The Bride Wore Her Great-Grandmother’s Diamond Necklace for Her Winter Wedding at the Musée Rodin in Paris
Years before Lily Rivkin and Jack Friend fell in love—and even before they were born—their lives were intertwined.
The list of coincidences is fairly long. For one: When Lily was in high school, she once stumbled into a breakfast hosted by her father, Charles Rivkin, who was then serving as the US Ambassador to France under former president Barack Obama. As it happens, his breakfast guests that day were Jack’s grandparents, who had been connected to Lily’s father through a mutual friend from Chicago.
Jack went to the same high school as Lily’s father and her cousins, and the two both attended Lily’s cousin’s bat mitzvah in 2008, even appearing in group photos together. In 2015, Lily’s friend happened to live with Jack’s sister. At the time, Lily was going through her first big breakup and would hang out at her friend’s place, wondering if she’d ever meet the right person. Looking back, she says, she can’t believe that the sister of her future husband was just a few feet away.
Lastly: In the 1950s, Lily’s great-grandmother Celia Hammerman bought a diamond necklace from Jack’s great-grandfather Harry Levinson who was a jeweler in Chicago. The couple only realized this connection two years into their relationship. Of course, Celia and Harry could never have known that one day, her great-granddaughter would marry his great-grandson, wearing that very same necklace.
Despite the many overlapping threads, Lily and Jack didn’t actually meet until November 2021, when they were both living in New York City, and matched on the dating app Lox Club. In November 2024, three years into their relationship, Jack proposed—after a series of misdirects and surprises.
It was their anniversary, and the couple had a yearly tradition of going upstate to celebrate at the Glenmere Mansion hotel in Chester, New York. Their bags were packed, and Lily had even confirmed a dinner reservation there. But on the morning of the trip, he told her, “We’re not going to the Glenmere,” and handed her an itinerary for Franciacorta, Italy. She repacked her bag and they rushed to the airport, but as they were about to check in, he revealed that they were actually going to Paris. “My goal was to have as many decoys as possible so that when the proposal happened it wouldn’t feel obvious,” Jack says.
His plan worked. “At this point, he had me so thoroughly confused that I wasn’t even convinced we were actually flying to Paris,” Lily shares.
They arrived in Paris, and what was ostensibly a brunch plan ended up taking them by the embassy, where Lily grew up. He suggested they go inside. “I told him, ‘Jack, we can’t just walk in…’ and then the doors opened.”
She still didn’t realize what was happening until she saw a photographer, and it clicked: He was proposing. She started crying, and she said yes. When they walked into another room for a Champagne toast, there was one last surprise: Their families were waiting to celebrate with them. “I couldn’t believe they were all there. It was so special,” Lily says. “Jack was so incredibly thoughtful in every aspect.”
When it came to choosing their wedding location, Paris was the obvious choice. Lily had grown up in the city from age 13 until college, and always dreamed of getting married at the Musée Rodin. The couple loved the idea of a winter wedding, but there was a hiccup: The museum generally doesn’t allow events to take place on the lawn after October.
“To get our date in November, we had to apply for a special exemption from the City of Paris. We made our case, and they said yes. We ended up having the first-ever winter wedding on the Rodin’s lawn, which made the day feel even more surreal and meaningful,” Lily says.
They worked with planner Jean-Charles Vaneck of Sumptuous Events to make it all happen. To keep guests warm while preserving the museum setting, they opted for a transparent glass structure so that “guests could see the gardens, the sky, and the glow of the candlelight outside, so, even indoors, the night still felt connected to the Rodin,” the bride explains. “Since I’m a restaurant owner, we also wanted the night to feel like a warm, candlelit, and romanticized French bistro.” (Lily is the founder and CEO of Rooted Restaurants, a fast-casual restaurant chain in New York City, while Jack is the COO of Thrive Global, an AI-powered health company founded by Arianna Huffington.)
The wedding weekend kicked off with a welcome party at the Hôtel de Crillon, where the bride wore a Khaite cocktail dress. For the rehearsal dinner, she wore a high-neck lace Oscar de la Renta gown from the designer’s bridal collection. For the wedding day, she wore a semi-custom version of Monique Lhuillier’s Baby’s Breath gown.
“I knew from the beginning that I wanted to wear the very special necklace my great-grandmother purchased from Jack’s great-grandfather, so I chose my wedding dress based on whether it would complement the necklace. I couldn’t do a high neckline or heavy lace; the gown needed to feel grand, but also clean and simple enough to let the necklace shine,” Lily says.
To make sure the gown would complement the necklace and fit her vision, Lily made the dress her own. “I asked Monique’s team if they would be open to making a series of significant changes: switching the fabric and color, removing the printed pattern, reshaping the bodice, adjusting the slit, redesigning the sleeves, and eventually opening the back completely,” she says. “Their atelier said yes, and we moved forward with what became a semi-custom gown.”
The result was her dream dress. “In the end, the gown still carried the romantic, structured spirit of Monique Lhuillier’s design, but with a simplicity and uniqueness that felt completely and authentically mine,” Lily says. “I wore it until midnight, I wanted to savor every minute in it, knowing I’d never wear it again!”
For her “something blue” and “something borrowed,” she wore sapphire drop earrings from her mother. Her mother-in-law also lent her diamond bracelets. The groom wore a classic Tom Ford tuxedo with Tom Ford patent leather shoes.
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