The lavish weddings people love to hate

0:05This episode of Stylish is brought to you by Prime Video's addictive new series Elle, based on Elle Wood's bougie teenage life in 90s Bel-Air before she became that Harvard Law student. Watch it now exclusively on Prime Video.

0:24This is Stylish, the podcast for all things fashion, lifestyle, brand and beauty. Oh my goodness. You made that. Guys, am I the new head of podcast, senior producer and talent, Annika Joshi-Smith? One day I'll be plummeting. Is that the first time you've done an intro? Ever. Oh my God. You nailed that. Thank you. Thank you. Well, you're joined by... Oh, you're sorry. That's actually just the Anika show name. I'm kidding. I am joined by Niamh Fatima and Rhiannon Joyce. How are we, my beautiful ladies? We are good. We are good. I'm a bit croaky, I've just realised, so I apologise in advance. I feel like I sound like that every morning.

1:03I'm very nasally. I've got all the things going on, but I'm really pushing through. I'm happy to be here. I love that. So I'm about to go. Proud of you. Proud of you. How are you, Naima? I'm good. I want to talk about something that's on my TikTok. Oh, I thought you were about to get really deep, Justin. Yeah, it is deep, actually. Hit me. Are we all obsessed with Sofa Dofa and Bailey in Europe right now? Yes. Aren't they cute? Like, they're so cute. They're so cute. I love them. I saw this comment and I was like, perfect description. Someone was like, they're like Sharpay and Ryan from High School Musical.

1:41I think that what I love about this is Bailey. He's just like shot to fame. Don't we think? And she's obviously like main character. Respect Bailey if you're listening. But like just seeing him come out of his shell and he's so prominent in all of her videos and the content. But I love him. Like I want to like tune into, sorry now Soph, I want to tune into Bailey like full time. I love following him now because what's his actual title? Social media assistant. So he actually pitched for his job via TikTok. And I feel like from the get go, he came in and you could see the impact he made on their content.

2:16Yeah, I feel like she asked for a social media assistant and got like a long lost brother in the process. Like they're so cute together. I think what's so beautiful as well, I saw this TikTok where he was actually telling his bestie about when he got the job. And his bestie was like, shut up. Like they were screaming. They were having this moment. This role is so perfectly fitted for him. And you can genuinely tell that that was one of the biggest milestones in his career. So I can just envision that this trip for him, all of the things he gets to do with Soph are just probably so meaningful and just something that he's just really dreamt about, which is so cool to see.

2:50I also just feel like he loves his job. He has so much joy in the content that they create. There's not a lot of ego behind it. And I really like that. It's like not very, I don't know, KPI based. It's not like this is the top from or from Mimi. Please buy it. It's just fun and personality based. It's nice. It's nice to go onto my feed and it's seeing them together. It's a nice little break. They've recently grown like quite a bit. Yeah. Because they hit 100 followers not that long ago. And then all of a sudden they've jumped up over to 200 ,000. That dynamic duo is really working for them, which is interesting because so often you see that play out online where like a duo have a very prevalent brand and it can kind of backfile.

3:28Yeah. But it seems like to me that those two are just, you know, their friendship and their work dynamic is really strong. People obviously love it. I also love that they're doing like bulk brand deals, like collectively, but then also individually on this trip. It's so smart. They've obviously been pitched together. They've got... Well, they have the same manager. Yeah, smart. Oh, I think that makes sense. And I think going back to what both of you are saying, this is why I think their friendship is so infectious. Like this is why we're on the journey while we're following along because often there's so many parasocial relationships created in social media.

3:59But I think something I also, when I was researching this app, So many people are talking about how Gen Z is one of the loneliest generations. And seeing these two, seeing their friendship, seeing their relationship just blossom authentically, we get taken along this ride, which is really beautiful and you can kind of feel included. But it also kind of scares me because what happens if the relationship breaks down? Yeah, there's a lot of pressure if it goes south. But I just I don't get any indication that that's the dynamic. And I feel like what they've probably done, and I have no idea why this is pure speculation, but it seems like to me they even kind of poke fun at the fact that Sophia is his boss as well.

