OLIVIA and BILL


WELCOME



Hello! Navigate above for info/details about Olivia & Bill's wedding. We tried to be thorough and set a scene for a weekend that would be fruitful for events/interactions with everyone together and on your own. We're glad you could make it and hope you have fun. If you have any questions, reach out. Happy wedding weekend!


the wedding party | the program (see 'wedding' tab)



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traditional vietnamese tea ceremony

Bill, his family, and groomsmen will make their way to Olivia’s house. There, Bill's dad (as the groom’s representative) will knock on the door and ask for permission to come in and receive the bride. Once Olivia's family has agreed, the bridal party will line up outside of the house to await the groomsmen to line up in front of them and to receive the gifts. Once gifts are exchanged, the bridal party will take the gifts into the house followed by Bill's parents, Bill, Bill's sisters, and then the groomsmen. Since the tea ceremony is usually held in the living room, space is always limited, for this reason, the wedding party will for the most part stay in the back to give room for the immediate family members.

The ceremony will start with Sara, Olivia's sister (as the bride's representative), giving words of welcome followed by the introduction of Olivia's immediate family members. Bill Sr. will state their intentions and respond with words of appreciation and introduction of Bill's side of the family.

Bill Sr. and Sam, Olivia stepfather, will each light a candle and bow to the altar as a sign of respect. Sara will then announce the entrance of the bride, at which time Miss Kim, Olivia's mother, will walk to where the bride has been waiting and walk her out to meet Bill and his family. Sara will announce that the couple will light incense and bow to the altar to pay respect and ask for blessings from the ancestors. The couple will turn to the parents and bow, then bow towards each other.

The best man, John, will hold the tea tray while the maid of honor, Zoë, pours the tea into two small tea cups. The couple then pick up the tea cups and offer tea to the family members starting with the eldest members. After accepting and consuming the tea, the family members present gifts and give words of encouragement, wisdom, and congratulations to the couple.

rehearsal + dinner

After the tea ceremony, there is some down time before the couple, their families, and the wedding party reconvene at the venue (Hudson Loft) for a brief run through of the ceremony. An on-site day-of coordinator is there to direct everyone of where to stand, what cues to expect, etc. Given the attendees there's likely a fair amount of goofing off (this poor coordinator) but Olivia and Bill do their best to behave and keep everyone on track.

After getting familiar with the space and where everyone will wait, walk, and sit, the crew does a couple run throughs before breaking for dinner. They pile into a few SUVs for the quick 5-minute drive (much to any New Yorkers' dismay - who walks in LA?) to the Freehand. The dinner serves as a sort of welcome event, especially for those traveling in from out of town for Olivia and Bill's special day.

  • Venue: The Broken Shaker at the Freehand, for rooftop happy hour bites and drinks
  • Guest list: Olivia's family, Bill's family, the wedding party, and any of their dates who may not be in the wedding party.
  • Activities: The occasion is very casual. They have the space to themselves, and Bill ensures a TV is brought in for anyone interested in watching the Heat/Celtics game. Without it going too late before the big day to follow, Olivia and Bill want to be sure to get face time with everyone, since Saturday will be so busy.

ceremony

Taking place in the Main Loft, the ceremony will begin at the start of golden hour. Chairs have been arranged to form an aisle facing toward the simple gold rectangular altar framed by the floor-to-ceiling windows. It is minimally accented with flowers in the color scheme of the wedding: fuschia, burgundy, navy, hunter green, and cornflower blue. Bill’s eldest daughter Hannah and Olivia’s niece Ripley will be serving as greeters who encourage guests to find a place on either side of the aisle regardless of their relationship with the couple, as only their family members have a reserved row. Once everyone is seated, a guitar and violin duo will introduce the processional.

Partnered together, Olivia’s bridesmaids wear gowns in various metallic shades of champagne and gold, while the bridesmen and groomsmen are outfitted in black tuxedos. As the officiant, Ryan is wearing a deep burgundy suit. Their boutonnieres and bouquets are made up of an assortment of blooms found within Olivia’s bridal bouquet. Bill’s middle daughter Harper is Olivia’s junior bridesmaid and will precede the main wedding party’s entrance.

Walking unaccompanied down the aisle, Olivia is in the first of two dresses, the train of which will be removed after the ceremony. A present from her parents, she is wearing vintage sapphire earrings as her “something new.” A bracelet borrowed from her sister fulfills the latter part of the saying, as do her engagement ring and shoes. Waiting for her, Bill is sporting a bespoke midnight blue Ermenegildo Zegna tuxedo. In place of the traditional boutonniere (their son Hunter will don it instead), he has an engraved lapel pin given to him by his daughters. A watch that Olivia gave him as a birthday gift last year is on his wrist.

