This Food Stylist Bride Created a Renaissance Feast for Her Wedding at a Hudson Valley Artist’s Studio
Paris Starn and Théo Soulages lived on the same block in New York’s East Village for four years. Yet, despite likely (and probably literally) crossing paths, it took the dating app Hinge to bring them together in 2019. Fast forward to 2023, and Théo, a healthcare advisor, proposed to Paris, a food artist and chef, in Madrid. After a day at the Prado museum, he got down on one knee at O’Pazo—their favorite restaurant in the city.
The couple quickly got to work planning two weddings. The first, in June 2024, was a small civil ceremony in Paris at a 7th arrondissement mairie. “As Théo’s family lives outside the US, and since he was raised in Paris, we had a civil ceremony in Paris to engage in wedding festivities,” Paris explains. “We had the most beautiful weather and got to walk around the city before the ceremony to take photos in the quiet streets. The ceremony was followed by lunch at a lovely seafood bistro called Mer Coquillage.” The bride wore a white Courrèges set, embellished tights, and Alaïa kitten heels.
In late September, the two held a larger wedding in Beacon, New York, at Starn Studio—the artist workplace of the bride’s father, Mike Starn, and uncle, Doug Starn. “The planning process was a family affair,” Paris says. Her father and uncle created a custom artwork, similar to those from their Sky series (2024), as a ceremony backdrop. Then, they hung their leaf series, Black Pulse (2001–2006), and their tree series Structure of Thought (1999–2006) over the dinner reception space. Meanwhile, Paris’s mother, Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, acted as the “visionary” for the whole event.
Meanwhile, the bride got to work catering her own wedding day. “The day we got engaged, we saw many Renaissance still lives of food at the Prado in Madrid,” Paris says. “Inspired by these paintings and the artists who worked on them in their studios centuries ago, I thought it’d be fun to bring these paintings to life in the contemporary artists’ studio.” For months, she tirelessly mapped out her Renaissance-inspired dishes. “Leaving no detail up to chance, I documented recipes, plating tutorials, platter choices, and table design in an 80-page compendium.” Then, she turned it over to chefs at creative culinary agency Feisal Lagos to execute. But not all of it— “I made all the pies myself in the days leading up to the wedding, from the inverted puff pastry to shaping 108 mini chicken pot pies by hand. I finished the bouillabaisse pie the morning of the wedding and helped plate the salad with the chefs only five minutes before walking down the aisle.”
On the night of the Autumn equinox, the bride walked under a glass branch sculpture made by her father and uncle to the 16th-century hymn “If Ye Love Me.” She wore an antique Battenburg lace dress and veil from Jane Bourvis in London with Christian Louboutin heels. Théo waited for her in front of the Sky series canvas in a Lanvin tuxedo, Tanner Fletcher shirt, and heeled Saint Laurent dress shoes.
Paris’s godfather, the celebrated poet Tom Healy, officiated their ceremony. Healy wrote and read aloud a poem about the couple’s relationship, gleaned from loving insights shared by family and friends. Then, the couple recited sonnets in lieu of traditional vows. “Poetry was the perfect format for our ceremony as we wanted to keep it short, yet full of tender emotion,” Paris says.
