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- [00:01]
Chloe Mel
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. This is the run through. I'm Chloe Mel and it is the first day of New York Bridal Fashion Week. And I sort of feel like this is the beginning of spring wedding season. You know, it's starting to be the buds are on the trees, which means ladies are thinking about their summer wedding dresses, whether they're brides or guests. And we thought what a perfect time to bring in two of my colleagues to talk all things weddings from very different perspectives of the aisle. No pun intended. Naomi Elize is getting married this summer and Elise Taylor is our resident wedding expert. And we are going to hear about how both of them are approaching this wedding season and what we should be looking out for. Naomi is our senior fashion editor and Elise is our senior living writer.
- [01:21]
Naomi Elize
So excited to be here.
- [01:22]
Elise Taylor
Yes. Thanks for having us, Chloe.
- [01:24]
Chloe Mel
So first of all, what is Bridal Fashion Week? Because I feel like it's not really on my radar and I want to know whose radar it's on.
- [01:34]
Elise Taylor
Well, I mean, Naomi's the fashion editor, but I will start a little bit which is, you know, just like Runway collections. Bridal collections too have a season where they are shown to prospective customers, prospective buyers to nowadays the Internet so people can, you know, see what they could be wearing to their weddings. And I think bridal fashion, all wedding dresses, it's not guest dresses, not guest dresses. And for, you know, brides actually makes a lot of sense because it takes so long to order a dress that sometimes this like, lead time to see what's out there is actually very, very helpful from a consumer standpoint.
- [02:14]
Naomi Elize
And you know, I wish on our end we had more time to spend in Bridal Fashion Week. We don't, we don't necessarily get the opportunity to really, you know, visit these showrooms and go to the shows. During Bridal Fashion Week. We used to have an editor that was specifically focused on bridal, but she used to love bridal and she would take on the bridal market. And, you know, as we're getting more and we're seeing so many women looking towards different designers and not just bridal designers for their wedding gowns. I do think it is important that we think about incorporating that back into our role. And you know, Making the time to spend during Bridal Fashion Week.
- [02:54]
Elise Taylor
Yeah, especially just for a lot of women. It is kind of this, like, big ticket item purchase. And people do spend a lot of money and a lot of fun on their. On their wedding dresses. And so a lot of care is made to this design. There is a reason, you know, the Chanel haute couture show always ends with a Chanel bride. And because they know that this is something women spend on the least amortized.
- [03:15]
Chloe Mel
Purchase of all time. Okay, are these designers mostly only wedding designers, or is there now more of a mix of designers that also do ready to wear or, you know, made to order doing bridal?
- [03:34]
Naomi Elize
Yeah, I've been seeing a mix. I'm sure you're seeing a mix. Like Taylor Fletcher is doing a whole bridal appointment this time around, which is exciting because they see how big of a market that is. And you know, there's a lot of money in it.
- [03:47]
Elise Taylor
Yeah. And that's. That's what I was going to say, which is that people spend on wedding dresses. And a lot of designers, what we're seeing are not necessarily doing like the big princess wedding gown. And that takes like a lot of time. And you have to have a very, you know, developed atelier to kind of execute those designs. But doing white dresses that kind of surround all the other events. Staad is a very good example where they launched a collection not of wedding dresses. But here's what you wear to, you know, your rehearsal dinner, your wedding suite.
- [04:17]
Naomi Elize
Yes.
- [04:17]
Elise Taylor
Your wedding trousseau. Here's what you wear to the day after brunch. If you're having a pool party, like, you know, here's a cool white swimsuit. And so all these brands have identified that this is a huge market with a huge demand. So we're seeing a lot of designers who aren't traditionally bridal designers kind of entering this market. And then we're seeing a lot of, you know, traditional bridal designers just go all out.
- [04:40]
Chloe Mel
I do feel like that's been a shift in recent years that it used to be bridal designers did wedding dresses and some ready to wear designers did some wedding dresses. But it wasn't as much leaning into the whole weekend and outfitting the whole sequence of events of, you know, 48 hours of being a bride. I remember I wore an Oscar de la Renta, like Broderie Anglaise sort of empire waist dress that was super simple and cotton. And the Oscar team were like, we didn't end up producing it cause it wasn't fancy enough. Like People really wanted. It was part of their bridal show, but no one wanted a dress that wasn't like a real wedding dress. And I feel like that's changed both for the wedding itself and for all the events around it.
