Lily Baker and James Hottensen have known each other since their elementary school days in New York. They had a small fling in high school and reconnected a few years post-college. After a year-and-a-half together, James proposed while on a surprise trip to Nicaragua for Valentine’s Day. On the third day of their holiday, he asked Lily if she wanted to take a walk before dinner, which was an unusual ask. “As soon as we got down to the beach, he got pretty quiet and all of a sudden got down on one knee and asked me,” Lily remembers.
The bride-to-be always knew she wanted to get married at her family’s home in Southampton. “There is just something really untouched and rambling about the house that feels very classic and intimate, which is the overall aesthetic I was going for,” she explains. To help bring her vision to life, Nicole Sheppard of All Who Wander Events stepped in as the planner, and Happy Menocal set the tone for the weekend with a beautiful invitation suite.
A big admirer of Brock Collection, Lily chose an existing silhouette from the Spring 2018 collection and found a custom fabric for the skirt of her rehearsal dinner look. The night before the wedding, the couple’s dear friends, Olympia and Ariadne from Carolina Irving and Daughters, set the table with custom plates featuring their hand-painted initials. And the tablecloth was a custom Lisa Fine Textiles fabric.
To walk down the aisle, Brock Collection co-founder Laura Vassar worked with the bride to create something a little different yet still elegant. “We found the most amazing crepe that was perfect for the silhouette, as it moved beautifully but also stuck to my body in the places it needed to,” Lily says. Laura also designed the after-party dress using the same crepe, embellished with beads and feathers from India. “At the last minute, we decided to cover the straps in the beads as well, which really made it come to life.”
On the day-of, Lily got ready with makeup artist Min Min Ma, who gave her a natural bridal beauty look. And Lily completed her ensemble with antique diamond vine earrings that her grandmother had purchased in Paris in the ’40s.
Bridesmaids complemented Lily well in custom Markarian looks. “All of our bridesmaids and groomsmen grew up together in our same circle, which was so special to us and kept things really intimate and holistic,” the bride says.
On September 18, 2021, guests gathered at First Presbyterian Church in Southampton for the ceremony. “Neither James or I are particularly religious, but we both felt it was important to be married somewhere sacred,” Lily says. Bleecker Flower Shop created an arch of greens, white roses, and ranunculus that surrounded the doorway. The bride walked down the aisle with her father to “Clair de Lune.” After exchanging their own vows, the newlyweds left the church to “Sunny” by Marvin Gaye, an ode to Lily’s late mother, as it was one of her favorite songs. They then made their romantic exit in their dream getaway car—a vintage 1970s Mercedes Benz coupe convertible.
Cocktail hour commenced in Lily’s family’s backyard. “We really wanted it to feel like you were having a meal at someone’s home, so we had Hunt & Harvest serve everything family style,” the bride says of the dinner. And for dessert, the two ceremoniously cut their cake by Carissa’s The Bakery, which they discovered was accidentally frozen.
The new mister and missus took to the dance floor with The Eturnity Band for their first dance to “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. “I think it was so surreal to have all of our favorite friends and family together at my childhood home—a place that is incredibly special to me,” Lily shares. “Just being able to share that space with them was magical.”
The ’70s disco after-party kicked off in another tent by the pool with a deejay. The bride concludes, “As kids, we would always go to each other’s houses in the summer and throw parties, so this really felt like a big extension of that in a lot of ways which was really fun.”
