Hannah Martin never had an exact vision of what her wedding dress would look like. “I always just wanted a really cool, personal dress,” she says. “I wouldn’t really imagine it would even be a quote-unquote wedding dress.”
When Hannah, who is the senior design editor at Architectural Digest, and Taylor Adams, senior staff editor at The New York Times, decided to get married after 11 years of dating, the two were more keen on a dinner with friends than a no-holds-barred extravaganza. At first, they deemed a wedding stressful and expensive. “But,” she concedes, “eventually you think, ‘How many times in your life do you get to bring your favorite people together and have a really great party?’” The two planned the wedding—an intimate ceremony at St. Peter’s Church in Midtown Manhattan, followed by dinner at their favorite Long Island City eatery, Tournesol—in just six months.
Photo: Oresti Tsonopoulos
Photo: Oresti Tsonopoulos
For Hannah, the celebration also provided an opportunity to wear a once-in-a-lifetime dress. Keen on something custom, she turned to the New York-based designer Zoe Gustavia Anna Whalen, a friend of friends. Hannah had attended Zoe’s runway show last year, where she was taken by her sculptural, historically influenced designs. “She’s never directly referencing a moment in history—it always stirs together in this way that I find really compelling,” Hannah says.
While Zoe rarely takes on bridal clients, Hannah’s vision fit perfectly with her practice. “It aligns so much with my general ethos of garments being these weighted, emotional objects,” Zoe tells Vogue. “So when it’s the right fit, being able to create that with such intention for somebody else is so beautiful.”
Photo: Oresti Tsonopoulos