“In 2016 my dear friend the hotelier Liz Lambert, who owns El Cosmico in Marfa, held her wedding reception at her ranch nearby. She's from West Texas—her family are cattle ranchers. The people who have opened businesses in Marfa all live in the town or are from Texas, so there's a personal touch to everything. I live in New York, where I'm surrounded by buildings and people, hustle and bustle. Marfa, though, is true tumbleweeds. You can hear all the animals, bugs, and snakes clicking, rattling, and shuffling. You also can't go anywhere without being accosted by the sun. The adobe and the bricks, everything, feels warm and baked. We flew into El Paso and then drove for four hours. The movie Bagdad Cafe has this song with the line “A desert road from Vegas to nowhere.” That's what it was like: stretches of land where there was absolutely nothing. Then the rain swept in and completely took over. The air smelled sweet because all the cacti were blossoming. When we arrived, this guy Dan had made a humongous barbecue pit the size of an actual cow, and there were all these cowboys hanging out, drinking beer, and stoking the fire. Liz collects a really interesting cornucopia of people. You'll be at dinner sitting next to a very famous person on one side and a cattle rancher playing the banjo on the other. The night of the wedding, the style was insane. Guests wore custom boots and hats with their own specific shape, right down to the brim. It started pouring rain, and we were all under a tent lit by a handful of candles. People were dancing on tables. I don't really care for country music. It's not my thing. But the stomping and the laughing…every single person flooded the dance floor and was celebrating. I find that the level of intimacy you have with a place when you're with somebody local is so much deeper than when you just go and look around as a tourist. It's such a different feeling.”
Jenna Lyons is the CEO of Loveseen and former President and Executive Creative Director of J.Crew. She stars in Season 14 of The Real Housewives of New York City, which premiered on Bravo on July 16.
This article appeared in the September/October 2023 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.
