Ronnie Fieg, the founder, president, and CEO of street-gear retailer Kith, was doing what most of us do these days before we close our eyes to go to sleep—scrolling through his Instagram feed. “I saw a photo that my cousin Yael posted in which she was standing with two girls, and one of them was stunning,” he remembers. “I hadn’t spoken to my cousin in a few months, but I texted her, saying, ‘Hey, who is the girl on the left in that picture you just posted?’ She texted me back superfast, saying, ‘How did I not think of this? She would be perfect for you!’” Yael ended up sending Ronnie her friend Shir Yaakov’s number immediately. “I didn’t hit her up because I’d never done something like that before,” Ronnie admits. “Two days later, Yael asked me if I had reached out, and I told her no. She told me that I should hit her up because she’s not the type of girl to ever give her number out, and the fact that she did says a lot. So I texted Shir, and we started talking a little bit.” Ronnie was going to Miami in two weeks to look at a building for a new Kith store and invited Shir to lunch. They ate at Soho House and talked for hours. “We completely lost track of time . . . even during that very first conversation, it felt like nothing else mattered,” recalls Ronnie. “Nothing was more important than what was happening right in front of me. That’s how I knew this was different.” Ronnie immediately knew Shir was the one and bought an engagement ring four months prior to proposing. “Waiting was the hardest part, but I wanted the moment to be absolutely perfect,” he says. “I ended up taking her to Florence to celebrate her 23rd birthday. She had no idea I was also planning to propose!” For dinner on Shir’s birthday, Ronnie rented out a traditional trattoria restaurant with a winery perched on a cliff. “I started by giving her a bracelet as a birthday gift,” Ronnie remembers. “She was shocked, because for the past few week I had been telling her I was going to give her something homemade. Then I pulled out another small jewelry box and said that I’d gotten her matching earrings, as well. When she opened it and saw the ring, she started shaking. It was the happiest moment of my life until the day of my wedding.”
Choosing the venue was a process. First, Shir and Ronnie wanted to have a small wedding in Greece. Then they looked at places in California, as they wanted to make travel easy for friends. Finally, Ronnie’s mother asked if they could have the wedding in Israel, and everything clicked. “Shir and I are both Israeli-Americans and have extended family there,” Ronnie explains. “It was the perfect opportunity to show our friends our motherland and have them experience our culture.” They chose Kochav Hayam as the setting because it has a spectacular view of the sea and a big outdoor area. The couple worked closely with their wedding planner, Vanessa Ohayon, to create an intimate and refined aesthetic. “Shir’s taste is very minimal and clean, so we used lots of white—from the flowers to the fixtures,” Ronnie says. “We wanted an elegant setting that still felt modern.”