Travel influencer’s baz luhrmann inspired wedding in fair verona
If this lovely bride looks familiar, it's probably because she's Insta-famous luxury travel influencer @hofitkimcohen. She and her hubby tied the knot and it's safe to say we've never seen anything quite on the level of this wedding...Ok, maybe the Baz Luhrmann films that inspired it. Vibrant colors, rich textures, and all the sparkle your little heart can take–this wedding has it all. You won't want to miss a single one of these photos by Ersy Photography, so keep scrolling!
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meant to be
Ben and I met in an elevator in our Miami condo building while walking our dogs in 2020 during COVID. I had just moved to Miami, two weeks before COVID started from Los Angeles, CA where I was raised. From the moment we met, we realized we had so many things in common, like we are both Leos, both left-handed, I was born in Israel in moved to LA when I was 8 years old and Ben was born in LA and moved to Israel when he was 8 years and so many other things! We knew this couldn't be random. The funny part is that I'm 10 years older than Ben, but somehow it always worked out between us since I'm very childlike and Ben has always been super mature for his age. I traveled the world solo for 6 years before COVID started, to 67 countries, and Ben couldn't wait to go on my travel adventures with me. One of the first countries we visited together was Italy and we both just knew that this is where we wanted to get married!
curating the right team
Our dreamy Verona wedding lasted three days with four pre-wedding events, all with their own unique themes. I believe something that's very important is hiring and building a team of vendors who you actually like, personality-wise. We struggled a lot at different phases dealing with entitled personality types who wouldn't get back to us on important matters leading up to the wedding which was super stressful for us. Halfway through hiring vendors, we decided that it was more important to us to hire people who were kind and that we liked because we would be spending a good amount of time with them on the most important day of our lives and we wanted positive people with a good attitude.
the theme: baz luhrmann's happily ever after
Our wedding had a luxury celestial + happily ever after theme to it, inspired by Baz Luhrmann's (director of Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby, Romeo + Juliet) greatest creations and designer Paolo Sebastian's themed collections (Once upon a Dream and East of the Sun & West of the Moon). Everything was elegantly bedazzled with stars, moons, suns, and astrological symbols to align with our theme and packed with endless romantic quotes from our favorite movies that are related to the stars and happily ever after. I really wanted to create a unique touch to our wedding as far as theme and stationery went. I used my creative skills to draw and design all of our wedding and pre-wedding stationery and wedding invitations, alongside being the creative director of this destination wedding. I turned to Instagram for endless wedding ideas and inspiration, and I was following Wedding Chicks religiously to get ideas and inspiration during this 8-month planning journey.
the fashion
I had three couture gowns for the wedding weekend and we hired celebrity hairstylist, Lidor Hadida and celebrity makeup artist, Tali Moas (who we flow all the way from Israel to do full glam looks for all of the events). I was drawn to the dress, the moment it was handed to me, I literally started to cry! This was the second shop and time I went dress shopping and I just found the dress. I always thought it would take forever because I'm such a picky person.
I discovered Nicole + Felicia after I saw J.Lo wearing their gowns. I've always been a fan of up-and-coming brands, having someone unique and special before everyone knows all about it and wearing it and it just felt like the perfect move to make. Nicole + Felicia has very elegant, feminine, and dreamy gowns. I also had a Nicole + Felicia veil that matched my dress exactly, hand-beaded and designed to match my gown. I really felt like this dress aligned with the celestial theme. It sparkled like all the stars in the sky; it was magical.
All the bridesmaid dresses are from Milla. I'm obsessed with their timeless, dreamy gowns! I really wanted my bridesmaids to feel super beautiful and like they were the stars of the night too, like princesses in a fairytale movie.
the color palette: pastel rainbow
The vision for our wedding colors was pastel rainbow without the pink. Our main wedding colors consisted of pastel blues and purple with royal gold. This was showcased through the stationery, wedding invitations, and bridesmaid dresses. For the wedding flowers, I wanted sunset colors: purples, peach, baby yellow, pink, and a little bit of white.
a dramatic red rose aisle
We picked the dramatic red color of garden roses for the aisle because I wanted an edgy, dramatic, and moody feel to things. The aisle was inspired by Moulin Rouge (one of our favorite movies) but also by The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the gang are on the way to Emerald City. We also brought our dogs to Italy to walk down the aisle with us, Peanut and Mamba.
a fairy tale reception
Our reception took place in the Arena part of the garden of Villa Rizzardi, the design for this was actually inspired by Beauty and the Beast. I needed my Lumiere candelabra and searched all of Italy for the perfect vintage gold ones, of course, mixed in with our celestial wedding theme. On the side of the sweetheart table were lyrics from Moulin Rouge's "Come What May". All of our guests received personalized letters in their escort cards at their seats which left many in tears. We highly recommend!
a tale of two cakes
We had two wedding cakes. One was a traditional Italian wedding cake, Millefoglie, which was a live show that we created with the chef, and later on, we had a traditional American wedding cake, followed by one of the greatest fireworks shows that left everyone in tears.
the music
We had three separate live bands (no DJ)! The Krystal Kuartet violin girls performed at Ed Westwick's wedding two weeks before our wedding. We also hired famous Israeli singer, Dor Shimon to perform our ceremony songs and Brazilian Italian singer, Claudston Cosra and his band, who we met earlier in the year in Sorrento, Italy, while searching for wedding venues. He was playing at an upscale restaurant and we fell in love with him and his energy. We knew he had to perform at our wedding.
Our first dance was to "Young & Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey because our wedding was partly inspired by The Great Gatsby. We even took private dance classes for the big moment. We also had the violinists playing all of my favorite Disney songs, as guests were arriving and later on in the night they did a special performance with dresses and violins that led up with lights and made our guests so emotional. It was incredible.
advice from the happy couple
When it comes to planning a wedding in Italy, the most important thing is to get super clear on your vision and then find a venue. Many venues we originally really liked had strict rules that didn't align with our wedding vision, things like no music outside after 9 PM in many venues on Lake Como and other restrictions, or that all attending guests had to stay on property at the venue. Reach out to venues you like and get all the information you need first. We wasted a long time falling in love with venues that we later found out were never going to work out for us. What made the day special was truly the little moments–the little details, we had created for ourselves and guests like tossing the bouquet off of the balcony, the champagne tower I had dreamt of doing since I was a little kid, the firework show that we almost passed up, and all the moments we didn't plan.
- Wedding Dresses: Nicole + Felicia
- Wedding Dresses: Hacchic Couture
- Wedding Photographers: Ersy Photography
- Venues: Villa Rizzardi
- Groom & His Men: Sartori Amici
- Cakes & Catering: Food & Sweet
- Wedding Films: Films Diary
- Bridesmaid Dresses: Milla
- Hair, Makeup & Beauty: Lidor Hadida
- Hair, Makeup & Beauty: Tali Moas
- Event Planning & Design: Hofit Kim Cohen
- Lighting, Entertainment & Photo Booth: Palco Pro Rent Srl
- Lighting, Entertainment & Photo Booth: Krystal Kuartet
- Jewelry: Tiffany & Co.
- Paper Goods & Calligraphy: Hofit Kim Cohen