Steph McCaffrey and Erin Robertson found a wedding venue within their first few weeks of dating. “I feel like it’s where lesbians really work differently,” Erin says. “We drove by [Rosecliff Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island] and Steph was like, ‘This is where I want to get married. I hope you’ll be there. I hope you can make it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’” Steph, who is the CEO of Pickle Pop, the Los Angeles-based pickleball venue that she founded with Erin, ended up locking down the venue before they were even engaged. For her part, Erin played professional soccer with the Leyton Orient Women FC, and formerly for the Chicago Red Stars and the US Women’s National team, before attending Wharton and working in finance.
As a destination, Rhode Island would accommodate the couple’s many friends living in Boston, as well as Steph’s Boston-area family. It was clear pretty early on that Erin, a designer who was the winner of Project Runway season 15, would take the lead on planning. “One of the things that Steph and I do that’s really good for the two of us is that we lean into our strengths. We very rarely overlap on that. I’m not going to make a spreadsheet and she’s not going to make a mood board,” she says. Steph adds: “I’m creative in a different way. But I think Erin is what people pay for in planners, designers, all these things in one. She had a vision to lean into the theme, which was make it gilded, make it fun, make it really energetic.”
The guest experience was very important to the couple, particularly because the wedding was held on New Year’s Eve. “It sounds cheesy, but we just wanted [the wedding] to be [about] love, new beginnings, and time spent with the people you care about,” Erin says.
Read on for details about the making of a dress while sick with pneumonia, the joy of hearing Cardi B in a historic institution, and greeting guests in boxers and a robe.
The Welcome Party
Many Newport restaurants and hotels incorporate outdoor space for events, which made it difficult to find a welcome party location in the winter. “Where are we going to put 240 people in the middle of the winter?” Erin recalls asking. They both were thrilled when they were able to book the Gardiner House for a welcome party.
Getting Ready
The wedding was held on the late side, from 7 P.M. to 1 A.M. the next day, which left plenty of time to get ready. “Erin and I just wanted to create an environment where, in the morning, we could have fun with our respective friends,” Steph says. “Given my background, I know a couple of professional soccer players, so we went off and did a workout together.” Erin didn’t want to get up that early. Later in the day, she did a reiki session with her stepmother.
The Cocktail Hour
Steph and Erin loved the idea of slightly subverting tradition. They knew they wanted a pre-ceremony cocktail hour to kick things off, but they also knew they didn’t want to miss it, so they made an appearance in their getting-ready looks. Erin wore a robe with a train and a veil, while Steph wore a button-down shirt, boxers, and fluffy slippers.
The Looks
Steph isn’t what she would call a “girly girl,” and wanted a dress that didn’t feel like a dress. What Erin created for her fit exactly what she envisioned. “It was such a joy and a pleasure to be able to have something made from scratch, because I truly don’t think a dress off the rack would’ve worked for me, given that I’m not really a dress person,” she says.
The couple currently lives in London, so it was easy for Erin to travel to Paris to source fabrics. Erin found embellishments that she loved there, but made an effort to be restrained with adornments in order to suit Steph’s more streamlined taste. She ended up creating a white minidress with a removable skirt and train. Erin collected the unused scraps from Steph’s dress and used them for her own second look.
Erin, meanwhile, left making her own dress until the last minute, which became a problem when she fell ill right before leaving London for Rhode Island. “I literally thrive in the last bit—something switches in my brain and all of a sudden everything works. But then I got pneumonia, so then I was absolutely fucked,” Erin says. She enlisted her two best friends to help and they finished the dress at 3 A.M. on December 30, a day after she finished her antibiotics. It features a corset and incorporated Irish knotted lace as a nod to her heritage.
The Ceremony
Steph’s grandmother, who she calls “the light of her life,” officiated the wedding. “I felt like I had my two favorite people in the world with me during one of the most important times of my life,” she says. “Grandma’s also hilarious. She would laugh at her own jokes during ceremony into the microphone.”
The Party
Because Rosecliff has guidelines on many things, Erin and Steph made an effort to have things feel personal wherever they were able. They flowers were arranged by their friends, and another friend drew a poodle for the menu. The couple’s own dog Mabel had to decline her invitation (the mansion doesn’t allow dogs), but Erin had a life-size recreation made as a wedding gift for Steph.
The couple also had the Boston DJ L’Duke perform. “It was just banger after banger after banger,” Erin recalls. “We thought, How lucky are we to be playing ‘WAP’ at Rosecliff Mansion?”
“The most important thing was for our guests to have a fun night,” she adds. “We wanted it to feel like a New Year’s Eve party, but celebrating us.”
Steph McCaffrey and Erin Robertson’s Wedding
Adrienne Gaffney is a features editor at ELLE and previously worked at WSJ Magazine and Vanity Fair.