Photo: Jake Rosenberg1/28St. Barth’s is like a second home to me. My first trip down was at three months old. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents started going down in the sixties, and it’s been a tradition in my family to spend every winter holiday there ever since. It’s almost too perfect that I met my husband there, too. This is the famous airport landing—not for the faint of heart!
Photo: Jake Rosenberg2/28I found an amazing illustrator, Clym Evernden, in London and worked with him to design all of the paper for the wedding, including menus for each night. He made logos, which I put on different elements—welcome booklets, cocktail napkins, and matchbooks—along with our tagline, “It had to be you!” He made a wonderful illustration of the weekend’s “schedule of play” and evoked in images what I hoped the weekend would feel like for everyone.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg3/28Our photographer, Jake Rosenberg, took a very nontraditional approach to shooting the wedding. He pushed us to take some fun shots, and entrenched himself in our group over the course of the weekend. For the rehearsal dinner, I wore a white Chloé sheath dress, paired with colorful Charlotte Olympia shoes that Charlotte kindly gave me as a wedding gift.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg4/28Friday night, we had a tropical rehearsal dinner at Tamarin restaurant. We wanted one event to feel distinctly different from the other beach-oriented events. The restaurant has small, little ponds with water lilies, along with parrots and iguanas, and we heightened this jungle vibe by hanging candles from the large tamarind tree, serving cocktails in carved coconuts, and lighting the palm trees from below. Runners were cut from a geometric Schumacher fabric, and our wonderful florist used local foliage on the tables. Clym designed colourful menus, which were placed on acacia wooden plates. It was a magical way to officially start the weekend.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg5/28My mom organized the most amazing luncheon for my eleven bridesmaids and me. She is a talented interior designer and decorated the table with tall orchids to match the custom tablecloth. On every girl’s seat she placed a mother-of-pearl jewelry bowl with a small bracelet inside. I set each place setting with a custom Kayu bag, monogrammed with each girl’s initials.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg6/28I wore a white lace cutout Chloé dress with Valentino gladiator sandals and a jade bracelet that was a gift from Daniele at the bridesmaids’ luncheon.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg7/28Maya, the sweet and talented chef behind the eponymous Maya’s restaurant, made a spread ideal for an island lunch—fresh ceviche, tomato salad, courgettes, finished off with a light berry tart. We laughed for two hours straight, and each girl stood up to give a beautiful toast. It was one of my most favorite moments of the weekend.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg8/28My sister and mom flew to London last fall, and we went to all of the different bridal salons. This Oscar de la Renta dress was one of the first ones I tried on, and I just knew it was the one. I was looking for a dress that was timeless, fit for a wedding on a Caribbean island but also evocative of the quintessential, effortless elegance of a bygone era. The intricate beading and lacework combined with the clean and linear silhouette made for a beautiful dress that felt very me.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg9/28I chose a very natural hair and makeup look: soft curls with a few strands twisted back for the ceremony. I wanted to look and feel like myself. These cascading, lacelike earrings are from Sabbadini jewelers in Milan and matched the lace in my dress perfectly.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg10/28Here I am leaving Villa Ela, about to go meet Daniele.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg11/28This photo was taken moments after Daniele saw me in my dress for the first time. We had not seen each other since the prior evening, and the moment we first saw each other dressed for the wedding will be forever engrained in our memories—we felt like the only people on the island, with the beautiful view from Villa La Vue as a perfect backdrop.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg12/28It was important to both of us that the ceremony be traditional and yet still feel personal and reflective of our personalities and our story. To include all of our guests in the traditions, our illustrator, Clym, designed a logo for a booklet that we created, which explained all of the key elements of the ceremony and their significance. These were tied to a fan for the guests to use on what was a warm May evening.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg13/28We got married at the villa on Flamands Beach. The chuppah was made with local leaves, hydrangea, peonies, and garden roses. I grew up spending many childhood days swimming at Flamands Beach, and it was a special place to have our actual marriage ceremony.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg14/28Daniele’s father, my mother, and my sister all gave readings, and our families stood with us as we were married and exchanged our own vows. It was the most genuine and honest moment of my life, declaring our love and commitment for each other. Daniele had the entire group in tears with his written vows and was a very tough act to follow!
