This Couple Went Bold and Colorful for Their Brooklyn, New York, Wedding

Risa Puno wasn't looking for love when she went with friends to a Haiti-relief benefit at a New York City club in 2010. An installation and sculpture artist who was wearing purple tights that night, she certainly wasn't looking for a buttoned-up lawyer type. But when she went to settle her bill at the end of the night, there was "this really cute guy closing out his tab, too," Risa remembers. That was Ross Leff.

She smiled. He struck up a conversation. She showed him all the photos in her phone—a detail they both recall vividly—and then they spent the rest of the early-morning hours on the dance floor. They've been having a great time together ever since. "The thing I loved about Ross, right from the beginning, was that it felt easy," Risa says. "It was exciting, but in a fun way."

Fun was a key word for both Risa and Ross when they were planning their wedding six years later, after he proposed at home—with an engagement ring that had belonged to Risa's late grandmother—following an evening out that recreated their first official date.

"We went to quite a few weddings together in the years prior," says Ross, "so we got a sense of the things we both liked and didn't like." But aside from agreeing on dancing and having fun, the couple had fairly different ideas about how their wedding would look. "Ross compromised on a lot of the 'traditional' stuff," Risa says. "I definitely didn't want a hotel ballroom, which he probably would have picked."

She found herself charmed by a metal factory turned event space called 26 Bridge, in Brooklyn; she loved its industrial vibe, and its high ceilings gave it the grandness her groom was hoping for. Venue in place, they found planner and event designer Jove Meyer, who helped refine their style—which Risa describes as super-colorful, elegant…and nerdy. "The things I was pinning were all over the place," says Risa. "My stationery board has business cards and patent diagrams." Meyer reined her in and introduced her to vendors who were willing to work with her way-out-of-the-box ideas.

In addition to managing each other's expectations, Risa and Ross also wanted to consider their families—hers Filipino Catholic, his Jewish—by including each culture's traditions. Naturally, they approached them with an artistic twist: In lieu of the Jewish chuppah, the pair exchanged vows under a massive floral canopy. The recital of the seven blessings, another Jewish tradition, had Risa's parents each read a blessing first in Tagalog, then in English. Ross's parents read theirs first in Hebrew, then in English. (Their siblings' partners read the other three.) For the Filipino candle, cord, and veil ceremony, the couple used the veil that had been worn first by Ross's mom, Wendy, and then his sister, Brittany.

The inspiration and individual details—from geometric sculpture installations to a Taylor Swift/classical mash-up processional played by a string quartet—were eclectic to say the least, but the end result was a bold, beautiful party that overflowed with fun. (That word again!) "I'm not someone who usually pays attention to wedding details," says Ross, "but when I saw everything come together at our wedding—the way the flowers complemented her dress and the invitations—it made sense." Just like a lawyer and an artist in purple tights.