My ‘80s Wedding
Yahoo Beauty editor in chief Bobbi Brown shares her wedding story. (Photo: Bobbi Brown)
It really was love at first sight. I met my husband Steven when I was 30. Just out of a 12-year relationship, I made a dinner date with a girlfriend on a Sunday night. I wasn’t wearing any makeup and my hair was pulled back in a ponytail. I wore jeans and a t-shirt — it was very casual. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone, but my friend brought Steven. It clicked. I didn’t know what had hit me.
I called my dad the next day and told him that I had met the man I was going to marry. Three months later, we were engaged. Nine months after that, we got married.
We wanted to have a big, fun, casual wedding weekend. We booked the Woolverton Inn in Pennsylvania and planned the whole thing ourselves. It was a weekend full of all the things we loved: family and friends, tennis tournaments, football games, spa time, biking, and long hikes. Even back then, I was into being healthy, so all the meals revolved around fresh, healthy food right out of a spa cookbook.
It was 1988 and big dresses with lots of lace, bows, and embellishments were in. I could never imagine myself in that look, especially since I’m five feet tall and pretty casual. My friend, designer Carmelo Pomodoro, made me a short A-line dress and an ‘80s satin blazer on top for the ceremony. I love things that are off the shoulder, so he designed it like that, but with a sheer panel. On the recommendation of a French Vogue editor, I ditched the stockings and got inexpensive white wedding shoes (you only wear them once), and they got stuck in the grass all night and turned green.
So many of our friends at the time were creative so they helped us with every aspect of our wedding. Roxanne Lowit, who became a huge fashion photographer, took our pictures. Steven had a friend who was a Broadway musician and got a few buddies together to play at the wedding. My friend Oribe, before he was famous and working on stars like J.Lo, did my hair — straight, shiny, and natural. I did my own makeup. A little liner, some bronzer, a blush, and a rosy lip that I created with lip pencil and gloss. I really didn’t need a lot… I had that madly in love glow that you just can’t bottle.
Crazy that it was 27 years ago because it feels like yesterday. It was the perfect party: lots of love, great food, friends, and dancing. I’d do it again tomorrow.
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