New York City couple Rose Thompson and Gregory Bruno loved the idea of getting married in Palm Beach, where guests from all over the country could enjoy the vacation atmosphere and ocean views. Both the bride, a men’s concept designer at Ralph Lauren, and the groom, who is president of Bruno Capital Management Corporation, a single-family office investment firm, have an eye for design, which played an important role in their wedding weekend.
“I was thinking about our style throughout our weekend,” Rose says. “It was really important to portray a timeless and elegant sensibility while still giving a nod to the Palm Beach aesthetic.” They played with a variety of different fabrics in shades of white and navy in order “to feature all the textures and tones you often see around the island.” Rose also made outfit moodboards on her wedding website, to give guests guidance.
Read on for more Ralph Lauren, ocean views, and Slim Aarons vibes.
The Welcome Party
Rose and Gregory kicked things off on Thursday, with a party at The Colony Hotel, where many of their guests were staying. They planned it for early evening, so everyone would be well-rested enough to spend a full day seeing Palm Beach on Friday.
“The Colony really captures that Palm Beach moment while being small and intimate, because we just wanted our guests and us to be able to connect, but also get familiar with each other throughout the weekend,” says Rose, who wore a floral skirt and top set from Zimmermann. The couple worked with Meredith Falk, founder of GLDN Events, to plan the wedding.
The Rehearsal Dinner
After a run-through at St. Edward Church with the pastor Father Glen, the couple had dinner with family and close friends at the Sailfish Club. Since Gregory is from an Italian family, he wanted to incorporate that cuisine into the menu. After the meal, the rest of their guests joined for a cocktail reception, held in an inlet around the boats on the property. Having grown up in a coastal area, being near the water felt important to Gregory.
“We still wanted it to be a perfect reflection of us, but also wanted to make sure it felt different from Friday,” Rose says. “At the dinner, we made sure just the flowers were different, the setting was different. Obviously the dinner was significantly different than what we were going to have Saturday night.”
Rose and Gregory matched in Ralph Lauren; her in a white tuxedo paired with Aquazzura. “Being a men’s concept designer, I have always had a real love for men’s tailoring,” she says. “ I always knew at some point I wanted to wear a tuxedo. You feel powerful in it....It felt like the right time to do it.”
The Morning Of
Before the ceremony, Rose got ready at The Colony, where she and her family were staying, with her mother, friends, and Trooper, her beloved French bulldog. She wore a silk feather minidress from—you guessed it—Ralph Lauren. In a break between hair and makeup and putting on their dresses, the group went out to the pool area and snapped a few photos. “We had a few moments just relaxing and taking everything in before we got ready, which was important,” Rose says. “It was a very Slim Aarons, tropical vibe.”
The Dress
Rose’s Danielle Frankel gown was made of silk wool with a low back and a scarf effect. “I wanted that Danielle Frankel nod, just because she’s so iconic,” she says. “She strikes that fine line between offering a sweet surprise, but still being very elegant and very just flattering and almost timeless. Her silhouettes were really, really giving me everything I needed.”
The Ceremony
Rose and Gregory wrote personal vows that they read to each other before the wedding service, which began at St. Edward at 2:30 P.M. “We did a full Catholic Mass, and it was kept under an hour, which is rare,” says Gregory. “Father Glen did a great job of getting people in and out.”
Rose continues: “Having the wedding at St. Edward with a classic service was really important. We just wanted our guests to know that that was part of who we were and who we are. Father Glen was even in a stunning robe, and I let him know how much I loved his outfit.”
The Reception
Guests went from the church immediately to The Beach Club. The cocktail hour was held in an atrium area. “There was a lot of natural light, while still being inside, so it was the best of both worlds,” Gregory says. A string quartet played, and there was a seafood bar. Fashion illustrators also created sketches for the guests.
The couple loved incorporating small personal details into the day. Their crest was on the dance floor and the dinner plates, and their first dance song, Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car, was a nod to their love of driving. All guests were given label pins with an image of Trooper on them.
“Our band was incredible,” Rose says. “We just wanted to keep everyone out dancing, and they were really good about swapping songs, seeing whoever’s sitting down, whatever vibe, whatever age. Gregory adds: “We had to have horns, too. That was one of my stipulations. [They] just change the vibe.”
Later on in the night, Rose changed into a Danielle Frankel minidress and Gregory put on a floral dinner jacket, before they both left for an after-party at the restaurant Cucina. “One thing I really wanted was a spot for an after-party [where we could] really take our shoes off and let loose and continue the celebration,” Gregory says.
The couple had a long engagement and planning process, but were thrilled with how everything ultimately turned out. “We’re very, very close with our families, and we spend a lot of time with them, but it’s hard to get everyone [together] from everywhere,” Rose says. “I have distant family in Texas. He has distant family in Alabama. So, just having them all in one place was super important. But also, it was just so magical that we almost didn’t want it to end.”
Rose Thompson and Gregory Bruno’s Wedding
Adrienne Gaffney is a features editor at ELLE and previously worked at WSJ Magazine and Vanity Fair.
