesy gown emporiums shed endured while planning both her sisters wedding and her almost-first wedding (she broke off the engagement). When my sister got engaged, we went to Martha Stewart wedding seminars. We did fluffy dresses, Bergdorf Goodman, and pin the penis on the donkey. It was all so rote, and I felt alienated and confused by the whole thing, says Molly, pouring miso dressing onto her salad. And yet, when Molly herself got engaged in 2003, at age 26, she found herself automatically surrounded by those same gaudy dresses and over-the-top fascinators. There was no template to do it differently. Nothing clicked. I didnt feel creative. I couldnt find my people. That whole experience was, for lack of a better word, traumatic. Six years later, she met Mike Guy through a mutual friend.
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For their first date at Mud Caf, Molly showed up with greasy hair, wearing Converse, dirty jeans and an old T-shirt. I could not have cared less, she says with a smile. He came in and I thought he was so sweet, boring, normal and neurotic, and I knew a hundred guys like him. I went home and told a friend, That guy was totally neurotic. As I was saying that he called and said, Do you want to see a movie on Saturday night? So we went to the movie [Sin Nombre at the Sunshine] and it was love at second sight. We made out and I was like, this is my last first kiss. Im done. Eight months later, he popped the question. Their Sunday afternoon wedding in October 2010 was a decidedly chill affair. I was hell-bent on doing it differently the second time, Molly says. I didnt want the drama. Mellow and low-key, the nontraditional Jewish ceremony (it also included poetry and Sanskrit chanting) was held at the elegant yet super-hip Metropolitan Building in Long Island City. Molly wore a white dress by Temperley London and bare feet. After the ceremony, the 250 guests dined on a brunch inspired by Mollys Nana, who had passed away just two months earlier: lox, bacon, bagels, eggs, orange juice and coffee cake. We wanted everyone together, but we dont like anything excessive or frilly. By four oclock, everybody had gone home. It was a perfect, chill day. Fast forward to that very un-chill night on New Years Eve,

Were not for the Upper East Side girl who wants Monique Lhuillier...I think its good to be polarizing. Otherwise you dont really have a point of view.

and Molly had her solution: Shed help other New York brides create their own perfect, chill days. The problem: She had no fashion or retail experience. I was like, I dont even know where to start with this crazy idea. She mentioned her plan to a few close friends and family members, including her sisters husband, Peter Shapiro, owner of Brooklyn Bowl. He funded the endeavor, and Molly found her showroom and merchandising head, Gabrielle Damico, after placing a Craigs List ad seeking someone with retail experience. Against the odds, and just one year later, Stone Fox Bride in NoHo is open for business. But a note to bridezillas who are obsessed with French twists, chocolate fountains and TLCs Say Yes to the Dress: This store is not for you. Were not for the Upper East Side girl who wants Monique Lhuillier, Molly says. I think its good to be polarizing. Otherwise you dont really have a point of view. Mollys point of view is calm and super chic. At 35, she is the epitome of effortless, ethereal earth mama. Eight months pregnant (her first baby, a girl, is due in April), makeup-free and fresh from a yoga class, shes the kind of girl others try unsuccessfully to emulate. She even makes Uggs look cool. This aesthetic is on view everywhere in her sun-drenched sixth-floor showroom at 611 Broadway, from the white shag

Custom dream-catchers (top) adorn the spiritually stylish NoHo showroom, while funky jewels like the Shourouk crystal necklace ($338) are propped on vintage books (above). Brides try on dresses such as the Marie by Lindsey Thornburg ($600) and the Paola veil by Le Paola Peu ($1,800) in tentlike rooms that Molly cheekily calls yurts on acid (right).

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HER SECRET SERVICE
Mollys hand-picked roster of experts is called in on request to emotionally, physically and spiritually guide women through their marriage transition. Molly wont reveal names because then no one needs to come to us to find them! she says. But here are the services her team can provide. THE BOUDOIR PHOTOGRAPHER will take sexy nude pictures of the brideto-be to give to her fianc. Starts at $450 for a one-and-a-halfhour home session and includes five retouched photos. THE SHIATSU INSTRUCTOR will ease anxiety and stress with an hourlong massage that uses gentle pressure and stretching. Starts at $120. THE STYLIST will curate head-to-toe looks for any occasion, from engagement party through reception. These looks belong on the pages of French and Italian Vogue, says the stylist, who has, in fact, worked for the European editions of the fashion bible. Starts at $1,500 for an entire day with the stylist. THE TATTOO ARTIST will etch a permanent reminder of the brides big day. I always advise to not go for the spouses name, says the east side inker, speaking anonymously. Symbolism unique to the couple can be more personal. Starts at $100, but pricing depends on the design. THE SEX THERAPIST will teach brides to enhance their orgasms. Starts at $2,000 for an extended afternoon info session on how to sexually and spiritually satisfy your partner and yourself.

Stone Foxs Heroine Gown (on model, above) from Lindsey Thornburg (price upon request) is sure to get more than one use, while statement pieces like the Kathryn Bentley gold scale ring ($4,160, left) will turn heads on the big day. Molly and husband Mike Guy (right) opted for a chill Sunday afternoon wedding in 2010.

pile rugs and cozy couches to the shredded silk walls and tree branches adorned with paper pompoms. A voracious reader, Molly has stocked every wooden table with books: the autobiography of Marianne Faithful, a cookbook from hotspot Frankies Spuntino, Forever by Judy Blume (any girl who grew up in the 80s knows what juicy things happen on page 81). More proof of the stores cheeky unconventionality: DVD copies of 9 Weeks are juxtaposed with copies of Sex for One by Betty Dodson. Custom dresses by a host of hip designersDaryl K, Ryan Roche, Electric Feathers and Mandy Coon, to name several hang nonchalantly along a wall, and brides- and bridesmaidsto-be can try them on in what Molly has dubbed yurts on acid, which look more like far-out tents youd find on a yoga retreat than department-store dressing rooms. Across from large arched windows, a wood and glass display case features a carefully curated array of rings and accessories, including stunning jewelry by Kathryn Bentley, Anna
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Sheffield and Shourouk. Gabrielle Damico is also available for custom veiling. In addition to the dresses and accessories, Stone Fox offers the Secret Servicea dossier of experts in various fields, including sex therapists, tattoo artists and more to create custom bridal-care packages (see above). Molly and Peter are planning to launch Stone Fox Mama (think Daryl K custom leather maternity pants) this summer, and later, Stone Fox Groom, Stone Fox Kids and maybe even Stone Fox Prom. (The name Stone Fox, by the way, came from a comment she saw posted on a friends Facebook photo. Theres something about being called a Stone Fox that sounds good, she says.) Well outfit you and provide you with resources, Molly says, running one hand through her enviable hair and the other on the side of her belly. I know when something feels cool and meaningful and authentic, and when it feels dumb. One things for certain: Shes no longer crying in her soup.