It took just one fixed gaze on the ferry for Kevin McCarthy and David Sokol to realize they were soul mates. “We caught each other’s eye on our way to Fire Island,” remembers Sokol, an arts and design writer. “I couldn’t count out my fare, knowing you-know-who’s eyes were on me.” Before the boat docked, numbers were exchanged, and within a year the duo was cohabbing in Sokol’s Manhattan apartment. Like many New Yorkers, the pair wanted a refuge where they could go when the city became too oppressive, so they started searching for a house upstate that would allow them to flex their nesting muscle. “I come from the west,” McCarthy says. “We own homes, not apartments.”

After six months of searching, the couple found what they were looking for in Beacon, a small city that hugs the Hudson River in southern Dutchess County. Since the sprawling Dia Art Foundation made it a destination spot in 2003, Beacon is transforming from a downtrodden industrial town into something of an art lover’s hamlet. McCarthy and Sokol bought their fixer-upper in the fall of 2003 from a father-and-son team of contractors who were in the process of gutting the three-story Victorian, which, neighbors say, had once been a busy crack den.

Since the house was under construction, the couple decided to hold off on getting hitched until they had time to focus on finding the right setting. But as they sweated out the renovation, the house became so central, they decided it was the perfect locale in which to hold the ceremony. “Finding a venue for a wedding is really hard,” Sokol explains. “Our house had really become a part of our lives, so it solved the problem.”

With that goal in mind, McCarthy and Sokol hunkered down to the hard work of stripping and hammering. The contractors had mapped out smaller rooms throughout the house, including separate dining and living rooms, and two bedrooms on the third floor. But the couple scrapped those blueprints in favor of an open plan, with the top fl oor opening onto a single master bedroom.

As soon as the framework was finished, Sokol and McCarthy, a freelance window dresser, turned their attentions to the interior design. They upholstered vintage chairs with fabrics by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius, enlivened their dining room with a botanical print wallpaper from 1952, and dangled a purple pendant by Ferruccio Laviani (known for his Bourgie table lamp) from the ceiling.

When they weren’t arranging their collection of coveted objects throughout the house, the couple was concocting inexpensive ways to add texture to the space. They pasted Anaglypta—an embossed cotton-and-pulp paper—on the kitchen wall to simulate pressed tin. Carrara marble subway tiles left over from Sokol’s sister’s bathroom remodel were used on the backsplash, and McCarthy built an outdoor shower in their 4,500-square-foot backyard, which also served as the pair’s party setting. After two years and a few gallons of sweat and tears, the former hooker’s haven was starting to resemble an artist’s lair. “It’s a hazard of covering the world of high design,” Sokol says.

Last September, 10 tables were set across the lawn, each adorned with a bouquet Sokol made of yellow roses, freesia, solidaster, and calla lilies. In order to defray costs, the self-taught florist made extra bouquets to sell at a local boutique before the event. The reception was catered by Miz Hattie’s BBQ, a local dive. For dessert, McCarthy and Sokol ordered chocolate-covered pretzels (previewed in illustration form on the invite by card designer Leigh Batnick, a high school friend of Sokol’s) from a Beacon chocolate factory. And for wedding gifts, instead of registering at a chain store, the pair struck a deal with the local art house: Van Brunt Gallery held five of McCarthy and Sokol’s favorite works and let guests make contributions to their purchase. When you’re already breaking the rules with a same-sex marriage, breaking more to create a truly unique celebration is half the fun.