Vogue’s Eileen Kelly pays a visit to Annie Meyers-Shyer’s idyllic book launch for ‘This Oak House,’ held in the back garden of her mom Nancy Meyers’s Los Angeles home.Vogue’s Eileen Kelly pays a visit to Annie Meyers-Shyer’s idyllic book launch for ‘This Oak House,’ held in the back garden of her mom Nancy Meyers’s Los Angeles home.
It was an 80-degree Sunday in Los Angeles when I wound my way down the PCH toward Sunset and pulled up to a gate with a valet out front. Inside, a pea-gravel driveway flanked by manicured hedges led me to a white house with roses climbing perfectly across its facade. It looked exactly like a Nancy Meyers movie set—which, it turns out, was because I was actually at Nancy Meyers’s house.
We were there to celebrate the launch of This Oak House, Nancy’s daughter Annie Meyers-Shyer’s new book about renovating her 1940s Beverly Hills home, out now. After passing a table stacked with copies of the book, we made our way into the backyard, where the party looked exactly like the kind of party you would expect to happen at Meyers’s house: blonde and brunette balayaged women in Dôen dresses and Foundrae necklaces, many wearing enormous hats to shield themselves from the sun.
Waiters circulated with chip bags filled with black caviar, miniature lobster rolls, and Hugo spritzes. I was grateful I had convinced my boyfriend to come with me, because I didn’t know a single person and wasn’t prepared to make small talk while holding a tiny bag of caviar.
Home renovations are sort of my thing. Having recently finished my own five-year remodel, you either become obsessed with strangers’ construction stories or never want to hear about paint colors again. I am firmly in the first category. I spend hours a night on Pinterest and have an entire private Instagram account dedicated exclusively to interiors and stalking architects. Annie, by the way, has an entire chapter in her book devoted to choosing the right white paint. I even ended up running into someone at the party who had worked on my house.
As I walked around Nancy Meyers’s backyard, however, I realized I wasn’t solely interested in how Annie had renovated her house, but also how the Meyers women throw a soirée.
Nancy Meyers has directed some of the most nostalgic rom-coms of my lifetime: Father of the Bride, Something’s Gotta Give, The Parent Trap, The Holiday. Their interiors have become as iconic as the films themselves. Walking around the party, surrounded by women who, give or take a few inches of hair color, looked remarkably alike, I felt like I had stepped directly into one of her films.
She lays out her serving platters and serving pieces in advance and even runs her menu through AI to figure out exactly when everything needs to go in the oven. That way, once people arrive, she can enjoy herself. “I definitely learned the importance of preparation from my mom,” she says. “She makes entertaining look effortless, but that ease comes from having thought through every detail beforehand.”
Annie’s formula for a good party? “Enough food, good music, and an interesting mix of people.” “I don’t like overly formal or stuffy bouquets,” she continues. “I prefer flowers that feel loose and natural.” When asked about the best party her mom has thrown, she immediately mentions her wedding, held in this very backyard. “It was, without a doubt, the most memorable and meaningful party she has ever thrown, in my opinion!”
As I maneuvered around the sea of Brentwood moms, I started asking people a question: If I came over to your house, what’s one thing your home would tell me about you?
