The Bride Wore a Three-Tiered Patchwork Veil for Her Unconventional Wedding at a Greek Amphitheater in Michigan
Shawn Lakin and Matthew Spector (known as Matt to family and friends) attended the same kindergarten in Birmingham, Michigan. But after Matt’s family moved to Los Angeles, they didn’t officially meet until they were both 14, while on a ski trip in Colorado. The teenage sparks flew, and within a day both had set their Facebook statuses (it was a different time) to “married.” They kept in touch for years, sending happy birthday and happy Valentine’s Day messages back and forth, and in 2017, when, as they put it, they were “finally in the same place at the same time,” an official romance began. In September 2022, Matt proposed by filling the couple’s LA backyard with yellow flowers in an homage to Shawn’s favorite movie, Tim Burton’s Big Fish.
“Late one night, early in our relationship, I put Big Fish on for Matt, which he had never seen,” says Shawn. “I fell asleep, and when I woke up he was cradling me and sobbing at the end of the movie.”
From the beginning, Shawn and Matt knew they wanted their wedding to be “really precious and thoughtful,” and rife with personal touches. They decided to have a hometown wedding on the grounds of Shawn’s alma mater, the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The entire 319-acre campus is an official National Historic Landmark, but Shawn zeroed in on one area in particular: the school’s Greek Theater, a neoclassical stone amphitheater. “My sister did Once on This Island there one summer,” she says, “and I’ve always wanted to get married there, in the round. I’d never seen anyone do it there before.” And so on August 26, 2023, they did just that, after planting the ground with countless yellow solidago flowers as a nod to their proposal.
The Greek Theater provided a theme. First up were invitations designed by the couple’s friend Jon Anthony, who had previously provided the graphics for their small pickling business, Picklesome. Anthony rolled out slabs of ceramic, stamping them with text, to create ancient-looking sculptural invites. They were both distinctive and heavy—Matt’s brother Mason’s wedding speech included a joke asking what the hell everyone was supposed to do with them. “I texted all my best friends saying, ‘Whatever you do with these invitations, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know,’” jokes Shawn. (Her parents put one in their garden, to use as a stepping stone.)
The Greek theme continued with custom food sculptures by Zélikha Dinga of Caro Diario Paris. Zélikha came up with the idea of creating edible Greek urns, made from cheddar cheese, along with an ionic column ice sculpture. For a Mediterranean appetizer, she invented a tomato lagoon—a custom structure featuring separated lines of cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and farmer’s cheese, for dipping.
For Shawn, a stylist and model who previously served as a senior fashion editor at Document Journal, finding a dress that felt “vintage but completely unique” was key. She turned to young British designer Paula Nadal, whose custom dresses have a historical feel, often featuring corsets and bustles. For fabric references, Shawn sent the designer screenshots of Elle Fanning’s ornate 18th-century costumes in The Great. Over the course of a series of fittings, they created a buttery corset gown with pillow bolsters, a flower blooming at the chest, and a long three-tiered veil. The top tier of the veil was made with patchworks from antique veils, including a piece that once belonged to Shawn’s mother—pearls from which were also hand-stitched into the trim. She paired the dress with champagne satin Manolo Blahnik heels.
“In my job, I’ve been privileged enough to see so much beautiful couture and runway and all of these pieces, up close and personal,” says Shawn. “So, I told Paula, I don’t know how we can do it, but I want to make something that s the best dress I’ve ever seen. And really, to me, it was.”
“I had no clue what the dress was going to look like,” says Matt. “It was this secret mission. So when I first saw her, the most gorgeous bride to ever bride, I just couldn t believe it. I really felt like it embodied her in this beautiful way. It was like her essence came out and was on display for everyone at the wedding to see.”
For his wedding weekend suits, Matt turned to Bode. “I ve never had a custom piece of clothing made,” he says. “So I felt very fancy.” For the rehearsal, he wore a textured, powder blue suit with a matching tonal boutonniere on the collar; his black wedding tuxedo featured buttons by Prounis—who designed Shawn’s engagement ring (featuring a diamond from Matt’s late mother) and the couple’s wedding bands—along with a vintage cherub button and vintage horse-shaped cufflinks. Bode also made him two custom kippahs, a first for the brand.
The wedding weekend, planned by Bon Vivant, kicked off with a rehearsal dinner at the Cranbrook Art Museum, where sculptures by Matt’s grandfather, artist Alvin Spector, dot the lawn. Shawn wore a custom white gown by Emily Tonge (a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Art) made from patchwork antique doilies, handkerchiefs, and Edwardian lace, her hair done in a twist with baby’s breath by her childhood hairstylist, Shelly Marie. Zélikha tied white bows around freshly baked challah loaves, and Shawn’s mother, Kelly, created a huge grape sculpture for the bar. Later, in the dead of night, Matt gathered his groomsmen for an emergency mission: moving some unexpected heavy metal bleachers from outside the Greek Theater and hiding them in the woods. “It was so worth it though,” says Shawn, “because when we showed up the next day, it was just spectacular.”
On Saturday, Shawn and Matt were married—sans bleachers—in a Jewish ceremony officiated by their best friend Aaron, with blessings given by family members. The huppah was, of course, adorned with goldenrod. Shawn walked down the aisle, through yellow flowers designed by Katie Wachowiak, to Iron Wine’s cover of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.” Afterward, the bridal party, in yellow gowns and black tuxedos, danced to the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby.”
“We felt calm, excited, present, happy, in love, and we sobbed and laughed through the entire thing,” says Shawn.
After the ceremony, Shawn and Matt snuck away to read private vows to each other as guests walked across the grounds to Cranbrook House for cocktails, picking off bites of the cheese urns underneath the school’s stone cherub statues. They were served foods significant to the couple, like platters of pickles and mini latkes. Seat assignments for dinner were presented with custom doilies, while glasses of champagne came with bows tied around them on top.
