When Nikki Ogunnaike and Philippe Fonzin first met\u2014in August 2014 at a birthday party in Manhattan\u2014they had something in common: \u201cNeither of us was actually invited by the host,\u201d Nikki says. (They had been invited by another friend). At the party, which was at the now-shuttered Hudson Hotel, Nikki saw Philippe sitting at a picnic table and introduced herself. They hit it off, and spent the rest of that summer and fall getting to know each other. \u201cWe\u2019ve been together ever since,\u201d Nikki says.<\/p>\n
Within the first few months of their relationship, Nikki introduced Philippe to her sister, who \u201cimmediately put him to work building a crib for my soon-to-be-born nephew,\u201d Nikki recalls. \u201cWhile that may have been annoying to another man, it was one of the first moments when I knew that Philippe was a generous and genuinely wonderful man,\u201d she says, adding: \u201cMy 12-year-old nephew still can\u2019t believe that Philippe has known him literally his entire life.\u201d In 2020, amid the pandemic, the couple moved in together in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
In September 2025, during New York Fashion Week, Philippe proposed to Nikki. He took the opportunity of her sister\u2019s birthday party to let her parents know his plan. After going to the Tibi show and lunch at The Odeon, she picked up balloons for the party. \u201cNikki was in the backyard struggling to untangle the balloons, so I was able to sneak in and brought her parents upstairs to let them know the plan. She had no clue I was even there,\u201d Philippe says.<\/p>\n
\u201cCut to the party a couple of hours later and everyone was in the best mood ever,\u201d Nikki says. \u201cI thought it was just because we were throwing a great party, but as it turns out Philippe had told everyone that he\u2019d be proposing the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, Nikki had a relaxed Sunday, going to stretch class, acupuncture, and Sephora. \u201cI thought it was so strange that Philippe was really concerned about my whereabouts on what I thought would be a very chill Sunday,\u201d she says. \u201cLittle did I know I was impeding on the picnic he\u2019d planned in Prospect Park, where he proposed after we finished sandwiches from Radio Bakery.\u201d<\/p>\n
They took some time to enjoy being engaged before diving into wedding planning. But from the start, they knew they wanted to get married in New York, and especially in Brooklyn. \u201cThat\u2019s where our love story really took shape,\u201d Nikki says.<\/p>\n
\u201cA running joke was that I was a bridechilla, rather than a bridezilla,\u201d Nikki says. As someone who attends and plans many events as part of her job as editor-in-chief of Marie Claire, she led the wedding planning alongside Fallon Carter<\/a>. \u201cWhen I first met with Fallon, I let her know that it was important to me to work with as many women and vendors of color as possible,\u201d Nikki adds. \u201cWe found an incredible assortment of partners who all came together to make for an unforgettable few days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Nikki Ogunnaike and Philippe Fonzin first met\u2014in August 2014 at a birthday party in Manhattan\u2014they had something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,11732],"class_list":["post-330342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-wedding-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}