The Bride Wore a Family Heirloom Veil for Her Wedding at a Historic Los Angeles Mansion

Meg Zukin and John Ghadar first met in October 2016 at a “grody college party” that neither of them had planned to attend. “It was senior year and neither of us were looking for love,” says Meg, a writer who works in tech and makes book-themed TikToks on the side. “I was wearing my friend Paul’s T-shirt and had Miley buns in my hair. My face was streaked with paint leftover from a paint party earlier in the night,” she adds.
“I was waiting by the bathroom when Meg popped up out of nowhere,” says John, who is a therapist. She made an immediate impression on him. “I remember her asking me if I was going to ask for her number. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew there was something there. We had an instant spark.”
They officially started dating a couple of months later, in December. After graduating from Pitzer College in spring 2017, they went on a three-week trip to Southeast Asia. That fall, they both moved to Los Angeles, where their love story continued.
By 2024, they were living together in New York City. One hot August day, John proposed. “He called me from work, and we discussed dinner plans, deciding to stay in and avoid the heat. When he came through the door, he told me I had 30 minutes to get ready. I knew then it was happening,” Meg says. She got ready, and they headed uptown. “I had no clue where we were going. We finally rolled up to The Carlyle.”
They checked into the hotel and went up to their room to drop their bags off. “I was gushing over the room when I turned around and saw John on one knee,” Meg says. She said yes, and they went to Bemelmans for celebratory drinks. “We didn’t tell anyone until the next day. The morning after we got engaged, we jumped downtown to Old Friend Photobooth to document the moment. We ended up using one of those photos for our save the dates,” Meg says.
Working with wedding planner Nicole Arena, Meg and John decided to host their wedding at the Paramour Estate, a mansion in Los Angeles that was built in the 1920s for an oil heiress and her silent film star husband. Though Meg and John now live in San Francisco, Los Angeles felt like the perfect place to celebrate their love. “Our guests live all over the country, but we wanted to bring everyone to the city where we met and first fell in love,” Meg says.
They held the wedding on October 11, 2025. To kick off the weekend’s celebration, John’s father hosted a Friday night welcome party at the Mexican restaurant Tacolina, for which Meg wore the Laurel dress by Danielle Frankel.
When it came to the ceremony itself, Meg says, they always knew they wanted to write their own vows. “We felt strongly that we wanted to sanctify the moment; we wanted to declare our love to each other in front of our community. About a week before our wedding, we spontaneously decided to say our vows to each other in our kitchen. I think I was wearing pajamas or sweats. It felt secret and special, and bolstered our confidence in saying them publicly. John’s vows made me feel so safe.”
As for what to wear for the ceremony, Meg says: “The vision was Botticelli, so there was only one choice: Vivienne Westwood.” She went with the brand’s Nova Camille dress. For her wedding shoes, she wore Manolo Blahnik Hangisi white satin slingbacks that she bought on a mother-daughter trip to Paris. She changed into white satin slippers from Le Monde Beryl for the ceremony, to avoid her heels sinking in the grass, and ended up wearing those for the rest of the night.
To complete her ceremony look, she wore a veil that is a family heirloom, worn by many women in her family on their wedding days. “My grandmother’s aunt, Mary Jane Fetzer Bryant, first wore it in 1948. She and her parents bought it in Europe in the late 1930s. My grandmother then wore it in 1949. Her cousin Peggie Hart also wore it to her wedding in 1977,” Meg explains. She worked Susan Ruddie of The Wedding Dresser to restore the veil. “A rogue family member added velcro to it in the ’80s or ’90s, and it required a delicate removal. Luckily, it was a success!” Meg says.
For jewelry, the bride wore her engagement ring by Ashley Zhang, her wedding band by Maiden Voyage, and a vintage diamond and sapphire bracelet from her grandmother for her “something old, something borrowed, and something blue.” She also worked with makeup artist Chanel Cross, going for a natural glam that met her goal to “look exactly like myself, but yassified.”
John worked with the couple’s friend, the stylist Ryan Young, to create his two looks for the wedding weekend. On Friday night, he wore a black turtleneck, a Caruso double-breasted tuxedo jacket in truffle, and Caruso cream pants. For the wedding, he wore Richard James, paired with black dress shoes from Suit Supply. His ring—a rolling ring in white gold and gold—was designed by Meg’s friend Mia Hariz’s parents, at Bridal Rings Company in Los Angeles.
John’s cousin Anahita officiated the ceremony, which included Persian elements in honor of John’s Iranian heritage. “At the last minute, we decided to sit at a Sofreh Aghd that was adorned with symbols of love, sweetness, prosperity, and commitment. John’s Aunt Margaret kindly lent us her termeh for the ceremony,” Meg shares.
“Our female family members and best friends rubbed cones of sugar over our heads, showering us with sweetness. In a traditional Persian wedding, the officiant asks the bride if she consents to the union twice before she finally responds after the third ask. This is meant to symbolize the bride has thought carefully about the marriage and is not rushing into it,” Meg says. “Two of my best friends, Zoe and Remi, bravely shouted out excuses for me the first two times, including that I was busy reading a book. Our other best friend Ellen was our honey girl, holding the honey that we dipped our pinkies into before feeding it to each other. Erotic!”
“During the ceremony, we snuck a kiss before ‘the kiss.’” John adds. “I’m the type of person who usually gets stage fright, but I felt totally at ease during our ceremony. I loved going off script in that moment. I wanted to kiss Meg, so I did. It was easy and felt like us.”
