Abbey and Mete got married inside an actual Ottoman palace on the Bosphorus, and the person who turned all of it into a magazine spread is Anna Roussos. She shoots weddings like fashion editorials, and you can see it in every frame here: the bride framed in the tiled palace window, the groomsmen lined up on the steps like the opening shot of a heist film, the blue dance floor caught from the air. Working alongside Thanos Asfis as Ratta Studio, she captured the looks, the architecture, and the chaos of a party that ran until five in the morning with the same sharp eye.
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Style: Black Tie, Classic, Fairytale
Time of planning: 18 months
Number of guests: 277
Setting: Waterfront Palace
Season: Summer
The couple’s story starts on a dating app, except Abbey had rules: no pen pals, no late night texting. Mete messaged her on a Wednesday at eleven in the morning and asked her out for the next day, which cleared both bars instantly. They spent that whole weekend together, made it official six weeks later, and moved in seven months after that.
The proposal was a full operation. Abbey wanted two things, total surprise and a celebration with everyone she loved by the end of the night, and Mete delivered both. He used a friend visiting from Turkey as his cover story for a night out, then sent her an Uber to the newly opened Pendry at The Wharf and told her to head up to the rooftop. The second she stepped off the elevator and saw him standing alone on the terrace, she knew. He proposed quietly, and then a little girl ran over to hand her a rose, a detail he had arranged in advance. Dinner with their out of town friends and family came next, and the night ended with a stay at the Pendry.
Welcome Event
The weekend opened in full Riviera mode, guests in all white against red awnings and red cushions, Abbey in a red Cult Gaia dress she had custom dyed by Veronica Buitron. It set the warm up palette before the main day flipped everything to blue and white.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
Abbey got ready over Turkish coffee in a lace robe, which sets the tone for a morning that was all about the details. Her gown was a strapless A line Galia Lahav, with lace and beadwork running down the corset and bleeding into the skirt, plus a long veil edged in beading that matched the bodice. On her feet were custom lace Jimmy Choo pumps. The jewelry was a diamond tennis necklace, a matching bracelet, and diamond studs, all gifts from Mete and his parents, so every piece came with a story attached.
For makeup she went soft pink shimmer on the eyes, pulled straight from the pink accents in her decor and the blush pink bottle of her Parfums de Marly perfume. She changed her lip color and eyeliner the morning of and has zero regrets. Her hair artist Micki, who Abbey flew to Charleston to trial twice, gave her a half up style with texture and old Hollywood waves through the lengths, built specifically to survive the wind coming off the Bosphorus. The invitation suite by Katto Ne Paper tied it together, complete with a custom illustration of the palace’s golden gates, a quiet spoiler of the grand entrance to come.
Groom’s Fashion
Mete went custom for the suit, using Dormeuil fabric hand woven by Milimetric, an Istanbul bespoke house, which felt right for a man getting married in his home city. He finished it with Louboutin shoes and a white dinner jacket.
The real weight is in the rings. On his right hand he wore a pinky ring from the Grand Bazaar that he and Abbey picked out together on her first ever trip to Istanbul. On his left, a second pinky ring that is one half of a pair, the matching one living on his father in law’s hand. For the after party he loosened things up with an Etro grey and white paisley shirt, paisley being something his friends know him for.
First Look
This is where Anna Roussos really gets to show off. The first look happened against the white florals and the water, and then the couple slipped inside for portraits in one of the palace’s Iznik tiled rooms, Abbey by the window in her veil looking like she stepped out of a painting on the wall behind her. The hand painted tiles, the gilded ceiling, the cathedral veil pooling on the patterned floor, all of it reads as a frame from a film.
Ceremony
The ceremony happened outside with the altar set right on the edge of the Bosphorus, water as the backdrop and zero need for anything extra. Guests walked in through the palace’s massive golden gates, the same Big Gate Abbey would later pass through, and Ruks Event made the call to leave the original palace stone bare underfoot so the history of the building did the work.
