The view alone stops you. Perched 300 meters above Monaco, The Maybourne Riviera gave Demi and Sunny a wedding that felt suspended in air. A mirrored aisle wrapped in a blush-to-ivory floral gradient led to a stage set against nothing but ocean. Sixty-five guests flew in from seven countries for four days of celebration, from a seaside welcome dinner to a festival DJ set that ran into the early hours. LA76 Photography was behind the lens for all of it.
Location: South of France, overlooking Monaco
Style: Modern, Luxurious, Elevated
Time of planning: 9 months
Number of guests: 56
Setting: Hotel
Season: Summer
Demi met Sunny in the California Bay Area, where he lives, during a trip to visit her sister. She had mostly given up on finding the right partner. He was leaning toward golf instead. Then they met, and neither felt the need to look any further. “It was clear we both found what we were looking for,” they’ve said. “Each other.”
They were inseparable almost immediately, crossing time zones just to be in the same city. Eight months after their first date, they decided to spend the rest of their lives together. They registered their marriage in Taiwan not long after, then set about planning the celebration that would eventually bring their closest friends and family to a cliffside hotel above Monaco.
Concept & Inspiration
Demi didn’t want the old-world elegance so many European weddings lean into. She wanted modern, and she wanted it to feel entirely her own. That vision took shape during a three-month trip across Europe in the summer of 2024, Paris to Provence, Saint-Tropez to Lake Como, Portofino to the Amalfi Coast, before The Maybourne Riviera stopped them cold.
Perched on the cliffs above Monaco, the hotel’s stark, sculptural architecture and its uninterrupted view of the Mediterranean made the decision for them. They didn’t leave the property once during that stay. When they got engaged, choosing it as their venue took less than a minute.
Pink, Demi’s favorite color, became the thread running through everything, blended into a soft gradient with white across the florals. Imène Hanafi, of The Wedding Planners Monaco, calls it “a crescendo of color,” a gradual transition built to lead the eye straight to the ceremonial stage. Guests were asked to dress in pastels, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, gray, and brown, while black, white, pink, and floral prints stayed off the table, keeping the whole palette in conversation with itself.
"We wanted our wedding to be colorful, just like our personalities: passionate, adventurous, and sophisticated."
The venue did most of the talking. Built in 2021 and set 300 meters above the coastline, The Maybourne Riviera is carved directly into the mountainside, its all-white architecture framing views across Monaco, France, and Italy. Demi and Sunny spent six nights in the hotel’s Panoramic Suite, where they’d later get ready and share their first look.
Bridal Fashion
For her dress, Demi turned to Nicole + Felicia, the Taipei-founded couture house whose sculptural, architectural gowns have shown up on the red carpet at the MET Gala and Cannes. Hair and makeup went to Milan-based artist Jieyunzi, who’d done Demi’s makeup once before, for her sister’s wedding at Lake Como.
She finished the look in heels from Amina Muaddi and Chanel, with jewelry from her own diamond brand, Her.Diamond.World: a GIA-certified 1.50-carat diamond engagement ring set in 18-karat white gold, paired with a full eternity band of oval-cut diamonds.
"One of the most special moments was when my father saw me in my wedding dress for the first time. Through tears, he said, “You look so beautiful.” Having always been a conservative and strict father, witnessing his gentle, emotional side in that moment was deeply touching."
Groom's Getting Ready
Sunny got ready in a white Dior tuxedo, paired with a Gucci shirt and a bow tie and sunglasses, also Dior. He layered on cuff links from Louis Vuitton, a Rolex Daytona on his wrist, and shoes from Regal. His wedding band, custom-made through Geoffrey’s Diamonds & Goldsmith, was the one personal touch built just for the day. He and his groomsmen suited up in the same white-and-black palette, catching the last of the Riviera light before it was time to see the bride.
First Look
They had the whole Panoramic Suite to themselves for the first look, drapes pulled back onto nothing but sea and sky. Sunny turned, and for a second neither of them said a word.
“When you look through our wedding photos, the most distinctive element is undoubtedly the venue, The Maybourne Riviera,” Demi said. “The hotel itself is an architectural masterpiece: modern, refined, and effortlessly clean, with its all-white design seamlessly carved into the mountainside.”