Bill’s youngest daughter Hayley will serve as ring bear(er) and provide the wedding rings when Ryan asks. Both bands are from the 1940s, with Bill’s being a family heirloom passed down from Olivia’s grandfather. Once the rites are completed, and personal vows are exchanged, Ryan will ask Olivia and Bill if they take the other “as their partner in love and life, to the ground and beyond.” After I do’s and their first newlywed kiss, the two will be announced as husband and wife to their family and friends.

processional

  • Processional Music | An orchestral cover of "Love You For a Long Time," by Maggie Rogers
  • Officiant | Ryan Gosling
  • Groom | Bill Hader
  • Wedding Party
    • Sara Potts & John Boyd
    • Oliver Jackson-Cohen & Paul Rudd
    • Andrew Vanwyngarden & Andy Samberg
    • Nina Dobrev & Duffy Boudreau
    • Eiza González & Jon Hamm
    • Kristen Bell & Oscar Isaac
    • Zoë Kravitz & John Mulaney
  • Junior Bridesmaid | Harper Hader
  • Ring Bearer | Hayley Hader
  • Bridal Entrance | An orchestral cover of "Moon River"
  • Bride's Parents | Kimberly Nguyen & Samuel Schmidt
  • Bride | Olivia Munn

details



readings

My love belongs to me and I to him.
Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong...
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.

From Song of Solomon 8:6-7
Read by Samuel Schmidt 		This is everything I have to tell you about love: nothing.
This is everything I've learned about marriage: nothing.

Only that the world out there is complicated,
and there are beasts in the night, and delight and pain,
and the only thing that makes it okay, sometimes,
is to reach out a hand in the darkness and find another hand to squeeze,
and not to be alone.

It's not the kisses, or never just the kisses: it's what they mean.
Somebody's got your back.
Somebody knows your worst self and somehow doesn't want to rescue you
or send for the army to rescue them.

It's not two broken halves becoming one.
It's the light from a distant lighthouse bringing you both safely home
because home is wherever you are both together.

So this is everything I have to tell you about love and marriage: nothing,
like a book without pages or a forest without trees.

Because there are things you cannot know before you experience them.
Because no study can prepare you for the joys or the trials.
Because nobody else's love, nobody else's marriage, is like yours,
and it's a road you can only learn by walking it,
a dance you cannot be taught,
a song that did not exist before you began, together, to sing.

And because in the darkness you will reach out a hand,
not knowing for certain if someone else is even there.
And your hands will meet,
and then neither of you will ever need to be alone again.

And that's all I know about love.

By Neil Gaiman
Read by Harper Hader 		That's what it means, I think, to love someone wholly: to venture beyond the living room, into the depths. It may seem like a kindness to confine them to the upper floors, where things are predictable, usable: tables, chairs. But shutting the portals also means locking them out of the psychedelic treehouses, the hanging gardens, the empty rooms that suddenly burst into music. The collections of days and moments and conversations laid out like rows upon rows of miniature circuses, all the same yet somehow always surprising. The vast madly spinning thing at the heart, adorned with twenty thousand lights.

I have made my husband travel six thousand miles with me, and more, to crack the skin of domesticity and dig into the strange labyrinths underneath—to make sure he can handle it, and also, because I know he can. When I find more deep houses, and I will, we'll visit them together; I don't need, or want, to go alone. The wilder heart will always exist, but sometimes it doesn't say "go." Sometimes it says "I'm going. You come too."

From Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology, by Jess Zimmerman
Read by Margot Robbie

