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“I chatted with the team at the Four Seasons, who helped me arrange to have a photographer for an engagement session at a tropical proposal setup on a small motu just off of the resort that we would get to via canoe, and a celebratory dinner. I also hit up my friends at Over the Moon to lend us a Galvan dress for Liv and a Fanm Mon dress for me to wear for the proposal photos,” Shelby says.
On June 30, 2024, they spent the morning jet-skiing around the island. When they were back at the resort, Shelby spotted staff setting up the motu from the beach bar, where she and Liv were getting piña coladas. To avoid spoiling the surprise for Liv, Shelby kept pointing out random things on the property and fish in the water. (Liv later revealed that Shelby’s diversion tactics were not totally successful.)
Though the motu dinner plan was thwarted by strong winds, they were still able to do the proposal there. “My nerves set in during this moment, but it was mostly excitement,” Shelby says. When they got to the beach, a canoe took them to the motu, which was decorated with tropical greenery. They each got out their ring boxes and had a moment of wondering who would go first.
“I decided to go for it and, of course, automatically started crying the moment I got down on one knee,” Shelby says. After Liv said yes, she proposed to Shelby. Exchanging rings, they got to see the special messages they’d had inscribed in them for the first time.
“Early in our relationship, Shelby said that she hadn’t really been in love in a relationship before. Inside my ring, she had the words ‘Thank you for teaching me what love is’ engraved. Her ring, engraved in my handwriting, simply read, ‘my love,’ ” Liv shares.
After more tears and photos, they had a celebratory dinner in a chapel overlooking a lagoon, with flowers, Champagne, and a multi-course meal. “Our double proposal felt like the perfect way to enter this chapter as true partners—doing things our way and, hopefully, inspiring other queer couples to do the same,” Liv says.
In December 2024, they held a civil wedding ceremony in New York. “After the election in 2024 took place, Liv and I felt like it was safer as a queer couple for us to get legally married ahead of our big wedding,” Shelby says. “Even though we already had our November 2025 date in place, we were nervous that the new administration and Supreme Court may take actions that could overturn our right to marry. We decided to have a civil ceremony on December 27, 2024, at the restaurant Upland in New York City that we planned in a month. The wedding had 12 guests, including family members and a family friend and his partner who officiated the wedding.”
Then, working with the planners Tory Smith and Lauren Silavin of Smith + James, they planned their big wedding celebration at the Wythe Hotel for November 22, 2025.
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