When Natalia and Roberto from Wow Wedding first sat down with Amanda and Dan to map out their Italian celebration, the vision was clear: elegant, romantic, regal — and above all, alive. What unfolded over a late summer weekend at the Grand Hotel Borromees on Lake Maggiore was exactly that. A wedding so layered in beauty, spontaneity, and genuine feeling that guests who flew in from around the world are still talking about.
Location: Lake Maggiore, Italy
Style: Elegant, Romantic, Classic
Time of planning: 9 months
Number of guests: 121
Setting: Hotel
Season: Summer
Amanda grew up in Texas, had recently relocated from Newport Beach to New York, and was only supposed to stay a few years. Dan, a New Jersey native working in private equity in the city, had other ideas — he just didn’t know it yet. They met at a mutual friend’s housewarming party on one of those clear, sunny New York afternoons. Amanda had forgotten her sunglasses. Dan offered her his. They looked terrible on her, she wore them anyway, and somewhere in that small, ridiculous moment, she knew.
The proposal came on the Amalfi Coast at Casa Angelina, with the cliffside pool below and lemon vines overhead. Dan had told her they were heading up to the rooftop for a quick glass of champagne before a sunset boat ride. When Amanda spotted the flowers, she jokingly said, “I think someone is getting engaged here.” Dan stopped her: “The flowers are for you.” Then he got down on one knee. She had given him three criteria beforehand — be dressed up, make it somewhere beautiful they could return to, and please, get the photos. He delivered on every count.
They’ve since traded the West Village for Notting Hill, and Italy has remained a constant thread — an engagement on the Amalfi Coast, a honeymoon skiing the Dolomites, her brother’s wedding in Tuscany, close friends married in Praiano. The choice of Lake Maggiore felt inevitable.
Inspiration & Planning Process
The couple worked closely with Natalia and Roberto at Wow Wedding from the very start, and by their own account, the planning process was genuinely fun. “We fully trusted their eye for design and I’m glad we did,” Amanda says. “They guided us every step of the way.”
The brief was to let the location breathe. Magnificent on its own, the Grand Hotel Borromees didn’t need to be overwhelmed — it needed a partner. They settled on a palette of green, white, and soft blush pink to keep the grounds looking natural while still feeling intentional.
Entertainment was equally central to the vision. Natalia curated a full cast of performers whose costumes were color-coordinated to each setting: a violinist in pale blue near the water, a saxophonist at an aperitivo, and a violinist in sage green for the ballroom reception. Every time guests moved from one space to another, something new was waiting for them.
Welcome Event
Friday’s welcome dinner was its own production. The original plan called for an outdoor dinner at an elegant lakeside restaurant, but the sky had other ideas. It poured. There was flooding. Natalia moved the entire event inside under a tent and kept it feeling, as Amanda described, “magical.” The saxophonist and singer had the crowd on their feet, a fog machine turned the room back into 2012, and then the chef invited the couple to close out the night with something unexpected: stirring pasta over an open fire in a massive guendalina with one-meter wooden spoons. The guests went wild.
For Friday night, Amanda wore a custom gown she designed in collaboration with a team at Harrods — a process thatbegan almost by accident. She had been trying on dresses there and nothing quite clicked. A sales associate approached her about a new bespoke service just launching. She sent an email, crossed her fingers, and was accepted as one of the first clients. Over seven months, with meetings every six weeks and endless fabric samples and design iterations, the dress took shape.
“Our goal was to create a romantic and feminine dress with an artistic feel, inspired by the gentle waves gliding over the lake in Maggiore,” she recalls. Each piece of fabric was draped by hand to get the wave-like motion across the bodice just right. She paired it with Manolo Blahnik heels and pearl-and-diamond drop earrings from Piccadilly Vaults in London.
Bridal Fashion
Amanda and Dan share a genuine love of dressing up, and this wedding was, by any measure, their greatest occasion to do so.
For the ceremony, she chose Pronovias — a decision made in a New York bridal salon, surrounded by her aunt and her brother and his husband, all of whom had flown in for the occasion. When she stepped out in the dress, her brother’s husband said: “If I was marrying a woman, this is exactly how I would want her to look.” Everyone cried. That was the dress. Full skirt, intricate embroidery, a veil with delicate detailing near the face that felt feminine without being overwhelming. She wore Dior heels, the same Piccadilly Vaults earrings, and a fragrance called Lust in Paradise by Ex Nihilo.
Her reception look, a Maticevski gown, may have been the most fun dress she’d ever worn. “I didn’t want to take it off. It was so fun to wear, the way it moved but held its structure. It felt Gatsby, but not in an overly costume way. It was sophisticated and sexy all in one.” She completed the look with Jimmy Choo heels.
