Model Kenya Kinski-Jones and actor Will Peltz met on the set of the independent film Sugar in Santa Monica in 2011. Will was working on the project, while Kenya was visiting her mother. Shortly after, Will asked Kenya out for a date night at the Santa Monica Pier. They ended up sharing their first kiss on the beach that night—and have been inseparable ever since.
Nearly 14 years later, Kenya was getting ready for what she thought was a night out in Manhattan when Will completely threw her for a loop. After days of planning, he had set up flowers, lights, and photographs of their loved ones in his family’s backyard despite the fact that it was overcast. There, he pulled Kenya aside under an umbrella to propose. After she said yes, they moved inside the house, where close family and friends had gathered to surprise them.
The evening of their proposal was rainy, but Kenya welcomed the inclement weather. Her father, the late composer, conductor, and record producer Quincy Jones, always used to tell her, “When it rains, get wet!”—a sentiment that felt especially meaningful on the night of her engagement.
The wedding celebrations took place in early June in the exact same spot where Will had proposed: at his family home in Mount Kisco, NY. “We’re a come-over-for-dinner couple,” he explains. “And, I grew up in a full, loud house where everybody is welcome. That’s home to me. As my late mentor, hockey coach, and the funniest guy I know, Jason Pagni, used to say, ‘Everybody rides.’”
“Planning alongside family was something I’ve always looked forward to,” Kenya says. “Will’s incredible mother, Claudia, was the heart of the process. As with everything she does, I found myself learning so much from her.” The couple worked with Michelle Rago, alongside Katherine Gray and Lara Filella on the Michelle Rago Events team, to plan every aspect of the wedding weekend.
On the morning of the welcome party, Kenya and Will privately exchanged their vows outside. “Beginning the wedding weekend with the most meaningful part filled all of the unspoken moments between us throughout,” Kenya says. “My father-in-law Nelson and my uncle Richard walked me down the aisle, and my mother-in-law Claudia sweetly walked with Will down the aisle. Our siblings, their spouses, and our nieces and nephews made up the wedding party, and our black Labrador, Bandit, was present and could be heard a couple of times throughout the ceremony, which made us smile.”
The larger ceremony followed the next day. “It really was the perfect moment,” Will recalls. “Not only was I at the home where I grew up and that I’d made so many memories in, but I was with my people, my everything. My father was my best man, and my mother was Kenya’s matron of honor.”
The groom’s mother walked him down the aisle holding his hand. “We are so close,” Will says. “The ceremony was an out-of-body experience. I felt like I was waiting for eternity for her. I wanted to see my bride. When she came out, everything faded away and all I could see was her. The togetherness I felt is something I wish for everyone [to experience].”
