Perfectly Matched.

William Norwich follows Alexis Bryan to her fitting of the specially designed dress she seemed destined to wear.

I never wanted a big to-do, the big show for my wedding," Alexis Bryan, the Vanity Fair executive fashion editor, said the other morning at Nina Ricci's sunlit Manhattan showroom on West Twenty-sixth Street. Her nuptials--on May 17 in her native Houston--to New York Observer writer Spencer Morgan would be suitably low-key, and today Alexis was being fitted for the dress she would wear to a garden dinner dance for 50 in the couple's honor this month on Long Island. It was inspired by one of the showstoppers in the label's fall collection: a satin corset and flowing silk organza overlay with picot finishing and silk-organza petal detail--"abstract bouquets, not glossy or sparkling," explained designer Olivier Theyskens from Paris.

A team of savvy style people had assembled to offer support and suggestions. Among them was Alexis's sister, and maid of honor, Ashley Bryan, and Ricci's maestro draper, Marcos Soto, here from Paris to pull, lift, prod, and perfect the muslin. Shouldn't the bustline come in more to accentuate the Empire waist? What shoes (or shoe, as fashion people say) should she wear?

"Pumps for walking on the lawn, a half size bigger than you normally wear in case your feet swell," advised Ashley. "Have a pair of strappy sandals, too, just in case."

Alexis walked, turned, and stood, moving her arms the way one might dancing, laughing, meeting, greeting, and dining. "I don't want to have to hold the dress when I walk," she told Marcos, discussing length. "I want my hands to be free."

Fitting over, Alexis changed into her American Eagle dress and Helmut Lang windbreaker and said, "I want to be able to look around and see the people I love, which I don't think always happens at a big wedding."

When it comes to private entertaining--including weddings--small is the new big. To wit, Jenna Bush and Henry Hager at her family's Prairie Chapel Ranch and, in the celebrity firmament, Beyonce and Jay-Z' s 40 guests at home in Manhattan. (Well, 40 guests who included Gwyneth Paltrow, and reportedly 70,000 white dendrobium orchids flown in from Thailand, but still a shift from big-bling years past.) ...