Actress Emma Roberts (35) married her colleague Cody John on Saturday on a private estate in Idaho. For the outdoor ceremony and the celebration afterwards, Monique Lhuillier created two looks for the actress. The second one broke with a bridal tradition, as Roberts changed into black for the afterparty.
Why she chose to do so, she told Vogue. The magazine accompanied the bride to the designer's bridal salon in Los Angeles for the final fitting one week before the celebration. "I love the idea of wearing black for the afterparty," Roberts said there. "We like to do something that's a little unexpected."
Second look in lace
The two-piece ensemble references a design from Lhuillier's Fall 2004 collection: a corset top in black Chantilly lace, paired with a calf-length, hand-cut skirt made of multi-layered silk organza. In a statement from the fashion house it said: "The effortless movement of the organza layers creates an atmosphere full of playfulness and fantasy - designed to swing beautifully as the bride celebrates late into the night."
"This could be completely vintage, a hundred years old, or from today," Roberts said about the look according to Vogue. Her friends broke into cheers during the fitting, one immediately asked to borrow the piece after the wedding.
"I wanted to look like a ghost"
Even the actual wedding dress was not a classic white gown. Roberts had her own color shade mixed, for which around 23 meters of fabric were given a beige shimmer. Lhuillier named the shade after the bride's middle name, Rose. The fashion magazine lists it as "Antique Rose."
The inspiration came from one of the actress's collecting passions. "I love antiquarian books and treasure hunting and collect old printed materials and memorabilia," she told Vogue. "So I wanted that to really be reflected in the dress." Her instructions to the designer were correspondingly unusual: "I wanted to kind of look like a ghost, like a little antique ghost doll."
Nine months of work on one dress
Lhuillier worked with silk chiffon, which was draped over a corset whose boning faintly shows through the fabric. A detachable scarf with French lace created the asymmetrical neckline, underneath which a strapless bustier top was revealed. In addition, there was a veil made of dyed silk tulle and a lace voilette that can be pushed back like a headband.
The dress required nine months and nearly a thousand hours of work, the designer told the magazine. Five different looks are contained in the one design, according to her. Roberts' reaction when trying it on completely for the first time: "I feel like a little elf."
Tears at the final fitting
At the fitting in July, Roberts' close confidants like her mother Kelly Cunningham or sister Grace Nickels sat in the salon. When Roberts stepped out of the fitting room in the finished dress, almost everyone wiped away tears. "Are people actually crying? People!" the bride reacted in surprise. Her mother only said: "Stunning. Absolutely stunning."
Roberts was nervous nonetheless. "I've been married in a film before and tried on wedding dresses for it, which feels totally weird," she said. "Now it's the real deal." She assessed soberly what her fiancé would say about the effort: "He wouldn't mind if I wore jeans."
Julia Roberts among the guests
The groom also remained fashionably outside the norm and wore a chocolate brown suit. Among the guests was Roberts' aunt Julia Roberts with her husband Danny Moder, as according to Page Six photos of the ceremony show.
Emma Roberts and Cody John had made their relationship public in August 2022 and announced their engagement in July 2024. The actress has a son from her previous relationship with Garrett Hedlund, five-year-old Rhodes.
