CJ McCollum and Elise Esposito’s Wedding Was an Intimate Affair in Oregon Wine Country
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vogue’s goal in our coverage is to celebrate responsible wedding planning, showcase a love story, and shed light on the questions that engaged couples are asking themselves now.
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Portland Trailblazers guard CJ McCollum and dentist Elise Esposito initially planned to get married on September 5 in Brooklyn. “We started planning it a year and a half in advance with Yifat Oren of Oren Co,” Elise remembers. “We had everything scheduled: the church, the reception location, bands, food, hair and makeup, florist, photographer—everything. Three days of celebrations had been planned.” They anticipated having around 250 guests attend the wedding, but in May it became very clear that COVID-19 wasn’t going anywhere, so they decided to postpone their large celebration to an undetermined time after the pandemic ends.
“Ensuring our family and friends remained healthy was most important to us,” Elise says. “I don’t think we would be able to live with ourselves if someone became sick as a result of attending our wedding. Needless to say, given the state restrictions, having the wedding or anything close to it was not going to be an option.”
As the pandemic continued, the couple decided in June that they still wanted to get married in 2020, albeit in a much smaller way, as there was no way to predict the timeline for the virus. “We thought, What if we postpone a year and COVID is still dominant, with no feasible solution in sight? Or, What if this pandemic continues for two years? We ultimately decided we would get married on our original date—September 5, 2020—but would change the location to Oregon wine country, since we both love wine and enjoy exploring the region.”
About two weeks later, CJ was notified that the 2019–2020 basketball season would resume inside the “NBA bubble” in Florida from July until mid-October. This meant he would be living in Orlando and not allowed to leave until his season was over. Their plans were dashed yet again, as September 5 was now officially out of the question.
While CJ was away in August, Elise began trying to find another date that might work with both of their busy schedules. “We decided the best time would be at the end of October, as his season would likely resume in December and November would be used for training,” she explains.
Once they landed on October, they went from a guest list of 250 to 20. At that point, the planning process was restarted entirely: new date, new location, new guest list, with less than two months to do everything. “While my mom was visiting me in August, we checked out the Black Walnut Inn, and we both fell in love with it,” Elise says. “The scenery was stunning, and they had exactly enough rooms to accommodate our 20 guests.” The couple asked all guests to get a COVID test 48 hours prior to their arrival in Oregon and send in their results. When everyone arrived at the inn, each person had a rapid COVID test, and every single staff member working on site at every event location was rapid-tested each morning. “We were really worried about having our families, more specifically our grandmothers, traveling during the pandemic, and wanted to make sure we took all the proper precautions to avoid any unnecessary exposure,” Elise says.
Elise’s wedding gown, along with her after-party dress and several other looks, were created by Danielle Frankel. “I envisioned myself in a gown that was chic, elegant, and timeless. I wanted it to be a reflection of my style. I also was hoping to wear a gown with long sleeves since that was what my mother wore to her wedding. When I described what I was looking for to my stylist, Tara Maietta, she knew exactly where to go and introduced me to Danielle.” Elise’s final choice—the Sloane gown—was a dark ivory crepe dress with natural baroque pearl buttons. “When you look closely, you can see each of the pearls are different shapes and have an iridescent glow,” she says. “Danielle also made a custom pleated tulle veil with Chantilly lace trim. She had this whole vision in her mind, and it was perfect. It’s safe to say Danielle Frankel is a chic bride s holy grail.” For jewelry, Elise wore vintage Fred Leighton earrings, gifted to her by CJ on her wedding day, and she finished off the entire look with ivory Jimmy Choo pumps.