4:35Like they bring that into the content. So I feel if there was tension, you're not bringing that to the front of the conversation. Like you're very much like that's buried underneath and that's usually where Aminosity like builds. But I feel they've done the smart thing, which is like say the uncomfy thing out loud, acknowledge it up top. And then I always notice as well when he flies economy and she flies business and people always comment like, oh my God, I can't believe she doesn't fly him business. I'm like, do you know how expensive business class flights are? He's going to Europe. He's going to Europe, babe.

5:04I'd be flying economy as well if I had the opportunity to go. I'm sweating over here and fly business in my team. Yeah, but that's like, that's a business. You own this business that is like a very common choice. Say it louder. It's a lot of common. It's very common for a lot of businesses to do that. I know friends who work for Big Corps and they still fly economy. So, you know, I think it's just people wanting to find something to poke at. I don't even think they actually believe that they're just, they're trying to get to this like underlying tension. Guys, I don't think it's there. It's not.

5:33And it's not that deep. It's not that deep. But we just spent five minutes talking about it. So it is. Guys, swap. Anika, you can go first. Oh, back to my number one chair. So last year I made a goal to become really more conscious of what I'm consuming and just getting to a place of contentment. And you might remember us when we're talking through our goals and what our future looked like. And this was something for me that I was forced into because motherhood just makes you readjust, reassess all of your priorities. I had to slow down whether I liked it or not. So I have just become really conscious of what I'm consuming.

6:09And something I listened to recently, actually, Tessa James, if you guys don't know her, I'm sure you both do. It's hard to miss. She's one of the most, in my opinion, remarkable Australian woman. Her journey is so inspiring. If you're not familiar with her story, I highly recommend that you get amongst Get Familiar. but she has come out with a podcast called The Art of Living and they just talk about really beautiful topics, interview really beautiful people as well. And someone she interviewed recently was Morgan Hill. And this story, it's just, I think, so beautiful for the fact that it's raw, it's real.

6:44Morgan gets incredibly candid. And her story is so interesting. I think it's talking about things as women that we can all relate to and her journey, her story has changed. and dare I say it's changed for the better. Listening to her and listening to what she spoke about in her story was just so inspiring because I think in our 20s we have this idea of what our life is going to look like, what we're working towards and her 30s have changed a lot for her. I don't want to give too much away. I can see you're really trying to take us on the journey without revealing too much. And you guys know I've got loose lips.

7:18I don't know how to keep things inside. You're doing great, sweetie. You're doing great, sweetie. But anyway, I just think there's nothing more beautiful than being vulnerable. And I think in your 20s, that's really hard. But as you're growing and you get to your 30s, it's something that I actually also spoke about on my Inherited app, that there is so much beauty and vulnerability. We actually had Tessa on Inherited, which is also an incredible episode. Sorry, a bit of cross-network promotion there. But yeah, that one's a really amazing episode too. Love. And to round it out, the artwork looks really good.

7:49So great branding. Great branding. Chef's kiss. Riri, what have you got for us? I've got a podcast episode as well. So I listened to Georgie Coleridge-Cole, the founder of Shearlucks, and the episode is Jamie Lang's podcast. So if you guys haven't listened to that, you must. He's recently launched a – actually, I don't know if it was recent, but I've only just really started listening to the Friday Founders series that he does. So if you don't know who Jamie Lang is, he's a British personality. He's the founder of Candy Kittens, which is a vegan Loli brand. They are so good. So I'm also plugging his brand a little double swap there.

8:22But the episode is titled Georgie Coleridge-Cole. I sold Sheerlucks for 40 million pounds. You can find it in Spotify or Apple. I mean, I love everything that Sheerlucks does. That's no surprise to anyone. It's about a 40 minute episode. So it's on the shorter side. I will admit I was craving like a little bit more. But what I did really appreciate is that Georgie doesn't shy away from how hard it was and the relief that she felt when she sold her business. And I thought that was a really interesting perspective to give. And she has a lot of good little tidbits for, you know, even if you're a small business owner or if you're someone who is working in corporate, I feel like you can take away a lot from this episode.

