Photo: BFA1/44The celebration started here: We wanted our guests to feel the vibe of the weekend from the moment they got our invitations. Our amazing wedding planners Billy Evers and Julie Freed worked with my favorite stationer Cheree Berry and created a series of perfect moments from the Save the Date through the welcome boxes that met guests at arrival, and even surprised us by planting life size cutouts of us all over guests rooms, which made their way through the weekend right along side us!
Photo: BFA2/44On Thursday night, we greeted the first arrivals to Anguilla over at Bankie Banx’s Dune Preserve, a bar on the beach situated in a meandering, collaged wooden structure of small wrecked boats and works of art.
Photo: BFA3/44We watched Bankie Banx, the local legend who played with Bob Marley. I wore a Valentino dress I’d loved from the moment I saw it on the runway.
Photo: BFA4/44Friday morning started with a dip in the ocean, just me and Steven, at the private beach at the Belmond Cap Juluca hotel.
Photo: BFA5/44Friday turned into a beach and pool party.
Photo: BFA6/44Guests swam, raced inner tubes in the pool, and played beach volleyball (which is big in my family).
Photo: BFA7/44The Belmond Cap Juluca was the site of all of our events from Friday on—they have so many magical spaces on property and our dream for the weekend was for all of our family and friends to stay together in one place. I have so much gratitude for the entire team there—during every part of our weekend, they were right at our side, and I honestly don’t know how this would have gone without them.
Photo: BFA8/44I was blessed with three perfect maids of honor who have done more for me in my life than I could ever express—the first being my beautiful sister Lucy. She was by my side the entire weekend, just like my entire life. I loved her Raquel Diniz dress for the rehearsal dinner.
Photo: BFA9/44A short moment in which I remind Steven that a happy wife is a happy life, and this happy wife couldn’t easily fasten her Alexandre Birman shoes in her tight Dolce & Gabbana dress.
Photo: BFA10/44Photos on the beach before our rehearsal dinner.
Photo: BFA11/44My second maid of honor was Steven’s sister, Tracy, who, after becoming one of my closest friends five years ago, quickly set me up with Steven and started this whole thing. All weekend I was overwhelmed with the fact that not only was I marrying the man I loved, but that this perfect friend would now be my sister for life. This picture of Tracy in her Peter Pilotto dress at our ceremony rehearsal melts me.
Photo: BFA12/44Our rehearsal dinner.
Photo: BFA13/44Here I am waiting to be surprised by one of the most hysterical things I’ve ever seen...
Photo: BFA14/44What happened here, I will never forget. Steven knows that I love surprises and silly pranks, and that I think he is the funniest man on Earth. He took the occasion of the night before our wedding to double everyone over in laughter and shock as he walked onto the sand in a zebra outfit to join these fire dancers. To be honest, I’m not sure he really knew what he was getting into when he agreed to our planners’ idea, but I appreciate Billy and Julie for pushing him to go all the way. The performance ended with him trying desperately to shoot a rain-soaked flaming arrow to light up letters spelling out our names. The laughter truly never ended.
Photo: BFA15/44Here I am being transformed into something beyond anything I’ve ever felt by Alexa Rodulfo. She is such a legend—I have never felt more beautiful. As she fastened my veil just before I left for the ceremony, she said a beautiful blessing for our marriage, and I realized how much of a rock she had become for me that weekend.
Photo: BFA16/44My third maid of honor was my lifelong best friend Bee. Through my whole engagement I’ve been in awe of how lucky I am to have a friend of 25 years who is still the first person I call when anything happens in my life. My feathered Daily Sleeper pajamas were my dream outfit and will probably be how I live in my house now.
Photo: BFA17/44The Fred Leighton earrings I wore during the ceremony were my something borrowed and my something old. My husband bought my engagement ring from them and I have known the wonderful people there for years. It was an honor to walk down the aisle in these.
Photo: BFA18/44I had no idea what I wanted for a wedding dress, so I put myself in the hands of Giambattista Valli, who created for me the most perfect, epic, beautiful gown I had ever seen. I never wanted to take it off, and I will never forget the feeling of putting that dress on.
Photo: BFA19/44The train, though, really took a village, let me tell you—especially in the island wind!
Photo: BFA20/44En route to the ceremony.
Photo: BFA21/44Henry and Oscar leading the way down the aisle.
22/44Making my entrance.
Photo: BFA23/44There’s not much I can say here, other than I hope to never forget the moment of walking towards the man who would be my husband moments later.
Photo: BFA24/44The incredible violinist Jakub Trasak interpreted one of my favorite pieces of music, “Knee 5” by Philip Glass, from Einstein on the Beach, for me to walk towards the altar.
Photo: BFA25/44Our service was an interfaith celebration of both Unitarian and Jewish marriage traditions. Our Unitarian reverend, Sarah Lenzi, and our rabbi, Sarah Barasch-Hagans, counseled us leading up to the marriage and did a beautiful job sharing with our loved ones how our faith and our families have given us so much.
Photo: BFA26/44No words. Best moment of my life.
Photo: BFA27/44Steven and I almost never stop laughing when we’re together—even right after our first kiss as husband and wife, when we heard our recessional song come on, we started cracking up.
Photo: BFA28/44Exiting the ceremony.
Photo: BFA29/44This photo of my father after the ceremony, hugging Steven, somehow holding my veil and bouquet, kills me.
Photo: BFA30/44I finally get to call this man my husband.
Photo: BFA31/44Some of my favorite guests from the weekend were my step-nieces and nephews. Charlotte, Henry, Eloise, and Oscar were the perfect attendants and crushed it on the dance floor.
Photo: BFA32/44The littlest members of the wedding party helping wrangle my train.
Photo: BFA33/44Posing for pics on the steps of the Cap Juluca post-ceremony!
Photo: BFA34/44My incredible friend and master tailor Bill Bull made this dress that I wore to dinner. Not many people still do what he does, and he knows, perhaps more than anything, to put a bride-to-be at ease in the weeks leading up to her wedding.
Photo: BFA35/44The speeches all weekend killed me. I am convinced that we had the best speeches of any wedding, ever.
Photo: BFA36/44I spent most of the wedding in some combination of ugly laughing and crying at the same time.
Photo: BFA37/44Our first dance, to “The Promise,” by Sturgill Simpson, was sung by our dear friends Dianna Aaron and Gill Landry, two of the most talented musicians we know.
Photo: BFA38/44Wearing my third look of the evening: Paco Rabanne, the most perfect silver Aquazzura sandals, and a beautiful diamond rope necklace from Sidney Garber.
Photo: BFA39/44I think we’ve all been looking forward to our Hora for our whole lives.
Photo: BFA40/44Here are my new in-laws, practically in heaven!
Photo: BFA41/44My mother changed into the most fabulous white sequin jumpsuit for the party, and danced for hours despite intermittently telling me she was “about to head to bed.” I couldn’t love that woman more. I learned everything I know, including my sense of style, from her.
Photo: BFA42/44Our friend Beau Jangles should be considered a must-have at any dance party. He came with our friend and DJ Matthew Mazur, and was pretty much the only person who could rival my sister. Although, Steven tried.
Photo: BFA43/44Everyone we had on the island was a friend—here’s DJ Mazurbate again with Beau Jangles, with one of our truly epic BFA photographers Julian, who, alongside Joe, made their incredible work look easy. Not pictured is our first DJ, Devin Lucien, who came in all the way from Los Angeles and anchored us all the way from the ceremony through late night, and our genius videographers Mike and Rich from Reel Vision.
Photo: BFA44/44The end—but really, just the beginning.