- [05:27]
Elise Taylor
Yeah, it was interesting. I was doing a story with Mona Operandi, and one of the they decided to do kind of this, like, wedding curation on their website. And they told me that their top search search terms one of them was white dress. And so, you know, I think there's also a shift in consumer where, you know, we've seen a lot of brides want to wear designs that don't feel like a traditional wedding dress. They want to do something different. They want to do something a little bit more edgy and fashion forward. And so they're kind of looking for just, you know, different. Different takes on a white dress.
- [06:05]
Naomi Elize
And it's. It's also fun to see, you know, brands who may have started more focused on ready to wear kind of dip their toes into bridal and then become more bridal focused, like Jackson Weiderhoff and seeing how immense success they have had in their bridal market. And, you know, I think I've had three friends who are Wiederhof brides, and they love it. And then you go into Danielle Frankel, who, you know, specific focuses on bridal, but it just feels so whimsical. And also she has such incredible designs that feel like something you've never seen before. That makes you feel like, oh, if I'm a Danielle Franco bride, it's very much the if, you know, you know, I'm the cool bride.
- [06:46]
Chloe Mel
I do love seeing, like, the different Personas of different designer brides, like, describe a Wiederhoft bride.
- [06:53]
Naomi Elize
I think a Wiederhof bride is someone who is a little wacky. And when I say wacky, I mean it in the best way. Like, it's someone who is just absolutely cool girl.
- [07:04]
Chloe Mel
It's sort of the cool girl, wackier Westwood bride.
- [07:07]
Naomi Elize
Yeah.
- [07:08]
Chloe Mel
Cause it's sort of corseted, and you get that sort of sculpted.
- [07:11]
Naomi Elize
It's a little bit more theatrical. She's telling a story. She's not afraid of embellishments. She's not afraid of, like, having the tiniest waist, and then maybe it poofs out into a big, like, taffeta moment. And that's when I think of the Wiederhof bride. It's someone that's kind of looking for something that's going against the grain. My good friend Asia wore Wiederhoff who we covered on Elise, covered on Vogue Bridal. And she then made that look into three looks throughout the night.
- [07:40]
Chloe Mel
Oh, wow.
- [07:41]
Naomi Elize
She kept switching out the tulle from the bottom of her dress to make go shorter and shorter through the night.
- [07:46]
Elise Taylor
Oh, my God.
- [07:47]
Chloe Mel
I love that.
- [07:47]
Elise Taylor
And Weiderhofa I really love, because I think there's just been this history of, like, the demure bride.
- [07:53]
Naomi Elize
Right.
- [07:53]
Elise Taylor
Which is that you're wearing this kind of angelic, you know, that's, like, pretty and, you know, like, covers you with. The Weiderhauff just is loud, and it's like.
- [08:03]
Chloe Mel
No, it's main character energy, which you should be on your wedding day.
- [08:06]
Elise Taylor
And it's like, I'm wearing a corset. You know, a lot of the Weiderhof dresses are short, and so it's kind of like I'm showing some skin and I'm looking great, and it just happens to be white.
- [08:19]
Chloe Mel
We are going to take a quick break.
- [08:22]
Elise Taylor
Foreign. Hi, it's Cho Minardi.
- [08:32]
Naomi Elize
If you're not on the Vogue app yet, what the hell are you doing?
- [08:35]
Elise Taylor
You can follow along with me and.
- [08:37]
Naomi Elize
Other editors as we talk about everything happening in fashion.
- [08:40]
Chloe Mel
Think you're already a fashion expert?
- [08:42]
Naomi Elize
Well, find out how your Runway IQ stacks up against the Vogue community with an all new Runway genius leaderboard. So download the Vogue app today, and.
- [08:52]
Chloe Mel
You'Ll never miss a moment. And we're back. Okay. Naomi, you are going to be a bride in a few months. Who are you working with on your dress? Tell us what this process has been like. Where did it begin? Where is it gonna end?
- [09:13]
Naomi Elize
Oh, man, I'm so excited to chat about this. Cause I think I've turned into that bride that talks about their wedding nonstop. It's, like, kind of ins. Insufferable. So this is the perfect platform for it.