8:57So I really, really recommend it. I feel like you also forgot to mention that Jamie Lang is from Made in Charleston. Yes, seriously. Like, guys, I don't know. Fun fact about me, but I'm obsessed with reality TV, like obsessed, like reality TV is my kryptonite. Like I go so hard. Anyway, Jamie Lang and Sophie Haboo also obsessed. Yeah. And I just love seeing this character arc for him. Well, I was about to say, that's great for his personal brand that I didn't even reference, Made in Chelsea, because that is his origin story. Oh, my God. It's such a good show, you guys. So good. I watched that.

9:30Poppy watches that. I think she's probably going to put on a little British accent because when she was in the womb, it really calmed me down. No, I'm not. Oh, jinx. Jinx. I want to talk about my favourite influencer, who is Erling Haaland. Are we all following him? Obsessed. Obsessed. As a side hustle, he obviously also plays for the World Cup. We've put our funny pants on today. So funny. I just, I love this man. He brings me so much joy. He is the most online person ever. I'm pretty sure after the World Cup, he officially became the most followed footballer. He's got like something like 60 million followers.

10:09It's insane. Everyone's obsessed with him, just like us. My husband actually got me into him because he actually likes soccer or football. He'll feel good for saying soccer. football but he is so good to follow and the handbag collection you put up a post on stylish the other week and that popped off i've been trying to think of where to bring him into like i'm like i need a post and then i was like the handbags oh yeah his his collection of handbags is better than the kardashian it's like it is crazy he also bought his girlfriend this really rare birkin and they were seeing like she was walking around it i think they were in italy and they just look so chic and so cute together if there's a meme about him he's commenting on it.

10:45Like I'm like, does he have like a team of community managers? Like he's on every post ever. He makes me want to get on Snapchat as well. I'm too old for Snapchat, but his Snapchats are hilarious. I am so happy you just dropped on Snapchat because I literally went on a tangent last night when I was actually on the plane coming back from Byron and his Snapchat is hilarious. So there's this one post where someone commented, are you a boy or a girl? And his response was so iconic. He said, my dad is a boy and my mum is a girl. So I'm mix XOXO. And I was actually deceased. Like I was cackling on the plane and I was like, oh my God, this man is so unbothered and so funny.

11:24So funny. Okay. So what are we actually talking about today? Well, it's really, really hard to talk about anything other than the suite of influencer weddings that we just saw roll out over the weekend. But we will get into that right after a word from today's sponsor. There are some fictional characters who stay with us long after the movie has ended and Elle Woods is absolutely one of them. Even though Legally Blonde was released 25 years ago, her character is still one of the most iconic to grace our screens. Whether you were around for the original movie or not, I'm going to guess you're familiar with Elle, her story and obviously her wardrobe.

12:00So you're going to love this news. Prime Video has just released a prequel TV series that explores Elle Wood's teenage years before she became that Harvard law student. This time we meet her as a 16 year old living her best life in ballet in the 90s with a wardrobe full of glossy pink outfits and her future as a popular cheer captain all planned out. But then in true coming of age drama fashion everything changes when her family moves to Seattle after a reputation crushing social disaster. Cue grunge culture rainy weather and plenty of teen angst. If Prime Video knows one thing, it's how to deliver a series that becomes a full cultural obsession.

12:40Elle definitely belongs on your list. Watch Elle now exclusively on Prime Video. And thank you so much to Prime Video for making this episode of Stylish possible. Couldn't open TikTok without seeing someone get married. Everyone in the world got married on the weekend. That was very romantic, wasn't it? I just love love. You love love. I love love. I'm a big soppy sucker. Like, I love them. And now you've been in the thick of doing research for these weddings. You're like, I love them all. I mean, it made me feel like I'm going to go on another tangent. My wedding wasn't that great. Oh, that's not true.

13:15Oh, my gosh. But I was like watching these weddings and like the lavishness. Yeah. Yours was chic. Yours was timeless. But if you didn't see Tommy Paul and Paige Lorenz got married, I would say that was the one that very much dominated my feed. And then Shea Sullivan and Casey Johnson, two American influencers, have to be really honest guys, did not know who these two people were until we started researching for this episode because my feed was absolutely dominated by Tommy and Paige. And I think that's because I follow quite a few people who actually attended that wedding and also DeMoy were all over it.