Dan wore a custom tuxedo by J.Mueser — a lightweight black piqué lapel jacket for the ceremony, and a white double-breasted jacket for the reception. His custom bow ties came from La Bowtique in London, a specialty tailoring shop run by Mickael, who has spent over 15 years in men’s tailoring.
Dan gifted each groomsman a bow tie from the shop, each one with the groomsman’s name hand-typed on the back via typewriter. His shoes, custom velvet loafers by Arthur Sleep, were engraved with their initials on the right foot and wedding bands on the left. He also wore engraved cufflinks by Deakin & Francis and a Rolex dress watch.
First Look
They had their first look inside the hotel — in one of the grand, gilded rooms that only the Grand Hotel Borromees can offer. It was one of those private moments in a very full weekend. Just the two of them: before the vows, before the petals. A breath before everything began.
Ceremony
The ceremony took place in the lakeside garden, with the Grand Hotel Borromees rising behind the crowd and the Alps in the distance. Violinists in pale blue gowns were positioned along the water, playing Bridgerton-inspired arrangements as Amanda walked down the aisle with her father.
Towering floral columns of white, blush, and sage hydrangeas framed the round ceremony platform — created by the floral team at Lorien Wedding — with blooms spilling onto the grass all around it. Monogrammed olive-green fans and white parasols waited on every chair.
Amanda’s brother officiated — a full-circle moment, as she had officiated his wedding in Tuscany just a year before. They exchanged personal vows. Amanda had been nervous about it. She’s glad they did it anyway. “I’ll always remember Dan saying to me, ‘I’ve never told you, but every day I come home from work, I run up the stairs because I’m so excited to be back together with you.'”
After the ceremony, the couple walked the aisle as guests showered them in rose petals. The groom dipped the bride. A petal went directly into Amanda’s mouth. She coughed it out, the crowd laughed, and the photographer shook his head: they hadn’t gotten the shot. They walked the aisle again. The second take was perfect. The story became, by the end of the weekend, one of the most-told of the night — her uncle even counted it down as the number one reason this was definitively their wedding.
Boat Moment
Immediately after the ceremony, the newlyweds slipped away onto the lake in a classic Italian speedboat, captured by photographer Konstantin Semenikhin. Lake spray soaked the veil, the mountains cut into the skyline, and neither of them seemed to mind any of it.
Pure newlywed chaos, and somehow, completely perfect.
Decor & Reception
Inside, the ballroom had been transformed by Wow Wedding into something quietly spectacular. Sage-green tablecloths covered round tables dressed with tapered candles, gilded candelabras, and clusters of white and blush florals. The hotel’s original Murano glass chandeliers, gilded ceiling moldings, and arched mirror panels didn’t need much help — the design team simply met them where they were. A custom monogrammed dance floor anchored the center of the room.
“We wanted it to feel like a regal dinner party, but with a lightness to it, so people would feel comfortable dancing the night away,” shared the couple.
A violinist in a layered sage green ballgown welcomed guests as they entered, performing on a low platform framed with white hydrangeas and chrysanthemums. The band opened with a duet of Shallow from A Star Is Born. The room went quiet. Then, for their first dance, Amanda and Dan chose Leon Bridges’ Beyond — a song that had found them earlier that year at his concert in London. They looked at each other in the crowd that night and knew.
The wedding cake was a four-tiered sage green confection from Lisa Bakery Como, decorated with swag piping and pearl detailing, surrounded at the base by green hydrangeas. Amanda changed into her Maticevski gown and, later that night, threw the bouquet into the air in a moment that felt exactly as joyful as it looks.
As the evening wound down — eventually ending with Taylor Swift in their hotel suite until 4am — Amanda and Dan had something to hold onto that not every couple gets: a wedding that actually exceeded what they’d imagined.
"Our guests flew to Italy from LA, NYC, London, Austin and SF and truly have not been able to stop talking about the entire weekend. Thank you, thank you for making our dreams come true."
Advice from the couple:
• The best piece of advice I received was from a friend saying as soon as the wedding weekend starts ‘you aren’t the host, you are the guest of honor.’ When people fly in for a wedding, you just want everyone to have the most amazing time, so it’s hard to take off your hosting hat. This piece of advice kept us grounded for the weekend.
PLANNING & DESIGN Wow Wedding | VENUE Grand Hotel Borromees | PHOTOGRAPHER Konstantin Semenikhin | VIDEOGRAPHER AG Studio | FLORALS Lorien Wedding | ENTERTAINMENT Joy Entertainment | CONTENT Alexandr Dombrovschi | CAKE Lisa Bakery Como | MUAH Lyudmila Belaya | DRESS Pronovias, Maticevski, Harrods | TUXEDO J.Mueser | BOW TIE La Bowtique | SHOES Arthur Sleep | JEWELRY Piccadilly Vaults