- [09:24]
Chloe Mel
I'm so glad. This is like when I go to the doctor and I'm like, oh, I get to complain to you exactly 15 minutes about what's wrong with me.
- [09:30]
Naomi Elize
And it's beautiful because, you know, today is. We're officially four months out, which is insane to even say it. Wow. But I'm very excited. We're doing a wedding weekend, and my main ceremony dress will be Christopher John Rogers.
- [09:43]
Chloe Mel
So fun. Who's a longtime friend of yours.
- [09:44]
Naomi Elize
A longtime friend. And, you know, it just made so much sense to work with him on this, because I know he gets me and he gets my body. And also, it. It feels very special to be able to do this with friends. And that's what we really went into planning our wedding as going.
- [10:01]
Chloe Mel
Does he do a lot of wedding dresses?
- [10:03]
Naomi Elize
He does. I think, you know, it's pretty much one offs. He's done a few here and there, some that we featured on Vogue Weddings.
- [10:09]
Elise Taylor
Yes. I'm very excited because I have only run one Christopher John Rogers wedding dress, and that wedding did extremely well.
- [10:17]
Chloe Mel
Interesting.
- [10:18]
Elise Taylor
In part, the couple was obviously very cool, but also in part because her dress was amazing. Yeah. And it was in the, you know, Mexican jungle. And I just ran this beautiful shot of this, like, glowing Christopher John Rogers dress, like, you know, in the jungle.
- [10:33]
Naomi Elize
And it was green, right?
- [10:34]
Elise Taylor
It was like a marigold yellow.
- [10:36]
Chloe Mel
Yeah. Oh, wow.
- [10:37]
Elise Taylor
And it, you know, obviously celebrity weddings perform the best for Vogue, but I always love to see the weddings of non celebrities, like what makes make those pop. And this one really popped. And so I'm excited to run another one for you.
- [10:53]
Chloe Mel
Is your dress white?
- [10:55]
Naomi Elize
It is white. Okay. Probably more of an off white. I'm still very traditional in that sense, but we're finding it in the happy medium between both of our styles. And like, what I want to go into the wedding. My wedding dress is inspired by Diana Ross's wedding dress. And there's an image online of her walking through. Yes, please. It's so iconic. She's walking through the street. She has this major lace veil over her silk dress, and she's hiking up her dress to show her peep toe heels. And when I saw that image, I was like, that's very much the energy I want to give for my wedding day.
- [11:30]
Elise Taylor
Yes.
- [11:30]
Naomi Elize
And we'll be upstate. It's so fun, you know, but, you know, we're putting our CJR twist on it. We're still gonna give a corset. We're gonna have a drop waist moment. It's gonna give a little body. Cause I still wanna be sexy on my wed.
- [11:47]
Chloe Mel
Who else is on your mood board?
- [11:49]
Naomi Elize
Ooh, that's a good question. It's been. It's more about fabrics. I've been working a lot at lace, a lot at crochet. You know, Rachel Scott of Diotima is going to be doing my reception dress. So we've been looking a lot at different ways to work in crochet and how to kind of tie in that back into the wedding. And whether that's through doilies or through maybe it's even like a doily lantern where we're still working it out, but it's really going through. Okay. What else. What type of fabrics do we want to do? And are you wearing a veil? Yes. I want a dramatic veil. Okay. I want the veil.
- [12:26]
Chloe Mel
Is Christopher doing the veil?
- [12:27]
Naomi Elize
He is doing the veil. Okay. I want it to feel like the train is coming from the veil, and then I can hike up the dress because we're, you know, I'll have it for the ceremony and the cocktail party.
- [12:39]
Chloe Mel
What's been the most unexpected part of planning the wedding or unexpected challenge?
- [12:43]
Naomi Elize
How much a tent cost?
- [12:45]
Chloe Mel
Oh, it's crazy.
- [12:46]
Naomi Elize
Is insane. It really goes down to the cost and thinking, okay, we can go into this. Maybe we're leaning into our community, maybe we're finding ways to cut costs, but there's just some that you can't get around. And a tent definitely being one, and also staffing. And, you know, when we had gone into the planning process of our wedding, we were like, okay, we want to do 150. In my head, I was like, 150 small. Like, how are we going to do that now? I'm like, thank God. Because, yeah, the budget, if we even went any bigger, would have been too much. Elise.
