Jane and Owen Gerber Celebrated Their Wedding With Sunset Vows and Fireworks on Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit

Owen Gerber always had a crush on Jane Zachar in high school in Greenwich, CT. “At the time, I didn’t stand a chance,” the vice president at Canal Road Group, an alternative asset manager based in Miami, admits. “But I like to joke that I manifested this.”

Jul 08, 2026 - 15:57

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Jane and Owen Gerber Celebrated Their Wedding With Sunset Vows and Fireworks on Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit

Owen Gerber always had a crush on Jane Zachar in high school in Greenwich, CT. “At the time, I didn’t stand a chance,” the vice president at Canal Road Group, an alternative asset manager based in Miami, admits. “But I like to joke that I manifested this.”

Years later, in 2019, Jane, who works in product management for a tech startup, was living in San Francisco at the same time as Owen’s older sister, Chase. “Jane and Chase were connected through mutual friends, and I immediately asked my sister to put in a good word for me,” Owen says.

“Owen and I grew up just a few minutes away from each other,” Jane explains. “I was in Bedford, New York, and he lived in Pound Ridge. I had been at Greenwich Academy since preschool, and Owen started at Brunswick in high school. We had English class together and remember running into each other around Bedford, but we never dated. After college, I became friends with his older sister, who very slyly planted seeds that Owen had a crush on me in high school.”

Then, in September of 2020, Owen’s roommate George—who had also gone to high school with them—ran into Jane on his way back from dinner and invited her to a housewarming party later that night. “She actually came,” Owen says. “I seized the opportunity and asked her on a date.”

Four years later, Owen proposed in August 2024 during a sunset picnic overlooking the Douro River in Portugal. “The funny part is I planned the picnic, so I really was not expecting it to be the proposal,” Jane jokes. “Owen had gone around me with the hotel to coordinate a photographer and a special bottle of wine, so he somehow managed to surprise me inside my own plan.” Owen worked with his mom to reset her engagement ring—a beautiful emerald-cut diamond—and added side stones. “It felt so special and personal that he had reimagined something from his family for me,” Jane shares.

Their wedding was held nearly two years later on April 18, 2026, in Nayarit, Mexico, at Siari, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, and Nauka, the private club community next door. “I had visited Nauka years before when my parents first decided to buy a property there,” Owen explains. “When Jane and I first started planning, the hotel was under construction, but we visited together anyway a few months after our engagement, and Jane fell in love with it too.”

The property felt intimate and secluded, tucked into a cove with a long stretch of beach and surrounded by the mountains and jungle. “Beyond how breathtaking it was, the Siari and Nauka teams were so warm and genuinely excited to host our wedding,” Jane remembers. “Even though there was still a lot to finish on the property, once the timelines started to come together, it was the easiest decision.”

Planning meant navigating language barriers, construction timelines, and all of the extra layers and nuances that come with doing so from afar. “When Owen and I first started, we knew we wanted to work with event planner Kat Ferguson at Little Creek,” Jane says. “Owen’s sister had worked with them for her wedding in Whitefish, Montana, so we had seen firsthand how thoughtful and talented they are. During the process, we also got to know the Siari and Nauka teams and watched the property come to life in real time. By the time the wedding weekend arrived, it felt like everyone had been on the planning journey with us, and that made everything all the more special.”

On Thursday night, before the rehearsal dinner, the couple had a small ceremony with their immediate families and wedding party. “Members of the local Wixárika community came to welcome us and bless us and the space,” Jane says. “They set up a beautiful display of flowers and incense, and we spent a few moments at sunset honoring the weekend ahead and the land around us.”

The weekend then officially kicked off with tacos and margaritas at a welcome party within the resort. For this first event, Jane knew she wanted to wear something that she could dance in and chose a custom Silvia Tcherassi dress. “It came out better than I could have imagined,” Jane says. “And I paired it with my favorite moonstone earrings of my mom’s.”

Finding her wedding dress was the bride’s favorite part of the planning process. “[That said,] I probably went to too many boutiques because at one point it became completely overwhelming,” Jane admits. Ultimately, she found her dream wedding look at Danielle Frankel. She ended up working with the team there to combine two of her favorite dresses into one custom look. “The detailing on the top reminded me of ocean waves, and I knew the linen skirt would feel natural and airy on the beach,” she notes. “More than anything, it was so me. It felt like the dress I would choose in 20 years, or 60 years, and it would still be my dream dress.”

