After Marrying at City Hall, Model Aweng Ade-Chuol and Alexus Ade-Chuol Commemorated the Day With Tattoos and Pizza

While we’re all currently social-distancing and committed to mask wearing, this wedding took place in the months before the coronavirus pandemic began. We hope it will bring some joy to your reading list.

Model Aweng Ade-Chuol and nail-artist entrepreneur Alexus Ade-Chuol’s first encounter was completely by chance, at a business meeting. “I knew of her, of course. I had even messaged her a few years prior to tell her how beautiful she was,” Alexus says. “She never answered!” (When Aweng is not on the runway, the New York–based model spends her time studying for her law degree through the University of New England, where she’s on track to graduate in the winter of 2021.)

Once they started dating, Aweng and Alexus saw each other for nine months before they were engaged. “The proposal was beautiful and straight to the point,” Alexus says. “Aweng and I have always been very transparent with each other, so we talk about everything. It was a very simple and mutual decision. We were in Paris and just completely overwhelmed with how much love we shared for each other and, at the time, how long we’d been apart.”

“We had been apart for two months,” Aweng remembers. “I’d gone back to London for work, and at the time, Alexus was based in New York City.”

“She asked me if I would marry her [in our hotel room],” Alexus says. “And I said, ‘If you asked me, without question I would.’”

At the time, Aweng took to Twitter to inform her fans of the happy news, writing: “Popped my engagement to my angelic, intelligent, and beyond perfect [fiancée].”

The wedding was held at City Hall in Manhattan. “I love my now wife so much that all of my childhood dreams of what a wedding should be went out the window,” Alexus says. “I just wanted to be with her and a few people that meant something to her and myself.”

But the night before the wedding, there was a wardrobe crisis, and the couple were up until 5 a.m. working to solve it. “I was originally supposed to wear something completely different,” Alexus says. “That option fell through the night before. I was so distraught, but I knew if I had to, I’d marry Aweng in sweats. Pyer Moss pulled through for us, with the help of Nate Hinton. I couldn’t thank them enough.” Meanwhile, Aweng wore a beautiful suit and flared pants with heels by Kwaidan Editions and earrings by Panconesi.

The ceremony was simple and sweet. “The officiant was so nice to us,” Alexus says. “I will never forget her, actually. She was a part of my happiest day.” Adding to the very intimate, personal feeling of the day, the couple wrote their own vows. “My vows will probably be my greatest piece of written work for a very long time,” Alexus says. “I can’t even describe my feelings during the ceremony. It was like taking the first steps into my destiny.”

“During the ceremony, I felt at peace, as if all of the flights, the tears, and sweat leading up to the ceremony was beyond worth it,” Aweng says. “I felt although we almost missed our big day, we had each other and were finally eye to eye in front of our loved ones, and nothing in the world could top that.”

After the wedding, the newlyweds went to get matching “XII” tattoos on their ring fingers at Tattoo Shop—Alexus’s favorite tattoo and piercing shop—in commemoration of the day, December 12. “What better way to end a NYC wedding than at a tattoo shop?” Alexus notes. Then, after getting inked, they were off to Penn Station to grab pizza at Rose’s Pizza and Pasta. “She’s not a huge fan of pizza,” Aweng says. “But when she craves it, she would stop here as it’s always good!”