By Leslie Hoffman | Photography by Michael Sahaida
We love working with Beth Ostrosky. The former Fox Chapel native has established a prosperous career as a model and a spokesperson, and her success can be contributed to the fact that she is hardworking, down-to-earth, straightforward, professional, and — oh yeah, amazingly beautiful. We worked with Ostrosky on our May 2004 and April 2006 covers. When we learned last year that she was engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Sirius Satellite Radio mega-personality Howard Stern, we couldn’t think of anyone better to appear on the cover of our annual wedding issue. Another reason that Ostrosky is so wonderful to work with is that we trust her judgment. So, after we received the photos from the shoot, we sent them to her and asked her tochoose her favorites. Shecalled us back with an even better idea: She showed them to Stern and had him choose his favorites! “I usually bring home Polaroids, but because this was shot digitally, we couldn’t do that, so he was very excited to finally see what I had been explaining to him,” she says. “For him to actually see them — he had them all spread out — he took it very seriously, it was very cute. Serious business.”
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Wedding Plans
Stern proposed to Ostrosky the day before Valentine’s Day last year. “We had talked about how we were possibly going to get married, but I didn’t know he was going to go ahead and get the ring,” she says.
In September, Ostrosky planned a sort of runaway wedding for her younger brother, Doug, and his fiancée at the Hamptons beach house that she and Stern have been renting while they wait for their own dream home to be finished. Ostrosky filled the deck with sunflowers, and found a non-denominational minister to perform the ceremony. She liked the feel of the wedding that she had planned for them so much, that she hopes to replicate it in hers and Stern’s own nuptials this summer. “It was magical and perfect, so if we could get that feel for our wedding, it would be a home run,” she says, adding that she may even ask the same minister to officiate for them. As for the location, she says that they will most likely get married at an undisclosed site in the Hamptons. “It’s the place where we fell in love, and to us the most magical place in the world, where we feel the best,” she says.
They’ll keep the wedding details hush-hush, but it’s likely that they’ll keep the event as simple and personal as possible. Ostrosky says that for her own day, she’ll probably just wear a “fun, cottony, nighty-slip-dress-type-thing and be barefoot on the beach.”
Behind the Scenes
We were delighted when Ostrosky agreed to be our cover girl. She called us a week before she was flying in to Pittsburgh from New York City to let us know her availability. A flurry of phone calls ensued in preparation for the shoot: Ostrosky insisted on borrowing wedding dresses from Western Pennsylvania boutiques. Having modeled hundreds of wedding gowns in her career, she has a greater knowledge of gowns than most. On the phone, she asked eagerly, “Are you getting good stuff?” As for her preference of styles, she was casual, saying “Oh, I’m fine.” A pause. “But no mermaid trains. And no big dresses.” Ostrosky’s personal style is relaxed. We pulled gowns from The Exquisite Bride in Murrysville, assisted by owner Susan Marinelli and her son David, who called the bridal line Enzoani and had two dresses from the Blue collection literally whisked from the spring runway show in New York City and sent FedEx overnight to Pennsylvania. And we visited Tomasina in Mt. Lebanon to pull one-of-a-kind gowns designed by Stephanie Keremes — it was a difficult task to choose gowns for our cover model there because any of them would have been perfect. When it came to choosing hair and makeup, Ostrosky, whose hair is done regularly by Stern’s personal stylist at their home, also requested for great stylists, and insisted that she didn’t want fussy hair. We called Tracy Sylvester, owner of The Neville Spa in Bridgeville, and he brought stylists Alayna Gates and Kristy Fagan to the studio to create soft, elegantly undone looks for Ostrosky. For jewelry, we consulted with Amie Guarino, jewelry stylist at Louis Anthony Jewelers. Guarino, who is gearing up for her own wedding later this year, pulled a variety of jewels any bride would love to play dress-up with, including an enviable pair of rough diamond sliced teardrop earrings by Eclat Jewels that were the envy of every woman at the shoot. A final touch, we called Bill Chisnell at designspace for lush bouquets — although we warned him we might break them apart for dramatic effect.
Stephanie Keremes and Amie Guarino with Beth Ostrosky
David Marinelli and Beth Ostrosky
Kristy Fagan and Alayna Gates with Beth Ostrosky
For more information about Beth Ostrosky, visit betho.com. For more information about The North Shore Animal League, call 516.883.7575 or visit animal-league.org. Howard Stern hosts The Howard Stern Show Monday through Thursday on the Sirius Satellite Radio station Howard 100.