Though Lizzy Harris and Miles Hammond had been orbiting each other all their lives (they were running in similar circles for years, having both grown up in and around New York City), it was only at the behest of a mutual friend, Addavail Coslett, that the now-married couple went on their first date in November of 2019. “I would have been the third set up of Addavail’s that ended up getting married,” Lizzy says. “The odds seemed in my favor!”
The first date was as low-key and unfussy as the couple themselves: an after-work dinner at the Time Out Market New York in DUMBO. Lizzy, who at the time was working as an editorial photo and video producer at Vogue and Conde Nast Entertainment (she’s currently the founder and executive producer of M6Studios), recalls feeling a little distracted. “I had a big shoot the next day with Cass Bird,” she says. “I remember I had to take a call in the middle of our date because I was still trying to lock in booking Taylor Hill.” Miles, a hedge fund analyst who’s all too familiar with long hours, wasn’t put off—a second date followed shortly thereafter. For the next meetup, Miles offered to cook Lizzy spaghetti pomodoro at her apartment. He turned up with 23 tomatoes (about a dozen too many), and “he then proceeded to cook me the best spaghetti pomodoro I have ever had. We still make it, mostly on special occasions.” With the leftover fruits, they stacked them in little towers on her kitchen counter and laughed when they decided the voluptuous tomato towers resembled the buxom sculptures of Fernando Botero.
It was during this meal and this playful exchange about art (Lizzy, a prolific creative, was impressed with Miles’s familiarity with the Colombian artist) that the two really started to fall for each other. “The largest private collectsion of Boteros in the world is actually where ended up getting married, at the St. Regis Bahia Beach in Puerto Rico,” says Lizzy. “This is all completely by chance!”
During the pandemic, the couple had relocated to Puerto Rico, a temporary move that soon became permanent: Caribbean island life proved the perfect reprieve after years on the isle of Manhattan. Original wedding plans of a ceremony at Temple Emanu-El (Miles’s family’s temple) followed by a reception at Restaurant Daniel were thwarted by the pandemic, so the two relocated their nuptials altogether. “After we settled in San Juan, we realized that many of our friends and family had never been to Puerto Rico or had gotten the chance to visit us during the year we’d lived there,” she says. “For this reason, it felt like a no-brainer to pick a long weekend in the winter and invite everyone down to join us and celebrate on the beach.”
The wedding took place on January 15, 2023. The venue was the pristine St. Regis Bahia Beach which hosted the entirety of the wedding weekend’s itinerary—from the welcome dinner on the beach to a pre-wedding tennis match on the resort’s clay courts, to the ceremony itself, which took place on a grass lawn jutting out onto the sand and palm tree-laden beach.
Throughout all the wedding activities, Lizzy flexed her fashion muscles. The look she wore to her civil ceremony in Manhattan? An archival Balenciaga dress (with unfinished hems, incredible pleated details, and pieced-together sheer necklines) from Alexander Wang’s final, all-white collectsion for the maison’s spring 2016 show. “It was an incredible dress,” the bride says. “I borrowed it from designer Patricia Voto (of One/Of by Patricia Voto) as she mentioned she had it at one of my fittings for my after-party look.” For the welcome dinner, she selected another archival dress, which was sourced from her friend, the fashion stylist Lisa Von Weise; this time, it was a bias-cut ivory chiffon slip dress from John Galliano’s spring 2004 collectsion. The dress featured delicate embroideries of roses and vines that twisted up the bodice in sherbet and soft green hues.
With a couple of archival dresses and a custom after-party look from One/Of by Patricia Voto, Lizzy decided to go bespoke for her ceremony gown. After she had “pretty much tried on every dress from every dressmaker in New York,” her mother sent her a link to the website of Phillipa Lepley, the London-based bridal designer. “I somehow (due to COVID) convinced her team to send me a sample of a dress similar to what I had envisioned to New York for me to try on,” Lizzy says. “Even over a Zoom call with my mother in Charleston and the design team in London, it was an immediate reaction.”
