Jesse Light Wore Three Vivienne Westwood Dresses to Marry Jesse Bongiovi at a Wild Flower Garden in the English Countryside
While growing up, Jesse Light and Jesse Bongiovi never crossed paths—although their dads certainly did. For more than 40 years, the bride’s father, Rob Light, has been the agent of the groom’s father, singer Jon Bon Jovi. (She spent her formative years in California, while he was raised in New Jersey.) But in 2018, Light, who is now head of development for the production company Haymaker East, went to the Hamptons for the first time. She was dying to go to the famed Surf Lodge in Montauk, and with a little help from her dad, she was connected to someone she thought could get her in.
Fast forward to Jesse Bongiovi, the founder of Hampton Water Rosé, telling Light and her nine girlfriends: “Not a chance.” To be fair, it was Labor Day weekend and the toughest door to get into. Light—unaware of how exclusive the venue was—somehow managed to get in with her friends in tow and walked right up to Bongiovi and introduced herself. The two Jesses have been together ever since.
“We truly feel like we have been connected by an invisible string our whole lives,” Light says. “There is an ancient Chinese myth that explains how people are connected. The story goes that the god of love and marriage attaches an invisible red thread to the ankles of two people who are destined to be lovers at birth. The thread can stretch and tangle, but it will never break, and it will eventually bring the two people together. Not only have our dads worked together for over 40 years, but our paths have crossed multiple times. Whether in cities we’ve lived in at the same time, events we’ve attended, or even Las Vegas for our 22nd and 21st birthdays…we were both at the club Omnia in February 2016 as our birthdays are just three days apart—yes, we have the exact same name and basically the same birthday. Afrojack was DJing, and they kept bringing out ‘Happy Birthday Jesse’ signs…we had no idea they were repurposing the signs for one another until we found pictures years later…we’re literally in the background of each other’s photos.”
Four years after their initial meeting, the couple was back in the Hamptons, the very same place where they first fell in love. “It was a typical Saturday at Jesse Bongiovi’s family home and Jesse and I were getting ready to head out for the day,” Light remembers. “The Uber had ‘arrived,’ and we made our way outside to find the front lawn covered in flowers and candles. Jesse Bongiovi got on one knee, proposed, and then called for my dog Bella who ran from the wings and surprised me along with my entire family from California.” The Bongiovi-Light clan then made their way to Surf Lodge—where the newly engaged couple first met—for an impromptu engagement party.
A few months before the wedding, Bella tragically passed away. It was incredibly important to the couple to have her at the wedding, so Light tied her dog tag to her bouquet. “We without a doubt felt her spirit as the forecast said rain every single day, and we believe she brought us sunshine,” the bride says. “Her energy was radiating throughout the weekend.”
The wedding took place at the end of June at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, England. “Since 2016, my mom and I have been doing an annual mother-daughter trip to the Farm,” Light says. “Upon our first arrival, it was immediately the most magical place we'd ever been. I'm sure a big part of that had to do with the fact that I was there with my mom, but there is also just something incredibly special in the air. It is stunningly beautiful, you are surrounded by animals, there are endless activities, and it feels like an adult summer camp. It became my dream wedding venue and I hoped one day I'd get married there.”
After Light and Bongiovi got engaged, she took him to the Farmhouse for the first time. “He immediately looked at me and said ‘I get it. This place is perfect.’ The idea of having all of our favorite people together for three days on the most gorgeous property was a dream we were so lucky to make a reality. Our guests were able to walk, stumble, or bike home from the parties, and during the day, they could play tennis, horseback ride, mini golf, skeet shoot, lounge by the pool, and everything in between—nothing could've been better. We even had guests feeding the goats in the early hours of the morning after partying a little too hard—it got a little crazy and we wouldn't have had it any other way. Soho Farmhouse was everything and more.”
