Andy Baraghani and Keith Pollock’s Classic New York Wedding Included More Than 15 Fantastical Desserts

In 2017, Andy Baraghani noticed a cute guy on his floor at Condé Nast. Andy, a food writer, knew that they didn’t work at his magazine, Bon Appétit, so he did some reconnaissance. His mystery man, he soon learned from coworkers, was Keith Pollock—the then digital director of Architectural Digest. “I not so subtly maneuvered my way for someone to introduce me to him,” Andy says. After a prolonged “flirty friendship,” says Keith, the two began to date.

Keith proposed to Andy in March 2023. “Whenever we discussed marriage, it was always acknowledged that a proposal would come from me, since he had initiated our relationship years prior. It was my turn,” Keith says. He kept his word—but when the time came for Keith to get down on one knee in their Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, he ended up nervously rushing through the big question. “The actual proposal was clumsy,” he says, laughing.

Just over a year later, the two married at the Gilded Age–era Park Avenue Armory on New York’s Upper East Side. The grooms planned their nuptials meticulously with Josh Hamlet and Sue Chan of Care of Chan. “Andy works in food, I work in design. Both of us are incredibly opinionated about everything. We’d spend hours looking for antiques for our altar, or gathering songs for our playlists. We’d lay in bed researching fonts for our invitation,” Keith, now the senior vice president of creative at West Elm, says of the process. “Our tastes are always aligned, so there was never a moment of disagreement. I may have had to sell him on having these red sculptural flower moments…but we got there,” he says. (One thing they immediately agreed on? A “black tie-ish” dress code, which would allow their many creative, fashionable friends to put their own spin on tuxedos or floor-length gowns.)

At first, they didn’t think they wanted a ceremony. Just a dinner and a big party. However, “a friend wisely suggested we do a ceremony so that the event would have what he called ‘an emotional anchor,’” Andy says.

Andy, who is Iranian, asked Keith if he’d like to incorporate a sofreh—a Persian wedding tradition that has the couple sit in front of a table adorned with symbolic items representing their union. “Design + food, I thought. It’s so us. . . candlesticks and vintage textiles and vessels filled with pastries, fruit, and ingredients. It’s such a sweet tradition, and many of the guests had never experienced a Persian wedding before. Myself included,” Keith says.

After getting ready at The Carlyle, the grooms walked down the aisle in custom P. Johnson tuxedos to “Love to Love You Baby” by Donna Summer. Andy’s sister Ghazal officiated as they sat behind their sofreh table in the Armory’s Veterans Room, which was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman in the late 19th century.

Both men recall a deep sense of calm during their ceremony: “I was obviously excited, but not terribly nervous. Choosing to marry Keith was the easiest decision I’ve made in life,” Andy says.

Afterward, they held an intimate—but energetic—dinner. Andy, who released his first cookbook, The Cook You Want to Be, in 2022, asked Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske of Wildair and Bar Contra to cater, while Lauren Schofield, a freelance pastry chef who previously worked at Marlow Sons and Diner in Williamsburg, made a cake table to end all cake tables. “We wanted the night to feel lavish and have people get a little debaucherous. People seemed to get second, third, maybe fourth servings of desserts. The non-smokers snuck outside and bummed cigs from the smokers. Our ’90s dance favorites kept the dance floor packed,” says Andy of their reception.

Their wedding went on late into the night, with many guests going out to bars and clubs afterward. But for Keith and Andy, they just wanted that newlywed magic to last a little bit longer: “We went back to the Carlyle, drew a bath, and soaked,” Andy says.