This Jewelry Designer’s Fall Wedding in the Hudson Valley Was a Celebration of Her Creative Community
Jewelry designer Mary MacGill and her now-husband, Terrence Breschi, first connected by discussing another creative couple. “We met on Hinge fall of 2020 by striking up a conversation about couples in design,” recalls Mary. “Terrence had vaguely posted his job as ‘designer,’ and I tried to guess which kind based on his photos—all guesses were wrong! But it led to a chat about a lecture we had both seen by Andy Spade on brand authenticity and his creative partnership with [his late wife] Kate Spade.” The pair went on their first date at Mary’s favorite restaurant in the Hudson Valley, GioBatta. She continues, “That weekend, I met his brother and his brother’s family. We didn’t really leave each other’s side after that.”
After a two-year courtship for which the couple instilled two weekly “boundary nights” to focus on creative projects—followed by an exciting date night full of anticipation and conversation—Terrence was ready to pop the question. After a long weekend selling Mary’s pieces at the Field + Supply Mrkt, the couple went to the Ooms Conservation Area to take their two dogs on a walk. “It was a euphorically beautiful fall day, and no one else was there,” reminisces Mary. “We took a walk around the lake and got to this high point where you can see the Catskills. Terr dipped into the woods, and when he came out, he had tied one of three diamond stacking rings to Mira’s neck with a ribbon. He then got down on a knee, asked me to marry him, and presented two more rings that he had designed with Gabriella Kiss, whom I’ve looked up to since I started making jewelry at 15. I cried, sat down on his knee, kissed him, and said, ‘Absolutely.’”
The couple decided to host a two-part celebration beginning with a “lobster-meets-crab bake” at Mary’s family home on Block Island, Rhode Island, a month ahead of the wedding. The ceremony and reception would then be held on October 14, 2023, at the Clermont Historic Site in the Hudson Valley. “Terr and I had landed on the concept of hosting a small dinner before the wedding to get some quality time with our closest friends and family,” says the bride. “We identified that the locations, food, music, and a few personal touches were most important to us.” To differentiate the Rhode Island event further from a typical rehearsal dinner, Mary donned a colorful vintage Oscar de la Renta dress given to her by her friend and wedding officiant, McKenna Eldh.
Fellow creatives in the couple’s circle played an integral role in helping bring the wedding to life. A Block Island florist referred Mary to Josh Hamlet after she did a callout on Instagram Stories asking if anyone knew a “chill” planner. “We loved Josh because he had a lot of experience working with people in the art world and put an emphasis on building a beautifully warm environment through the best service,” says Mary. The bride’s friend painter Colleen Herman also helped her enhance a Tove “dancing dress” for the reception. “Landscapes are extremely important to me, and Colleen’s work conveys light, fields, bursts of tangled flowers, and cool pools of water,” Mary says. The artist came to her with an idea inspired by Alexander McQueen’s iconic runway moment of two robots spray-painting a dress. “I ordered spray paint, and we had an afternoon a few weeks before the wedding when we made the vision come to life,” she says. “The end result was stunning—a landscape painting that twirled.”
The bride actually found a jacket to wear on her wedding day before she found her ceremony gown. “I was looking at Celine for shoes and noticed the jacket because it was the most perfect shade of blue with a touch of gray—my all-time favorite color,” she remembers. As for the dress, Mary only scheduled two salon appointments, with Rosie Assoulin and Danielle Frankel, because she “respected their fresh eyes on bridal.” The jewelry designer says, “I ended up going with one of Danielle’s dresses from her 2023 presentation. The top fit a silhouette I had worn throughout my life, so I knew I would be comfortable but also feel timeless. The back and train were very exaggerated, which added a sculptural element.”
Terrence donned a custom P. Johnson suit lined in his favorite color, green. Mary adds, “I gifted him a pair of 18-karat gold infinity cuff links that morning and designed his wedding band with a secret brown diamond set on the inside to represent our girls, [dogs] Ande and Mira.”
While the bridal party didn’t match, they did all wear original pieces from Mary MacGill that were created to specifically complement their looks. “I gave the gals a loose color palette and worked with my friend stylist Leah Meshberg to make some designer suggestions,” says Mary. “They wore dresses from Tove, Kamperett, Jacquemus, Interior, and Paris Georgia. McKenna, who officiated, wore a vintage ’90s Emporio Armani suit, and my mom wore a beautiful dress from Cortana.”
With rain in the forecast for the big day, some last-minute preparations had to be made. “It was all a beautiful surprise,” says Mary. “I was fine about the weather until the week before, when I stress-ordered 200 white umbrellas for our guests who would have to traverse the park overlooking the Hudson and Catskill mountains to get to our reception tent.” A light drizzle came down and umbrellas unfurled as the bride walked down the aisle. “I totally lost it and was so thankful to have my dad there in that moment—squeezing my arm, making me laugh, and dabbing my eyes with his handkerchief,” Mary remembers. “I hadn’t given much direction for our ceremony flowers, and Sarah from Saipua had created this cathedral of fall branches and anemones looking out on the river and the Catskills. It was almost painfully beautiful to see so many wonderful people, our dogs, and my true love standing at the end, smiling with tears streaming as well.”
After taking some photos, the newlyweds took a ride on the back of Mary’s father’s Land Rover to the reception tent and received a big surprise. “When we arrived, everyone was already dancing! We couldn’t believe it,” says Mary. The reception decor was a creative collaboration between the couple, their planner, and even the bride’s mother. “My mom had made about 120 paper lanterns of all sizes to go on the tables, along with the flowers, vessels from Emberken, and colored pencils so people could draw on the papered tables. Inspired by Sol LeWitt, Terrence and I had etched 250 water glasses for our guests with all different designs.”
