‘Twilight’ Star Elizabeth Reaser Secretly Tied the Knot in 2023

Elizabeth Reaser is married! In a new interview with Vogue, the actress, best known for playing Esme Cullen in the Twilight franchise, revealed that she secretly married composer Bruce Gilbert in a private elopement ceremony in Italy in August 2023.

“Originally, we were making these huge lists of people to invite but we realized pretty quickly it didn’t feel right for us,” Reaser told the outlet. “We decided to elope instead, with a couple of friends as witnesses.”

That guest list included just a handful of people, including Gossip Girl actress Megan Ferguson, her husband, The Magicians actor Nico Evers-Swindell, and Sarah Paulson. Paulson’s partner, Holland Taylor, officiated the ceremony, which took place at Hotel Caruso’s Wagner Garden, overlooking the Amalfi Coast.

The intimate elopement capped a years-spanning romance that began back in 2017 when Gilbert, a decorated composer and Academy Award winner for his work on Everything Everywhere All At Once, was walking his dogs around their neighborhood in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. At the time, the Grey’s Anatomy alum was hosting a dog playdate, with Reaser joking “we owe our dogs everything!”

Five years after that chance meeting, in 2022, Gilbert dropped to one knee and proposed while he and Reaser were vacationing in Italy at The Haunting of Hill House star’s “favorite place in the world,” Hotel Il San Pietro di Positano. They returned to Italy just a year later to elope, Reaser donning a gown from Danielle Frankel and earrings that were gifted to her by Ferguson, Taylor, and Paulson.

“Bruce reached out to two musicians – a mandolin player and a guitarist – that we had fallen in love with the year before at Il San Pietro, and we exited to their rendition of ‘Oh Baby’ by LCD Soundsystem that Bruce asked them to arrange in advance,” Reaser shared. “It was so beautiful that we stopped at the end of the aisle and had an impromptu first dance. I think it may have been the purest moment of happiness in my life.”

Reaser said that after the ceremony, the newlyweds and their guests celebrated with champagne and dinner under olive trees. She and Gilbert had their first dance “to an arrangement of Caetano Veloso’s ‘Cucurrucucu Paloma’ that Bruce had the musicians prepare.” Reflecting on the special day, Reaser said, “I want to do it all over again! Truly. I feel so lucky.”