The Bride Wore a Sustainable Dress Made From Organza Scraps for Her Mendocino Cliffside Wedding
Before Sophie Marx found her husband, she first had to find a friend. In 2018, after eight years working at the Council of Fashion Designers of America in New York, she moved to San Francisco to start a new job at a social impact agency. The only problem? She knew exactly one person who lived in the city. Luckily, they set her up on a “friend date” with a woman named Shmee—who Sophie hit it off with immediately. “Shmee is one of those people who makes friends with the people in elevators and they later turn up at her baby shower,” Sophie jokes. A few months later, Shmee invited her to a picnic at Dolores Park, where Sophie met Dave Connors after he finished playing an animated game of spike ball—although at first, she didn’t give him much thought as she was in a relationship at the time.
But a few months later, she was single, and their love story began after Sophie heard Dave tell a story. “I am notoriously bad at telling stories, but Dave is incredibly good at telling stories,” she says. “One night, while Dave was telling an amazing story, I realized I wanted to listen to him tell stories for the rest of my life. I wrote an email to my friend Kate one week after we started dating, and I said ‘I know I’m not supposed to dive into anything but I also think I’m going to marry him.’”
She was right. Two years later, on New Year’s Eve, the startup founder proposed during sunrise at his family’s beach house in Moggs Creek, Australia, with a vintage ring from Fred Leighton. Afterwards, the couple went back to sleep—after all was said and done, it was 6:30 a.m.—but they celebrated that evening while ringing in 2020. “I have a clear memory of the whole family singing the Australian National Anthem at the top of their lungs to induct me into the family,” Sophie says.
The pandemic hit two months later, and they postponed their original October wedding day until May of 2021. In the meantime, however, Sophie got pregnant—and their second date ended up being the one she was due. So they postponed it a third time to June 4, 2022. Sophie, with her events experience from working at the CFDA, and her mother got to work planning the affair along with Sonya Houston of Mendocino Weddings.
On an overcast summer day, Sophie and Dave wed at the historic Switzer Farm on the Mendocino Coast where the redwoods met the ocean. Laura Vassar, the Brock Collection cofounder whom Sophie met while at the CFDA, designed her off-the-shoulder wedding dress along with Patricia Voto of One/Of.
Sustainability was a huge priority for Sophie. “We wanted to make the most environmentally thoughtful dress we possibly could—which we knew would be a challenge as we didn’t want to sacrifice anything about the look or fit, both of which ended up being quite intricate,” she explains. “The Italian silk organza was left over from another project and most of the lace was Victorian. Patricia, being the genius that she is, even tried to source most of the pieces from California so that we could avoid more shipping.” The bride paired the look with earrings from Irene Neuwirth.
Sophie’s two best friends from college were her maids of honor, while Shmee–the friend that introduced them—served as their officiant. The couple’s one-year-old son, Gabe, was Dave’s best man. The two took turns holding their son throughout the ceremony while their guests huddled under clear umbrellas, just as the skies began to open. “At one point when I was saying my vows in the pouring rain, Gabe started blowing raspberries on my shoulder,” she remembers. “Dave, Shmee, and I just started laughing. It was so perfectly imperfect and a true representation of our family and how I hope we can always respond when things go sideways.”
.jpg)