13:47So Tommy Paul and Paige Loren's wedding, it featured in Vogue and was held at old Westernbury Gardens at Nassau County in New York. If you guys don't know who Tommy Paul is, he's an American tennis player. He's currently ranked number 24. Paige Lorenz, now Paul. She's an American influencer and entrepreneur who founded her lifestyle brand Dairy Boy in 2021. Quite popular in the Shameless Media office to see if you're the girl who's wearing it. I feel like it's really popped off recently. Let's go through the three looks that she wore. The looks were so iconic. So Carolina Herrera, as we all know, is such a formidable designer.

14:18And I think what really stuck out for me was she has designed for Jackie O, Michelle Obama. So we're talking the most regal first ladies ever, dare I say it. And I think just for Paige, dressing her, so she had her wedding dress and also her reception dress and Carolina Herrera, classic, timeless, elegant, chef's freaking kiss. And then we had her after party dress and Wiedehoft. I love how you just owned that. That was so good to say. I'm actually part German, you guys. So guten Tag, but anyway. Yes. I know. There are many character arcs over here. But then we cannot forget her jewelry, which was$3 million USD.

15:00So what's that? Like 4.2 AUD in jewelry. She was dripping. She was dripping. I was obsessed with her getting ready, like her getting ready photos while she's getting her makeup done. She's got these big diamond earrings on. I was like, this is so glam. I'm obsessed. I know. I would have been a runaway bride. Oh, yeah. I'm a trot with these. He's like, hey, hey. Imagine the insurance forms that she had to sign before putting those on loan. They're probably in the corner. Yeah. No, probably. They probably did have superior, though. I wouldn't be surprised. Now, on the other end of the spectrum, we had Shay and Casey.

15:33So if you don't know who Shay is, she's an American content creator and influencer. I didn't know who she was, so no shame in the game. And Casey is a reality star who was popular on FBoy Island. So they married at Costello de Chelsa in Tuscany. Her dress was designed by designer Kim Kassas-Couture and she did her own glam, which I love. Stunning. I mean, mad skills there as well. She looked beautiful. Stunning. So both weddings received a lot of love and huge engagement. But they also, as the internet does, it did invite a lot of criticism because people have opinions about how much people's weddings show up online.

16:06I think the main sentiment was very much that it didn't feel authentic. A lot of questions were like, okay, who is this for? Is this for the internet or is this very much about your love? So a lot of the buzz around specifically about Shay and Casey's wedding, there was a lot of buzz around the authenticity, particularly because of the number of social media posts they had. So they had 19 Instagram posts and 23 TikTok posts within a four day period. That's 42 posts in four days. And six of those Instagram posts were actually scheduled on the same day as they got married. Massive amount of work, really.

16:39That is a lot to get up. I mean, it's definitely not them doing it. they've definitely hired someone to do that. So I think a lot of the commentary that's like, oh my God, why don't you enjoy your wedding? It's like, they're not the people actually doing the work. I kind of understand a lot of people are saying that it feels performative, but for me, I actually have seen them on my feed quite a bit and her style and the way that they, I guess, like exist on the internet is very this, like they're really romantic. They got engaged within three months. They've got this like big love story and they love to show it.

17:12So I kind of understand the very bold, the super romantic dress, then the like costumes at their after party. It kind of makes sense to me for them. Yeah, I think the style, the look and the feel, I don't know them as a couple and I don't know them very much online. But when I looked at all the photos, like I definitely got old Hollywood glam vibes and I thought it was incredibly beautiful. The way that she shot her portraits, like she looked absolutely stunning. So it wasn't so much how she looked or how they looked as a couple. I think it's more about the volume of the content that goes out.

17:44And I've said this on the podcast before, when we've spoken about wedding culture on the internet, I find it interesting when people choose to make something that is so private, so public, whether that's part of your content promise or not, or whether, you know, you're someone who's very open with everything in your life. Like I understand why people do it from like a wedding point of view, because the engagement is through the roof. But me personally, I wouldn't do it, but I tip my hat off to people who can. I also think when people are saying, don't you just want to be present during the day?

18:14I understand they're not editing the content and stuff, but to take time out of your day that already is pretty jam packed to shoot multiple trend videos is pretty like you're carving time out to do that. So I definitely see where people are coming from that perspective where they're like, I would never do that. Yeah. I went with you, Rhi. I actually hadn't followed this couple before and they were very new to me. So when I was looking into the show notes, I was just floored by how beautiful these people are. Her face. Oh my goodness. She is definitely old Hollywood. Like I was saying a little bit of like Anna Nicole Smith, even Pamela Anderson coming through with the hair.