- [13:18]
Chloe Mel
I feel like I hear that a lot about unexpected costs, like a tent. People not expecting that to cost so much. What do you think is an investment that you've seen is really worthwhile for your wife?
- [13:31]
Elise Taylor
So I'm very glad that you are not skimping on the tent because infrastructure is everything, especially because of weather. I've heard horror stories of people who maybe have tried to take a little shortcut on the tent, and then it rains on their wedding day, and their guests are freezing, and the weather is encroaching from all sides. And so that's absolutely one thing you should not skimp on, is infrastructure.
- [13:56]
Naomi Elize
I'm definitely not the bride that thinks rain on the wedding day is good luck. I'm pretty much like, I need it to be sunny and bright.
- [14:05]
Elise Taylor
And I actually hear that from a lot of wedding planners, where the most expensive thing about your wedding is not the flowers or the, you know, the food. It's always the infrastructure. A lot of couples have these visions of, like, maybe getting married in a backyard or a field, and then there's, like, very deeply unsexy things being, like, toilets and, like, electricity. And it's like, okay, you want to get married in a field? How are you going to have lights in that field? You know, there's very kind of, like, difficult structural things about having a wedding, and that's when it really starts to creep up.
- [14:37]
Naomi Elize
And I, you know, going into the wedding and, you know, as we're. As I told You. We were working with Hannah, our good friend, and we're gonna be on her property. But even that said, we're still working on the infrastructure and learning as we go. Cause we're like, oh, wait, we need to rent a toilet rental. We need to get transportation for people. Cause there's no Ubers up there. There's so many things that can then add on that you may not think of top of mind as, you know, as you go through the planning process, you're like, okay, I need to add this, I need to add that. And then you're kind of like, okay, well, where can I cut across?
- [15:11]
Elise Taylor
Yeah, no, it's funny, my. My sister just got married and so I was doing the wedding planning with her, and I remember her, like, looking at, you know, at her budget, and she's like, we need X amount for transportation. Like, we need buses to take people to and from the hotel to the venue. And that was so important where, you know, some, like, other kind of the more fanciful details had to go. And so I always, like when I talk to couples who are planning their wedding and, you know, they're getting overwhelmed with cost. There's so many traditions in a wedding that we just do for tradition's sake rather than because we actually like them. And those are always the easiest things to.
- [15:50]
Chloe Mel
What's an example?
- [15:51]
Elise Taylor
So, you know, a really easy answer, at least for my sister, is like, my sister hates cake. And so she's looking at her budget. She wants to, you know, she wants to have buses. She wants everyone comfortable. And she looks at how much she is spending on a cake and she's like. And I don't even like cake. I don't really eat cake. And so she actually decided to forego her cake. And we still had desserts at the wedding. They were desserts that she liked. And, you know, everyone had something sweet at the end of the wedding, but she didn't have to spend all this money on. I think there was 280 people at her wedding. A 280 person wedding cake when she didn't even like it.
- [16:24]
Chloe Mel
Yeah.
- [16:24]
Elise Taylor
And that was a really easy cost cut for her. It might not be for some other couples. Another really popular thing I'm seeing is honestly, like invitations.
- [16:34]
Chloe Mel
I was gonna say that there is.
- [16:37]
Elise Taylor
Look, if you love stationery and you love paper and you love, you know, watercolor illustrations, do it. Otherwise there is no reason you need to send out a paper. Save the date. Especially, like, just send an email.
- [16:51]
Naomi Elize
Yeah.
- [16:52]
Elise Taylor
A lot of times as a guest, I prefer an email. Save the date. Rather than like a paper save the date.
- [16:56]
Chloe Mel
You keep track of it.
- [16:57]
Elise Taylor
You keep track of it easier. If you want to send, you know, a full invitation for your wedding, go ahead and do so. But also, if you don't want to do that either, you know, just send an electronic card, and it will save you so much money.
- [17:09]
Naomi Elize
I know we opted to do, you know, a digital invitation, but we still sent a physical save to date because we have a few of our older family members that kind of need the physical one to get them to the website. But we were like, there's. It was very. A simple, simple idea. Just a simple invite. And then we did a Polaroid of like us in a photo booth that we shot and just kept it very easy. Something tangible that we could have. But not trying to break the bank. We printed it ourselves. I think we spent maybe less than $100.