Classic and chic, the gown was crafted in a sumptuous silk duchess satin that was sculpted with an internal corset bodice and off-the-shoulder neckline with knotted straps that lay gracefully below her elbows. The look was designed to be both modern and to hark back to the 19th century, like something out of a Giovanni Boldini portrait. In keeping with the references, Lizzy opted for pearl drop earrings and a pair of T-strap Chanel pumps adorned with pearls. “The details, the neckline, the train, the fabric—all of her attention to detail is one of a kind and impeccable,” the bride says. “I then worked with her team to arrange three different trips to London to create the dress.”
For Miles, Lizzy admitted that her groom is decidedly less into fashion. He picked out his suit from Suitsupply in Soho and had it slightly tailored in the shop. “That was his only fitting—I probably had at least 10 to 12!”
On the Sunday of their wedding weekend at 3 p.m., guests gathered on the main lawn, which had been set for a ceremony with a chuppah that framed the ocean. Just after a well-timed walk down the aisle, rain started to fall. While Lizzy and Miles stood beneath their chuppah canopy, guests got one of their own via personal umbrellas that shielded them from the tropical drizzle. The ceremony was abbreviated due to the weather, but, per the bride, “I’m glad it was short and sweet! It felt casual and fun and joyous. Not serious or a tear-jerker. Cocoa, our dog, was wandering around unleashed during the ceremony, which was cute and gave everyone a little laugh.”
A Sato dog (the local name for the mixed breeds that roam Puerto Rico), Cocoa was adopted from Soul of Bahia, the dog and cat rescue facility on the St. Regis property. The place where Lizzy and Miles first met Cocoa? On the beach, almost exactly where the couple said their I dos.
After the ceremony, guests congregated beneath a portico at the hotel, enjoying cocktails as the rain and the sunset melded together in a romantic Puerto Rican night. “Miles and I spent a moment alone after the ceremony and just sat together and put our feet up,” Lizzy remembers. “Then we all went to celebrate.”
A quick golf cart ride took guests to the hotel’s ballroom, where the reception unfolded. Cocoa roved through the crowd, receiving lots of love from all the wedding attendees, and the bride’s father delivered an incredibly moving speech that had most of the room in tears. Following several toasts to the bride and groom, it was time to party. By now, the rain was full-on and going nowhere but the outdoor dance floor was thoughtfully situated beneath a canopy. Being in Puerto Rico, the band played salsa, merengue, and reggaetón hits alongside the wedding classics. By the end of the night, hair was swept up, shoes came off, and Lizzy had swapped her gown for her disco-esque metallic two-piece set from One/Of by Patricia Voto. DJed by Miles’s best friend, DJ Alex Cecil, the Studio 54–theme after-party went on well past midnight. The theme also winked to Miles’s parents’ meet-cute; the couple met at the iconic New York nightclub, and the rest was history.
