Rebecca Rittenhouse Married Kyle Robiskie at the Same Pasadena Church Where Her Parents Wed 40 Years Prior
The bar at San Vicente Bungalows was the setting for actor, producer, and Privet Beauty founder Rebecca Rittenhouse and venture capitalist Kyle Robiskie’s meet-cute in Los Angeles. “My friend Keleigh Teller—who is rarely in town and rarely makes plans in advance—asked me to have dinner there with about an hour’s notice,” Rebecca remembers. “I met her spontaneously, and we noticed a karaoke party happening, which we then decided to crash. Since it’s a member’s club, and the world is small, we ended up knowing the guy whose birthday it was and decided to hang out and catch up with some friends.”
A few minutes later, Kyle walked in. “I thought he was super-cute,” Rebecca admits. “So I basically stared at him until he came and talked to me, which took a while! Apparently, he thought I was there with another guy. He offered to get me a drink, and we sat out on the patio talking, until I lied to him and said I had a friend coming into town that night. Truthfully, I was starting production on a new show just a few days later and wanted to rest!” Before they parted ways, they planned their first date for the following weekend.
Exactly two years later, Kyle proposed at the very same place where they’d met. “He recreated that first night and even had Keleigh take me to dinner in order to surprise me,” Rebecca remembers. After the proposal, Kyle had planned a surprise engagement party at Bird Streets in the Hollywood Hills. “He said he wanted to gather as many of the people he knew we would want to tell immediately, and have them all waiting for us,” Rebecca explains. “I was really late that night, and I think people were starting to worry things might have gone pear-shaped, but I honestly just couldn’t decide what to wear.”
The wedding was held two years and two months later in Pasadena, where Rebecca grew up. The ceremony was in the chapel at the First United Methodist Church, and the reception followed at the bride’s father’s home. “My parents were actually married in the same church as well,” Rebecca says. “Given my mom passed away in 2019, it felt like a really nice way to have her there spiritually.”
In the lead-up to the wedding, Rebecca and Kyle were fairly relaxed when it came to planning. “I definitely put the most energy into my wardrobe,” she admits. “I started looking in LA, but ultimately, I went to New York during Bridal Market, and I ended up getting every look in New York.”
She worked with Amsale on two custom looks—one for her rehearsal dinner and one for her welcome party, both at The Bird Streets Club, where they had their surprise engagement party. “Sarah Swann and Michael Cho at Amsale are the most thoughtful and lovely people, and I cannot recommend working with them enough,” Rebecca says. “The eyelash jacquard on the skirt of my rehearsal dinner dress is like no fabric I have ever seen before, and the chiffon flowers were all hand-applied on my column gown with the watteau—I think it was incredibly modern and classic at the same time.” Rebecca wore jewelry from Maison Merenor for her rehearsal dinner and welcome party, and many vintage David Webb pieces that added an element of unexpected drama to the looks.
For her wedding day, Rebecca wanted something crisp, classic, and demure. “I was having a really hard time finding the right thing because there has been such a move toward corsetry,” Rebecca says. “I probably tried on 50 dresses—there were a few that were almost it, but then I saw a little capelet at Mark Ingram, and I just instantly knew I had to try it. Once I put it on, it was the dress. It was so me. I always dreamed of having buttons all the way down the back, and I changed the neckline slightly so it didn’t overwhelm me. I also wanted to keep the capelet a little longer for my proportions.” She accessorized with diamond earrings from XIV Karat during the ceremony, along with an XIV Karat round tennis bracelet and her grandmother’s diamond Omega cocktail watch from the 1950s.
Rebecca had a vision for the ceremony. She wanted the church to feel a little bit like a ruin because she knew early on that she wanted to walk down the aisle to a Nick Mulvey song called “Infinite Trees,” so they brought in plenty of greenery to create a cinematic moment.
The bride and groom didn’t do a first look. “I also didn’t let Kyle hear the song before the ceremony, and it starts with bells and a harp, so it was just so perfect for the setting, and the lyrics made their way into my vows,” Rebecca notes. “Kyle started sweating bullets as soon as I walked in. He is normally so calm, cool, and collected—and it was honestly wildly charming to see him nervous and emotional. It was so meaningful to be married in the space my parents got married in and to see all of our nearest and dearest looking up at us—I will never forget it.”
The couple wrote their own vows, prompting both tears and laughter. “We also had my stepmother and Kyle’s mother light two candles, which we then used to light a unity candle during the ceremony,” Rebecca says. Her maid of honor Nicole read Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116”—the bride’s favorite sonnet—while her brother read “I Carry Your Heart” by E.E. Cummings. “This was the last poem we ever read to my mother,” Rebecca says. After the couple said “I do,” they walked out to “You Are the Best Thing” by Ray LaMontagne, and as they exited the church, everyone cheered and threw white rose petals.
After the ceremony, they got into a vintage Mercedes convertible with a “Just Married” sign and cans attached to the back and drove away to Rebecca’s dad’s house for the reception.
When they reached the house, Rebecca took off her capelet and put on Maison Merenor diamond and pearl drop earrings. A 1919 Mediterranean-style home designed by Reginald Davis Johnson, they decided to lean into the vibe by keeping things classic, working with the couple’s planners, Studio Sully. They purposefully opted out of a seated dinner and went for passed appetizers, a raw bar, and food stations that were open over the course of three hours, so that they could spend more time dancing and mingling amongst friends. “I also felt strongly that there needed to be a Negroni fountain,” Rebecca says. “The bartenders accidentally filled it with a white Negroni instead of a regular one, and people definitely tried to drink it like it was water. I think that contributed to the fun, though. At the end of the day, it was a party in my dad’s—beautiful!—backyard, so we didn’t want to overproduce it.”
More Great Wedding Stories in Vogue
Sign up for Vogue’s wedding newsletter, an all-access invitation to the exceptional and inspirational, plus planning tips and advice
The Vogue Runway app has expanded! Update to the latest version to see all Vogue content, as well as new features like our Runway Genius quiz, Group Chats, and posts from Vogue contributors.
Become a Vogue Business Member—the ultimate resource for fashion and beauty industry professionals.
