{"id":317817,"date":"2026-08-10T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317817\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T15:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:44:15","slug":"this-furniture-designer-couple-hosted-a-playful-wedding-at-new-york-citys-russian-tea-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317817\/","title":{"rendered":"This Furniture Designer Couple Hosted a Playful Wedding at New York City\u2019s Russian Tea Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julia Eshaghpour and Kevin Hollidge first met as sophomores: Kevin had transferred to Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Julia was helping run orientation. \u201cI have a memory of us both standing in Kevin\u2019s doorway on that first day and talking endlessly,\u201d remembers Julia of their 2014 meet-cute. \u201cWe had a lot of shared interests and curiosity about each other\u2019s lives. It was an immediate connection, and things moved quickly.\u201d Over the years, their relationship grew\u2014and so did their creative collaborations. In 2021, the pair founded decorative arts studio Sunfish<\/a>, where they work on made-to-order furniture, custom commissions, exhibitions, and spatial projects.<\/p>\n

While Kevin says \u201cit was always obvious she was the one,\u201d he waited until January 2025 to begin looking for a ring. \u201cAfter hours and hours of research and looking, I finally found a perfect vintage art-deco ring from Jack Weir<\/a> in Beverly Hills, but unfortunately it was taken offline when I went to buy it,\u201d he says. That May, he clicked on the link again, saw the ring was back on the site, and bought it right away. The following month, he took Julia on a date to The View<\/a> in Times Square and The Grill<\/a>. \u201cJulia and I together have a fondness for Midtown, skyscrapers, and Times Square,\u201d says Kevin. \u201cIt\u2019s touristy, but it\u2019s also perfect in its own way. I had initially imagined I would propose right in Times Square during the walk to The Grill, but when we got outside I got cold feet as it was way too busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, when he noticed the street in front of Radio City Music Hall was closed to car traffic, Kevin took the opportunity to propose in the middle of the street. \u201cWe had a really nice moment, and then bystanders proceeded to clap for us,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThen we had a celebration meal at The Grill, where the staff was really generous and celebratory with us. It was a perfect night.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 30, 2026, the couple would head to another iconic Midtown destination\u2014the Russian Tea Room<\/a>\u2014to tie the knot. \u201cSince Kevin and I are designers, thoughtful interiors and architecture are important to us, and we\u2019ve always felt that they have the power to influence mood and tell a story. So finding the right setting for our wedding held special significance to us,\u201d says Julia. \u201cWhen we first entered the Russian Tea Room, it just dazzled us. I remember seeing Kevin\u2019s electrified eyes and open smile and knew this would be the setting of our union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The designers hired planner Layne Kula of Penny Layne<\/a> in November to help with crafting their wedding on a shorter-than-normal timeline. \u201cWe endured some outside voices of concern about our unconventional wedding venue choice. (Is it too visually loud for a wedding? Is it ok to move between floors? How will it be to have long tables instead of rounds?) Layne encouraged us and approached the challenge with enthusiasm, copious amounts of energy, vision, and drive,\u201d says the bride. They also worked together to thoughtfully blend Jewish and Persian traditions. “Could we maintain the Jewish tradition of waiting until sunset, the end of Shabbat, to get married while serving shrimp at the cocktail hour? Could I, the bride, make an appearance and actually attend the cocktail hour before the ceremony? In Persian tradition, that would be a no,\u201d says Julia. \u201cWe broke a lot of rules.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julia Eshaghpour and Kevin Hollidge first met as sophomores: Kevin had transferred to Macalester College in Saint Paul,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,49607],"class_list":["post-317817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-vogue-weddings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}