Beth Goodwin’s love story began when she walked into a bar. It was December 2013 and Beth—an executive assistant to Major Food Group’s Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick—was out hand-delivering hundreds of gifts to their industry friends. One of them? William Elliott, the executive bar director of Maison Premiere. She saw him sitting on a stool at the Williamsburg lounge, and asked him to help find William Elliott—when he told her he was William Elliott. “I remember vague feelings of smitten as I got back in my boss’s Escalade,” Beth says. Five minutes later, she got in a fender bender on the Bronx-Queens Expressway.
Six years and a repaired bumper later, the two matched on Raya. Too nervous to ask him on an actual date, Beth instead asked him for a reservation at Maison Premiere. “I was fortunate enough that he actually showed up to my reservation where I was having drinks with a girlfriend at the bar to officially meet in person,” Beth says, laughing. They kissed by the end of the night.
Technically, Beth and Will got engaged twice. The first is when Beth’s aunt, the famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, asked them point blank if they were getting married. “We both looked at each other and really for the first time gave an affirmative yes,” Beth says. “Later that night, William and I built a fire in the pond house and realized we were really, truly engaged to be married—albeit, without a ring.”
The ring came several months later while the couple vacationed in the Azores Islands. After dinner at the acclaimed restaurant Terceira, Beth walked out into the garden of their cottage rental, drinking peppermint tea. Will was waiting for her, ring box in hand.
They wed on October 19, 2024, at Annie’s farm in Rhinebeck, New York. The date was a meaningful one to Beth: “We chose October 19 as it felt kismet to be on a Saturday in peak fall, as well as my grandparents Marilyn ‘Bubu’ and Samuel Leibovitz’s wedding anniversary,” she says. “They got married October 19, 1942, at Bubu’s family home in Brooklyn, New York—my grandfather shipped out to Europe to fight in World War II just a few weeks later.”
On the Friday before, the two held a rehearsal dinner at the Pond House, an early 17th-century cottage on the grounds of the farm. Beth wore her mother’s Jessica McClintock wedding dress from 1985 with white Stivali heels as chef Dillon Pickering served chargrilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and seasonal salads. Just as the light turned golden, her aunt took a sprawling portrait of both families on the patina-ed porch.
The next day, they wed on the edge of the property’s pond. “It was a perfect 70-degree Hudson Valley autumn day, not a cloud in the sky, and all the leaves were changing, giving a kaleidoscope of color reflected against the pond. You could feel my grandparents’ presence that day, orchestrating everything—weather included—to perfection,” Beth says. The bride wore a vintage silk dress sourced at Happy Isles in Los Angeles, which she had tailored by Isa Kriegeskotte. Instead of heels, she wore camel-color velvet slippers with hunter-green grosgrain trim from Stubbs and Wootton, which matched William’s Bode blazer.
The couple exchanged rings—Beth’s Victorian-era 18k gold band with five inset diamonds, and William’s, a bespoke vintage 18k gold band—before stomping on the glass surrounded by flowers by florist Ariel Dearie. Afterwards, the newly married couple sat in the garden for another portrait by Annie as guests gathered on the grounds for an afternoon cocktail hour in the courtyard.
For William and Beth, the latter of whom now develops restaurant concepts for Hilton and Waldorf Astoria, making it a culinary feast to remember was an utmost priority. “Being restaurant people, the first thing William and I did was write the food menu,” Beth says. There was a French 75 Bar, fresh-shucked oysters from Maison Premiere, slices of cured jamon Iberico, Talbott Arding crackers with crème fraiche and trout roe, and crudites and radish roses with bagna càuda.
Then, more food at lunch: fresh foccacia, farm eggs with Cantabrian anchovies, as well as a fall minestra soup with fresh shell beans, shiitake mushrooms, farro, and basil pistou. A chilled seafood salad of calamari and Montauk scallops was served in radicchio cups with gremolata breadcrumbs and Calabrian aioli to start. “For the main course, we asked Marlow Daughters to make our favorite sausage, mostarda sausage, in coils which were grilled and served with roasted New York grapes alongside charcoal-grilled quail with a preserved lemon and green olive relish. Sides included ‘cacio e pepe’ heirloom polenta, braised romano beans in tomato, and beautiful lettuces lightly dressed in a sherry vinaigrette served in wooden bowls from the Vermont Country Store,” Beth continues.
After family speeches, everyone was ushered into the hay barn for dancing and persimmon curd and pomegranate pavlova, which was served alongside a display of Hudson Valley fall fruits and nuts, as well as “Alp Blossom” cheese. The couple’s first dance was to “You and Me” by Penny the Quarters.
Although the dance floor was full all night, those seeing a respite could head to “Will’s Lounge” in the property’s east barn. “This was a really fun arrangement of modern furniture in a lounge style, juxtaposed against the antique concrete barn formerly used to milk cows, my Aunt Annie put together,” says Beth. “Also in this room was the mirror-style photo booth, a Maison Premiere specialty bar, and my brother Ross’s artificial intelligence photo booth.” As the sun set, the couple served wood-fired pizza and natural wine by Emily’s Hearth. “Emily and her team are pizza geniuses and only use the finest regenerative, biodynamic flour and farm-sourced ingredients for their pies. Among the custom pizzas, they even put together a persimmon pizza in honor of what has become the emblem of our wedding,” she adds. Soon, Will’s Lounge turned into a bonafide after-party spot, where they indulged in rare spirits such as Reisetbauer’s carrot eau de vie.
Since the wedding, William and Beth admit although nothing has really changed—they still live in the same Williamsburg home—yet it also feels like everything has. “Marriage is the best! It feels like we got upgraded,” she says. “Everything feels more dear now, more shiny, more married.”
