The Bride Wore Alexander McQueen for Her Coastal Cowboy Wedding in Montecito, California
In early 2020, a few months after losing her father to cancer, Mercedes Maddox left her accounting job in New York City to join the American Hat Company, the cowboy hat business based in Bowie, Texas, that her family had owned since 2003. “During the pandemic I realized it was time for me to come into the family businesses and work side-by-side with my mom,” Mercedes says. Which is how, a year later, she found herself at an American Hat Company-sponsored rodeo in Lincoln, Nebraska—where Jake Bloomer just so happened to be too.
Like Mercedes, Jake is also part of a Western family business: He’s the vice president of Bloomer Trailers, a premier custom horse trailer manufacturer founded by his father 20 years ago. Although the two had never met, their parents had; the Texas Western industry is a small one. So Jake went up and introduced himself. Instantly, he had a crush.
Mercedes was in a relationship at the time, so their first meeting was just that: a meeting. But: “On the day we met, Jake told my mom to please let him know if I was ever single again because he wanted to be the first guy to take me on a date,” Mercedes says. (He called her “a unicorn.”) From that point on, “Jake and I continued to run into each other at events…and our friendship eventually blossomed into a relationship.”
Jake and Mercedes got engaged on July 18, 2023, at the Cowtown Coliseum, an arena in the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was a setting ripe with meaning: “I am from Fort Worth, and one of our businesses, The Best Hat Store, is right in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards,” says Mercedes. “My late father’s celebration of life was at the Cowtown Coliseum and he was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame.” The honor included recieving a star on the sidewalk in front of the building.
Mercedes’s mother and sister, Treasure Maddox, convinced her to go to the Coliseum for what they claimed would be a walkthrough of the new American Hat suite there. As she approached the stands, however, Mercedes saw Jake standing in the center of the arena—which was covered in hurricane candles. On the jumbotron were pictures of them together, as well as an image of her late father. Jake wanted him to feel present in the proposal, as he’d “never had the opportunity to ask him for my hand in marriage,” says Mercedes.
Jake and Mercedes married on August 24, 2024 in Montecito, California, in an affair planned by Houston-based planners Kiran + Leigh.
On the Thursday before, the couple held their rehearsal dinner at San Ysidro Ranch. It began with cocktails in the famed estate’s garden before the wedding party moved to the outdoor wine cellar for dinner. “Our friends and family got up one by one and shared the most heartfelt and emotional words—Jake and I were on cloud nine,” says Mercedes. The bride wore a Prada sequin midi-dress in pearl gray, Amina Muaddi heels, and Magda Butrym ear climbers, selected with the help of stylists Carrie Goldberg and Lex Alexandris of CLG Creative. The groom, meanwhile, opted for a E. Thomas sports coat in baby blue and denim Wranglers, topped off with a cowboy hat and a belt with a custom buckle by Tanner Crow.
On Friday, after a bridal lunch at the Rosewood Miramar Beach, the couple held a “sunset sail” welcome party on a chartered catamaran, where everyone but the bride and groom were dressed in white. Guests enjoyed sushi and champagne as they took in the Santa Barbara coastline.
All three of the Maddox women wore Schiaparelli: “With my mom and sister being my very best friends and how close we are, there had to be a quiet matching moment sneaked in somewhere,” Mercedes says, laughing. While her mother wore an off-white skirt suit, Treasure wore a white sculpted midi-dress with gold hardware straps, and the bride had on a champagne silk dress with a seashell bra. “I felt like a mermaid coming up from the sea,” she says. Jake wore a Lanificio Rogna purple wool silk linen jacket, white trousers, and custom black snakeskin high-top sneakers from Tom Taylor in Santa Fe.
The following day, they wed on the grounds of the Rosewood in a “black-tie-meets Western” affair. For her prep beforehand, Mercedes, wanting to stay true to her Texas roots, wore a Western stitched white linen Bode button-down and white bloomers. (“Fitting because I was becoming a Bloomer that day,” Mercedes adds.) She also sported a pair of custom powder blue boots from Miron Crosby. “Inside of each one, I have handwritten notes from Jake and my mom that are leather stamped for me to keep forever,” Mercedes says.
Then, it was time to put on her Alexander McQueen lace dress from Sarah Burton’s spring 2024 collection. “I wanted to tweak some elements to make the dress truly mine. We lowered the high neck, lowered the back, added delicate pearls as the clasp at the neck, and—my favorite—we were able to extend the train with the identical McQueen lace,” says Mercedes. “We worked with McQueen’s in-house seamstress Estelle for all of these intricate changes. She even created my veil with leftover lace. It was a work of art that will forever be timeless.” The bride kept her jewelry simple, opting for just her engagement ring and a pair of diamond studs borrowed from her mother.
The bride walked down the aisle to “Daylight” by Taylor Swift as Jake, dressed in a navy tuxedo and a white American Hat Company hat, waited for her by a delphinium altar inspired by Dior’s spring 2016 show in Paris. They were married by the Maddox family pastor. “He made references to my dad and the ceremony was full of emotion, laughs, and tears,” says Mercedes. “It was everything I ever hoped for—a moment where Jake and I professed our love in front of our closest family and friends, knowing my dad was right there looking down with a huge smile on his face.”
Afterwards, they held a cocktail hour on the Rosewood Miramar Beach’s Great Lawn. Guests drank old fashioneds sitting in outdoor lounge areas adorned with blue hydrangeas, with the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop.
Dinner—which included ricotta ravioli and grilled filet mignon—was held across several long tables covered with hydrangea runners and sapphire blue candles, all of which surrounded a blue dance floor. Mercedes and Jake’s first dance was to “In Your Love” by Tyler Childers.
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