The next morning—and perhaps inspired by the fact that her dress was already half-soaked from the rainfall the night before—their photographer, Roey Yohai, convinced them both to put their wedding outfits back on and meet him on the beach for a post-wedding ocean shoot. “I was reluctant at first to get in the water in my gown, but in the end, we just went for it,” Lizzy recalls. Plus, as a producer, Lizzy had an inkling of just how magical the photos would be. The resulting images of Lizzy with her gown floating in the waters next to Miles sitting with Cocoa in his lap stand out as some of the most romantic of the weekend. “Believe it or not, my dress was not ruined by the dip in the ocean! I was still able to have it professionally cleaned and archived once the wedding weekend was over.” So, in the end? Absolutely, undoubtedly worth it.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios1/72For our invitations, we decided to work with Julie Shek. We wanted a modern take on classic calligraphy but also something beachy and analog feeling, which she executed perfectly. We added handmade paper and ribbon in a “haze” color, along with vintage stamps from the ’60s—some local to Puerto Rico, some hinting at the activities in store for the weekend—to complement Julie’s overall design.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios2/72Our rehearsal dinner took place a short way down the beach from the St. Regis at the Bahia Beach & Golf Club. To welcome our guests to Puerto Rico, we decided to have a casual cocktail hour and dinner by the sea. We leaned into the local flavors of the island and served a traditional lechon (spit-roasted pig) and tropical rum punch.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios3/72On our rehearsal night, I wore a vintage slip dress from John Galliano’s spring 2004 runway show. My friend and stylist Lisa Von Weise thought it would be perfect for the occasion, so she pulled it out of storage just for me! I immediately fell in love with the flower embroidery and applique. It inspired our choice of floral centerpieces that evening. I paired the dress with minimal chartreuse satin sandals from The Row and bohemian gold double hoop earrings from Barney’s (RIP) that I had been gifted for my birthday from my mother over a decade ago.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios4/72Taking cues from the island surroundings, we opted for sea-glass-color bud vases with orange ranunculus and local ginger flowers. Our menus were a watercolor script. We decorated each place setting with starfish, pale blue glazed ceramic plates and natural linen napkins.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios5/72This is our beloved Sato rescue dog, Cocoa “Bad Bunny” Hammond. She wore a studded black collar and matching leash I picked up at Harrods in London. I paired it with a festive handkerchief from Lick, a popular shop on Calle Cerra in Santurce, Puerto Rico.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios7/72Miles and I listened to an impromptu speech at our rehearsal dinner by one of our guests with our dear friend and matchmaker, Addavail Coslett.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios9/72I knew I wanted something more formal, elegant and dramatic for the big day. Here are the initial sketches that Phillipa Lepley made of my dress. We started with one of her classic silhouettes in heavyweight duchess satin, then discussed how to evolve the design to fit my vision.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios10/72A snap from one of my many fittings at Phillipa Lepley’s atelier on the King’s Road.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios13/72My mom originally found these Chanel pumps at the flagship store on 57th Street for our first “New York” iteration of our wedding in the winter. Even though they were not very beachy, I thought they were beautiful and unique, so I still decided to wear them on our wedding day. They matched perfectly with my “something borrowed,” my mother’s pearl and diamond earrings. My engagement ring, also pictured here, was custom-made by the family-owned jeweler Sabbadini from Milan.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios14/72I had chosen a traditional route as my reference for my bridal bouquet—Lily of the Valley. Our florist, Hamsell Santos, suggested I use a similar local flower called waxflower instead. I loved the idea and thought it all worked beautifully.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios15/72Here are my sister’s daughters arranging the woven baskets full of baby’s breath that they eventually would carry down the aisle.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios18/72My something blue was a handkerchief of my grandmother’s that my sister had embroidered with my new initials and our wedding date. Our wedding rings were made by Morgan Cleary of Renvi, a friend of my new sister-in-law, Bridget Hammond.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios19/72Phillipa Lepley’s gowns are known for their corsetry. Her corsets are incredibly comfortable and completely invisible underneath the silk duchess satin of the dress, which created a beautiful minimalist silhouette.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios20/72Here I am moments before the ceremony began on the St. Regis estate lawn.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios21/72My veil was custom-made by Monvieve. It was hard to choose a veil to wear as they make some beautiful incredibly elaborate lace veils! In the end, I chose something very simple to complement the simplicity of my dress. I had my veil made very long. I wanted the veil to be longer than the train of the dress in order for the simplicity of the design to stand out.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios22/72My hair for the wedding was designed by Ashley Javier. Ashley and I worked together for over a year to get my hair to the place he wanted it to be in terms of cut, color, and length. He is incredibly meticulous about his work, which makes him the very best!
