Inside Kate Bock and Kevin Love’s Wedding—A Great Gatsby-Inspired Ceremony at the New York Public Library
A photographer played matchmaker for model and entrepreneur Kate Bock and Cleveland Cavaliers NBA basketball player Kevin Love. The two met in 2015 after individually shooting with the same photographer in New York. “He thought we would be a nice match and set us up on our first date at the St. Regis,” Kate remembers. “From there, the rest was history.”
They started dating shortly thereafter and got engaged in January 2021. “We were celebrating my birthday at one of our favorite restaurants, Lilia, when Kevin got down on one knee and totally surprised me with a beautiful ring that he personally designed,” Kate says. “It was super intimate. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. It was a picture-perfect New York moment.”
They set a date of June 25th at the New York Public Library and enlisted event planner extraordinaire Marcy Blum to oversee all of the planning. She, in turn, collaborated with Mixed Greens Design and Amaryllis Events for decor.
“It was a lot of work, but we had so much fun doing it,” Kate says. “We love being creative, and it was amazing to see the process of how our dream celebration came to life. I create moodboards all the time for my brand Love Kate, so making them for my wedding was natural for me. I would create moodboard after moodboard and ask for Kevin to provide his input. We both envisioned an old-school New York City, Great Gatbsy-inspired, black and white ball for the big day. That was the easy part! The hard part was just making the small detailed decisions—whether it was a specific linen, the seating chart, or where to get ready. Our amazing wedding planner Marcy and her team guided us along and helped us through everything.”
What to wear proved to be the easiest part of the entire planning process, given that Kate has been a close friend of the Ralph Lauren brand for years. “I was so lucky to work with the Ralph Lauren team on designing my dream dress,” she says. “They are true experts, and I had so much fun working with them on creating something that was classic and fit in seamlessly with the theme of our wedding. I was inspired by Grace Kelly’s wedding dress, so we used that as a jumping off point for a modern-day, beaded lace gown that was totally my style.”
For beauty, Kate focused intensely on her skin care leading up to her wedding day and worked with Lisa Aharon to create a simple glowy, sun-kissed look. “‘My everyday, but better’ was the goal,” Kate says. “I wanted to pull my hair back but keep it effortless and soft, so Adam MaClay styled it into a loose low ponytail with a few pieces pulled out—a style we had tried before and loved.”
For jewelry, she wanted to keep her accessories classic. To that end, Kevin surprised her with a pair of vintage earrings as a wedding gift which she wore for the ceremony along with pieces lent by Tiffany Co.
The ceremony took place in Astor Hall at the New York Public Library. “The setting was so timeless and romantic with the beautiful marble and an unbelievable candlelit staircase,” Kate says. “We had a stunning chuppah that was made of white cherry blossoms and followed the lines of the natural arch in the library. We made our ceremony super meaningful by having our closest friends a part of it—from Kevin’s longtime agent, who officiated our wedding, and his daughters, who were our flower girls, to my manager of over a decade, who did the seven blessings. It felt so personal and nice to be surrounded by people we love.”
The bride’s parents walked her down the aisle, and Kevin met her halfway. “Once I was arm-in-arm with Kevin, I felt a sense of calm and was just so happy to be taking part in a day that we had dreamt about for so long,” Kate says. “It felt surreal. We each wrote our own vows, which was one of my favorite parts of the ceremony. I was so excited to say mine and loved hearing what Kevin had written, it was such a special moment that I’ll never forget.”
