Gabrielle would take charge both as bride and wedding planner to execute their vision. “Look, no one but me was going to plan the wedding I wanted. It’s not only what I do for a living, but it’s what I love to do,” she says. Still, the bride notes Owen was a wonderful partner through it all. “He is both creative and calming, the perfect compliment to my perfectionist self,” she says. “Having only been together for nine months when we started planning, it would be the biggest thing we would accomplish as a couple and also the first time a lot of our families and friends would come together.” Gabrielle also enlisted her team at Accent, along with Steph Burchell and Isaiah Barnes from SI Studios Inc., to come and help bring the celebration to life.
She describes the vision as “Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette meets Clueless”along with “a lot of early 2000s Oscar de la Renta references.” While Gabrielle made the layout, selected décor, and sourced vintage tablecloths from trips to Saint-Rémy, Paris, “and Etsy,” she also received help from her circle. “Owen’s mother’s art club made 180 meters of bunting using vintage fabrics,” notes the bride.
She also shares that the celebration would not be possible without help from one of her best friends, Matthew Adams Dolan. “As our wedding present, he created all the art and printed materials for us; he even hand-calligraphed everything from the escort cards to the envelopes,” says Gabrielle. The design incorporated elements from their engagement trip, like two kissing doves, a painting by Jean Cocteau, and the phrase “pour l’amour” as their wedding motif.
It’s no surprise that the weekend’s wardrobe was one of the most critical pieces behind the wedding vision. “Fashion was just as much a key component of our love as well as our wedding,” says Gabrielle. “When 60% of the guest list helps inform what others wear and how they shop, we knew no matter what happened, everyone was going to look good.”
