The quote “Dance like no one is watching” may sound like the perfect life philosophy, but few of us are able to pull it off. Caye (pron. Caj and short for Cayetano) Lacroze however, is one of those exceptions. Dressed in yellow pants and with dance moves that personify the famous saying, his Latin flair was on full display at a 2016 Florida wedding where he first set eyes on Sophie Giffin. In fact, Caye was so dazzling on the dance floor that Sophie refused a second dance with him.
Sophie had felt that Caye was right for her from the beginning. “Maybe it’s because we met in a family setting,” she recalls, “but it just felt so easy. Family is so important to Sophie that she invited Caye to spend their fourth date together with her parents and grandmother in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, New Brunswick.
“This was remote, but I would have travelled anywhere to be with Sophie,” says Caye. The Canada Day weekend went so well that for both Sophie and Cay, “this was it.”
By 2019, Sophie had graduated from Parsons and was working in Marketing for a Brooklyn-based brewery. For her 30th Birthday, Caye planned a 20-course tasting menu at the Michelin-starred Manhattan eatery, Brooklyn Fare. With an engagement ring that had been burning in his pocket for over 6 hours, Caye couldn’t wait until dinner was over as he had planned his proposal back home. When they arrived at their apartment, Caye asked Sophie to grab some Champagne that had been chilling in the fridge, and as she walked to the living room, he was down on one knee.
“It was the perfect proposal,” says Sophie, recalling sipping champagne in their cozy apartment overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
The couple began planning their 2020 wedding, a 200+ guest affair in Windsor, Florida, where they had first met and where Sophie had always wanted to marry. However, Sophie was faced with Visa issues. In order to speed up the process, they made an unorthodox decision and two weeks after their engagement, surrounded by immediate family, Sophie and Caye married at City Hall. The newlyweds then began planning their larger April 2020 celebration with friends and family. When the pandemic hit, Sophie and Caye were faced with one of many Covid setbacks and had to cancel their April 2020 celebration. After having painstakingly planned a Francis Melman-inspired Argentinian Asado celebration for months (Sophie even flew in dinnerware from Italy for the occasion), and having lost all their deposits, the couple was at a loss. To make matters worse, their wedding planner couldn’t guarantee another date given the circumstances of 2020. Wary of having to postpone yet a second wedding and wanting to move on with their life (which included starting a family), Sophie and Caye decided on a family-only celebration in Windsor over Christmas.
Making the best of the circumstances, Sophie and Caye married on a warm and sunny December day. They were surrounded by her immediate family, and a few friends who came to the church ceremony and were joined by over a hundred friends and family members, courtesy of a laptop at the altar. Caye’s best friend officiated remotely, and many friends even dressed up for the occasion despite celebrating in their own homes (one even forgot to mute his computer, bringing much hilarity to the occasion).
Post-ceremony, the couple celebrated poolside at the Giffin household. As it turned out, caterers, many bartenders and others were dropping out of the event due to Covid. After so many setbacks, the couple was now resilient and had a backup plan: pizza! As (finally) luck would have it, the celebration—a small re-creation of their Argentinian Asado—was a success, with a bar set up poolside, a steel drummer for entertainment and a dark, moody Argentinian theme as a backdrop. The wedding party dined on tuna tartare, short ribs and a wedding cake that could have fed the entire community of Windsor.
Looking back at the twists and turns of their unusual wedding journey, Sophie and Caye's regrets vanished when they received their wedding photos. It allowed Caye’s parents—who were devastated to have missed the wedding—to finally get a tangible sense of their son’s special day, and it remains a highlight for the newlyweds. Most importantly, Sophie and Caye were able to move on with their lives, welcoming the birth of their son Clement in November of 2021. Instead of their planned honeymoon to Bora Bora and New Zealand, the couple bought and began renovations on a 300-year-old house on Long Island. Now that the world has opened up once again, Sophie and Caye look forward to moving into their new home. “I can’t wait to start hosting dinner parties,” says Sophie, “because one of the things I love to do most is cook for others.”
Looking back at the twists and turns of their unusual wedding journey, Sophie and Caye's regrets vanished when they received their wedding photos. It allowed Caye’s parents—who were devastated to have missed the wedding—to finally get a tangible sense of their son’s special day, and it remains a highlight for the newlyweds. Most importantly, Sophie and Caye were able to move on with their lives, welcoming the birth of their son Clement in November of 2021. Instead of their planned honeymoon to Bora Bora and New Zealand, the couple bought and began renovations on a 300-year-old house on Long Island. Now that the world has opened up once again, Sophie and Caye look forward to moving into their new home. “I can’t wait to start hosting dinner parties,” says Sophie, “because one of the things I love to do most is cook for others.”