She also loved bringing in special pieces from the women in both of their families throughout the weekend. She carried her great-grandmother’s little heirloom bag—the same one her sisters, her mom, and her mom’s sisters all carried on their wedding days, too. “And, a few weeks before the wedding, my mother-in-law gave me a beautiful sapphire and diamond band,” Jane says. “It was a gift from Owen’s dad when Owen was born, and I wore it all weekend as my something blue.”

Owen wore a custom olive green jacket and beige trousers for the welcome party, and a custom brown suit for the wedding night—both by Sartoria Vanni, an Italian suit maker based in Florence. Meanwhile, the bridesmaids wore different earth-tone shades in various styles and textures, and the groomsmen wore beige linen suits. “Overall, we wanted the wedding party attire to feel organic and to bring out the tones and ease of the beach setting,” Jane adds.

The ceremony took place on the beach right before sunset, and the bride’s mother and father walked her down the aisle, and then the couple’s close friend George officiated. “He was the one who invited me to the housewarming party where Owen and I reconnected,” Jane explains. “So it felt so meaningful to have him be the one to tell our story and marry us.”

The couple shared the vows they had written. “There were lots of tears, from us and from our guests,” Jane says. “We really wanted the ceremony to feel intimate and deeply personal. And, it was really important to us for our guests to feel that, not just during the ceremony, but all weekend long.”

Prior to the ceremony, the couple had done a first look in an effort to feel calmer during the service. “But when I got to the top of the stairs and everyone turned back to look at me, I saw Owen, so handsome and wiping his eyes,” Jane says. “I felt so present and so emotional the whole time.”

Afterwards, the newlyweds took a moment to soak everything in together while their guests gathered by the pool for cocktail hour. Dinner was a short walk down the beach, on a grassy lawn right at the edge of the sand. “There was one of those beautiful Siari sunsets that made everything feel even more surreal,” Jane remembers. At the end of dinner, the newlyweds stood up and thanked everyone for being a part of their celebration, and as they finished, fireworks started—a surprise from Scott, Owen’s dad. Fire dancers then led everyone down the beach to the dance floor to start the party with carajillos.

The couple did their first dance to one of their favorite songs—“Wondering Why” by The Red Clay Strays. “Owen grew up going to Montana, and we had seen the band there a few years earlier, so it felt really special to use that song,” Jane explains. The bride then danced with her dad, and the groom danced with his mom.

After they cut the cake, Jane grabbed her sisters and bridesmaids to sneak off to her room and change. “Part of me wanted to keep my dress on all night, but I loved my after-party look, a low-back ivory slip with lace detailing by Victoria Beckham,” Jane explains. “I ran barefoot back out to the party with my girls, and Owen and I ended up on stage with the band, dancing, singing, and eventually crowd surfing.”

When the band finished, the fire dancers came back to lead everyone to the after-party at Naao, one of Siari’s restaurants, which is set inside this safari-style tent tucked into the jungle at the edge of the beach.

“I owned a nightclub in New York called Daphne,” Owen explains. “This was a meaningful part of our lives because many of our wedding guests had spent nights out dancing with us there, and it was where Jane and I made some of our favorite memories with them in the early days of our relationship. We closed Daphne in late fall of 2023, but it still holds such a special place for us, so I knew we had to bring it into the wedding somehow.”

With that top of mind, the after-party was designed to look like “Daphne Beach” with pink florals, disco balls, and lighting inspired by the original club. The couple’s close friend Chelsea Goles, founder of Parke, made custom Daphne Beach hats, and Cade Alami DJ’d the after-party.

The night ended with quesadillas, more tacos, and an after-after-party at the newlyweds’ villa down the beach. “At some point, Jane led the charge jumping into the pool in her dress,” Owen remembers. “Which truly felt like the right way to end the night. More than anything, though, it felt like every part of the wedding weekend was really authentic to us. The place, the people, the music, the after-party, all of it.”