“Love Beyond Borders” is a styled editorial shot at the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace on Lake Geneva: Belle Époque architecture, Alps in the background, water literally everywhere — and the cake by Atelier Flora, that is one of the first things that tells you this whole production is operating at a different level.The concept was built by UNICQ Events, a Swiss-based planning studio, around a single visual metaphor: water as the thing that connects continents, adapts without losing itself, and is more powerful than it looks.
Their argument is that love crossing cultural lines works the same way, and every decision in this shoot, the florals, the ice sculptures, the crystal gloves, the color palette, is traceable back to that one idea.
The color direction itself came from a pair of Jimmy Choo crystal heels in blue and pink, which is either the best creative brief in recent memory or proof that the right starting point will build an entire world around itself if you follow it all the way through.
Foam & Tulle
Hair and makeup by The Porfirio set the tone for everything that follows: dark waves worn loose with a deep side part, luminous skin with no heavy contour, the kind of finish that reads as effortless in the room and intentional on camera. The earrings are by Brabant Jewellery, sculptural floral studs sitting close to the face without competing with the neckline, and on her hand a large stone ring that catches in every frame.
The gloves by C’est Jeanne are long and sheer, embellished with crystals spaced along the length of the arm — the same crystal vocabulary that runs across the table settings, the champagne tower, and the shoes, the concept connecting the body to the room in one continuous visual line.
The gown is by The Bride Paris, a strapless ballgown with a cathedral-volume tulle skirt that has real mass without stiffness and reads differently in every frame depending on how she moves through it, which is the entire point of choosing a fabric that responds to air and light. Shoes by Jimmy Choo, the crystal-embellished heels in blue and pink that originated the entire color direction of the shoot, making them both the starting point and the thing you keep coming back to.
New Royalty Look
The groom’s suit is by Fratelli Mocchia di Coggiola, a white tuxedo jacket, black trousers, black bow tie, with accessories from Cinabre Paris and shoes by Jacques Solovière Paris.
Whoever said trains are only for brides clearly wasn’t at this shoot. The long flowing scarf worn off the suit moves exactly the way the bride’s tulle moves, and it works just as hard, which is the kind of detail that makes you wonder why grooms aren’t doing this more.
Fireworks Over Lac Léman
The ceremony is where electric blue finally shows up as the main character it was always meant to be. Blue is one of the most commonly used colors in wedding design, but the version that shows up here, royal, saturated, has a completely different personality from the dusty blues and navies that run through most wedding mood boards.
What makes it genuinely surprising is how it sits against the lawn: cobalt and green grass shouldn’t work this well together, and yet the contrast reads as fresh in a way that makes everything around it look more considered.
The ceremony space was structured with suspended white drapery installations creating a backdrop that introduced vertical movement and scale to the outdoor setting, with the open lakeside and the Alps visible beyond, a horizon that looks as almost infinite and does a significant amount of the creative work.
The tables were arranged in a curved formation across the lawn, visible from above as a deliberate arc, with ghost chairs keeping the sightlines clean and letting the florals by Nebbia Studio own the frame, blue hydrangeas massed in large clusters without filler, elevated on wire structures anchored by stones, the kind of installation that reads as grown into the setting rather than placed on top of it. White linens with cobalt blue runners, blue taper candles, and the crystal details throughout keep the table within the same visual language as everything else in the shoot.
The fireworks by PAF Événements happened in full daylight, which is the choice that makes the photograph. Blue and white pyrotechnic streamers shot upward in the afternoon light while the couple stood in front of the white draped structure, the Alps and the lake behind them.
Diving in Deep Waters
The second look is the moment the editorial shifts into something else entirely. The bride came back for the reception in a sculptural white gown with a dramatic oversized hood, that frames the face. Her hair is up, clean and precise, a complete contrast to the loose waves of the ceremony, and the change in silhouette is so deliberate.
The dress catches flash differently from the tulle, it reflects light in a way that makes it look like meringue on camera, bright and almost luminous, and the slit runs high enough that the crystal heels are visible throughout, the blue detail on the shoe pulling the color story forward one more time.
On the table, the Dom Pérignon bottle had been hand-painted by Art of Izabel in ocean-inspired tones with crystals applied individually across the surface, turning what could have been a standard beverage moment into a collectible object.
The cake is by Atelier Flora, the Berlin-based studio of cake artist and food stylist Franziska Oeser, who has been making edible sculpture since 2017 and has worked with Chanel, Burberry, and Netflix along the way.
For this editorial, Atelier Flora built it in layered blue and green fluid textures that look like something shaped by a current, and it was placed on top of one of Sam Girault‘s ice sculptures, sitting on a column of ice that catches the candlelight around it and makes the whole thing read as a single art object rather than a dessert on a pedestal.
When the sun went down, Streaming Live took over and the entire lakeside garden shifted register. Electric blue light hit the white draping, the white tablecloths, the bride’s white coat, and suddenly the whole setting felt like being pulled under the surface of the lake, deep and saturated and completely different from the afternoon.
Photographer Yolanta Birkhane Studio shot it all through the transition, from the daylight fireworks to the blue-lit dinner, and the images from the evening are where the concept lands most completely: the color, the ice, the crystals, the custom fragrance by Madame Sarah that no photograph can capture but that was part of the room regardless.
Behind all of it, a team assembled from across Europe by UNICQ Events, different nationalities and backgrounds unified around one shared concept, which makes the production itself the most literal version of what Love Beyond Borders was always trying to say.
CAKE Atelier Flora | CONCEPT, DESIGN & PLANNING UNICQ Events | VENUE Fairmont Le Montreux Palace | PHOTOGRAPHER Yolanta Birkhane Studio | VIDEOGRAPHER Memento Videography | FLORALS Nebbia Studio | MUAH The Porfirio | BRIDAL GOWNS The Bride Paris | SHOES Jimmy Choo | GLOVES C’est Jeanne | JEWELRY Brabant Jewellery | GROOM’S SUIT Fratelli Mocchia di Coggiola | GROOM’S ACCESSORIES Cinabre Paris | GROOM’S SHOES Jacques Solovière Paris | STATIONERY Bel Papier Studio | CONTENT CREATION Cherish & Co | PRODUCTION Flower Decor | RENTALS Options | CANDLES Ester & Erik | LIGHTING Streaming Live | FRAGRANCE Madame Sarah | FIREWORKS PAF Événements | ICE SCULPTURES Ice & Art | GLASS PAINTING Art of Izabel | COUPLE @_celialee & @ktgn7
