How This Editor Brought Weddings to Vogue Before Co-Launching a New Bridal Site

Confession: I’m not planning a wedding and yet I can’t stop visiting the bridal resource, Over The Moon. But honestly can you blame me? Whether you’re in the midst of preparing for your nuptials or not, admiring beautiful wedding gowns, getting a glimpse into over-the-top parties, and reading up on romantic proposals feels like an hour (or five) very well spent. So with springtime, AKA wedding season, just around the corner, we decided to sit down with Alexandra Macon, one of the co-founders of Over The Moon to chat about everything from how she got started to the most interesting bridal trends. Prepare to swoon.


Photography: A Bryan


Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

When I first moved to New York I worked for Ralph Lauren on the advertising side. That was a great experience but I always knew that I wanted to work in magazines, so I ended up working at Vogue as the assistant to the Managing Editor. It was in this role that I learned everything that I know today about editing and writing and how to manage people all thanks to my then boss Laurie Jones. After Vogue I went on to Domino and Interview Magazine, which were also valuable experiences. Interview was difficult because there was a small staff and not a lot of money but it helped me gain exposure to the photo side of things, which was important when I eventually went back to Vogue to help launch the website in 2010. I was the third hire for Vogue.com, and I believe today the team now has over eighty people, so it was really amazing to learn how to launch a website at the very earliest of stages.


Photography:  Over the Moon


How did those experiences lead to creating Over the Moon?

While I was at Vogue we did a ton of coverage on Kate Middleton’s wedding and I quickly saw how popular that content was. I loved writing about royals and weddings and I’ve always been fascinated in learning everything from how a couple meets, to how they fall in love, to how they go about planning this momentous event in their lives. Uncovering how decisions were made on venue, aesthetics, menu, etc. all really appealed to me, so after Kate’s wedding I proposed we feature a wedding a month on the site. At first, it was mostly articles on models, actors, and people who were very firmly entrenched within the fashion industry. And then I started to think about how there are so many amazing weddings that I would go to that didn’t really have a home anywhere on the internet and how I would love to create a space to cover those weddings. So Andee Olson and I got together as she worked at Vogue.com at the time too, and we designed Over the Moon together and it’s been such a wonderful experience ever since.


Photography: Gianni Di Natale


At this point I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of weddings. Are there any that really stand out to you as particularly memorable?

I mean really they all do! But some of our recent favorites include:

(1) Laura Simola and Holden Babcock’s Wedding

I love everything about this wedding in Philadelphia: the bride’s beautiful braided up-do, the hand embroidered bridesmaids’ baskets filled with beauty essentials, and the ring pillow the mother of the bride created with an emblem (illustrated by the bride) sewn onto it.


Photography: Pat Furey


(2) Carleton Rafield and Gael Gremaud’s Wedding

The hashtag was #ouiouiyall at this wedding in Alabama, and French elements to honor the groom’s background and southern traditions for the bride were incorporated throughout the wedding weekend. About a month before the wedding, the couple buried a bottle of bourbon upside down in Carleton’s family’s garden, where the ceremony would ultimately take place, in an effort to ward off rain, and on the day of the wedding, they dug it up and drank it. The images from these moments are fantastic, and the superstitious trick worked! “Not only did it work, it truly ended up being the most beautiful spring day we could have asked for,” says the bride.


Photography: A Bryan


(3) Marlie and Kevin’s Wedding

This wedding in the Loire Valley was lovely: the location (even down to the pastel and gold accents on the chateau walls), the bride’s beaded Jenny Packham dress, the bridesmaids’ bouquets, the vows the couple wrote themselves—every moment captured feels personal and special.


Photography: Helen Abraham


(4) Natalia Swarz and Armando Mesías’s Wedding

Natalia Swarz honored her deceased mother in a wonderful way at her wedding in Lisbon, Portugal by placing a framed photo of them together on the first chair on her side of the aisle. “We could feel her presence the whole day, and it was special to have her picture there during the ceremony,” Natalia remembers.


Photography: Hugo Coelho


(5) Ariel Feldman and Benjamin Okin’s Wedding

Ariel’s bridesmaids gave her a beautiful monogrammed handkerchief with her new initials and wedding date at her bridal shower as her “something blue.” Resting on it in the photo in our slideshow are her rings and a gold and diamond pin from her maternal great-grandmother.


Photography: Erin McGinn


(6) Chloe Altchek and Daniel Wurwag’s Wedding

The bride illustrated all of the paper materials herself, and the Herend leopard salt and pepper shakers at this wedding in the Hamptons were just the cutest.


Photography: Walker Studios


(7) Ron Shkedi and Sagi Golan’s Wedding

I love the way Ron and Sagi described writing their own vows for their wedding in Tel Aviv: “When you get married after so many years together, the wedding feels a bit different. You choose each other, knowing all the flaws and not only the good stuff, which makes it an even more powerful experience."


Photography: Assaf Revivo


(8) Marina Polo and Pawel Szajda’s Wedding

The bride is a fashion designer and designed her own dress and the flower girl dresses. They were personal and perfect!


Photography: Carla Penoncelli


(9) Katheryn Allen and Krishan Jethwa’s Wedding

Each welcome bag contained custom-made playing cards designed by LouLou Baker. We carry several different versions of these in the shop on Over The Moon—they’re so pretty and personal… I can’t get enough of them! 


Photography: Aly Carroll


(10) Carol Han and Nicholas Pyle’s Wedding

The bride and the mother of the bride got ready for the wedding together, and I think the imagery from those moments are some of the prettiest pictures I’ve ever seen.


Photography: Ali Smith & Joshua Bright


What would you say is trending in the bridal world right now?

I think back in the day people just went through the motions of what a wedding was supposed to be and now people realize that their wedding can really be whatever they want it to be and I think that’s so great. I would say it’s really key to think about what’s important to you as well as keeping your guests’ experience in mind. I’m really into illustration when it comes to invitations and menus. I think another thing that people are doing now, which is interesting, is instead of your standard welcome bag with Tums and Pepto that you don’t necessarily need, it’s cute to do a handwritten note and a bottle of wine. Hayley Bloomingdale did that recently. The groom was English and she’s from California so they had a California Wine and an English cheese and then a really nice handwritten note. It was great.


Photography: Lauren Scotti


This has been happening for a while but another trend we’ve noticed is brides mixing and matching when it comes to bridesmaid dresses. Also, lots of brides are hiring stylists, which is pretty new but make sense because sometimes it takes a professional to make everything look cohesive! When it comes bridal dress trends we’re seeing lots of different things from romance and lace to sleek, longer sleeves which look very Audrey Hepburn-esque. I also think all of this just has to do with brides being exposed to so much more information these days. I mean, when I was getting married Pinterest didn’t even exist and everyone was wearing strapless mermaid dresses and there just wasn’t this level of exposure to bridal dress options available. I think now with sites like Over the Moon and other resources brides can get inspirational images whether that’s from Pinterest or their Instagram Discover Page and they are realizing they don’t have to do what their friends are doing it’ a moment for their personality to really shine through.


Photography: Hugo Coleho


How do you see Over the Moon as a community you’re building? 

I just love that Instagram is such a great tool for interacting. I love seeing our comments and DMs when people respond to a post they love. Just getting feedback is so fun and a great way to engage with everyone.


See more from Over the Moon →