This Vogue Weddings Writer Tried on 100 Dresses for Her Brooklyn Wedding

“I chatted with the team at the Four Seasons, who helped me arrange to have a photographer for an engagement session at a tropical proposal setup on a small motu just off of the resort that we would get to via canoe, and a celebratory dinner. I also hit up my friends at Over the Moon to lend us a Galvan dress for Liv and a Fanm Mon dress for me to wear for the proposal photos,” Shelby says.

On June 30, 2024, they spent the morning jet-skiing around the island. When they were back at the resort, Shelby spotted staff setting up the motu from the beach bar, where she and Liv were getting piña coladas. To avoid spoiling the surprise for Liv, Shelby kept pointing out random things on the property and fish in the water. (Liv later revealed that Shelby’s diversion tactics were not totally successful.)

Though the motu dinner plan was thwarted by strong winds, they were still able to do the proposal there. “My nerves set in during this moment, but it was mostly excitement,” Shelby says. When they got to the beach, a canoe took them to the motu, which was decorated with tropical greenery. They each got out their ring boxes and had a moment of wondering who would go first.

“I decided to go for it and, of course, automatically started crying the moment I got down on one knee,” Shelby says. After Liv said yes, she proposed to Shelby. Exchanging rings, they got to see the special messages they’d had inscribed in them for the first time.

“Early in our relationship, Shelby said that she hadn’t really been in love in a relationship before. Inside my ring, she had the words ‘Thank you for teaching me what love is’ engraved. Her ring, engraved in my handwriting, simply read, ‘my love,’ ” Liv shares.

After more tears and photos, they had a celebratory dinner in a chapel overlooking a lagoon, with flowers, Champagne, and a multi-course meal. “Our double proposal felt like the perfect way to enter this chapter as true partners—doing things our way and, hopefully, inspiring other queer couples to do the same,” Liv says.

In December 2024, they held a civil wedding ceremony in New York. “After the election in 2024 took place, Liv and I felt like it was safer as a queer couple for us to get legally married ahead of our big wedding,” Shelby says. “Even though we already had our November 2025 date in place, we were nervous that the new administration and Supreme Court may take actions that could overturn our right to marry. We decided to have a civil ceremony on December 27, 2024, at the restaurant Upland in New York City that we planned in a month. The wedding had 12 guests, including family members and a family friend and his partner who officiated the wedding.”

Then, working with the planners Tory Smith and Lauren Silavin of Smith + James, they planned their big wedding celebration at the Wythe Hotel for November 22, 2025.

When it came to choosing wedding outfits, Shelby’s connections in the wedding industry proved advantageous—if also a bit tricky, as she had to choose between so many designers she knows and loves. “As someone who attends New York Bridal Fashion Week twice a year and once a year in Barcelona, I’ve seen my fair share of wedding dresses. Going to these shows, it’s hard not to start imagining your own dress,” Shelby says. “I admit that I likely tried on over 100 dresses over the process of choosing my gowns.”

“I always loved the idea of not always wearing white over my wedding weekend. I also have been obsessed with dusty, powder blue ever since I first saw Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. So when I saw Alexandra Grecco’s Cecil dress, I knew I had to try it on.” For their rehearsal dinner, Shelby wore a demi-couture version of the blue dress, while Liv wore a custom version of an Alexandra Grecco suit.

For the ceremony, Shelby had her sights set on Amsale’s Rosemary gown for a while, as she loved the “beautiful rosette at the bodice that expanded out into a gorgeous full skirt with more organza and tulle.” At the brand’s Soho flagship, she tried on pieces with designer Michael Cho and creative director Sarah Swann. “When I put on Rosemary, it felt so special. I couldn’t stop smiling. I brought my mom to try it on again a month later when she was in town, and she teared up. We all agreed that the dress felt so me.”

They adapted a few elements, customizing the gown to fine-tune its shape and movement for Shelby’s frame. “One of my favorite decisions was to adapt the tightly wound rosette to create a more organic, whimsical flower that flowed into beautifully draped organza that we re-pinned to get the right wave-like shape,” Shelby explains.

For the ceremony, Liv wore the Danielle Frankel Collins gown with a custom removable cape. “I didn’t want to wear a veil, but still wanted the dress to have a more ceremonial feel and transform during the reception,” Liv says. The cape (suggested by a member of the Danielle Frankel team) was the perfect solution. Liv also loved the “layered, hand-cut organza column with delicate straps and an internal boned structure” of the gown. “I wanted something sculptural, sleek, and elegant with subtle texture rather than anything overly traditional or voluminous.”

