Hannah and Will planned their first date after connecting on the Coffee Meets Bagel dating app in July 2020. “It was an instant connection,” says the couple. After dinner, they stopped at an ice cream shop to keep their conversation going. “While eating our ice cream on a stoop nearby, a woman randomly came up to us and asked us how long we'd been together, without knowing it was our first date,” they say. “She let us know that she lived across the street and that she and her roommate thought we were a really cute couple and that we should keep dating. We took her advice and kept things going!”

In November 2022, Hannah and Will returned to the upstate New York cabin they had visited on their first trip as a couple. Will told Hannah they were staging a cooking shoot for his Instagram account, @whatscookinwill, but instead surprised Hannah with a proposal as a photographer friend captured the moment. 

Hannah and Will, who relish their time away from the city, dreamed of hosting their 120 guests for an autumn wedding weekend upstate. They booked Wildflower Farms in Gardiner, New York, for November 18, 2023, focusing on creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere. “We really felt that Wildflower was the perfect venue to deliver a cozy, intimate, and chic wedding weekend for us and our loved ones,” they say. Chic flowers filled out by textural branches, a color palette of muted greens and fall hues, and soft candlelight created a peaceful, mid-autumn aesthetic, while custom details—like sake cups at every place setting and blankets on the ceremony chairs—were thoughtful and intentional.

“Jacqueline Hallgarth made the planning process seamless and fun—she had been the planner for my sister’s wedding in Big Sur in 2021, and I fell in love with her professionalism, personalization, and ability to execute,” says Hannah. “I think the most challenging part was narrowing the guest list to 120 people—we are both extroverted, social people!”

 

The couple began their wedding weekend with a family-only dinner that allowed for a milestone moment: The first time Hannah’s and Will’s parents met before the wedding. “Will’s mom exchanged gifts with the mother of the bride, as is customary in Ivorian tradition,” says the couple. “Similarly, the mother of the bride exchanged gifts back with the mother of the groom, as is customary to Japanese traditions.”