Mariah Kennedy Cuomo Wore Vera Wang to Marry Tellef Lundevall at Golden Hour in Hyannis Port
Mariah Kennedy Cuomo and Tellef Lundevall’s romance all started with a college visit. The two first crossed paths in 2012 after Tellef developed a close friendship with two of Mariah’s cousins, Kate Kennedy and Amanda Cole, while they were studying together at Brown University. “The three of them bonded over their shared characteristics,” Mariah explains. “They’re all funny, kind, thoughtful, creative, and game.” Mariah and Tellef first met at her cousin’s apartment on Angell Street in Providence while she was visiting the college as a prospective student during her final year at Deerfield Academy. “That visit cemented that Brown was the right choice for me,” Mariah remembers. “And I also left very interested in Tellef.”
Mariah and Tellef then overlapped for a semester at Brown in the fall of 2013. “As a freshman, all my best friends knew Tellef was the apple of my eye,” Mariah admits. “And they generously tagged along on adventures to try to catch him for a quick hello between classes or at his football events. He was Brown’s leading wide receiver and has the sixth most career receptions in Ivy League history!”
However, it was during the summer, when Tellef would typically come to visit Kate in Hyannis Port for a week around the Fourth of July, that the pair truly bonded. Purchased in 1928, the Kennedy Compound is centered around three main houses on the waterfront of the Cape Cod town, where Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.; his wife, Rose; and their nine children—including US President and Senator John F. Kennedy and senators Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy—all lived. John F. Kennedy used the compound as a base for his successful 1960 presidential campaign, and in 2012, the main house was donated to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate. (Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel—who is Mariah’s grandmother—still lives in one of the adjacent homes today.)
During their summers there, Mariah and Tellef spent time watching fireworks on the beach; chatting in long, private huddles during parties; finding one another on the dance floor; and hopping on the same boat for sails that would last hours. “There could be a hundred people around, but when we were together, it felt like there was no one else in the world,” Mariah says.
They reconnected during alumni weekend at Brown in May 2018 at the campus dance and, after years of flirtation, finally graduated to more than friends. “That weekend marked our inaugural kiss-aversary,” Mariah jokes. “And we’ve been together ever since!”
On November 28, 2023, Tellef proposed during his favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. Mariah was visiting Sicily, where her paternal grandmother Matilda Cuomo’s family came from, with her dad, former governor Andrew Cuomo; twin sister, Cara; and little sister, Michaela, when Tellef flew in to join them. “In the lead-up to the trip, we spent weeks researching exactly where my grandma Matilda’s family lived and were determined to visit and pay homage to her,” Mariah says. “My sister Cara miraculously discovered an Italian newspaper article pinpointing the exact location on Thanksgiving morning.”
And off they went: “It was supposed to rain all day, but when we arrived at the land of our ancestors in Meri, the gray skies parted and the sun shone through,” Mariah remembers. Tellef casually walked Mariah ahead of her family, as—unbeknownst to her—her father and sisters were aware of the plan and stayed back. “When we were alone, standing together atop a tall rocky point at the end of a peninsula called Capo Milazzo, the wind blowing fragrant sea air around us as the waters mixed below, Tellef read a handwritten letter aloud before dropping to one knee and proposing,” Mariah remembers. “I was completely surprised. I felt myself trembling as I held onto his blue sweater and said, ‘Yes!’ I was overwhelmed with joy by the moment, its meaning, and the beautiful letter read to me by the man I loved and wanted to spend the rest of my days with more than anything in the world.”
Tellef placed Mariah’s dream ring—designed after her grandmother Ethel’s and made by an artisan jeweler friend of his—on his fiancée’s finger, and the two kissed. When they returned to their hotel room after a celebratory dinner that night, the window framed Mount Etna, which was erupting. “The next day, after the rains came and went, the most vibrant double rainbow stretched across the sky, fading and reviving for an hour,” Mariah remembers. “It was miraculous, and it truly felt like there was incredible magic in celebrating our engagement.”
Within a week of getting engaged, Mariah and Tellef agreed they would marry at Hyannis Port the following summer. “Hyannis Port is a place where Tellef and I love to spend time each summer on the water,” Mariah explains. “In between our own wedding weekend’s schedule of formal wedding events, waterskiing, sailing, walks on the beach, volleyball, and yard games fill any spare time.” The couple had about eight months to get everything squared away, so they quickly reached out to family and close friends, who were eager to be involved in wedding planning and lend their support and expertise.
The couple met once a week with their event planners at Taylor Made Experience and an extended planning committee, spearheaded by Mariah’s mom, Kerry Kennedy, along with her twin sister, Cara, and her mother’s boyfriend, George. “People warned me that wedding planning would be an incredible stressor, but my experience was the opposite,” Mariah says. “Everyone’s positivity, enthusiasm, and creativity made the process a meaningful and memorable experience. I will miss it when it’s over!” Meanwhile, her sister Michaela took the lead early in setting up an engagement party, which was held in New York City in March of 2024 at Sincerely, Ophelia. “My dad was [also] a constant source of guidance and support for Tellef and me in countless ways throughout the process and even agreed to take father-daughter dance classes, which were both special and a ton of fun,” Mariah says.
To commemorate the start of the wedding weekend, 100 white flags with big pink hearts flew on flagpoles at houses and on sailboats in the harbor of the little Massachusetts town. “It was so touching and wonderful to behold,” Mariah says, “and a beautiful testament to the unique community here.” The wedding weekend began on Friday morning with Mariah and Tellef planting a magnolia tree—a family tradition—together. Afterward, they went straight to the dock for a sailboat race celebrating Tellef’s Norwegian Viking roots.
