A missed FaceTime call started the whole thing, and three years later Aubrey and Michael ended up with ninety guests, one medieval castle in Assisi, and three full days of celebrating in the Umbrian hills. Yana Korn photographed a weekend that moved between wood-fired pizza in a medieval courtyard, handwritten vows overlooking the rolling hills, and sparklers at midnight, without ever losing any detail.
Location: Castello di Petrata, Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Style: Romantic, Monochromatic, Classic
Number of guests: 90
Setting: Castle
Season: Summer
Aubrey and Michael met on a dating app, with a FaceTime pre-screening call as Aubrey’s non-negotiable first step. Michael missed that call. She made an exception anyway, agreed to coffee later, and says that within thirty seconds of meeting him in person, she already knew. Three years later, Michael proposed in Laguna Beach during what Aubrey thought was a birthday trip: a candlelit trail of rose petals to an ocean overlook, with floral arrangements and photos from their relationship lining the path.
When it came to the wedding, they didn’t agree. Aubrey imagined an intimate elopement, Michael imagined something straight out of The Great Gatsby. The compromise they landed on was better than either original idea: ninety guests, a boutique medieval castle in Assisi, Italy, exclusively theirs for three full days.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
The morning of the wedding started the way the best ones do: slowly, with the right people around. Aubrey spent it with her bridesmaids, and by the time Beauty on Fleek was done, her hair was sitting in loose, natural waves that looked less like a style and more like a decision. The makeup read the same way: present enough to photograph, light enough that she still looked like herself. Both things are harder to achieve than they sound.
Somewhere in the room, the invitation suite by Valentina Wedding Graphic was laid out alongside the rings, and it held its own. Letterpress printing, clean typographic hierarchy, a wax seal. The kind of stationery that tells you exactly what kind of wedding you are walking into before you have even arrived at the venue.
The dress was a strapless silk mikado gown by Pronovias, a princess silhouette with an elongated train, and the fabric is what made it. Silk mikado is matte and structured. It doesn’t drift or soften at the edges. It holds. She paired it with an off-white pointed-toe heel from Dolce Vita, a pearl-lined strap across the front, and drop pearl earrings from Mejuri. The jewelry could have been more. She was right to keep it where it was.
Groom’s Fashion
Michael’s look was built around one clear decision: custom. He and Aubrey designed a classic black tuxedo together, immaculately fitted, no trend-chasing.
He paired it with sleek black Magnani shoes, a heritage Italian brand handmade in Bologna. A silver watch and, by the end of the ceremony, a new gold band on his left hand completed the look.
Ceremony
The ceremony took place on a sunny day in June, overlooking the rolling hills of Umbria. Aubrey and Michael exchanged handwritten vows, and though their ceremony wasn’t overtly religious, they chose to marry under a chuppah in honor of Michael’s family heritage, integrated into the white floral installation created by Magnolia Fiori Wedding.
Those florals deserve their own paragraph. The arch is dense, monochromatic, packed with white roses, peonies, and ranunculus with zero negative space. The color discipline is strict: white only, maximum density.
Against the sage green of the bridesmaids and the open Umbrian landscape behind it, the installation functions as a visual anchor for everything. The bridesmaids wore sage green floor-length gowns, each chosen individually. Aubrey gave them two rules only: sage green and floor-length. Each of them selected their own silhouette and cut.
The ceremony was officiated by Michael’s childhood best friend, with music provided by Wedding Artists. Aubrey says she was nervous leading up to the moment, but the second she reached Michael at the altar, she felt calm. He cried when she walked down the aisle. His best friend watched him do it.
Moments Together
The couple portraits are where Yana Korn does her most precise work. What distinguishes these images from standard wedding portraiture is the relationship between the couple and the landscape: they are never posed against the scenery, they are placed within it.
The wide shot of Aubrey and Michael standing small against the Umbrian hillside at golden hour takes patience and timing. That particular warm, diffused light exists for about twenty minutes at the end of a June day in central Italy, and Korn was ready for it.
Yana shoots in both color and black and white across the day, which creates an implicit visual grammar. Color for the warm, open, celebratory moments. Black and white for the more intimate and charged ones.
Reception
The cocktail hour took place in the garden with a 180-degree view of Assisi: pizza, meats, cheeses, caviar, and a continuous flow of aperitifs, to the point where most guests were full before dinner even started. The grand entrance into the reception was set to Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli, with Aubrey and Michael dancing up the stairs to guests.
The reception table layout was Aubrey’s own design: a serpentine S-curve configuration dressed in white and cream florals with tall arrangements. Gold flatware, crystal glassware, and French rattan chairs completed a table that had more going on than most fashion week after-parties.
The venue, lit at night with a canopy of string lights above the stone courtyard, transitions completely from its daytime character: warmer, moodier, more theatrical. A photo booth gave guests something to do with the energy.
The cake moment is the centerpiece of the evening. Aubrey and Michael chose a traditional Italian millefoglie, a layered pastry cake that requires finishing, and decorated it themselves, live, in front of their guests, topping it with cream and fresh berries.
The moment they cut it, sparklers went off behind them to the chorus of Ordinary by Alex Warren. A song called Ordinary, playing as pyrotechnics light up a medieval Italian castle at midnight.
Music throughout the evening was handled by Tastensax, a DJ and live saxophone combination that is a completely transcendent experience. In a medieval Italian castle at night, it was the latter. Lighting was designed by Gianvittorio Pirotecnica.
Before leaving Italy, Aubrey and Michael spent a few quiet days in Sardinia, not a honeymoon, just a decompression, with the actual honeymoon planned for later in the year. It is the kind of decision that only makes sense once you have lived through a three-day castle wedding and understood that the celebration itself requires recovery. They were right about that too.
Advice from the couple:
• I know it’s often said, but it truly is the best advice: enjoy the day. Make time to eat, drink, and soak in the beautiful celebration you’ve so carefully curated over the past months — or even years. The day did go by quickly, but we can honestly say we were fully present and savored every minute of it. That, above all, made it even more meaningful.
PHOTOGRAPHER Yana Korn | VIDEOGRAPHY Urania Wedding Films | PLANNING & DESIGN Petit Bouquet Weddings | VENUE & CATERING Castello di Petrata | FLORALS Magnolia Fiori Wedding | MUAH Beauty on Fleek | BRIDE’S DRESS Pronovias | BRIDE’S SHOES Dolce Vita | BRIDE’S JEWELRY Mejuri | GROOM’S SHOES Magnani | STATIONERY Valentina Wedding Graphic | VIOLINIST Wedding Artists | DJ & SAX Tastensax | LIGHTING & PYROTECHNICS Gianvittorio Pirotecnica | PHOTO BOOTH Photo Booth Umbria