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios23/72Miles and I had our first look before the ceremony took place. It was nice to have a moment alone to ease our nerves before the ceremony.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios24/72Family photos of Miles and I with our bridal party, which consisted of three of my nieces and a few of our friends’ children, Miles Cooney and Olympia Cook. Our dog Cocoa was also part of the wedding party.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios25/72My sister wore a custom One/Of dress by Patricia Voto. We chose a classic silhouette from one of her designs and customized the back of the dress for a lower cut, more youthful look. Patricia also designed my after party outfit. She and Lisa were amazing to work with and made the process incredibly fun for my sister and I! I’ll always cherish those visits we made to her studio in New York.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios27/72My sister tied her daughter’s braids with bows from the same fabric that her dress was made from, which made everything come together nicely.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios28/72“Baby” Miles and his mother, my dear friend Sarah Morse, helping me with my enormous train!
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios29/72We commissioned two ketubahs—one was a beautiful but symbolic piece of art created by one of our dearest friends, the visual artist Abby Robinson as our wedding gift. The other (pictured here) served as our official marriage contract. It was created by the ketubah illustrator/calligrapher Elyse Meyerson. She framed the calligraphy by painting a watercolor wreath of flowers around the calligraphy. She painted the same types of flowers we used for our wedding day-peonies, ranunculus, and eucalyptus.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios30/72Abby often uses paper and text in her work. For this piece, she commissioned Elyse to create the Hebrew text, which was then sewn underneath vinyl with copper, and pulled over silk and linen and wood. On the back, Abby shared the poem “On Marriage” from one of her favorite Kahlil Gibran books, “The Prophet.” It is a special personal artifact of the big day.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios31/72Olympia posing for the camera. She styled her outfit with a crown of baby’s breath and chose not to wear the blouse underneath the dress. She takes after her mother, fashion designer Kristin Klonoski.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios32/72We wanted to create a natural, organic look for our ceremony. Our aisle and chuppah were lined with white delphinium and Monte Cassino flowers and greenery.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios33/72Roey captured a special moment of my father and I waiting to walk down the aisle together.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios34/72Our wedding party consisted of my sister’s three children and two of the children of some of our closest friends. Their outfits were handmade by a Spanish children’s clothing line called Atelier La Nonna.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios36/72My sister carried a small bouquet of waxflowers—the same flowers I used in my bridal bouquet. Here she is, walking down the aisle with Miles’s brother Nicky Hammond.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios38/72Walking down the aisle with my father was a special moment in my life I will always cherish.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios41/72This is one of our favorite photos from the weekend. We were finally married, and it was time to celebrate!
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios42/72It started to pour shortly after our ceremony, but we were so overjoyed that it really didn’t bother us. Rio Grande is situated at the base of the El Yunque rainforest, so we had a plan in place for rain far in advance.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios43/72Since it began to rain shortly after the ceremony, our cocktail hour was moved from the grass to underneath a portico adjacent to the Estate Lawn.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios44/72My mom wore a ruby and cream silk Pierre-Louis Mascia dress she found the previous summer in her travels to Ravello, Italy. She paired it with matching ruby satin shoes by The Row and a vintage Gucci red snakeskin purse from the ’70s, one of her most coveted accessories.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios45/72Celebrating with my dear friends and former Vogue colleague Ivan Shaw and his wife Lisa Von Weise just after the ceremony during our cocktail hour.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios46/72Miles and I were able to steal a moment alone in between the cocktail hour and the start of the reception.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios47/72Despite the rain, the outdoor area where we had planned to host our reception was still magical. Miles and I arrived just before our guests arrived and were able to soak it all in—no pun intended!
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios48/72Our tablescapes for the reception included floating candles, white peonies and white ranunculus.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios49/72The place settings and decor for the reception dinner was designed to be minimalist and simple. Although we were not “expecting” rain, we knew we were at the base of a rainforest and periodic rain was part of the charm of the location. We chose decor that was easily movable indoors and would not clash with the pre-existing indoor decor intentionally.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios53/72The fabric had incredible movement which made it for dancing. The photos really capture the moment well.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios54/72Miles and Cocoa sharing a first dance. I’m pretty sure she thought she was the bride.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios55/72Despite moving the dinner indoors, we still were able to have our dancing portion of the reception with a live band al fresco as planned. The rain and mist from the rainforest set the tone in a way, everyone really let their hair down!
