This Vogue Editor Bride Held a Classic New England Summer Wedding on a Rockefeller Farm in Maine
Laura Jackson and Peter Nalle have known each other almost their entire lives. They met in first grade at The Lovett School in Atlanta, and, in February of their senior year, Peter asked Laura on their first date. Come prom, it was official: Laura and Peter were together.
Nine years later, the two got engaged in Gramercy Park. “Peter told me to be ready for an early dinner at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Union Square Cafe, followed by a Broadway showing of Moulin Rouge. As we were walking past the eastern entrance to Gramercy Park, he asked me if I had ever been inside. As he led me in, I was pretty sure the proposal was about to happen. Peter’s friend Katharine, who grew up on the park, kindly lent him a key for the special moment,” Laura recalls. “After I said yes, we made our way to Union Square Cafe where Peter surprised me with both of our families waiting there for us. There were no tickets to Moulin Rouge, but the next surprise was even better, as Peter had rented out a bar off Irving and all our friends were waiting there for us—including some who had flown in for the occasion. It was an incredible way to get engaged: first privately in a beautiful park and then surrounded by the people we love most.”
Laura, a shopping writer at Vogue, and Peter, a software investor, held a classic New England summer wedding in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island. The idyllic rocky seaside coast, on the cusp of Acadia National Park, has long held a special place for the couple, as Peter’s family has summered there for five generations. “This August also marked the 10-year anniversary of my first trip there with him in 2014,” says Laura.
The weekend, which was planned by Augusta Cole, began with a welcome party at Windy Willows, the groom’s home. Laura wore a custom red-and-white gingham short set by Patricia Voto of One/Of. “I had the most fun with my welcome-party look, playing into the kitschiness of the party and the preppiness that I love to lean into when I’m in Maine,” says Laura. “We were inspired by the retro silhouettes of the 1950s and Grace Kelly.” She accessorized her look with pearl earrings (a gift from her mother) as well as Khaite x Oliver Peoples sunglasses.
The local bar and lobster pound, The Nor’Easter Pound Market, made lobster rolls that Laura and Peter laid out on gingham linens while string lights and lanterns hung overhead. Just outside the party was Peter’s uncle’s 1957 Ford Fairlane Sunliner, which provided for a scenic photo-op. After toasts and many glasses of rosé, the couple served Whoopie pies and Blueberry cobbler— “more Maine delicacies!” says Laura.
On Friday, the couple held their rehearsal dinner at Islesford Dock Restaurant on Little Cranberry Island. With the help of coordinator Rachel Sisson and Peter’s mom, Tricia, 120 guests sailed from Northeast Harbor to the remote isle where freshly shucked oysters and Aperol spritzes awaited. Laura wore an Elizabeth Fillmore satin tuxedo halter top with a matching maxi skirt and a pair of pointed-toe Prada pumps. Then she added her “something borrowed”: “Since the temperatures in Maine drop significantly at night, I layered in a fur stole given to me by my sister’s mother-in-law. It was her grandmother’s from the 1920s,” she says.
The next day, Peter and Laura wed in a traditional Episcopalian service at the historical chapel of St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea. The bride walked down the aisle to an organist composition by Peter’s father in a semi-custom drop-waist bubble skirt gown by Danielle Frankel. “The delicate lace reminded me of the etherealness and romance of Maine,” says Laura. Upon her head was a cathedral-length train, made with lace from her mother’s wedding gown. Peter, meanwhile, wore a classic black tuxedo by P. Johnson.
.jpg)