Phoebe Zimmer, a development executive at Amazon Studios with a focus on young adult programming, and Samuel Foxen Boyd, a writer and director currently working on his show, Love Life, for HBO Max starring Anna Kendrick and produced by Paul Feig, met at a party in Los Angeles. They were both sophomores in college and shared their first kiss on New Year’s Eve of 2012 but didn’t start dating until August of 2015. After they had been seeing each other for three years, Sam asked Phoebe to marry him on the beach at sunset.
From the beginning, the pair wanted their destination wedding to feel like a tropical vacation for everyone invited. “My dream was fancy summer camp on the beach—and that’s exactly what it was,” Phoebe says. She knew she was destined to marry Sam by the ocean, since he first said, “I love you,” to her during a family trip to Riviera Maya, and she secretly hoped they would get married there. After he proposed, Hotel Esencia was her first call. To help plan everything, the couple hired the extraordinary Alexis Eskenazi of AE&Co.
When shopping for her dress, Phoebe kept in mind that she needed something that would do well in the heat and on the sand. After striking out at bigger department stores, she walked into LOHO Bride, which felt like visiting a chic friend’s apartment, and owner Christy Baird found her dress by Spanish label Cortana. “My dress was beautiful but very simple, so for fun, I got a custom veil made at Happy Isles. I wore it for a total of five minutes, but it was worth it,” the bride says. To complete her look, she accessorized with her step-mom’s Irene Neuwirth labradorite earrings as her “something borrowed and blue.” “They look like the ocean at night in the moonlight!”
On May 11th, 2019, the bride walked down the aisle with her parents to meet Sam and their officiant, Amanda Hymnson, who used to live with the couple when they first moved in together. “She knows us both so well and was able to make fun of us but also loves us enough to not embarrass us too much,” Phoebe says.
After welcoming everyone, Amanda introduced one of Phoebe’s four little sisters, Amelia, to sing “Sea of Love” by Cat Power with their family friend, David Kohan, on the guitar. “Amelia couldn’t stop crying, while she sang, and everyone—her included—was laughing and crying hysterically watching her try to get the words out. She had to start over mid-way through to get back on track, but it was beautiful and sweet and the most endearing thing I’ve ever seen,” the bride remembers. The couple exchanged personal vows, and then after Sam stepped on the glass, and they had their first kiss as husband and wife, they recessed to “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac, played by a local guitar trio.
“The reception was wild,” Phoebe remembers. “So fun, joyous, tons of dancing, tequila, and it ended with a lot of late night swimming.” During the steak and lobster dinner, her father gave a seven-minute speech, mostly praising the couple’s friends for being decent people at 28—“he was just shocked no one had thrown up in the pool yet,” Phoebe jokes. And it wasn’t until one of Phoebe’s sisters, Sophia, spoke that Sam shed his first tears of the day.
The bride was worried that, this being the third night of partying, people might be too tired to dance, but that wasn’t the case at all. The couple’s favorite DJ and ex-roommate, Sam of DJDS, played a set, filled with Drake and Rihanna, for the reception. And the newlyweds had their first dance to “Baby” by Donnie & Joe Emerson. Sparklers, mini quesadillas, and popsicles kept everyone energized throughout the night. And then, Phoebe’s younger brother, Owen, deejayed what he called the after-party. The best part of the evening for the bride? Changing into swimsuits and bathrobes with Sam and finishing strong on the dance floor before jumping in the pool with everyone!