For the altar, the team built six tall acrylic stands at staggered heights, the tallest clearing five foot eight, each topped and skirted with four kinds of white flowers. The altar stayed strictly white, which let the soft pinks lining the aisle and the bridesmaids in their blue gowns carry the color.
The part that hit hardest was the language. Mete is from Turkey, and many of his family and friends speak little to no English, so a close friend officiated the whole thing in both languages, alternating paragraph by paragraph between English and Turkish. The couple chose Çırağan Palace on purpose, the only Ottoman imperial palace turned hotel on the Bosphorus, originally built for a sultan, because they wanted their American guests crossing the world to land somewhere that actually felt Turkish.
Moments Together
Cocktail hour moved out to the gardens and terraces, with a live saxophonist from Bodro Artists soundtracking drinks over the water and an aerial shot catching the whole crowd spread across the lawn with the Bosphorus dropping off behind the balustrade. The bridesmaids in cornflower blue and the guests in their summer best turned the terrace into its own kind of set.
Reception
The reception took over the veranda between the palace and the water, and the whole design hangs on one idea: blue as the sea. Ruks Event pulled the concept from a line by the Turkish poet Cemal Süreya, “To love is such a long word, such a deep word, as blue as the sea,” and built that blue into everything except the flowers.
Abbey was firm that she did not want blue blooms or anything hanging over the dance floor, so the team made giant flowers out of thin fabric with waved edges instead, hung them above the floor, and dropped a chandelier through the center of each one at a different height. The blue dance floor sits underneath as the focal point of the entire room, with the rest of the palette kept in cream, white, soft pink, and gold so the blue gets room to breathe.
Their monogram runs the place like a brand. It shows up on the dance floor, on custom pillows scattered across the lounge couches, behind the bar, on the napkins, the menus, and the wax seals. The tables alternate between rounds dressed with ten arm candelabras and two long mirrored tables curved into S shapes, every centerpiece packed with garden style white florals, candles at mixed heights, and the smallest hints of pink. Greenery was banned on purpose, so any green you spot comes only from the flower stems themselves.
The band earned its keep. Bodro Artists brought a twelve member showband with costume changes and three vocalists who came out one at a time, and the party did not quit until five in the morning. The cake cutting pulled every phone up at once, a tall white tiered cake lit under starburst spotlights. For their first dance the couple learned a fully choreographed routine to Frankie Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, lifts and spins and dips included, which they pulled off cleanly exactly once, on the day that counted.
When the after party kicked in, Abbey swapped into a short beaded Natalya Valentine dress with off the shoulder straps she could remove to go fully strapless and really move. They made their entrance from the upper landing of the imperial staircase, looking down at every American and Turkish face they love gathered in one place, which guests later summed up in four words: your wedding was a movie.
Advice from the couple:
• Everyone always says “you learn who your real friends are when you plan a
wedding,” and yes, this is definitely true. However, nobody mentions that your
relationships with others get so much stronger. Friendships I didn’t even think had
room to get stronger did. So the advice I would give to future brides is yes, there will be some let downs. Let downs from people you never thought would let you
down, but just hang on because other people will show up for you in ways you
never expected.
• One thing I wish I knew: the wedding blues are so real! Wait to do your honeymoon – it gives you something to look forward to when you’re feeling a bit sad that everything is over.
PHOTOGRAPHER Anna Roussos of Ratta Studio | PLANNING & CREATIVE DIRECTION Ruks Event | VENUE Çırağan Palace Kempinski | VIDEO KEJ Productions | CONTENT Socially Michelle & Co | FLORAL TEAM By Çiçek Adam & Florart | INVITATIONS Katto Ne Paper | HAIR Micki | MAKEUP Galya Gorniskha | WELCOME PARTY DRESS Cult Gaia | CUSTOM DRESS DYEING Veronica Buitron | WEDDING DRESS Galia Lahav | AFTER PARTY DRESS Natalya Valentine | LIVE BAND Bodro Artists | TECHNICAL INSTALLATIONS Dark Technical & NNAZ
