This Beauty-Editor Bride Channeled ‘Victoriana Meets Disco’ for Her Fall Wedding in Brooklyn
On Halloween in 2018, Lauren Valenti spent the entire day transforming into David Bowie. She started with bleaching her brows and moved on to a painstaking application of shimmery glam-rock makeup. After several hours, she fastened on her custom Ziggy Stardust wig and pulled on a pair of knee-high boots. And when she walked into her friend Hallie’s Brooklyn apartment, she locked eyes with Daniel Bachrach—a die-hard David Bowie fan.
Lauren, a former beauty editor at Vogue and now the beauty director at InStyle, doesn’t remember all of their first conversation. “Let’s just say David Bowie was on a bender, and Daniel was right in his crosshairs,” she says, laughing. But they left that night with each other’s numbers and a promise to meet again soon.
Five years later Daniel, a senior soundtrack producer for video game company Rockstar Games, proposed to Lauren in London. “There were no secrets—we had a trip to London planned, and Lauren knew what I had up my sleeve,” Daniel admits. “We even picked an engagement ring together ahead of our departure.” Underneath a willow tree in Regent’s Park, she said yes.
In November 2024, the two celebrated their wedding in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. On Friday night, Daniel and Lauren held a welcome dinner at Giuseppina’s in Brooklyn, where brick-oven pizza and calzones were served by candlelight.
The next day, they married at the Montauk Club in an affair Lauren describes as “Victoriana descends into disco.” The bride wore a vintage 1950s ivory bodice gown from Beverly Hills vintage boutique Timeless Vixen that she acquired after seeing it on founder Lauren Lepire’s Instagram: “My excitement grew even more when I learned Lepire had sourced it from The Museum at FIT and that was a piece of fashion history,” Lauren says. “It was designed by Rosalie Macrini, a New York couturier who, like many American designers of the time, was influenced by Christian Dior’s New Look.”
As a longtime beauty editor, Lauren put great care into her hair and makeup. She asked hairstylist Mischa G to pull her hair until a romantic updo that resembled a figure on a cameo brooch, with a few curls that softly hit her collarbones. For her makeup, the bride chose a dusty rose lip and winged eyeliner. “I was honored to have it done by legendary makeup artist Sandy Linter, a Studio 54 fixture who worked on many a ’70s Vogue cover,” Lauren says. She accessorized with an antique pearl choker and matching earrings.
Both the bride’s parents walked her down the aisle to Daniel, who waited for her in a custom tobacco brown three-piece suit by Savile Row tailor Edward Sexton, who also designed for the Beatles. (“While planning my wedding outfit, the first step in my research was to google ‘Paul McCartney suit,’ inspired by his look at the final Beatles live show at the Abbey Road rooftop,” Daniel says.) Then the two held an interfaith ceremony that honored Lauren’s Irish and Daniel’s Jewish roots.
Afterward, they held a reception in the Montauk Club’s brownstone. A string quartet played Chappell Roan and the Velvet Underground as guests wandered into grand rooms of the historic clubhouse, which florist Sophie Bromberg adorned with bittersweet vines, heirloom chrysanthemums, and lilies. (“I became a bit obsessed with dark lilies after seeing Bella Baxter’s wedding bouquet in Poor Things—so moody!” Lauren says.) An autumnal dinner of butternut squash soup and roast chicken was served amid speeches from family and friends.
After the couple’s first dance to “Here, There and Everywhere” by the Beatles, the party very literally picked up with the hora—perhaps a little too much: Partygoers accidentally threw the bride from her chair. “Thankfully, I bounced back quickly,” Lauren says, laughing. Soon after, she let her hair down and changed into a 1920s French flapper sequined tabard dress also from Timeless Vixen. “I hadn’t planned on wearing a second dress until I had another love-at-first-sight, can’t-stop-thinking-about-it moment the month before the wedding,” she says. “Disco dancing in an extraordinary French flapper dress was a dream come true.” And dance she did, to everyone from the Sparks to, yes, David Bowie.
Now that it’s all over, the couple says their wedding was more than they could ever hope for—though Lauren has a slight admission. “We can’t deny it: After the whirlwind of wedding planning, we’re thrilled to have our lives back—and more downtime with our orange tabby cat, Georgy,” she says.
Photo: Jillian Mitchell1/40Getting ready at our apartment, I wore this 1920s silk floral lace robe from Lucia Zolea. It added a touch of glamour to a morning mired in chaos!
Photo: Jillian Mitchell2/40Admiring the handiwork of my makeup artist, Sandy Linter. As she was getting me ready, she told me about a time she did Mick Jagger’s makeup while he was wearing Jerry Hall’s kimono. I needed a moment!
