Annabelle Dexter-Jones and Daniel Humm Take VF Inside Their Starry Wedding Plans

On the heels of a whirlwind summer romance and a surprise February engagement, actor, director, and music scion Annabelle Dexter-Jones and chef/restaurateur Daniel Humm envisioned a City Hall wedding followed by a blowout party.

“But then we went to a wedding that was just a party, and we’re like, ‘That’s not us,’” said Humm, over Zoom from his office at Daniel Humm Hospitality.

The couple realized how much they valued the close connection and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate with their loved ones on their milestone day. “We really needed to do something small and intimate,” agreed Dexter-Jones in a separate window from their shared New York home.

They began brainstorming venues in the city to accommodate around 100 select guests for a ceremony, reception, and after-party. Luckily, Humm owns Eleven Madison Park, the storied Art Deco landmark with a conscious plant-based menu and three Michelin stars. Last year, he opened Clemente Bar, a plush cocktail den upstairs, in collaboration with friend and Italian artist Francesco Clemente.

“We realized that we do have the most beautiful place, with our team, that feels like home,” said Switzerland-born Humm.

“You know when something’s right in front of you, you don’t always see it immediately,” said Dexter-Jones, who grew up in Manhattan with her parents, jewelry designer Ann Dexter-Jones and Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones.

With self-proclaimed perfectionist Humm and his trusted Eleven Madison Park staff as built-in event managers, the couple decided to forgo the usual wedding-planner-and-vendor route. “We wanted to just really work with friends,” said Dexter-Jones.

So the couple’s nearest and dearest—spanning a vibrant mix of cultural spheres tied to their personal and professional lives—are joyfully pitching in. Rita Ackermann, whose abstract paintings decorate Eleven Madison Park, designed the invitations. Clemente will officiate the ceremony held under the restaurant’s magnificent Art Deco arch.

“Fran Lebowitz will be the witness,” said Humm, adding that pastry chef Eunji Lee’s Lysée will craft a spectacular vanilla-strawberry wedding cake.

Dexter-Jones, who played media progeny on Succession, conveniently hails from a family of music luminaries, in addition to her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame legend dad. Sister and DJ Samantha Ronson’s exclusive once-a-month Close Friends party at the (Sub)Mercer will serve as de facto bachelor/bachelorette parties—both of which Humm and Dexter-Jones have otherwise eschewed. Older brother Mark Ronson, who’s married to Broadway actress (and Meryl Streep’s daughter) Grace Gummer, will DJ the after-party with Questlove. During the reception, the “Uptown Funk” artist will also perform Foreigner’s 1984 power ballad, “I Want to Know What Love Is,” with singer and Fun. cofounder Nate Ruess—who’s married to Dexter-Jones’s fashion-designer sister, Charlotte Ronson.

Humm had originally suggested they walk down the aisle to Foreigner’s Grammy-nominated love song, which Mick—who announced his battle with Parkinson’s disease last year—penned as a marriage proposal to Ann.

“I thought that was just too much for me. It was too loaded or something,” says Dexter-Jones. “But I really wanted to incorporate that, so we found a different way.”

The couple also enlisted sustainable luxury designer Gabriela Hearst, who created first lady Jill Biden’s 2021 inaugural evening ensemble, for an ambitious series of custom looks.

“Daniel’s my best friend,” said Hearst, in her Chelsea atelier ahead of a fitting with Dexter-Jones. “Yes, he gave us five weeks.”

Knowing Humm’s personal style inside and out, Hearst designed him a black wool suit and matte-silk white shirt. For his teen daughters, Vivienne and Colette, she reimagined periwinkle and blush strapless midi-dresses in a sleek silk-wool, based off a look from an earlier collection. Dexter-Jones’s mother, Ann, will don a rocker-chic, silver-blue pantsuit in the same fabrication, to complete a cohesive but very personalized family ensemble.

As for the bride—“it’s quite serendipitous,” says Hearst. By happy accident, Dexter-Jones’s vision for an exquisite mantilla aligned with a hand-embroidered veil adorned with fine Japanese water pearls that Hearst had dreamed up and then tucked away two years earlier. “This takes hours of embroidery, and with pearls,” said the designer. “This would have taken months to do—like it would have been impossible.”

Mid-fitting, Dexter-Jones, known for her effortless yet discerning style, collaborated with Hearst and the design team to determine the precise positioning of the scalloped border framing her face—and resplendent silk georgette wedding gown.

The dress, said Dexter-Jones, is “so light. I almost feel like I’m not wearing anything.” She wholly trusted Hearst to conjure the diaphanous bias-cut dress, with romantic draping across the pearl-embellished bodice, and discreet yet playful side cutouts. “It’s only family, and friends who are family. It’s the ceremony of our families.”

Dexter-Jones also infused her ceremony confection with an inspired, family flourish. She asked her jewelry designer mom, Ann, for delicate diamond and platinum eternity bands to attach to the veil.

“She’s very sentimental, Annabelle,” said Ann, arriving toward the end of the fitting, who had attempted a last-ditch effort to advocate for her original suggestion of chunky gold signet rings, with light blue and pink gemstones, from her handmade–in–New York City line.

“I was going to do those—one for each finger,” said the warm and gregarious mother of the bride. “I always think bigger is better. But Annabelle is more minimal.”

In her full look, complete with rose-gold-detailed Edwina pumps (with a more manageable, stacked stiletto heel), Dexter-Jones practiced her walk. The glimmering silk veil, married (sorry) to her graceful movements by her mother’s rings, created an otherworldly effect.

“This has that ease, elegance, and ethereal quality that [Dexter-Jones] has, but also the drama and a mystical element,” said Hearst. “I was there when they met, so I remember my first impressions of her. I was in the distance, and I just saw that happening as they were approaching [each other], and I was like, I like this.”

Humm recalls being introduced to Dexter-Jones at their mutual friend Vito Schnabel’s wedding last year. “It was love at first sight,” he said. “I was just so smitten. We had a conversation, and I just thought she was so special.”

Perhaps serendipity championed the couple from the start, because Humm and Dexter-Jones continuously crossed paths at the same Hamptons dinner parties after their meet-cute. Toward the end of one fateful evening, Humm spotted an abandoned sweater as the crowd dwindled.

“Then Annabelle came running back for the sweater, and said, ‘Thank you,’ and she kissed me on the cheek—but it was a special kiss on the cheek—and she said she would call me tomorrow,” he said. “But she didn’t.”

Dexter-Jones laughs and pauses, and explains that the ease of being with Humm drew her to him from the start. “I felt like we were laughing together. It wasn’t even necessarily a verbal thing. It just felt like someone who I knew [already],” she said. So, was the sweater plot twist intentional—even subconsciously?

“Possibly? I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Dexter-Jones, with a sheepish smile.

To propose, Humm recruited now officiant Clemente in a ruse to paint Dexter-Jones’s portrait as a birthday gift. As the artist unveiled her likeness, Humm stunned her with an emerald-cut diamond set in sculptural gold by renowned Parisian fine jeweler JAR by Joel Arthur Rosenthal.

“Something I love about Daniel is that I’m always surprised by him in the best way. That day felt very pure and true to who we are and our relationship,” said Dexter-Jones. “Although the gesture was quite grand, it felt very small and very intimate.”