This Indie-Band Bride Wore Two Statement Cape Dresses for Her Eccentric Silver Lake Wedding
Ben Katz first saw Jess Wolfe on a dating app while visiting his family in Sonoma, California. He instantly swiped right—despite the tiny detail that he technically lived 2,300 miles away in Nashville.
The two texted for weeks. After some gentle convincing, the Los Angeles–based Jess flew to Music City for a first date at Rolf and Daughters in Germantown, which quickly turned into a weeklong stay. A long-distance relationship began, kept up through FaceTime—where Jess, a Grammy-nominated singer in the band Lucius, would sing while Ben strummed along—and by adding songs to a shared Spotify playlist, which they affectionately named Bennie and the Jess.
During those early months, a prescient moment occurred. “I was at Joni Mitchell’s house for a Joni Jam with a cast of incredible characters,” Jess recalls. “Most notably that night: Sir Elton John, gorgeously dressed in a fully custom Gucci suit. Embroidered on the back of his jacket (naturally) was ‘Bennie and the Jets.’” She took it as a sign and snapped a photo.
Two years later, Jess cites that very Gucci jacket and its bedazzled eccentricity as “the greatest inspiration” for their wedding in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake. It was held at the Paramour Estate, a grand maximalist Spanish Revival home previously owned by a silent film star and his oil-heiress wife. They fell in love with the sweeping, hilly grounds and the panoramic views of the Hollywood Hills, the San Gabriel Mountains, and “the esteemed Silver Lake Erewhon,” jokes Jess—as well as its jewel-toned interiors and hallways filled with taxidermy. “From the first time we visited the Paramour Estate, we knew it was where we would get married,” Jess says. “There was something so historical, colorful, playful, and dramatic.” They enlisted the help of Melissa Sullivan of Studio Sully to plan their weekend after seeing her previous work in Vogue.
On September 9, 2023, Jess met Ben in the Paramour Estate’s garden under a flower chuppah wearing Vera Wang. “It was so effortlessly ethereal—I hadn’t really seen anything quite like it,” Jess says of her dress. “I also loved that it had this long trained cape as opposed to a veil. We have worn a lot of capes in our band’s stage costumes, so I wanted to play off of that.” Ben, meanwhile, wore a Thom Browne tuxedo.
Music was the food of love at their ceremony. “As our relationship started, Ben and I would sit at the piano and learn songs together,” Jess says. “It was this sweet courting period, and sharing music was a special way we expressed mutual—and slightly corny—affection. So it was only natural that I would walk down the aisle to the song that started that ritual: ‘I Waited for You’ by Daniel Norgren,” Jess says. “My dear friends and longtime collaborators Sara Bareilles and Emily King agreed to sing it.” Both bride and groom were overcome with emotion as the duo crooned their rendition. Then, as they stomped the glass and exited the garden, another musician friend, David Ryan Harris, sang “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys.
They held cocktail hour around the pool. With Sullivan’s help, Jess adorned her custom bars with bold floral House of Hackney wallpaper. Guests enjoyed lobster rolls from Eventide in Portland, Maine, and Cuban cigars as the sun began to set around them. Many also took the time to explore the palatial home, thanks to a playful illustrated map by Mackenzie Moore that Jess and Ben had provided. “We worked with Melissa’s team to turn them into origami-style Victorian puzzle purses that served as escort cards with seating assignments, as well as guides to the property,” Jess says.
For Jess, the staff uniforms were also part of the fun. They sourced vintage-style suits that they embroidered with hand-beaded patches with cats and wolves—a nod to their surnames of Katz and Wolfe. “Costuming is such a large part of my professional life,” she explains. (The two animals served as ongoing motifs throughout the weekend, also adorning the table settings.)
The party enjoyed dinner on the lawn and afterward headed into the Paramour Estate’s home for a raucous party. Upon a palm-covered stage sat a fully customized drum set emblazoned with “Bennie and the Jess.” “It really made the band feel ours,” says Jess. She changed into a gold cape dress from Celine, while Ben slipped into a custom cream sport jacket (by Austin’s Fort Lonesome) embroidered with the same Elton John–inspired wordplay—a nod to the meaningful, memorable look Jess saw on the iconic singer years ago.
Once people started to dance—courtesy of the couple’s band, Scary Pockets, and later DJ Jason Stewart of the podcast *How Long Gone*—it was hard to get them to stop: “The floor was shaking, we were dancing so hard,” she says. “The party would have been incomplete without several guests jumping in the pool.”
Indeed, when asked to reflect on her wedding months later, Jess had a definitive response: “We have no notes. It was absolutely the best day of our lives.”
Max Wanger1/46Let the sunshine in! Seeing my dress hang from the Paramour’s gorgeous 1920s windows gave me chills.
Max Wanger2/46The first playlist Ben made for me became the slogan for our weekend: Bennie and the Jess. My bridesmaids gifted me this sweet robe to get ready in, chain stitched by Sara Thompson’s Circa 1975.
