Katie Lee, a cookbook author, cohost of Food Network’s The Kitchen, and star of the Cooking Channel’s Beach Bites With Katie Lee, first crossed paths with television producer Ryan Biegel on a job. “Ryan had signed on to be a producer for my first season of Beach Bites,” Katie remembers. He was working on another Food Network show at the time called All-Star Academy, and she was a guest judge. “He introduced himself and told me we would be working together soon on Beach Bites, and all I remember thinking was, Wow, that guy is handsome.”
It was a few months before she saw him again, but ultimately they were traveling from one far-flung location to the next together for the show—Puerto Rico, St. Barths, and the Florida Keys were just some of the picturesque backdrops for their courtship.
One unforgettable evening in Punta Mita, Mexico, the whole crew went for sunset cocktails on the beach. “One by one, they peeled off, until just the two of us were left,” Katie laughs. “We talked for hours about our travels and how much we both loved food.”
Two years later, Ryan proposed in Paris at La Réserve hotel. “It was time to leave for dinner, and he said, ‘Do you have everything?’ ” Katie remembers. “I said yes, and he said, ‘No, I think you are missing one thing.’ He then pulled a vintage 1940s ring from Fred Leighton out of his pocket and got down on one knee. We toasted that night with roast chicken and duck fat potatoes.” They kept the celebration going well into the next day by boarding the Orient Express from Paris to Venice.
As soon as they started wedding planning, the seasoned travelers new exactly where they wanted to say “I do.” “There’s a tiny town on the Amalfi Coast—out of the tourist hustle—called Nerano, where we fell in love,” Katie explains. All of the events took place there. “We wanted our wedding to be very relaxed, so the evening before, we took all of our guests on a sailboat at sunset and then had a pizza party on the beach at Mary’s.” Katie looked the part in a festive, on-theme Dolce & Gabbana dress that she bought on the couple’s engagement trip in Venice, and Hanut Singh gold and rock-crystal chandelier earrings.
For her wedding day, Katie looked to designer Danielle Frankel, a rising star within the bridal industry who got her start at Vera Wang and Marchesa. “She designed my dress for the Met Gala this year, and when I started to plan my wedding, I knew I wanted her to make my dress,” Katie explains. “Her designs are so fresh and modern. I wanted to look like a bride, but not bridal, if that makes sense.”
The bride worked with La Marque—Meredith Melling, Valerie Macaulay, and Jordan Foster’s styling agency—to put together all of her looks. She wore jewelry from Fred Leighton—19th-century gold-and-diamond pendant earrings and a pink topaz–and-turquoise brooch from the early 19th century—and her shoes were by Aquazzura. Dear friends Bryce Scarlett and Quinn Murphy did the bride’s hair and makeup. “I want to look like myself, and they are the best at creating a natural look,” she says.
The ceremony was on a dock just before sunset. Ryan and his brother, Kevin Biegel, a TV comedy writer who’s worked on shows like Scrubs and Cougar Town, arrived by wooden boat. After making this dramatic entry, Kevin performed the short service, and the couple recited vows they’d written themselves amid a sea of white blooms and garlanding. They purposely kept the guest list small as they wanted it to feel intimate and opted not to have attendants . . . but the bride’s best friend, Gretta Monahan, did a reading from When Harry Met Sally.
“Of course, for us, it’s all about the food!” Katie laughs. The celebration afterward was at her favorite restaurant, Lo Scoglio. “I have been going there for years, and the last two summers, we’ve been going together.” The entire event was orchestrated by the bride’s close friend and wedding planner extraordinaire Marcy Blum. “I have known Marcy forever, and she is one of my closest friends,” Katie notes. “I think she is simply the best in the business. We have collaborated on so many parties over the years. She knows what I want before I even say it out loud.”
Since Katie and Ryan both work in TV and are used to things being highly curated and occasionally overly “produced,” they wanted their festivities to feel natural above all else. “Because we love this region so much, we just wanted to let it be and shine as it always does without over-gilding the lily,” Katie explains. Local florist Armando from Malafronte worked with Marcy to build a lemon pergola, which guests sat underneath as they dined on octopus carpaccio; fritto misto; schiatelli with eggplant; tomatoes and mozzarella; and grilled prawns. Pale blue linens and darker blue napkins with yellow trim were designed to pick up the blues of the water and created a stunning background for handmade plates by Lo Scoglio. “Various sized vases of white hydrangeas and roses, grape hyacinth, yellow roses, and my favorite touch—a bright yellow water glass—somehow made the tablescape happy and celebratory and not so serious,” Marcy adds. The wedding cake was a local specialty: “delizie limone.”
After dinner, the newlyweds ventured out onto the dance floor and took their first spin to Aretha Franklin’s “You Send Me.” “When Aretha passed away a few weeks earlier, we knew it was the right song,” says Katie. “And our way to pay respect to the queen.”
The next day, everyone recovered at a beach party dubbed “Rosé on the Rocks” at Conca del Sogno. “There was a DJ, a buffet lunch, and plenty of rosé,” Katie laughs. As she posed for photos with Ryan in a white high-waisted Zimmermann bikini, one couldn’t help but think they looked like characters from a classic Italian filmmaker’s dream.
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