This Bride Paired Her Vintage Dior Dress With An Antique Wax Flower Crown
When Aemilia Madden and Dylan Reitz-Cruz first connected on Hinge in 2022, her profile said she was looking for someone with “good taste in snacks and hikes.” Dylan messaged, asking her what “bad taste in hikes” looked like. After chatting and discovering their shared interest in the author Michael Pollan and the podcast 99% Invisible, she stopped responding. Luckily, Dylan double-messaged her, and she met him for drinks at Izzy Rose in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Though their first date was a classic bar meet-up, the second date was special. “Dylan planned a date in Greenwood Cemetery, making good on the ‘hikes and snacks’ conversation, planning a walk and picnic,” Aemilia recalls. Aemilia had gone to pre-school in Oakland, California, next to the city’s Mountain View Cemetery, and grew up taking daily walks through the cemetery. “When I told my family, they had a good feeling about him, and said he knew me shockingly well.”
In June 2025, Dylan proposed to Aemilia on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. While the weekend started out stormy, the second day of the trip was sunny and clear. “We canoed to a private rock outcropping to swim,” where he proposed, Aemilia recalls. “When we canoed back to camp, Dylan had secretly packed a vintage tablecloth, a candle and a bottle of champagne. We made deep dish pizza over our campfire, spread the tablecloth over our cooler, and had a romantic candlelight camping dinner to celebrate.” The next day, Dylan surprised her with a visit to Hemlock Neversink, where they hiked, went to the spa, and later met up with Dylan’s family for a celebratory dinner.
When it came time to plan the wedding, Aemilia and Dylan’s creative backgrounds meant they had clear visions of what they wanted. Aemilia is a freelance fashion and lifestyle journalist, editorial brand consultant, and the author of the newsletter Taeste Bud, while Dylan is an artist and 3D and visual designer at David Yurman. They decided to have an intimate wedding in Dylan’s parents’ backyard in the Hudson Valley, doing all of the planning, design and outreach to vendors on their own, and enlisting Serena Bruce as a coordinator to help achieve their vision.
They held the wedding on 20 June, and got legally married at City Hall weeks beforehand. For the Hudson Valley ceremony, Aemilia wore a Kamparett dress, Prounis earrings, Alaïa wedges and an antique wax flower crown from eBay. Dylan wore a green Paul Smith suit, a Bode shirt and green Aimé Leon Dore derby shoes. “The crown came when I was researching potential alternatives to a veil. I knew I wanted something different, and learned about these antique wax flower crowns inspired by Queen Victoria’s orange blossom crown from her own wedding,” she says.
“I ended up finding my dress on a whim. I knew my mother, who lived in California, really wanted to be with me when I tried on dresses, and hadn’t had the chance since I was doing my shopping in New York,” Aemilia says.
She made an appointment at Kamparett, as she loved the simple elegance of their designs. “On a Saturday morning in December, my mother, sister and I went together to try on dresses, and I knew it was the one. The fabric glowed, and it had these gorgeous princess seams. I felt like myself, but also otherworldly when I put it on,” Aemilia says. “I also loved that I was bringing a bit of home into the big day by choosing a San Francisco designer.”
For her wedding hair, “I jokingly told my stylist Collin that my inspiration was an Olsen sister running through a field,” she says. “I wanted it to feel romantic and a little imperfect, wavy and half-up. He crafted a beautiful braid detail in the back that helped to keep the crown secure.” For the welcome party, she wore a vintage Christian Dior dress from The RealReal and Tory Burch sandals. For the after-party, she wore a Prada dress. The couple’s wedding bands and Aemilia’s engagement ring were made by their friend Nicole Hendry.
The ceremony took place in the field behind Dylan’s parents’ house at 5.30 pm. “We stood under a pear tree, surrounded by flowers and tall grass. Dylan walked down the aisle with his parents to ‘Thinkin’ Bout You,’ a Flea cover of the Frank Ocean song, and I walked down the aisle with my parents to ‘Our House’ by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young,” Aemilia says. “We kept it very simple, no real processional, just us.” They stood on a platform hand-built by Dylan’s father, Stuart and Aemilia’s brother-in-law, Jack.
Dylan’s best friend, Paul, officiated. “We wrote our own vows, which coincidentally, both centered around the same topic: making your own luck,” Aemilia says. Because Dylan is a lifelong Knicks fan who grew up in the city, Aemilia’s vows included a quote from Knicks head coach Mike Brown, in celebration of the team’s historic win a week before the wedding.
“I had that feeling where time seems to become more elastic,” says Dylan, thinking back to the ceremony. “The day went so fast, and I wanted more time with everyone, my family, friends and wife! I felt full, felt loved and full of love.”
After cocktail hour, they had pizza and wine. They danced their first dance to “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies, and danced to a mix of bachata (in homage to Dylan’s Dominican family), and what Aemilia calls “middle school dance music.” Dylan’s dad surprised everyone with fireworks. They danced for hours, eventually falling asleep at 4am.
Reflecting on the wedding, Dylan says: “We set out to do something that felt like an expression of ourselves, our love and relationship, to host an ambitious party that was also full of emotion, and while it was all dressed up, it still felt very homey and handmade and personal. I kind of think we nailed it. “I feel so lucky,” Aemilia says.