The morning of their November wedding, Liv and Shelby woke up early to exchange gifts in bed. “Since we were already married, we had a feeling that canceled out the superstition of seeing each other on the wedding day,” Shelby says.

Liv gave Shelby a gold pendant necklace, on which she had inscribed their initials and a heart in her handwriting. Shelby worked with the team at Holden to create two signet rings reading RW, for Rosen-Wax, in gold and white gold. “I wanted to create heirlooms we could pass down with our new family name,” Shelby says.

Before the wedding weekend kicked off, the couple hosted a bowling party at The Gutter, welcoming friends and family to their Brooklyn neighborhood. During their rehearsal dinner at XX Venue, friends spoke in speeches about the way that Liv and Shelby complemented one another, contrasting “Shelby’s calm California energy with my New York fierceness, and how we bring out the best in each other,” Liv says.

Before the ceremony, they held a ketubah signing in their hotel loft room with Cantor Laura Stein, whom Liv knew from the city’s queer scene, and her friend Leigh Colvin. “This moment was one of my favorites of the weekend, one that felt special and private but shared with our immediate family and bridesmaids. My friend Leigh shared a few words about each of us and then explained the meaning of the ketubah—a written testament to love, commitment, and shared values. She explained that the ketubah reminds us that love itself is a living, evolving act, and something that must be nurtured, renewed, and made again each day,” Liv says. Leigh also quoted Ursula K. Le Guin: “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.”

After the ketubah signing, they held the larger wedding ceremony in the courtyard of the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg. The processional began with an acoustic version of “Heartbeats” by José González, played by members of Highline, their wedding band. Sapan Patel, a close friend of the couple, served as the officiant. Both brides walked down the aisle with their parents, Liv to “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap and Shelby to “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young.

“It was important to me that both our parents walk us down the aisle to honor them both equally and create a more inclusive, modern moment while still holding the tradition of walking down the aisle,” Liv says.

Then, reciting their vows, they touched on the ways they had leaned on each other, with Liv citing how supportive Shelby had been when her grandfather died. “I spoke about how Shelby has shown up for me in life’s hardest moments and brings that same sincerity to the way she tells other people’s stories. Standing there, I felt incredibly lucky to be living a love story she so beautifully writes about others,” Liv says.

“There’s something so special about declaring your love for someone to your community, and that’s why I wanted us to still have a ceremony despite technically already having one,” Shelby adds.

After cocktail hour, the couple danced into their reception to “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis. For the reception, Shelby wore a Dana Harel Sophie gown, cropped to ankle length “like Audrey Hepburn’s tulle wedding dress in Funny Face,” she shares. For dinner, guests were served leek vinaigrette and orzo cacio e pepe, roast chicken and fries, filet mignon au poivre, and fluke Grenobloise from Le Crocodile.

After dinner, espresso martinis circulated as the party moved onto the dance floor. The newlyweds did their first dance to “II Most Wanted” by Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus: “The song felt like the perfect choice, as it was a duet between two female vocalists and spoke about being each other’s ‘shotgun rider ’til the end of time.’ We didn’t have a choreographed dance but spent a few nights over the months before practicing in our living room to make sure we could flow through the song,” Shelby says.

Shelby and her father, Marc Wax, danced to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in the style of Ray Charles. “Not only does the song have such a beautiful significance for the queer community, but it felt special to us since we constantly played Ray Charles’s album Genius Loves Company in our home when I grew up,” Shelby says.

Then Liv and her dad, Ted Rosen, took the floor to “Last Dance” by Donna Summer. They also did the Hora dance in a nod to their Jewish roots, lifting their mothers up to join in on the fun. They ended the reception with a dance party to “Shout,” “All the Small Things,” and “Mr. Brightside” (”because we are millennials,” Shelby says). The band’s final song of the night was “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan.

For the after-party at the hotel’s rooftop bar Bar Blondeau, Shelby changed into a mini version of the Louise gown by Cinq. “It was part Moulin Rouge! showgirl, Degas ballet dancer, and vintage bride,” she says. Liv opted for the Enaura’s Dolly dress, which she says was perfectly “shimmering, body-hugging, and made for rooftop dancing.” They danced late into the night with an after-after-party at the disco club Ciao Ciao, getting home around 4 a.m.

When they look back on the wedding now? “Thankful is the main word that comes to mind,” Shelby says. “Grateful,” Liv adds. “From the incredible friends in the industry who helped bring the weekend together, to our amazingly supportive families, to our friends who traveled to celebrate us, we are just overwhelmed by the care people put in to celebrate our love,” Shelby says.

“I’m also so thankful for my amazing wife,” she adds, “not only for all the work she put into making the wedding come together, but also for always being such a wonderful person that I want by my side.”