Small Wonders

When Jordan Rondel met Ryan Fiorentino at Soho Warehouse in Los Angeles, the connection was instant, and a little outrageous. “He ran an ice cube down my arm as he walked past,” she says with a laugh. “Quite bold, I thought.” Minutes later she found him again, drawn back by something she couldn’t quite explain. Their first proper date followed a week later, and from the first moment, it felt unusually natural. “Shockingly easy, smooth, totally comfortable,” Jordan says. “Being together felt like slipping into something we already knew.”

Having recently moved from her native New Zealand, Jordan was still new to Los Angeles then, learning the city beyond its surface. With Ryan, it became an adventure — “off-the-radar restaurants, secret hikes, little pockets of the city I hadn’t yet discovered.” Four years later, the pair share a converted Biscuit Factory loft in the Arts District, having built a relationship that grew, as Jordan puts it, “gently, at its own pace,” and with a trust so solid we still lean on it now.”

Their engagement was characteristically understated but deeply intentional. One afternoon Ryan came home early, asked Jordan to close her laptop and pack for two nights, and refused to give any further details. “When I saw the Ojai sign, I started to wonder if something big was about to happen,” she says. The next morning, she walked out of the bathroom to find him on one knee, holding a ring he designed with a jeweller friend. “It truly is a work of art,” she says. “So him.”

Neither saw the point in waiting. “We just wanted to be husband and wife,” Jordan tells me. So, without hesitating, they planned a ten-person ceremony with immediate family that felt uncomplicated, intimate and meaningful, with Jordan explaining that the plan was to host a larger celebration sometime next year. “Although small, it was incredibly important to us, so we wanted everything to be perfect.”

They were married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, a beautiful, 1920s stone landmark full of Spanish-Revival romance. Of the day, Jordan tells me that she remembers a profound sense of calm. “Maybe that’s the beauty of a micro wedding,” she says, “I didn’t have too many people to worry about. We could really focus on celebrating our love.” But the vows hit harder than she expected. “The weight of the words felt earth-moving. I kind of blacked out. It was life-altering.”

After the ceremony, they had dinner at San Ysidro Ranch, then spent the night at Palihouse — no schedule, no spectacle, just family time together and the quiet thrill of being able to call themselves newlyweds.

Jordan’s dress became one of the most personal elements of the day. “It was incredibly important to me,” she says, explaining how she chose a handmade piece by Italian designer Marina Eerie which was, “the exact mix of traditional and punk that reflected who I am.” She paired it with Aquazzura heels and a chain headpiece made by a friend. She did her own hair and makeup, keeping to her signature look: “mascara, black dots around my eyes, highlighter, lip liner.”

Ryan wore a wide-shouldered Balenciaga suit with a YSL shirt and his eclectic jewellery. “It was really important to him to wear something great — the suit is the perfect balance of formal and cool,” Jordan says.

They didn’t need extra styling; the courthouse, ranch and hotel already carried the right atmosphere. And while there was no aisle walk or first dance (“saving that for the bigger celebration”), music still threaded through the day. “I played a playlist full of my current faves while we drove and while we got ready.”

Across their four years together, travel has been a constant — Italy, Ibiza, road trips through Big Sur and Joshua Tree. “He’s a particularly good travel partner,” Jordan says, of her husband. “Super organised and always researching, so everything feels effortless for me.”

Some moments have been harder. The wind-down of Jordan’s long-running business, The Caker, was a painful, identity-shifting chapter. “It was tough, confusing, all-consuming,” she reveals. “But no matter what, when one of us feels a bit weak, the other instantly becomes the strong one.” The balance between them feels instinctive.

Jordan talks about Ryan with the clarity of someone who has studied their partner closely and fully: “I admire the way he loves the people he loves. He’s relentlessly committed, present, loyal. I adore his brain, his spirituality, his tenderness, his lust for adventure, his style… and his taste for the finer things in life, which regrettably for our bank accounts compliments mine.”

“We were already so solid, but being engaged and then married adds a layer of feeling protected, like the relationship is indestructible.”

Together, they’ve built a relationship shaped by curiosity, respect and shared ambition. “We’re similar enough to understand each other and different enough to make things interesting,” Jordan tells me. “We push each other to be the best versions of ourselves.”

Marriage deepened that. “We were already so solid, but being engaged and then married adds a layer of feeling protected,” she pauses, “like the relationship is indestructible.” They are now building a business together. It’s intense, Jordan admits, “but I really believe in doing the thing you love with the people you love.”

Their wedding may have been small, but it held a magnitude far beyond its guest list — a day distilled to its emotional core, propelled not by spectacle but by certainty, clarity and an unmistakable commitment.