Zaina and Matthew turned Lake Como into a four day celebration that kept unfolding from one event to the next. A Charming Fete planned every piece of it, and their touch shows in how personal the whole weekend felt, right down to the last pear left hanging on the last tree. All of it grew out of one thing, the fruit garden Zaina’s late father kept back home in Ohio, so real trees heavy with apples, pears and plums lined the aisle and ran down the dinner tables while guests picked fruit straight off the branches all night. Rain came as the ceremony started, then cleared the exact moment the vows reached the line about becoming shelter for each other, and nobody there has stopped talking about it since!
Location: Lake Como, Italy
Style: Intentional, Lush, Colorful
Time of planning: 14 months
Number of guests: 112
Setting: Italian Villa
Season:Â Summer
Zaina and Matt met in 2010, both sophomores who had just moved into the same East Village dorm. She was at Parsons for fashion design and he was at The New School studying jazz bass, and a suitemate walked her down the hall to introduce her to the guys next door, where Matt happened to be the only one home. They were friends first for months before either admitted it had turned into something more, and Zaina, who had never dated, took her time and looped in her Syrian family before she said yes over ice cream at their favorite East Village spot.
Matt proposed in October of 2018 by the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, and he set it up well. Zaina had stopped to recreate a photo from a high school trip, with no idea that both sets of parents were sitting a few feet away with their faces buried behind copies of The New York Times. The whole thing looked so staged that she thought it was something out of Friends, right up until Matt spun her around and dropped to one knee. Their parents lowered the papers, and the surprise she had always wanted, her family right there, was exactly what she got.
Welcome Party
The celebration kicked off on Thursday with a welcome dinner at Onda, a spot in the center of Cernobbio the couple already loved, done up head to toe in citrus. Guests got a dress code of yellow, peach, orange and green, the florals followed the same palette, Aperol spritz flowed, and once dinner wound down everyone piled onto a private boat for a sunset cruise around the lake.
Zaina used the night to debut her wedding wardrobe, starting with the very first piece she bought for it, a tea length Monique Lhuillier gown covered in tumbling three dimensional poppies, worn with gold kitten heels and an Olympia Le-Tan book clutch embroidered as a nod to the lake. Matt went olive in an Ader Milano jacket over cream Suitsupply linen.
Church Blessing
On Friday things slowed down for a blessing at Chiesa di San Vincenzo, a Cernobbio church that has stood since 1150. Don Gianpaolo led a mass and blessed the couple’s new rosary, crucifix and bible along with their wedding bands, the historic organ filled the nave, and every pew held someone who had flown across the world to be there. Zaina kept it modern in a draped ivory Stella McCartney silk set she found while shopping in Milan days earlier, with her everyday Cartier bracelets and ivory Manolo Blahnik heels.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
Zaina spent the morning of July 19 in a mint green feather pajama set from Sleeper with matching shearling Oran sandals from Hermes, while Gabby, the couple’s almost seventeen year old Yorkie, padded around in her own green feather pajamas. Her mother, mother in law and bridesmaids got ready alongside her in coordinating green silk robes, and once hair and makeup started she changed into a Stella McCartney silk and lace nightgown printed with white doves, a last minute Milan find that became one of her favorite pieces of the weekend.
The bride is a designer herself, and after close to a hundred appointments she kept coming back to Wiederhoeft, the label run by fellow Parsons grads. She built her look around their Wasp corset, then had them make a set of separates, a corset, a fitted skirt, an overskirt with a train and a draped belt, all cut so she could wear the pieces again for years. The silk came straight from the historic mills of Lake Como.
The most personal touch sat on her right hip, right where her father would have stood to walk her down the aisle, his own handwriting from a letter signed “Love, Dad” embroidered onto the belt, with both of their last names running along the train. Wiederhoeft also made her a hand beaded cathedral veil, and the final fitting turned into a memory of its own when Matt’s ninety seven year old Grammie came into the city to see it.
Samantha of Eve Bridal Beauty kept her makeup natural and chic, exactly how she wanted it, and hair artist Elena Panzeri left her long dark hair down and loose before pinning the veil, a contrast she loves because that hair ties her to her family and where she comes from. She wore Mojave Ghost by Byredo, and her Rattiflora bouquet spilled in white and green, jasmine threaded with lily of the valley, one bloom for Syria and one for Italy.
Groomâs Fashion
Matt is a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, so the ceremony had only one option, his Dress Blues. He changed for dinner into a black peak lapel tuxedo from Ralph Lauren Purple Label with a black and white pocket square, then swapped the jacket at the after party for an ivory shawl collar dinner jacket from the same label to match Zaina’s silver dress. His scent for the day was Apex by Roja, picked up while the two were shopping in Italy the week before.
Ceremony
The ceremony came together in the garden at Villa Bonomi, a landscape shaped by the Italian master Pietro Porcinai, boxed in on three sides by tall jasmine hedges and wide open on the fourth to the lake and the mountains. Guests arrived to welcome drinks and dancing violinists, then took their seats as Zaina walked in with her mother, Nahla.
The aisle carried her father. He had always been a gardener, proudest of the fruit trees he grew at the family home in Ohio, where he lined them up two by two, so Rattiflora ran six full trees heavy with apples, pears and plums down the aisle to match. Cartalia set a paper fan on every chair, printed with the bridal party on one side and a watercolor of the villa with a passage the couple wrote for Joseph Leon’s garden on the other.Â
Their wedding bands came with history, passed down from their grandparents, Matt’s Poppie and Zaina’s Sito, who happened to share a February 17th birthday. Their officiant, Roberto of Lake Como Celebrant, had taken the time to know them as a couple, and he brought up Ashley, the college friend who first walked Zaina down that dorm hallway, to tell everyone how the two of them started.
