“I knew from the very beginning, since the moment we first met.” Photographed by Saturn Veil. Courtesy of Melissa Levy
Vogue Philippines contributing editor for the US Melissa Levy Young gave us an insight into the behind-the-scenes of her New York and Sydney wedding to Jordan Levy Young.
“We met on Hinge,” Melissa Levy says with a smile about the origins of her modern-day love story with Jordan Young. “First impression, wow. Very…how do I form these words? Very happy, bright, and optimistic.” Jordan had just moved from Minneapolis to New York, and Melissa remembers sensing his “Midwest vibes very quickly.” What struck her, she says, was “his kindness and enthusiasm for life…which I find kind of rare.”
For Jordan, meeting Melissa was “a lightning in a bottle sort of moment. I just remember Mel and I; the conversation was very in-depth and not surface-level. We talked about some very serious things about ourselves and our goals, and what moves us.” By the end of the date, he was already itching to see her again. “It just built.”
“I knew from the very beginning,” Melissa says of the moment she knew she wanted to marry him. “It was special and different… I don’t want to get too woo-woo, but I feel like my body knew before I did. Like, I just had this feeling of feeling home, and at home, and very comfortable.” After two and a half years together, there was no formal proposal. “We kind of decided together to get married, and it happened very quickly,” she explains. “Jordan didn’t know this at the time, but earlier that year, we had been back to Australia, and he asked my mum for permission to marry me.”

With just “three weeks to turn this round. Two and a half,” Melissa’s styling instincts kicked in. “I always thought my wedding was going to be pretty small and low-key,” she says. “I was originally looking for vintage Valentino, maybe just because I worked with the house for a long time and did a lot of their couture shows. Their lace is incredible. But I couldn’t find anything in the time.”
Melissa turned to a trusted collaborator and friend: Korean-born designer Ashlyn Park of her namesake label, with whom she had previously worked on fashion shows and styling shoots for a look to wear at her reception at The Lobby Bar in The Chelsea Hotel. She chose a one-off runway look, and accessorized her dress with sculptural jewelry from Completedworks by British-Filipino designer Anna Dewsbury. “The moment I saw that dress, I just knew it had to be the one. It was absolutely stunning,” Melissa says. “It was the finale look from the show, worn by Guinevere Van Seenus. And I thought, why not? I’m in New York.”
Jordan wore Ashlyn, too. “She had just done a men’s collection. You can see his pants are cropped short,” Melissa says with a laugh. “My family was like, ‘They’re too short!’ But they’re kind of modeled on a Comme des Garçons silhouette.”
Her beauty look, too, came together quickly but with purpose. “I asked my friends Rei Tajima and Sabrina Szinay,” she says. “A lot of the decisions were very immediate… My hair was inspired by a Prada show, a kind of French bun, quite sculpted. And the eye makeup was from a different Prada show, too. Like a cat eye, but at a different angle.”


She had her nails done at On Session Nails, Tsuki’s salon. “That was my glam team. Everyone involved were very good friends.”
They were married at New York City Hall on December 23rd. “Very classic,” Melissa recalls. “Just a couple of days before Christmas, and not quite enough time for my family to make it over from Australia, even though they tried. Jordan’s family was there, and I had a bunch of friends from New York with me.” Melissa wore a sleek, minimalist look from The Row, paired with a leopard-print coat by Emilia Wickstead and Khaite shoes. Jordan chose a Jil Sander pea coat with Raf Simons shoes. Their wedding bands were custom-made by Patricia Von Muslin.
“Made by my friend Fernando Kabigting, who’s also Filipino. I had two bouquets; two florist friends turned up with bouquets. The other one [made by Krista Chiu] I wore in the evening.”
Their dogs, Roman and Pablo (both rescues from Puerto Rico) were allowed into City Hall. “That was such a gift,” Jordan says. “They were there with us.” A Google Meet livestream brought in friends and family from Australia, the Philippines, and across the U.S. “It built upon the moment,” he says. “It’s a feeling I’ll always carry with me.”
After the ceremony, the newlyweds and 30 or so guests headed to The Chelsea Hotel. “Jordan was reading a Tennessee Williams play,” Melissa laughs. “He stayed there, I believe. It just seemed like everything aligned.” Their appointment at City Hall had been for 2:30. “We were staying at a hotel on 23rd Street,” she adds. “We didn’t do that on purpose, it was just… right.”

There was no sit-down dinner. “Sliders and fries. Crudités. A bunch of cocktails. Espresso martinis,” she says.
Later, they hosted a celebration in Australia. “We had lunch at 10 William Street,” Melissa says. “We had the whole room upstairs… maybe 25 guests. It turned to 23.” It was warmer, calmer. “I wore a black tailored jumpsuit, did my hair and makeup. It was so much more at ease.”
Jordan wore a barong in Sydney, as did Melissa’s brother. “And my mum gave me a little pin with something borrowed, something blue, something new,” Melissa shares. “I put that on my bouquet. I’m not a traditional person, as you can tell by the whole process.”
Of course, there are things they might have done differently. “I would have family there,” Melissa says simply. “And a bunch of other friends that couldn’t make it because it was such short notice.” Jordan agrees. “You go through, and you say, ‘Actually, wow, it would be even more special if we had more family and friends there.’”
And so, they’re thinking of doing it again, maybe a third time. “Something to celebrate everyone that has kind of allowed Mel and I to be who we are.”
For now, they’re in New York. Jordan works in tech sales, and recently finished his first year of training at the William Esper Studio in the Garment District. “I would love to get back into it,” he says of acting. “To see where I could take it in the city and throughout the world.”
Melissa sums up their approach to life, and their wedding, in a line that could just as easily be a motto: “It’s like surfing. You just gotta go for it.”