- [17:40]
Chloe Mel
Oh, wow, that's awesome.
- [17:41]
Elise Taylor
And I will say, no guest is going to go to a wedding. And, like, their takeaway is the invitations, right? You know, they're taking away.
- [17:49]
Naomi Elize
They're gonna forget it by that.
- [17:50]
Elise Taylor
The band, the food. You know, a lot of times, like, the fashion, how much fun they have. No one's going to be like, well, they didn't sen. Save the date. Like, no one thinks like that. So if you need to cut cast, that to me, is a very easy one.
- [18:03]
Chloe Mel
I want to talk about destination weddings, because I feel like in the Vogue office, there's a lot of mixed feelings about them. Certain colleagues have just sworn that they will never attend another destination wedding. Others have spent their entire budget on destination weddings. Elise, I feel like you traveled probably 100,000 miles to weddings in the last year.
- [18:23]
Elise Taylor
Is the person who approves my time off request. Chloe knows more than anyone about my wedding journey. But it's an interesting macro trend we're seeing, which is that after the pandemic, there was this huge boom in destination weddings because the world was finally opening up. People wanted to celebrate. No one had been in a wedding in, like, two years. Cause they'd all been so small or canceled. And so all of a sudden, destination weddings were all the right. We're now kind of seeing the pendulum shift in that way. There's a couple reasons for this. One is that everyone getting married now has been a guest in a million destination weddings. And so it feels kind of overdone. It feels expensive. People are realizing that. And then also, you know, for a lot of people, if you have a specific tie to a destination, and it's important to you, you know, maybe you and your fiance went on vacation there and that's where you fell in love. Like, that's like a beautiful story. I think some people are realizing that picking a destination just for a destination's sake, infuriating is infuriating. And also, it's just not special. Right.
- [19:32]
Chloe Mel
Yeah.
- [19:32]
Elise Taylor
Like, you don't want to go and get married at a location that you're never gonna see again.
- [19:36]
Naomi Elize
Right.
- [19:37]
Elise Taylor
And so many people are saying, okay, you know, let's think about getting married closer to home amongst, you know, venues, or, you know, at in my own backyard where I have all these memories and it feels personal. And it's also just easy to plant. Mm. Like, if you wanna get married in Italy, you have to go to Italy multiple times to plan your own wedding.
- [19:57]
Chloe Mel
You can totally speak Italian.
- [19:58]
Naomi Elize
Yeah, right.
- [19:59]
Elise Taylor
And like, that's actually quite stressful where it's just if you get married in your hometown, like, you can stop by your venue whenever.
- [20:06]
Naomi Elize
That was a big factor when we were thinking about where we wanted to do our wedding. You know, in the beginning, I thought I wanted to get married on this hacienda in Merida in Mexico. And we kept going back and forth on when we were gonna go see it. And then we finally picked a date to go look at it. And it was I two summers ago. And then I looked up flights and I had to do a connecting flight or had to fly to Cancun and drive two and a half hours. And I looked at Blue and I was like, I don't wanna do that. So I doubt my guests would wanna do that. So let's actually rethink this a bit. And when the opportunity to do it at Hannah's estate came up, I was like, this just feels right. It feels we have a story here. Hannah's been in our lives for eight years. She's part of the reason why we met. And also it'll be easier to plan. We have more control over it. And also, if I need a diy, I can DIY whatever I need to do. And so having that option and, you know, being able to see, okay, this is. This would make our lives a little bit easier, especially with both of our demanding jobs. And it was a no brainer to kind of cancel out the idea of a destination wedding.
- [21:15]
Elise Taylor
And your wedding is supposed to be all about you. And so if you go to this far flung destination with no connection, that's a little bit of a wedding factory. Because a lot of these abroad destinations, destinations are like, you're just gonna be Kind of like shoved in, shoved out, and then tomorrow someone else is taking your place.
- [21:32]
Naomi Elize
Right. And I also just wanted a place that no one else has done it before, so that too.
- [21:38]
Elise Taylor
That too, yeah.