18:52Like these references of old Hollywood glam, like dare I say, even Marilyn Monroe. I was getting major Marilyn Monroe vibes. And I just think something that I noticed through the content was this did feel quite authentic to them. Like she is such a princess. This is the ultimate fairytale wedding. And I think it's really beautiful when you see people just lean into who they are, what they're about. And that clearly shone through on their wedding day. I do think from a content lens, now just being a bride as well, I don't know whether how you find time to make that much content. I was a guest at my own wedding.

19:25Like guys, I was legal. Like this bride had a bit too much fun but it was clear that what shone through was their love how he calls himself Mr. Shea yeah like hello I just love that about them as well and again sometimes I think the internet just loves to hate they were picking holes and things the comments that I saw and rule number one we never read the comments but I did and people were asking how much does this wedding cost people wanted just to know things because of like the display but at the end of the day it's like okay well if you're making this content this content is a memory for you on your day it's about what you guys believe in and was going to be meaningful for you go hard like why not and I think just a bit of a you know a comparison between the two weddings that we're talking about Paige and Tommy obviously it felt very I want to say like regal it felt very like American I want to say she is America's sweetheart and I just loved everything that they stand for it was classy it was timeless it was elegant, but so was everything that Shay and Casey are doing in their own way.

20:25This is why I find it so interesting that these two weddings are played out on the weekend and everyone has something to say about one of them. So no matter like which one you felt, which one you preferred, it sounds so bad. I don't even want to say. It's not even like which one you prefer. It's more so which one you're like, oh, I really liked that. I actually really liked both of them, but they're on completely different ends of the spectrum. They got so much hate. They got so much love. Like it just goes to show how you cannot please everyone. So just please yourself, dolls. Totally. If it's what you want on your wedding day, then lean in.

20:54It's giving like Vogue wedding to content. I don't know. There's a spectrum. She didn't post until the Vogue cover came out and then she just went ahead and posted it. And that's okay. Yeah. Both of those are fine. And people are going to probably find criticisms in both. Because I saw lots of things that were like, her dress is too simple. Oh, my God. And then her dress is too much. It's like, not your wedding. You can't. And do you know what I find also quite interesting? So a wedding we haven't spoken about is Gabrielle and Maddie Healy from the 1975. I was locked into this one. I love her.

21:25Like, guys, have you seen the Jimmy Choo campaign that she did? And she literally had this like witty little comment where she was like, it's about love and looking hot, but mainly about love. And I'm just like, you're funny. And like she just kind of how she speaks about herself. I think it's that brat era, right? It kind of brings it back. And maybe, dare I say, ex-brat era now. But it's kind of like the resurgence of Indie Sleaze and the Gothic Bride. But what I did love was her wedding dress had a very exaggerated, dropped waist. And it felt, again, very authentic to them. But looking at a celebrity wedding versus an influencer wedding, it's so hard to find content of the celebrity wedding.

22:03Like they really, really, really have a lot more privacy. It's a lot more hidden. It's a lot more, you know, like we're wanting more. I thought they, maybe the Paps photos were like. Yeah. I thought they were like, they knew that paparazzi were going to be there. Oh. Yeah. Okay. I don't know why. I have nothing to support this other than being a dwarf being. These are kind of clear. I was like, wait a minute. These are like too good. They're so good. They are so good. They're like clear shots of the dress, them at the ceremony, multiple celebrities walking in, like you see Charlie XCX get papped.

22:42and I just felt, huh, I don't know about this. Is this that Indie Sleaze vibe where it's like, no, this is the content? Yeah. Because I'm really into lo-fi. Yeah. And that's the fact, and like, oh, chef's kiss. And I loved it. Like, what I got, I was like eating it all out. I was like, num, num, num, num. But like, I did it. Maybe as well, like, maybe. I'm just so paranoid because I listened to Shamas so much and obviously worked for Shamas for me. I'm like, paparazzi photos, they're all staged. They're all staged. That was my immediate thought. So I was like, they've gone like the celebrity route, which is like, oh, we want to be private.