Charles Porch and Robert Denning’s Wedding Weekend in Paris Was a Celebration of Art and History

The welcome party on Thursday night took place in the courtyard at hotel. On Friday, the ceremony was in the gardens at the Musée Rodin, followed by a reception and dinner at Hôtel de la Marine, and then the final night was a black-tie celebration at Château de Villette. “We had so many different walks of life at our wedding. We had the former Secretary of State, and cousins who had never left their home state—not to mention the country,” Robert explains. “And watching everyone get along so well over the course of the weekend brought me so much joy.”

For their wardrobes, the grooms entrusted friend and stylist Jamie Mizrahi. “Our dress codes were a bit non-traditional in that we did a cocktail attire wedding day and a black-tie celebration for the final night,” Charles says. “We wanted to look coordinated but not matching.”

“Neither of us wanted to wear white for the official events,” Robert adds. “I admittedly did wear white pants for the welcome party, but we told women they could wear white. Many took us up on it, some even re-wore dresses they’d worn for their own weddings, which was wonderful.”

Robert was clear-eyed and directional when it came to his wedding-day look. “I’ve always known exactly what I wanted to wear,” he says. “I have a photo saved on my phone of the Emperor of Japan, in 1971, on a state visit to see the king and queen of Belgium. He is standing in Brussels wearing the most perfect navy double-breasted suit with a tie. That was what I wanted to wear, and we made it happen—thank you, Loro Piana! Then it was just a matter of finding a complementary suit for Charles, which was also navy but single-breasted and from Brunello Cucinelli.”

For the final night, Jamie asked Hermès to design custom midnight blue tuxedos for the couple’s black-tie looks. They used the same fabric but had different collars—a shawl collar for Robert and a pique for Charles. The grooms’ wedding rings were made by their friend Jennifer Meyer. Robert’s cufflinks and shirt studs were vintage Cartier from the 1930s, sourced by Briony Raymond, as were Charles’s cufflinks.

There were six kids in total—a mix of godchildren and the children of close friends—who made up the bridal party. They wore Thom Browne seersucker suits, with shorts for the boys and skirts for the girls. “The Thom Browne team treated all of the kids like kings and queens,” Charles says. “They tailored everything perfectly.”

“Charles styled the wedding party himself,” Robert explains. “They all wore ties, knee socks, and matching shoes. The Thom Browne team was amazing—their children's families live in London, New York, and Los Angeles, and they had fittings in their stores in each city, and made everything look perfect.”

Just before the children were set to walk down the aisle at the Musée Rodin to start the ceremony, however, there was a downpour. “The rain was biblical,” Robert remembers. “It started 10 minutes before our wedding, just as guests were arriving. They couldn’t even open the doors of the museum because it was coming down so hard. Lightning caused power outages that the team valiantly repaired.”

When the rain suddenly stopped, the skies miraculously cleared and the light was almost orange. “It became so spectacularly beautiful,” Robert says. “We walked out towards the tent, where I discovered, to my shock, that all of our guests had stayed dry. I think because of the rain, they were all cheering so loudly with joy.”

Charles and Robert had always planned to walk down the aisle together, hand-in-hand. “But walking through the tent, with the Musée Rodin bathed in a post-storm glow behind us, with everyone cheering so hard, it felt triumphant,” Robert notes. “Like we had all, together, conquered the storm and had arrived in a sort of paradise. Charles was so worried that walking down the aisle to the theme from Jurassic Park wouldn’t land, but it was perfect. The feeling was captured in Selby Drummond’s wedding toast, which ended with her saying, ‘Without the rain, you can't have rainbows.’”

The couple’s close friend, writer, actor, and producer Erin Foster, officiated the ceremony. “I was blown away by the humor and heart of Erin’s speech,” Robert says. “She had us all laughing and crying. Charles’s vows were phenomenal. My vows were also full of jokes as well as emotions, so I was relieved that everyone got it.”

After the service, everyone stood in the afterglow of the storm admiring the Rodin Museum, before being driven to Hôtel de la Marine for a reception and dinner, followed by a surprise show featuring the French drag queen Nicky Doll.

“It was, genuinely, the happiest three days of our lives, and my only regret is that it ever had to end,” Robert says. “When I first met Charles, I knew in my heart that I wanted to give him the life and love that he deserved. As the weekend unfolded, I felt so lucky to be by Charles’s side, knowing we’d brought our dream wedding to life.”