- [21:41]
Chloe Mel
Graham and I got married at my family's house in a very remote part of France that's very hard to get to. And so I was like, well, the way to deal with that is to just make it basically an elopement. Like, we only invited 10 friends each, and our family, our immediate family, and that made it feel like a group trip, which was really fun, but it was absolutely like Elisa saying, Graham basically planned the wedding, and if we didn't know people in that area, it would have been a complete nightmare. Like, arguing with the florist. Our porta Potty was named Monsieur Toilette, and that was a whole thing of, like, how late Monsieur Toilette would. Right. But yeah, it really does. You know, obviously you can get an expensive planner who's based in Lake Como, and people do that all the time, but it just does lose that personal touch.
- [22:36]
Naomi Elize
How did you guys get it down to 10 friends each?
- [22:40]
Chloe Mel
I mean, I still regret, like, people I didn't invite to my wedding. I think about it, like, once a month. But it was worth it in the moment, and it made me really enjoy it. But there definitely were, like, important people that I didn't like. I just invited a few college friends and just made it, like people who are friends with each other. Also, in France, French people's answer to everything is, so you just have to keep arguing with them, which is really unfortunate.
- [23:06]
Elise Taylor
As someone who goes through wedding submissions all the time, I can tell you the chicest weddings are the ones that are deeply personal to the c. Like, to the couple. And so that's why I always say I'm like, you don't need to pick the most expensive venue that's splashy in a bra. Just, like, pick a venue where I can, like, have a sense of who you are.
- [23:23]
Chloe Mel
Yeah. More with Naomi and Elise after the break.
- [23:40]
Naomi Elize
I'm Jamilah Robinson, host of Food People.
- [23:42]
Chloe Mel
On Food People, we talk about how food and drink shape our society. I talk to the luminaries making big moves in the culinary industry, from chefs and entrepreneurs to celebrities and even activists.
- [23:54]
Elise Taylor
The combination between a school and a restaurant.
- [23:57]
Chloe Mel
The next generation of Ethiopian chefs. A lot more than food goes on in a kitchen. It's where you have your loudest arguments.
- [24:05]
Elise Taylor
It's often where you have your loudest laughter.
- [24:07]
Chloe Mel
I'm Italian, Mexican. I'm a comedian. There's Gonna be lots of opinions.
- [24:11]
Naomi Elize
So if you want to go deep on how food creates the world we live in, join me on Food People.
- [24:16]
Chloe Mel
Food People is available on the podcast.
- [24:18]
Naomi Elize
App of your choice.
- [24:26]
Chloe Mel
I want to know, Elise, what you're seeing trend wise with weddings right now, because I asked this sort of as a leading question because we have been chatting with some of our colleagues on slack about this. To me, new trend, but I'm sure you've been seeing it for a while of people having creative directors for their weddings. Tell me about this. It seems insane to me.
- [24:47]
Elise Taylor
Every year I am surprised by a new kind of wedding person that comes into the mist. A couple years ago was the bridal stylist and I was like, what?
- [24:57]
Chloe Mel
Five years ago? We had never heard of a bridal stylist before.
- [25:00]
Elise Taylor
This is a thing. I was like, no way. And now they're all the rage. And so many weddings have a bridal stylist. So what we are seeing more recently is a bridal creative director. And so what this person is basically they are overseeing kind of the visuals of your event. And a lot of it has to do with photos, which is they're kind of making these picture perfect moments, guest experiences on your behalf.
- [25:30]
Naomi Elize
I did not even know this existed.
- [25:32]
Elise Taylor
I'm aware. I feel like you're okay.
- [25:34]
Naomi Elize
Yeah, I'm not.
- [25:35]
Elise Taylor
You see, I'm on the forefront.
- [25:36]
Naomi Elize
There's no budget for this.
- [25:38]
Chloe Mel
You're the creative director. You and Blue are together sharing that type of.
- [25:42]
Elise Taylor
Exactly right. I'm on the forefront of what's coming into my inbox and I'm just saying they're starting to come.
- [25:47]
Naomi Elize
Wow.
- [25:48]
Elise Taylor
You know, a lot of brides we see doing this, at least so far, are brides where like a wedding is also part of their brand. And I know that says seems really awful to say, but for a lot of women who are involved in like visual fields or, you know, maybe they have a heavy social media following, creating really good wedding images is also like a business almost opportunity for them. Interesting.
