At This Château Wedding in the South of France, the Couple Married Under a Colorful Floral Chuppah
Design consultant Emily Luntz and entrepreneur, investor, and product designer Jared Morgenstern—who also happens to be the man behind the Facebook Like button and a founding member of Raya—did not, interestingly, meet via a dating app. Instead, their meet-cute in 2015 happened the old-fashioned way: at a Halloween party in Los Angeles. Jared was dressed as a 19th-century ship captain, and their first photo together shows Emily proudly donning his tricorn hat with her body-con dress. (It was two weeks before Halloween, and she hadn’t gotten the memo that it was a costume party.) During the evening, the two got separated before they could exchange numbers, but the next day Jared received three texts from Emily’s friends asking if they could give her his number.
In 2021, six years after they started dating, Jared flew into San Francisco from LA to surprise Emily with a proposal in the gardens of the Fioli estate. She was there having tea with a friend who, when she turned a corner, said: “I have a letter to give you.” When Emily opened the envelope, she saw it was a handwritten note from Jared—and an invitation for a scavenger hunt. The route led Emily through Filoli’s Garden House and ended in front of the stunning lily pond, where Jared got down on one knee.
The wedding was held this past June at the Château St. Martin in the South of France. “We were engaged for two years prior to our nuptials, so the planning process was relaxed,” Emily explains. She found via Instagram the floral designer Kiana Underwood of Tulipina, the first vendor she hired; Underwood then introduced her to photographer Greg Finck. “We happened to be in Paris at the same time and met with him and did a test engagement shoot in black and white,” Emily says. “After that, we hired him on the spot!”
Finck, in turn, was the one who then introduced the couple to their wedding planners, White Eden, and videographer Caleb Jordan Lee. “Ultimately, we had all our key vendors and venues picked over a year in advance,” Emily remembers. “We flew out last summer to try all our food and experience all our venues. It was such a pleasure working with White Eden. I felt like I was able to have complete creative control, and I totally trusted the vendors they were proposing as options.”
At that point, everything was running almost too smoothly. Then three weeks before the wedding, Jared’s mother got sick and they thought they might have to cancel everything. “We divided and conquered,” Emily says. Jared focused on getting his mom better and to the wedding, which was achieved in the nick of time, while Emily finished the planning, designing, and styling for the big day. “All this to say, it reminded us of why we were having a wedding, who really matters, and that our time here is scarce and life should be celebrated,” Emily says.
To that end, the goal for the wedding was to infuse everything with a distinctly French flair. The welcome event set the stage for the wedding weekend. “I wanted to embody the essence of the South of France with what I wore, taking inspiration from the iconic Brigitte Bardot—albeit without the signature bangs,” Emily jokes. She wore a vintage shift-style minidress that she found at Happy Isles in LA, and to make it her own, she collaborated with her wedding-dress designer, Patricia Voto of One/Of, to customize it. “Initially the dress featured short sleeves and fell just above the knee,” Emily says. “I decided to transform it into a backless halter design, shortening its length.” The excess fabric was crafted into a matching bag to add a unique touch, and Emily went for a modern take on a ’60s blowout and winged eyeliner by makeup artist Trine Juel to complete the look.
