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 sequin 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 that 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, cufflinks, and cross tie for the ceremony, then switched to a white jacket and bowtie 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 Part’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 continue 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 to me 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.”