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios56/72Sin Prisa led us in a dance-off, which was hilarious and so much fun. They really knew how to read the room and chose songs everyone could participate in.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios58/72My after-party outfit was inspired by Miles’s parents’ wild party days in New York City in the ’70s. The look was a retro flower child revival I conceptualized with Patricia Voto of One/Of and Lisa Von Weise. To accessorize the outfit I wore ’70s-inspired Tom Ford gold platforms, Sydney Evans earrings, and an Olympia Le Tan clutch that looked like an iconic Rolling Stone magazine cover.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios59/72Here I am dancing away in Patricia’s final creation. I loved changing into this outfit. It was so freeing to wear something light after wearing the wedding gown all evening and then truly dance the night away! Instead of hanging disco balls to make the after-party look like Studio 54, we brought in a giant disco ball-themed DJ booth. All of the lighting and decor was a deep red inspired by Le Baron, my favorite club in Paris from when I studied abroad there in 2006. I’m sure this dates me—I don’t think the club still exists!
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios60/72One of Miles’s oldest and closest friends, Alex Cecil, DJ’ed our afterparty. It was one of the most touching parts of the weekend for us. We worked with him to pre-plan what he would be mixing live on the night. His process is very in-the-moment so it was more of a conversation and creating playlists/shooting ideas back and forth. It reminded me a lot of the creative process visually for photo shoots in compiling visual creative references and mood boards. After the wedding night, he surprised us with us a SoundCloud recording of the entire set.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios62/72Our photographer, Roey Yohai, convinced us to put our wedding outfits back on the morning after the wedding and meet him on the beach for a final post-wedding ocean shoot.
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Photo: Roey Yohai Studios63/72We agreed to meet on the beach in our wedding outfits, but we both decided it was a good idea to skip the shoes.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios64/72Cocoa stayed with a friend on our wedding night. Here we are reuniting with her on the beach the next morning.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios65/72I was reluctant at first to get in the water in my gown, but in the end we just went for it.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios66/72As a producer, the one thing I couldn’t help obsessing over was our approach to photography. We wanted something docu-style but romantic—not overly produced or stylized. I had been dreaming of Roey Yohai to shoot our wedding from the onset of our engagement. I was so picky that he was literally the only photographer we really even considered as a viable option after much research. Somehow, we got lucky and managed to book him and his team to fly to Puerto Rico and shoot our wedding for us. I am forever in debt—they truly made our vision a reality!
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios67/72I adore these photos in black and white. I thought they were captured perfectly. We are trying to decide on three of the images to hang as a triptych in our home. It's proving to be hard—there are so many great ones!
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios68/72Miles and Cocoa were good sports about supporting and making my photography vision a reality. Here we are “relaxing” in the surf.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios69/72I loved the idea of the shoot in the water but I was on the fence about wearing my gown in the ocean. In the end I went for it, and I’m so glad I did. The photos turned out fantastic. They were some of our favorite photos from the entire weekend.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios70/72Believe it or not, my dress was not ruined by the dip in the ocean. I was still able to have it professionally cleaned and archived once the wedding weekend was over.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios71/72Swimming the morning after Miles and I wed really was a cathartic and spiritual experience. I know it may sound cheesy, but it’s possible to really feel connected with nature and the earth living in Rio Grande—and in Puerto Rico in general. Somehow that also translated to our own feelings of togetherness as a couple. Everything came full circle that morning. We were so lucky to have Roey there to capture it.
Photo: Roey Yohai Studios72/72Here we are back where it all began, shirtless on the beach. A perfectly fitting end to a truly magical weekend!