- [26:13]
Naomi Elize
So that, wow, that is something new that I did not know.
- [26:17]
Elise Taylor
It is something new that I am personally still grappling with. The other kind of person I see using a creative director is, you know, there are some couples out there who they have no interest in planning their own wedding and it's just not for them. They want to throw a great party. They want all their glets to have a blast. They do not care about their tablescapes, their flowers. Like they simply, it does not interest them.
- [26:42]
Naomi Elize
They just want to show up and.
- [26:43]
Elise Taylor
If they have a high enough budget, they'll just basically hire multiple people to do the whole thing, and then they just show up for the peace of mind. And granted, like, if you have an unlimited budget, I can see why that would be attractive to you.
- [27:01]
Chloe Mel
People do that with decorating their house, too.
- [27:02]
Elise Taylor
Exactly.
- [27:03]
Chloe Mel
Like, some people just, like, want an install day, and they want to walk in and have Kleenex and, you know, ready to go fridge stock. Elise, I want to know what you think makes a great. Like you were saying, some couples just want a great party, everyone to have fun. What are the three most important ingredients for that?
- [27:22]
Elise Taylor
So food, drink, music.
- [27:26]
Chloe Mel
Okay.
- [27:26]
Elise Taylor
I always joke that as long as you have a easily accessible open bar and a good band, your wedding will be fine. Because those are, you know, two of the key ingredients for people to have fun. People also like to be fed. That is also a big point of it. You know, if you're starving at a wedding, that's no fun for anyone. So if you have those three key parts of the guest experience, people are gonna have a good time at your wedding.
- [27:51]
Chloe Mel
So a good late night snack is important to me.
- [27:54]
Naomi Elize
Yes. Like the finger. Like, I want the fries. I want the mini hamburgers. Like, I want it all.
- [28:00]
Elise Taylor
I went to a wedding once where the late night snack was just McDonald's, and it was like, it made me so happy as wedding guests. And that was not expensive. It was delicious. And the whole party went wild when it came in. So you do not need to break the bank. Like, honestly, McDonald's. It will work.
- [28:18]
Naomi Elize
I love that. Or like, a food truck. I've been to one where there was a truck. I love a food truck truck. I've been looking into a gelato truck, and I'm like, blue's like, girl, pump the brakes.
- [28:27]
Elise Taylor
The only thing I will say is that you realize we just came off a wave of donut walls.
- [28:32]
Chloe Mel
Oh, no, no, no, no.
- [28:33]
Naomi Elize
Oh, God.
- [28:34]
Elise Taylor
Which is. I'm like, no one likes a donut that much.
- [28:37]
Naomi Elize
No, I don't want a don. And it's just, like, staying, like, ugh.
- [28:41]
Chloe Mel
What else don't we want to lease?
- [28:43]
Naomi Elize
Right?
- [28:43]
Elise Taylor
There's a couple things what I shouldn't do. You know, here's, like, some personal, personal triggers for me. I hate any hashtag.
- [28:51]
Naomi Elize
I know.
- [28:52]
Elise Taylor
I hate any hashtag. And I especially hate a neon sign with a hashtag.
- [28:58]
Naomi Elize
Oh, wow.
- [28:59]
Chloe Mel
Is that a thing?
- [29:00]
Elise Taylor
Yes, it was a thing. And thankfully, it's trending out. But to me, I know we just talked about, like, you know, brides who want to make social media moments of their wedding. To me, making your wanting your veteral wedding to seem obviously like a social media moment is like a little tacky to me. I'm not going to lie. And so please don't do a hashtag. No one has.
- [29:22]
Naomi Elize
I'm getting pressured to do a hashtag.
- [29:23]
Chloe Mel
No, do not do that.
- [29:24]
Elise Taylor
You do you.
- [29:25]
Naomi Elize
I don't think I want to do one.
- [29:27]
Elise Taylor
Chloe says you do you, and I say do not.
- [29:30]
Chloe Mel
Okay, do not do you.
- [29:31]
Elise Taylor
Do not do you. If yourself is telling you a hashtag, I'm telling you re evaluate it.
- [29:36]
Naomi Elize
I don't think I want to do a hashtag, but.
- [29:38]
Elise Taylor
Right. Who uses hashtags anyways?