Rain had begun as guests sat down, and they decided to go ahead anyway. It kept drizzling straight through the vows until Roberto hit the line about each of them becoming shelter and warmth for the other, and at that exact second the rain stopped and the sun broke through. The rest of the day stayed completely dry, and their guests still bring up the timing.
Once Roberto named them husband and wife, they walked into an Arch of Swords held by seven Marines Matt has served with. At each pair the swords dropped to block the path, the Marines calling out that passage cost a kiss and only lifting once the couple obliged, until the final two rose with a welcome to the Marine Corps and a light tap of a sword that sent Zaina through. It landed as one of the loudest, happiest moments of the whole day.
Cocktail Hour
The couple skipped a first look on purpose, and it paid off. Matt wanted the first time he saw Zaina in her gown to be the moment she reached the top of the aisle, and both of them still call that walk the memory that beats everything else, fifteen years landing in a few steps toward each other.
Cocktail hour ran to a live harpist, built around a round bar wrapped in a full apricot tree, another Rattiflora recreation of one Zaina’s father planted in the front yard back in Ohio. The drink to get was Gabby’s Italian Sgroppino, prosecco with lemon sorbet and a slice of lemon, finished with a custom stirrer printed with the dog’s face, a spin on the couple’s favorite Como summer order.
Off to one side a shaded garden promenade ran under the trees with white bistro tables for anyone who wanted to sit. Class Eventi passed hors d’oeuvres and laid out spreads of Italian meats and cheeses while a chef pulled fresh mozzarella by hand right there. David Bastianoni used the quieter stretch of cocktail hour to pull the couple aside for a few romantic portraits along the water.
Reception
The couple grew up around a big family table, so they set three long tables for an al fresco dinner on the great lawn, a short one in the center for immediate family and two longer ones running out for cousins and friends.
The fruit trees from the ceremony moved in and stood between the tables, and the tabletops spilled over with flowers, candles, figs, apricots, plums, pomegranates, grapes, eggplant and asparagus, the harvest her father loved to share. A Charming Fete pulled the whole scene together, turning her father’s garden into a tablescape you could sit down and eat from.
Every place was set with Ginori 1735 Oriente Italiano plates, the pattern the couple put at the top of their registry so every dinner at home would call the day back. A green pear sat at each seat with a pale blue name card hung from the stem, and the head table wore a de Gournay cloth that ran forty feet and was painted entirely by hand, a garden of espalier pear trees down to the ladybugs, butterflies and a few fallen pieces of fruit.
Blunotte Eventi set a white grand piano out on the lawn to carry dinner, and the first dance was Al Di La, sung live by Zaina’s cousin, the recording artist Ashley Nemeh, who has known Matt since their college days when he played bass and she sang. That history turned the song into a full circle gift.
Class Eventi ran the dinner, opening with a salad, then a homemade pasta course with fresh truffle shaved over every plate, then a choice of steak, fish or eggplant. Between courses the best man, Nick, and the maid of honor, Zaina’s sister Layla, gave the toasts, and watching the two youngest of the family stand up with the lake and mountains behind them got to everyone.
Dessert turned into a show. A tall millefoglie appeared on the lawn, the Italian wedding cake of paper thin puff pastry and cream, and the couple built it in front of everyone, piping cream across the top, scattering berries and dusting the whole thing with powdered sugar. Matt cut the first slices with his Marine Corps sword and started popping champagne as the sun went down, with the crowd on its feet the whole time.
Pool Party & Brunch
The day after the wedding everyone came back to Villa Bonomi for a brunch and pool party in the same jasmine garden, this time with bistro tables scattered across the lawn. Class Eventi laid out a full Italian breakfast with a juice bar, a coffee bar, a live pasta station and, the crowd favorite, a gelato cart, while the ringbearer and flower girl tore around the property in matching fruit print swimsuits Zaina had picked out.
Zaina stayed on theme in an Oscar de la Renta dress printed with figs and grapes, another nod to her father’s garden, with her wedding rings, a diamond cross and Manolo Blahnik kitten heels. Matt kept it easy in a pastel green polo and cream Suitsupply linen with his wedding band and tan Allen Edmonds loafers. It was the soft landing the weekend needed.
Advice from the couple:
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PLANNING & DESIGN A Charming Fete | PHOTOGRAPHY David Bastianoni | VIDEOGRAPHY Luigi De Gregorio Films | CONTENT CREATION Little Nostalgic Moments | WEDDING & POOL PARTY VENUE Villa Bonomi | AFTER PARTY VENUE Villa del Grumello | WELCOME PARTY VENUE Onda | FLORAL DESIGN Rattiflora | WELCOME PARTY FLORALS Della Bella Fiori | STATIONERY Cartalia | MAKEUP Eve Bridal Beauty, Viviana Murgia | HAIR Elena Panzeri | DRESSING SERVICES Tosetti Como Lake Luxury Service | WELCOME PARTY CATERING Onda | CATERING Class Eventi | OFFICIANT Roberto, Lake Como Celebrant | BOAT SERVICE Bellagio Boat Service | ENTERTAINMENT Blunotte Eventi | LIVE VOCALS Ashley Nemeh | SPECIAL PERFORMANCE Suheil Saker | WELCOME PARTY DJ DJ Ronny Vian