Photo: Jake Rosenberg15/28I walked down the aisle with my father to an instrumental version of Andrea Bocelli’s “Con Te Partirò.” After Daniele broke the glass and we finally kissed as man and wife, we exited to “This Must Be the Place” by the Talking Heads.
Photo: Emily Labouerie16/28The sun set as the ceremony came to a close. Guests sipped on rosé (the drink of choice for the weekend) and Moscow Mules while local singer Soley played a mix of soft Brazilian and Latin music.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg17/28The food for the evening was inspired by local flavors and ingredients.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg18/28I kept the flowers for the wedding minimalist. I liked how clean and fresh the simple bouquet of white peonies looked against my dress. My sister and maid of honor had a matching bouquet with the same lace from my dress that was used to tie the flowers together.
Photo: Emily Labouerie19/28Daniele and I wanted the reception to feel like a wonderful dinner party at home with our best friends and not like a stiff and formal wedding banquet. Most of the guests were staying at the hotel Taiwana, where the reception was, and we wanted to create an element of surprise in a venue we knew they had otherwise already explored. We did this through the lighting. We covered the ceilings with a soft fabric draping, almost giving it a tentlike effect, and found bamboo lanterns to hang. My main goal was for it to feel like a natural extension of the island. I favored the “old St. Barth’s” colonial vibe in deciding on the aesthetic, with subtle greenery on the place settings and lots of candles to give the room a golden hue.
Photo: Emily Labouerie20/28We made runners out of a sand-colored fabric with metallic undertones. There were pillar candles of varying heights and some floating candles. We used a clean white, beige, and green palate, and there were simple bouquets of peonies, ranunculus, and lisianthus.
Photo: Emily Labouerie21/28My mom found a soft grass cloth wallpaper to cover the pillars, as well as bamboo-style wallpaper with metallic and gold undertones to cover the large bar inside. My illustrator, Clym, created a bamboo design for the dinner menus, which I had engraved in gold on thick off-white paper. The light of the candles caught the gold and gave the tables just a touch of formal elegance. The guests’ names were hand-calligraphered in green to match the fern leaf tucked behind each menu.
We served local foods at dinner. Daniele’s main request was that dinner “not drag on” and for guests to feel as if they could get up and dance at any point, and long tables helped create that fun, dinner-party atmosphere.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg22/28Daniele and I had our first dance to “All Night Long” by Lionel Richie. It was a tough choice because we don’t really feel as though we have “one song.”
Photo: Emily Labouerie23/28My sister stole the show with what will go down in history as the best (and perhaps only funny) maid of honor speech. She was so essential throughout the wedding-planning process. I was so proud of her and so impressed with her poise and her ability to improvise and crack jokes in front of the group.
Photo: Emily Labouerie24/28After her speech, it felt as though the energy had suddenly shifted. I can’t remember the exact moment, but at one point I looked around and the entire room was on their feet dancing. Everyone just got up in front of their seats and the most incredible impromptu dance party started, and it didn’t stop for the rest of the night. Our amazing DJ, Nick Cohen, told us later that just before that moment, he looked over and saw my dad dancing at the table and knew that he had to play a song for him. He put on an amazing remix of “The Finer Things” by Steve Winwood, and that was the moment that got everyone going.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg25/28We gave everyone large sparklers and moved the group outside for the after-party. We then had our second first dance. I can’t even remember what we danced to. But I just remember in the middle of it seeing this beautiful white cake wheeled toward us.
Photo: Jake Rosenberg26/28Maya, the extremely talented chef and owner of our favorite local restaurant, Maya’s, is a close friend of the family and made our wedding cake. I’m allergic to gluten, and Maya makes the perfect flourless chocolate cake. I was so excited to see the cake with the fresh white peonies that when we cut it I ate it first instead of sharing it with Daniele. It was delicious!
Photo: Jake Rosenberg27/28We love penguins, and this beautiful penguin bride and groom were a gift from my best friend. I gave them to my wedding planner the morning of the ceremony and was so excited to see them next to the cake. Daniele was so surprised!
Photo: Jake Rosenberg28/28We danced all night, had late-night snacks of perfectly French cheeseburgers and frites, and then everyone jumped into the pool!
