Retro ’60s Glamour Reigned Supreme At This Bride’s Desert Wedding In California
Sophia Cohen and Harrison Waterstreet say there’s always been an invisible string between them – even before they were born. In 1992, when Sophia’s father, financier and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, married her mother, a friend gave them a portrait painted by Harrison’s father, artist John Alexander, as a wedding gift.
Yet it would be two decades before they officially met. Sophia had just finished her freshman year at Brown University and decided to head out to the Hamptons with her roommate, Eugenia. Eugenia’s brother texted them to come to a house party – where, it turns out, Harrison was too. They briefly talked that night, but nothing more.
Three years and a college graduation later, Sophia started a job at The Gagosian Gallery. She quickly struck up a friendship with a co-worker around her age, Lily Mortimer. One day, Lily said she wanted to introduce Sophia to a close friend of hers: Harrison, who was now an agent at CAA.
Sophia was seeing someone at the time, so she and Harrison instead built up a friendship over the next few years. (That’s not to say there wasn’t a spark – in fact, it was very much apparent. “Harrison would shamelessly flirt with me even though I was in another relationship,” Sophia says, laughing.) Yet the invisible string kept tugging: One night, Sophia attended a dinner for her friend, artist Alexander Berggruen. Sat next to her was a talented ceramicist. Despite being strangers, they instantly hit it off. “Towards the end of the evening, the artist said, ‘I don’t usually do this, but I would love to set you up with my son.’ She then proceeded to show me a picture of… Harrison,” Sophia says.
Sophia, engaged at the time, politely declined. But several months later, she found herself single again just as the pandemic hit. When the summer started and it felt okay to socialise, Lily – as well as friends Bunny and Jake – pushed Sophia to finally consider the man who had been in her orbit for so long. “We finally went on our first date and never looked back,” she says. Three years later, Harrison proposed to Sophia at her family home in Connecticut amid a semi-circle of candles.
On 26 October 2024, Sophia and Harrison wed at the Madison Club in La Quinta, California. The whole weekend, planned by Melissa Sullivan of Studio Sully, had the ambience of what the couple describes as a “1960s Palm Springs fever dream.”
It started with the rehearsal dinner at Tommy Bahama Miramonte, where the bride wore a vintage ivory silk strapless column dress along with a diamond-and-pearl Harry Winston choker. The next night, they held tiki-themed welcome drinks at a family friend’s house in La Quinta – a nod to the many Polynesian-inspired bars in the Palm Springs area. Guests donned their retro finest, with Sophia playing hostess in a cream ’50s sleeveless chiffon dress with marabou feather trim, a pair of colourful gemstone and diamond earrings, and lime-green Loewe heels. Harrison, meanwhile, wore a pale blue double-breasted suit from Tom Ford.
The ceremony itself was inspired by the mid-century modern movement, as well as several of the couple’s favourite artists. “We wanted to encapsulate everything that is mid-century. We felt particularly inspired by some of the mid-century rock houses of the time that were built into a rock face,” Sophia says. “Our ceremony featured small boulders lining the aisle and culminated in a beautiful chuppah composed of two large boulders. The white slab overhead created the ‘canopy’ needed to create a chuppah, which featured a skylight overhead, allowing the sunset light to seep in – an ode to James Turrell.” (The rocks also referenced Michael Heizer’s work, Levitated Mass. Sophia, who now runs her own art advisory firm Siren Projects, wanted to include as many nods to her favourite artists as she could.)
The bride, who walked down the aisle arm in arm with her parents, wore a gown by Blanc Wear, a cathedral-length veil and vintage pear-shaped drop diamond earrings with a chandelier oval-diamond necklace she sourced from an auction. Waiting at the other end was Harrison in a Ralph Lauren Purple Label white dinner jacket and dark blue tuxedo pants. After their vows, they exchanged Belperron rings. “It was palpable how much love there was present. As the sun was setting, the light funnelled through the chuppah canopy and created an aura around us,” Sophia says. “We felt totally at peace, totally in love, and just drowned out the crowd as if it was just the two of us on stage.”
Afterward was a tennis-themed cocktail hour on the grounds of the Madison Club, complete with court-side benches and vintage sling-back chairs. Guests drank honey deuces and ate hand rolls from Sōgo in Los Angeles as the temperature cooled and the sun set behind them. Then came the sudden announcement that it was time for dinner, upon which a large set of doors opened to reveal the reception site: a grand glass structure made to resemble a mid-century home. “Many of the chairs were sourced from old movie sets, giving it a real home feel. It felt as if this structure was permanently there,” Sophia says. She put on a pair of long, white gloves to further elevate her wedding gown for the night.
Guests dined on pasta from Jon & Vinny’s as a rotating stage revealed a number of performances throughout the night, covering everything from bossa nova to The Supremes. Yet for all that entertainment, the couple say that dancing with their parents felt like the highlight of the night. “Our dances with our parents were so meaningful both in general and because it was the first wedding for both of our families,” Sophia says. (The highlight for the guests, on the other hand, might have been the many bars, among them two secret speakeasies flanking the stage.)
Then it was time for the after-party back at their family friend’s house, which was inspired by Roger Vadim’s classic 1968 movie Barbarella. “We transported guests to a sci-fi ’60s night club,” says Sophia, who changed into a Wiederhoeft corset for the occasion. Sofi Tukker and DJ Bender – whose music Sophia fell in love at Burning Man – both played electric sets that kept the party going late into the night.
Now that it’s all over, the couple is still elated. “Our objective for our wedding was to throw not just a great event, but one that would stay in the minds of our guests forever,” Sophia says.
Photo: Norman & Blake1/88On night one, I wore a vintage silk column gown from Happy Isles along with a vintage Harry Winston set borrowed from my mother. To tie it all together, I kept my hair vintage-esque, too! My bag was a personalised Dior I received as a gift from my dear friend Cecily.
Photo: Norman & Blake2/88We wanted our guests to experience the entire weekend through a mid-century lens, so it was important to get the tone just right from the start. We opted for custom green and brown linens on oversized tables with brass table lamps down the centre.
Photo: Norman & Blake3/88I find myself so inspired by Japanese design, and wanted that to really be present each night. I loved these vintage room dividers between cocktails and dinner!
Photo: Norman & Blake4/88A peek into the magic of the evening. We added little Noguchi-esque lanterns on stringer lights overhead for a soft glow.
Photo: Norman & Blake5/88Showered with love during all of our friend’s and family’s speeches.
Photo: Norman & Blake6/88La Quinta’s mountain landscape was the backdrop for the weekend.
Photo: Norman & Blake7/88My hairstylist and good friend Daniel Moon designed this amazing look for our tiki-theme welcome party. We paid homage to my grandmother Rose with a special flower in my hair. My mother’s earrings were my “something borrowed” for the evening.
Photo: Norman & Blake8/88Our cheeky Tiki Bar, before the crowds rolled in for frozen Mai Tais and white negronis.
