Over their 17 years together, writer Barnaby Harris proposed to designer Suzie Kondi on three separate occasions. The first proposal (and a Tiffany Schlumberger diamond band) came shortly after Suzie gave birth to their daughter Stevie, who is now 14 years old. The second came along years later with a more traditional diamond engagement ring. “This is the interesting thing—I m constantly saying yes,” Kondi says. Despite years of repeated engagements, the pair continued on with their lives together as a couple raising their daughter, who would occasionally ask them why they hadn t tied the knot yet. “Then, we finally did it,” says Suzie.
Barnaby proposed for the final time while the family was out to dinner on a trip to Paris. “He was acting sort of fidgety and strange. I was a little concerned,” says the designer. He then pulled out a vintage watch and ring that belonged to his mother, along with another wedding band. “He said, ‘I know this is the third time, but let’s do this,’” recalls Suzie. “Our teen daughter, who is very witty, said, ‘Does this mean you’re going to get married or is this just another proposal?’ We were fueled by that and thought: This is it.”
The Brooklyn-based couple, who were both married previously, decided to not having a grand wedding. Instead, they opted for a New York City courthouse ceremony, followed by brunch with a small group of friends. “We always said if we’re going to do it, let’s just do something small and really, really simple,” shares Kondi. “My parents got married in a city-hall-type situation in Australia and they were married for 47 years. We have a home together. We have a child together. We have all this together. So it was like, when are we going to do it and how are we going to do it?”
The date was set for February 26, 2025, with a brunch reservation afterwards at Balthazar. “It’s a New York institution and we do go there a lot,” says Suzie of the restaurant. “It’s so central and beautiful as well. It couldn’t have been lovelier and easier for our friends.” Suzie also notes that given how often she travels to France for work, she loved the brasserie’s classic French feel: “I’m trying to somehow think of myself as a French person—which I’m not at all—but there were all these elements that felt right.”
It’s no coincidence, then, that France ended up being the location where the bride found her wedding dress. “I’ve always stayed at this hotel that’s really close to the Alaïa Foundation. I was just completely obsessed and fascinated by the whole thing; how it stood still since he had passed away,” explains Suzie. She decided to visit it again with her colleague Tallulah, with the intention of finding something for the wedding that she could also wear again. “It felt like everything else disappeared in the store, and this one dress was just illuminated—which it wasn’t, but it certainly felt that way.” The winning design was a one-shouldered knit wool dress with asymmetrical ribbed pleats. Not only did she decide on the dress, but she also chose a pair of Alaïa heels with red hearts at the toe to wear for the day. “We just had so much fun dressing up and doing the whole thing right there,” says the bride. She completed the look with a vintage red leather jacket she already owned.
The groom also wore some rosy tones for the wedding by pairing a pink shirt with a suit he pulled from his own closet. “He’s got great style, and I don’t want to interfere, even though I try,” says Suzie. To finish the look, Barnaby wore a pair of Church’s boots he purchased on their proposal trip to Paris. While there was no wedding party, Suzie helped her daughter Stevie find the perfect look for the day. “She was sending me photos of lots of different dresses that she liked and then I was sending her photos of dresses as well,” says the designer. They both loved a silk floral Ganni dress Suzie found and brought it home to her daughter. “It was the only dress that she ended up trying on, and she just fell in love with it.”
February 26 arrived and the winter weather couldn’t have been more ideal. “You know, those days when we are like, ‘Why do I live in New York and not go back to Australia?’ Every other day was like that,” says Suzie. “And then there was this magical, perfectly sunny day.” The bride shares that having her daughter along for the whole wedding made it even more special for the couple. “It s great to be a mom, get married, and watch the whole experience not only through my lens, but through hers. Barnaby has said the same thing,” she says. “Just watching Stevie as well just made it so much more fantastic.”
After the newlyweds and their daughter left the courthouse, they joined 20 friends for their Balthazar reception. “It felt like it was people that we really, really had to have there,” says Suzie. Those friends also helped make the whole day extra special, with Eliza Griswold writing a poem for the celebration, Chad Moore taking photos, an illustrator doing individual portraits, and a floral designer Missy making the bride’s bouquet. “It felt really seamless and stunning,” notes Suzie.
“I think sometimes people are getting married and there s an expectation that I need this big wedding, and then I need to go off to this honeymoon,” the bride continues. “It’s like, ‘What do we really want?’ And this was something lovely and endearing and special. We got married, and then the next night we flew off to Paris and had a lovely honeymoon there. I would never change the way we did it. I loved it.”