- [29:42]
Chloe Mel
I want to know about how you are navigating the emotional landmines of wedding planning, because I found that to be. It can bring up a lot of emotion, a lot of stress about people you're missing, people you're dealing with. What has that looked like for you?
- [30:00]
Naomi Elize
It's been really difficult. And I think that first year I was avoiding planning because I was avoiding the emotion of feeling of planning the wedding without both of my parents. And that has, throughout this past year, has brought up a lot of emotions. It feels like that grief is coming back up to the surface and I'm having to really go through a transformation of myself and look within to understand how I can navigate it and get through the next few months to get to my wedding and also make sure I am enjoying my wedding. Because I'm definitely a person who tends to lean into my emotions heavy. And I keep thinking about, oh, me and my sisters are gonna do the father daughter dance to the song my father did for both of them. And I keep telling them, like, it's gonna be so sad. And they're like, no, let's be excited about it. Let's look at it as a celebration. But also through that, through that process of grief, you know, grief can bring out the worst of people. And we've had a lot of falling outs within our family. And so I'm not gonna have that much family there present at my wed. And that has been really difficult for me to navigate because I think about all the weddings I've been to, specifically very Haitian weddings, with the culture and having the music and having certain aspects of it that make you feel so connected to your culture and to my parents that I may not have, but I can, you know, flip it on its head and make it the modern version. What that looks like for me and for me and my sisters and also we're so lucky to have our parents, best friends who have acted as like, family since I was in my mom's belly, basically, who are gonna be there to support us and, you know, really help us navigate what that day looks like without my parents. And, you know, finding little things where, you know, maybe it's the saxophonist playing Sade, which is what my mom listened to when she passed, and, you know, also having a chair there for both my parents, just finding little things where I can find the joy in it without harping too much on the sadness of it all.
- [32:07]
Elise Taylor
We just ran a wedding who. The bride was in a similar situation to you where she had just lost her father, and she was looking for, you know, as you said, joyful ways to make his presence feel known. And something that I love that she did. She took his cowboy hat. And yet at their kind of, like, after party, dance party, she just had it at a table. And so it was this beautiful juxtaposition of, yes, it was, you know, this object that her father loved. And it could have been a very, you know, solemn object, but by putting it on a table in the party setting so he could. They could feel like he was part.
- [32:40]
Naomi Elize
Of the room while he's in the.
- [32:41]
Elise Taylor
Room, which I thought was a very beautiful tribute.
- [32:43]
Naomi Elize
That's a beautiful way. I'm gonna put that in my mind as I go into planning. Cause that's a really beautiful way to honor them, but also having the joy in it all. And maybe you can even put on the hat and have a little fun with it as well.
- [32:58]
Chloe Mel
All right, thank you, ladies, so much. Thank you, Naomi. We're very excited to have you back on the show post wedding for a full debrief. And that is it for the show this week. We will see you guys soon. The Run through is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma and Joanna Solotarov. It's engineered by Jake Loomis and James Yost. It is mixed by Mike Kutchman. Stephanie Karaoke is our executive producer, and Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's head of global audio. Working at Vanity Fair. Our entire lives revolve around press screenings, premieres, film festivals, Q&As set visits, award ceremonies. Not that we're complaining. It's pretty great.
- [33:54]
Naomi Elize
But you know that feeling when you.
- [33:56]
Chloe Mel
See a new film or show and you want to talk about it with everyone immediately? We feel that all the time. Yes, we sure do. I'm Richard Lawson.
- [34:05]
Naomi Elize
I'm David Canfield.
- [34:06]
Chloe Mel
And I'm Rebecca Ford on Little Gold Men.
- [34:08]
Naomi Elize
Vanity Fair's flagship entertainment podcast. We discuss today's most exciting films and TV shows. David and I are fresh off attending.
- [34:16]
Chloe Mel
The LA premiere last night. Break down the latest developments in the awards races. Gomez and Grande split the pop girly.
- [34:21]
Naomi Elize
Vote and catch up with Hollywood's biggest movers and shakers.
- [34:24]
Chloe Mel
Demi Moore, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Whether you're a casual viewer or an industry buff, this is the podcast for you. New episodes are published every Tuesday and Thursday. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:45]
Naomi Elize
From. PRX.