When Rebecca Rose Millstein first walked into the basement mailroom at ICM Partners in July 2016, Peter Campbell Martin was smitten. She was wearing a blue and gray dress with a gold necklace, he would later recall, and introduced herself with what he described as “intimidating expressiveness.”
He was drawn to her directness and knew immediately that he wanted to marry her.
He was 24 and working as a clerk at the talent and literary agency’s Los Angeles office. Ms. Millstein, then 22, was a new hire he needed to train. “Everyone starts in the mailroom and then gets placed on a desk as positions open up,” she said. During that time, a friendship and Mr. Martin’s infatuation grew.
After two months, Ms. Millstein became an assistant in the music brand partnerships department, and their daily interactions became the highlights of Mr. Martin’s workday. Twice daily, he would deliver mail to the above floors, anticipating the moment he passed her desk. She also came to look forward to the squeaky sound of his cart.
After a year of brief but meaningful exchanges, Ms. Millstein left ICM, which has since been acquired by CAA, for another job. Mr. Martin was devastated, describing himself as “roaming aimlessly, like a dog, confused and bewildered, delivering mail to the wrong mailboxes” in his vows almost eight years later.
Ms. Millstein, now 31, is a founder and the chief executive of Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co., the fast-growing tinned fish company, which is sold in major retailers like Whole Foods, Target and Costco. Earlier this year, she published her first cookbook, “The Fishwife Cookbook.” She grew up in Stratham, N.H., and received a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown.
Mr. Martin, 33, is an indie rock musician and comedian from Chicago who performs as Petey USA. He grew up in Chicago and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business from Loyola University New Orleans.
Ms. Millstein and Mr. Martin stayed loosely in touch, but both were in relationships. Toward the end of 2019, Mr. Martin signed his first record deal with Terrible Records and started playing shows around Los Angeles. They also both happened to be single. Eventually, Mr. Martin asked Ms. Millstein, who was making folk music as a hobby, to open for one of his performances. They played a packed show at the now-closed Hyperion Avenue Tavern in Los Angeles on March 7, 2020.
When Covid lockdown began shortly thereafter, Ms. Millstein moved from Echo Park to her parents’ house in La Quinta, Calif. The two talked on the phone regularly. When she returned to Los Angeles, he was the first person she saw. “We started hanging out more and became close friends,” Ms. Millstein said. “And eventually, it became romantic.”
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In a moment that would define their relationship, Mr. Martin confessed his feelings in what he called “the most confusing way possible,” trying to make it clear that he was happy just to have her in his life, and assuring her that things would not be weird if she didn’t feel the same way. But “trying to do those mental gymnastics made things very confusing,” he said.
In response, Ms. Millstein politely rejected him — but they still continued to hang out four or five times a week.
After five months of friendship, Ms. Millstein told Mr. Martin she had feelings for him, and in a plot twist that surprised even him, he rejected her. “I kept her at arm’s length,” Mr. Martin said. “We knew that when we got together, it would feel pretty final.”
The couple officially began dating in June 2021. “We knew in that same week that we were going to get married,” Mr. Martin said. She even began playfully proposing to him at various events, including backstage at a Phoebe Bridgers concert. The couple moved in together in May 2022.
Their romance coincided with explosive career growth for both. In April 2020, Ms. Millstein came up with the idea for Fishwife on a hike with her brother and his girlfriend. “We were bouncing business ideas with no agenda,” she said. “We came to tinned fish and had this huge lightbulb moment that there had never really been any innovation or premiumization in the tinned fish category.” The company was named after a 16th-century term for the wives or daughters of fishermen, but evolved into an insult for opinionated women.
Around the same time, Mr. Martin started to blow up on TikTok, quickly landing a profile in The New Yorker. “Every notable milestone that happened in our careers happened while we were together,” she said. “We both went through insane transformations, doing something totally different from what we had both been doing before.”
Tinned fish — sardines, in particular — is a food close to Mr. Martin’s heart. Growing up, “I was conditioned to believe they were a delicacy,” he said. When I lived with roommates, I would buy sardines and I would have to eat them outside my apartment,” he said. Now he gets to eat them almost every day — and inside.
In September 2023, Mr. Martin formally proposed during one of the couple’s regular hiking trips at Dawn Mine in Altadena, Calif.
On June 7, the couple held a wedding celebration for 95 guests at Green Valley Farm + Mill in Sonoma County, Calif., before getting legally married two months later — both wearing T-shirts, jeans and hats — on Aug. 13 at the Los Angeles County Registrar by Deputy Commissioner Ian Paat.
The June 7 celebration, which they regard as the “actual wedding,” Mr. Martin said, was led by their close friend Danny Miller, who is also the illustrator behind Fishwife’s whimsical brand artwork. Mr. Miller said he prepared for his role by recording a long Zoom call where the couple told their love story while Mr. Martin cooked dinner. “I listened back and made a note of each time they made me laugh,” he said, adding, “Those were the bits I kept.”
The venue held special meaning for Ms. Millstein and Mr. Martin. They first visited with Mr. Martin’s mother and sisters in 2021 and have returned every summer, calling it their “adult summer camp.”
The ceremony was informal. “We borrowed the microphone from the wedding bluegrass band right before we started,” Mr. Miller said. “I didn’t know who had the rings. There was no podium or arch or decorations.”
The week of the celebration, Mr. Martin told Ms. Millstein that his vows were more than three pages, single-spaced. At the ceremony, she announced that the length of their vows wasn’t a reflection of how much they loved each other: hers lasted about five minutes, and his clocked in at around 18 minutes.
In her vows, Ms. Millstein, who wore a dress from Anthropologie, reflected on the couple’s journey from colleagues to soul mates. “Life with you has always felt like one big, long, joyful holiday,” she said. “I vow to always recognize you for the holiday you are.”
Mr. Martin’s vows traced their entire relationship. “There was my life before we got together and my life after,” he said. “My life after you is so insanely better and more full, it’s hard to imagine my life before.”
The cocktail hour featured a Spanish-style grazing table curated by Ms. Millstein’s friend Sara Tane, a chef and caterer, with a leg of jamón ibérico, artisanal cheeses, honeycomb, butter and radish terrine, as well as spreads like jam and mustard served in seashells, along with Fishwife products, of course.
A bluegrass band provided music, and dinner featured paella served from a massive skillet. The evening continued with speeches from friends and family, and guests danced in the barn.
“Every concert that I play feels like a birthday party that I don’t want to have,” Mr. Martin said, adding that he doesn’t enjoy parties and he doesn’t like being around a lot of people, but the wedding day was an exception. “It was the best day of my life,” he said. “I realized I loved being celebrated in that way.”
On This Day
When June 7, 2025
Where Green Valley Farm + Mill, Sonoma County, Calif.
Party Animals Guests mingled and visited the farm’s friendly cows before heading to a barn on the property to continue the celebration with dancing. The night wrapped up at Stumptown Brewery, the couple’s favorite bar on the Russian River.
Sweet Details Instead of serving a traditional wedding cake, the couple opted for two pies from Noble Folk Ice Cream & Pie Bar: one strawberry and blueberry crumble and one apple crumble, with Alec’s Tahitian Vanilla Bean ice cream, which was gifted to the couple by the brand.
Musical Moments The couple’s friend and Mr. Martin’s manager, Ethan Silverman, put together an ’80s playlist for the wedding reception. Mr. Martin said that not a single song made after 1990 was played, and everyone was “vibing.”
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