Inside Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma’s Wedding at Home in L.A. (2024)

On the Saturday before Christmas, Hilary Duff married singer and record producer Matthew Koma at an intimate wedding ceremony held in the front yard of their L.A. home. The two first crossed paths while working on her 2015 album, Breathe In. Breathe Out. “Matthew and I [actually] met about six years ago,” Hilary remembers. Matthew had written and produced a couple of songs that were floating around Hilary’s label. She heard the demos and ended up taking a lunch with him in L.A. that lasted two hours. “There wasn’t an instant spark, because I think when you’re walking into a professional meeting, you know nothing about the other person. I didn’t know if he was dating someone…” Hilary says. “And then when we started talking about music, things started sparking and he was being funny enough, not flirtatious, but funny enough to where we started creating a banter and a nice friendship right off the bat.”

They dated on and off for a little while, then steadily over the past couple years. Their daughter, Banks, was born in October of 2018 (Hilary also has a son, Luca), and Matthew proposed in a park near their New York apartment. “I’d had a very long day. I think my call time that morning was 4:00 a.m., and by the time I got home, our daughter was already asleep,” Hilary says. “We love to take walks together, and so he’s like, let’s go on a walk, you had a day. Let’s just get out and chat and catch up, there’s this new park I want to take you to, and it’s supposed to be gorgeous.” Despite wanting to curl up in bed, Hilary bundled up and the two walked along the water-side park.

“All of a sudden he says, ‘I’ve been working on something for you, and you’re going to love it. I really want our kids to know our story and now we can keep adding to this book’.” Matthew presented Hilary with a notebook illustrated with sketches of them. “It’s our whole entire story mapped out for us to refer back to as we get older and for our kids to know, which is amazing,” Hilary remembers. “I get to the very last page, and there’s a little piece that I have to lift up and my ring was inside. It was so sweet. It was really special and really simple, which is very much how we are and how we operate. Then it started raining, and it was perfect.”

After the proposal, the two started working with Yifat Oren of Oren Co to plan their winter wedding. “I followed her Instagram for years and lusted after her weddings,” Hilary says of the woman who counts the Seinfelds, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Portman, and Reese Witherspoon amongst her former clients. “Our wedding isn’t over-the-top ‘wedding-y’—it’s more understated and for me, that’s more powerful.”

For her bridal look, Hilary enlisted British designer Jenny Packham—known for dressing the duch*ess of Cambridge on many different occasions—to create a custom dress. “In Hilary’s case, we had a very clear brief of how she wanted to look and the style of dress that she wanted,” the designer explains. “She wanted a very accentuated shoulder and a very clean, very beautiful, and to me, very confident look.” The final design had very empowered shoulders, and a fish-tail skirt. “And then it’s got these cape-like sleeves with a split up the front, which form an amazing train at the back of the dress,” Jenny explains. The high neckline was complemented by an open back, followed by a line of 100 buttons.

On December 21st, Hilary walked down the aisle holding her daughter Banks. She and Matthew exchanged their vows in front of family and friends—some were seated and some were standing in a u-shape that was intimate and designed to “feel like a hug,” according to Hilary. The actress’s Younger co-star Molly Bernard and actor Chris Mintz-Plasse officiated the service, telling stories about the couple and seeing to all of the official ceremony duties. After the couple had said “I do,” and was pronounced husband and wife, it was time to party!

The festivities kicked off with a troupe of Christmas carolers entertaining guests with traditional tunes, and then the couple made their grand entrance at dinner. After doing their first dance and cutting the cake, Hilary changed into a gold sequined dress, and the newlyweds danced the night away.