The couple worked with Alison Events to plan everything and Aesme Floral on all of the flowers. The weekend started with a family dinner on Wednesday night, followed by a summer solstice welcome party on Thursday, the rehearsal dinner on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and a goodbye brunch on Sunday. “The planning process was wild, fun, and nerve-wracking,” Light admits. “There’s a lot of noise on social media, tons and tons of opinions. Planning the ‘perfect wedding’ is very intimidating. However, I tried my best to drown out all the noise and create the wedding of my dreams. I didn’t want to go with the trends, but instead, create a never-ending, multi-day party that felt authentically us. We instead tried to add in little details of our love story throughout the weekend. Whether it be the famous Surf Lodge chicken tender tower at our after-party or plain pasta with butter and parmesan at the wedding dinner—our personal fav!—or a legit reality TV confessional—green screen and all—we just wanted everything to be distinctly us.”
The bride took that same hands-on approach when it came to her wedding weekend wardrobe, leaving no stone unturned. “My best friends and I went to a million appointments…I felt like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and The City…but, nothing felt right,” Light says. “Once I put Vivienne Westwood on though, it was game over. Things just clicked. I didn’t need to look any further. I then was lucky enough to work with Rosie and the Vivienne Westwood couture team in London, and they brought my three dream dresses to life. I wanted to start classic and timeless and get more me as the night went on. My favorite color is silver glitter and Vivienne Westwood nailed it. To go from the most classic ball gown, to the second gown with a touch of silver glitter and crystals at the top of the corset, to the silver crystal mini of my dreams—it was a dress evolution for the ages!”
For the looks in her wedding weekend wardrobe, it was a bit of trial and error. “My best friends are my stylists and our group chat was on fire,” Light says. “I just knew I wanted to feel like me and together, we made every day/night feel different and unique. Every outfit for each event needed its own personality. It was also very important to me to incorporate vintage, and I was able to work with Alexis at TAB Vintage. The vintage Dior is one of my favorite looks of all time. I love that it’s cloud print as I say our sweet angel Bella is in the clouds.”
The bride kept her jewelry simple, and most days wore earrings gifted to her by the groom or her parents. “The one constant was that I wore my Grandma Selma’s wedding band on my right hand all weekend to have a little piece of her with me throughout the festivities,” Light says.
Bongiovi wore custom Ralph Lauren every night. For the Thursday night summer solstice party, he wore his custom Ralph Lauren suit with a custom Bode shirt with the couple's initials—“JJ”—on the back.
The ceremony was designed to feel as intimate and personal as possible. To that end, no phones were allowed. “We wanted everyone to be present with us,” the bride says. “My brother Taylor beautifully officiated, and we poured our hearts out to each other through our vows. There wasn’t a dry eye in the countryside. We wanted our guests to sit in a U shape so we could be surrounded by loved ones and feel their energy. It was a magical, wildflower garden in the middle of a horse field under the blue sky of the English countryside.”
The bride and groom didn’t break eye contact during the entire ceremony. “We were nervous, excited, and so incredibly, undeniably in love,” Jesse Light says. “We were present taking in the indescribable beauty of each other and this once-in-a-lifetime moment.”
At the end of the ceremony, the newlyweds kissed and Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” started playing. “We started singing to each other: ‘I love you baby!,’” Light says. “It felt like a movie.”
Guests then moved into cocktail hour, where everyone grabbed a napkin with their seat assignment on it. The napkins weren’t meant for eating, but instead intended for twirling. As the newlyweds entered the tent, “Gimme Gimme Gimme” started playing and everyone’s napkins were up over their heads and in the air.
Following a dance-filled reception, guests traveled through a disco tunnel to enter Club Light, the first after-party where Afrojack played. After that, guests were treated to late-night snacks and led to a pub where curtains opened and surprised guests with The Ibiza Live Orchestra, a 14-piece band by ALR Music. “We danced till the sunrise and then jumped in the pool at 6 a.m.,” Light says. “Not wanting the day to end, we all enjoyed breakfast and finally went to bed at 9 a.m. only to wake up for our goodbye brunch at 11 a.m. Hangovers were strongly encouraged.”
Photo: Sophie Berard1/100Soho Farmhouse has these signs all around the property. We wanted to change them to represent the most important places in our lives.
Photo: Sophie Berard4/100We were giddy with excitement because after a two year engagement we couldn’t believe our wedding was finally here.
Photo: Sophie Berard5/100Wednesday night began with the 1st Annual Bongiovi-Light Father-Son Beer Pong Tournament. Jesse scored the winning shot.
