The Bride Wore The Row and the Groom Wore Custom Bode for This Creative Winter Wedding in Brooklyn

Wedding planning was their next great creative challenge. “Since our work and personalities lead to so many collaborations as it is, planning our wedding together was in many ways the ultimate version of what we do every day,” says Emma. “This started with deciding on the Wythe Hotel’s Main Hall and Bar Blondeau for the ceremony itself and reception. Rowan has worked closely with the hotel for years, initially with design before the pandemic hit, and he’s currently curating music for its lobby, Blondeau, and Le Crocodile.” She adds, “If you are lucky enough to get put on hold when you call the hotel, you’ll also hear an original track of his.” The duo also decided to host a rehearsal dinner at their friend Alex Tieghi-Walker’s Tribeca gallery Tiwa Select. Rowan notes that the two were aligned in their wedding vision, which featured some less typical choices like a midwinter ceremony and working mostly with friends as vendors and talent. “We had so much fun dreaming up every detail, right down to putting the seating chart together,” he says.

The final piece of the puzzle was wedding planner Melissa Sullivan of Studio Sully. “We asked her to come on board after we were already well underway with planning,” shares Rowan. “It’s hard to imagine working with anyone else who could have stepped right into those conversations so seamlessly. [It] felt like working with a friend immediately too. She was a dream to work with and handled so many crucial moments and decisions in a way that seemed, but certainly wasn’t, effortless. That helped maintain the sweet, fun nature of planning right through to the end of the wedding night.” Sullivan helped orchestrate the reception space with ikebana-inspired tablescapes by Fox Fodder Flowers and a flow between the multiple areas of the celebration.

It’s no surprise music and food were a primary focus of the creative couple’s wedding plans. “For our rehearsal dinner at Tiwa, it had to be a menu from Anthony and Sadie of Ha’s Đặc Biệt, a favorite fellow pop-up,” explains Emma. “And they are also planning their own wedding. As we said to each other many times over the course of planning: ‘We love love!’” The evening at the Wythe Hotel would feature the pair’s neighbor Ben Callicott playing guitar as guests entered the hall, Jake Leiber and Aidan O’Neal’s French menu from Le Crocodile, and Bryndon Cook, a.k.a. Starchild & the New Romantic, as DJ during dinner. “For dessert, instead of a cake to cut, we fed each other choux from the top of a croquembouche—a dessert that has become a favorite of ours partly as I’ve made them for events and weddings for others.” To finish off the evening on the dance floor, the couple planned for guests to migrate down the street to the newly opened club by Eli Escobar, Gabriela, where their friends spun tracks into the night.

Fashion was the final ingredient to pull the entire day together. Emma shares that guests got creative with the winter-wedding dress code and dressed to the nines. She says, “Tuxes and elbow-length gloves and velvet abounded, and our officiant wore a long-sleeve black dress with a slit up to her waist!” As for the couple, their ensembles were elevated reflections of their own style and personality, with a bit of help from their friends. “Similar to the other aspects of planning our wedding, we wanted to work with friends wherever we could for the design elements of the weekend,” notes Emma. “We worked with our friend Emily Adams Bode Aujla to incorporate items that would feel timeless but very personal to us.” For the rehearsal dinner, Rowan wore shoes from her brand Bode and donned an Issey Miyake pleated suit, “inspired in part by our choice to go to Japan for our honeymoon and in part by an unofficial cozy element to the dress code that night,” says the groom. Emma also leaned into texture for the event, wearing a cream ruffled set by Super Yaya, a Sophie Buhai clip, and Chanel pumps.

For the big day, Emma wore a “1970s, Halston-esque dress” from The Row and a vintage veil sourced by her friend Bode Aujla. Rowan adds, “It was so perfect for Emma that I actually said out loud that it was ‘so sick’ during my vows.” The designer also made a sequined party bow for the bride to wear at the after-party—“which she went on to dub the ‘Emma Bow’ and make in several colors,” she notes. Rowan knew he wanted something “timeless” with a “hint of nostalgia” for his wedding-day attire. “So when Emma suggested we talk to Emily about my tux, I knew it had to be Bode,” he says. “I wore a custom black tux with a cummerbund, cuff links, and cross tie for the ceremony, then switched to a white jacket and bow tie for cocktail hour and the reception.” Inside the jacket, the phrase “having a coke with you” from a Frank O’Hara poem was stitched into the lining. Emma loved the surprise detail as she was already planning to use the quote in her vows.

The to-be-weds decided to spend the morning of their wedding day together at Wythe Hotel. Then, guests began to arrive in the ceremony space to live music while sipping on bubbles in flutes designed by the couple’s friend Sophie Lou Jacobsen. “We are real romantics and wanted the ceremony to feel very personal,” says Emma. “We walked down the aisle to Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel,’ and our close friend Clarisse Fahrtmann officiated in a way that we still can’t get over.”

Rowan notes the ceremony felt especially emotional as he learned just beforehand that his grandmother had gone to the hospital and would not be able to attend. “She and my grandfather were sort of loving-relationship role models for me growing up and helped me believe in marriage. I was heartbroken that she would miss the night, especially after losing my father in the fall of 2023, while also being filled with so much appreciation and love for all present,” he shares. “I went off script to pay homage to Nana and Pop-Pop in my vows.” After a ceremony full of laughter and tears, the couple recessed to Louis Armstrong’s “La Vie en Rose” and made their way upstairs for an outfit change. The night continued with dirty martinis, an “appropriately raucous feast,” speeches full of ad-libbing and joking, and a killer playlist.

Emma reflects on the day, saying, “It’s really true what everyone says about it going by so quickly. What an amazing couple of days of having so many people we love in the same place and so many getting to meet each other for the first time. I think the most special moments might have been the less formal of the plans: our night at Tiwa and dancing at Gabriela after the wedding itself, when all of these amazing people were just having the best time together.”

While they have entered a new stage in their relationship, Rowan shares, “Emma and I have lived as if married for years and loved each other as if just married for that long, too, but having this celebration and those collective memories does bring something special and new to our relationship and even to the work we do together. I do love wearing a ring and getting to say wife. Perhaps more than anything, I’m incredibly grateful that we went through all of this enjoying it as much as we did.”