vows

Olivia: My Billiam. Even though I started giving you vows nearly a year ago, these were the hardest to choose. There’s so much I want to tell you and say, but I think the miracle of loving you can be most concisely described like this: before I met you, I didn’t believe in destiny. I hadn't seen any evidence strong enough to convince me of its existence, and despite all the times I squinted over the details of my life, it seemed impossible that power like that could really be on my side. There was so much I'd lost faith in, so many hopes I thought I would have to carry by myself. But then one day, I crossed the 405. I walked into your house, peeked at your closet, hugged you, and instantly knew I never wanted to leave. Somehow, someway, you decided I wouldn't have to. With the same patience, determination, and consideration you show to everyone fortunate enough to know you, you’ve become my partner, my safety, my anchor. You pull me out from the echoes within my mind and ground me to the earth; your unwavering support makes me feel like I can do anything. I have never known anyone like you, no one as good, brilliant, or steadfast. I am proud to call you mine because you are my everything — out of all the people I’ve met, you are my favorite. Out of all the places I’ve been, you are my home. Every day it becomes clearer to me that your presence in my life is the hand of fate. In the time that I’ve known you, you’ve made all my dreams come true. I love you more than I have words for, more than anything. Today in front of our friends, family, and brood, I vow that no matter what hardships either of us faces, we will battle them together, in unity. I vow to honor our Friday rituals. I vow to keep collecting our memories and finding opportunities to make new ones with you. I vow to keep adding words to our glossary so that we have whatever language it takes for us to reach each other. I vow to forever drool on our pillows, and keep the fridge full of kombucha and Gatorades. I vow to keep complimenting you into making woozy faces and to never stop trying to make you laugh. I vow to love you through all our learnings, all our growth. I vow to cherish the floors we explore. I vow to hold out my hands when I am at my most fearful and trust in yours being there to meet them. I vow to be the home that is always waiting for you. I vow that if you're going, I'm coming too. I vow to love you for the rest of this lifetime and into the next. Bill: Hi, honey. You look stunning. And I’m so happy to be here, standing across from you, in front of all our family and friends, with… well, loosely prepared remarks. Every day since you walked into my life, one year, five months (and one week) ago today, everything in my life got a little bit brighter. You are so generous, thoughtful and kind. There’s such a warmth in you, your heart is so big. It’s rare. You’re remarkable. It was the first thing I noticed about you, and I’d bet its one of the first things half the people here noticed about you, too. You bring so much light into my world, and even my darkest days don’t seem so hard anymore. Because I’m yours. And every day I fall asleep next to you, every day I wake up next to you, I'm grateful I'm one day closer to getting old with you. And I promise you I’ll do that. I promise we’ll get to see each other get so old. You’ll get short like Mom, I’ll get fat like Dad. Along the way I promise to listen to you, work with you, and stand beside you. I promise to always be on your side, and to face our problems together while holding your hand. I promise to share my life with you, and build our home with you. I promise to love you exactly as you are - every minute, every day. To honor our love with honesty, commitment, respect, and joy. I promise to always tell you to look at the moon. I promise to take care of you, protect you, to always consider you first, and to let you water me. I love you with everything I have in me, everything I’ve got. And I promise I’ll do it for the rest of our lives.

recessional

menu

speeches

  • sister of the bride
  • father of the groom
  • maid of honor
  • best man

RECEPTION

Cocktail hour will commence immediately after the ceremony, with guests being directed to the rooftop where hors d’oeuvres are being passed, and drinks are being poured. The bride and groom have added their specialty drink selections to the menu for the adults in attendance. On the Rooftop Cyc, a DJ will be playing music; to the left of the stage is the bar. (Open, duh.)

Once the cocktail hour comes to an end, the festivities will move to the 2nd floor where the reception will take place. Adjacent to the main hall, a number of small lounge areas have been set up in alcoves to encourage conversation throughout the night (also impromptu card games.) For the dinner, short rectangular tables have been draped with deep blue linens down their center and antique vases of various sizes contain lush, richly colored flowers. There are golden mercury glass votives dotting surfaces and fairy lights strung along the ceiling to set the ambiance. To keep with the quasi-theme of Old Hollywood Glamour, the drinkware is a collection of vintage pieces, each unique. Instead of numbers, the tables are identified by sentences from the book Things That Are by Amy Leach. After everyone has found their seats, the wedding party will make their grand entrance. Each pairing will be announced, and lastly the couple of the hour – Mr. & Mrs. Hader.

The menu for the night is a mixture of everything that Olivia and Bill felt they could possibly be hungry for, and runs the gamut from cultural favorites to traditional fare. During dinner, speeches will occur and toasts are encouraged. In a break from tradition, the family dances will be done with the opposite parent – Olivia will be dancing with Bill’s father, and Bill with Olivia’s mother. The newlywed’s first dance will be the last before the floor is open to one and all, signature moves required. Keeping the music going, the DJ’s playlist is intermixed with personal selections from the bride and groom, plus whatever requests are received from guests. When finally corralled to do so, Olivia and Bill will cut the cake while still shimmying. Electing not to do a garter toss or bouquet toss, the two will return to the dance floor (probably with plates or drinks in hand.)

The celebration will continue late into the evening, eventually concluding with late-night bites and a taco truck. After a private last dance on the venue’s rooftop, the two will quietly depart for their home.

dances


guestbook

  • Polaroid cameras are placed on various random tables throughout the party along with one main stand holding a ballot box and sharpies for the photos that should serve as 'guestbook' entries to be dropped into.
  • Beside the polaroid ballot box there's a low lounge chair and a side table setup with a custom candlestick telephone (a la FêteFone) for guests to leave voicemails into as a guest book as well.

BRUNCH

The Rose in Venice, at their Upper Deck Beer Garden.

MOVIE

A screening of Beetlejuice to wrap up the wedding weekend.

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