Ceremony
The aisle unfurled across mirrored glass, banked on both sides in roses and hydrangeas fading from white into soft pink as they neared the stage. The stage itself was framed in mirrored contours, catching the flowers’ reflection in the afternoon light. “Every detail was intentional, every reflection a celebration of love and light,” said Imène Hanafi.
For Demi, walking that aisle was the moment she’d been waiting for without quite knowing it. “It truly felt like a dream come true,” she said. “In that moment, it felt as though everything she had been through had finally blossomed into something beautiful.” The tears that came were happy ones, “like soft rain falling,” by her own account rare for a bride who doesn’t consider herself a crier.
For Sunny, watching his bride walk down the aisle, share her vows, and say “I do” was one of those moments he’d pictured his whole life. This one, he says, was more perfect than he ever imagined. Their kiss set off a shower of petals from the 65 guests who’d flown in to watch it happen.
Cocktail Hour
With the ceremony done, guests spilled onto the lawn for drinks with Monaco and the Mediterranean stretched out below them. Instead of a traditional guest book, Demi and Sunny set out a table of Polaroid film and a blank album, so guests could snap their own portraits, tuck them in, and scribble a note beside them. Nearby sat a 12-by-18-inch glass album filled with the couple’s proposal photos from Hawaii and their studio portraits from Taiwan, something for guests to flip through between glasses of champagne.
“One of the things we love most about destination weddings is the opportunity to spend an entire weekend with the people you love most. It feels less like a single wedding day, and more like a shared experience and vacation with your favorite people."
Decor & Reception
The reception took over the rooftop restaurant, all glass and open air above the Mediterranean, the kind of room that made dinner feel like it was floating. The palette carried straight through from the ceremony, blush and white blooms scattered across the tables, candlelight catching the stemware. Demi designed and printed all of the stationery herself: place cards with hot-stamped names, and dinner tables named after cities the couple had traveled to together.
Voster & Gallardo, a DJ duo known for their festival sets, took over as the sun went down, and guests strapped on glowing rings before the dancing started. Photos from the couple’s engagement shoot in Paris were displayed around the room.
Guests also went home with a jar of lavender honey from a farm in Provence — a nod to the mornings Sunny spent making Demi honey water during their trip there, and a fortune cookie wrapped with their wedding photo and a handwritten note tucked inside.
Between courses, cash-prize games tested how well the guests actually knew the couple, capped off by a dance battle set to Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” Demi’s father stole the night, pulling off his jacket mid-song and out-dancing competitors half his age. Cake was cut under a shower of sparklers, followed by a champagne tower and toasts that ran well past midnight.
The Conversation That Changed Everything
Even with a dream venue and a clear vision, Demi admits the months leading up to the wedding weren’t easy. Planning came with the usual last-minute scrambles and moments of panic, especially, she says, for a perfectionist with high standards.
What shifted things was a conversation at the welcome dinner. She sat down with Romana and Mariano of LA76 Photography and talked for half an hour, and something in her settled. “They reminded me that this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, to have all your friends and family gathered from around the world in one place,” she said. “No matter what happens, just embrace it and enjoy it, because the next time you bring everyone together like this might not be for a celebration, but for something very different.”
She let go of chasing perfect after that. “I stopped chasing perfection and allowed myself to simply be present, to smile, and to truly experience it all,” she said. “My wedding would not have been the same without you.”
“The experience we all shared together felt truly priceless, and I know it is something their guests will remember fondly for years to come. It was such an honor to document it all."
Advice from the couple:
• Hire LA76 Photography for your wedding—they are truly the best! Not only do they beautifully capture every important moment, but they are also incredibly professional when it comes to managing the timeline and helping keep the bride calm throughout the day.
• Your wedding day will go by in an eye-blink; try to enjoy the day as much as possible.
PHOTOGRAPHER LA76 Photography | PLANNING Imène Hanafi, The Wedding Planners Monaco | VENUE The Maybourne Riviera | VIDEOGRAPHER The Wedding Valley | MUAH Jieyunzi | DRESS Nicole + Felicia | FLORAL DECORATION The Blonde Flower | PRODUCTION Deco Flamme | WEDDING CAKE Queen Cake | STRING QUARTET Giardino Strings | DJ Voster & Gallardo | BRIDE Demi Lin
