Start with Verona, add a villa winery setting, deep autumn color, a harpist at the ceremony, risotto all’Amarone at dinner, millefoglie for dessert, and fireworks at cake cutting, and you get Lauren and Dave’s wedding weekend in its strongest form. The whole thing carried that rich, moody, fully immersive Italian feel, with Danila Stella bringing every layer together and making the entire planning process feel genuinely smooth, which allowed the lovebirds to trust her completely, step back from the smaller decisions, and simply enjoy it all.
Location: Verona, Italy
Style: Classic, Moody, Italian
Time of planning: 1 year
Number of guests: 70
Setting: Historic Villa
Season: Fall
Lauren and Dave met the way very few wedding stories begin, through Muay Thai. Both living outside Los Angeles, they first crossed paths at the same gym, then got closer during COVID, when a smaller group from the gym began working out together at a park. What started there turned into a relationship, and three years later Dave proposed during Lauren’s birthday trip in front of the people she loves most.
Her best friends were all part of the surprise, and her parents arrived afterwards for a dinner party, which made the whole moment feel even bigger. For the wedding itself, the couple wanted something intimate, warm, and centered on the people closest to them. Italy made perfect sense, not only because Lauren’s family is Italian, but because it has been part of her life for years through travel, memory, and family history. Their celebration on film was captured by Wedding Soul.
Welcome Day
Lauren and Dave built their wedding around a Verona. With both bride’s maternal and paternal grandparents born in Italy, the couple wanted the entire celebration to feel connected to place in a way that went far beyond the setting itself. With planner Danila Stella, they leaned into deep autumn color, richer mood, and completely at home feeling against the architecture of Villa Mosconi Bertani. As Lauren shared, Danila really understood all her wishes and preferences and brought the whole vision to life better than she could have imagined.
That tone came through immediately at the welcome dinner, which introduced the weekend with a lighter, more playful kind of Italian energy. The styling pulled from the local setting in a way that felt smart and self-aware: a custom striped banner reading La Dolce Vita Begins!, tiny illustrated food motifs, and draped ivory tables scattered with pasta and bright red tomatoes, turning familiar ingredients into decor with a wink.
For the welcome dinner, Lauren wore a fitted white dress covered in delicate embellishment. Her hair was styled in soft natural curls, which gave the whole look a more relaxed, after-hours kind of glamour and worked especially well against the playful setup around her.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
Lauren’s wedding morning started in the most Italian way possible: with pasta. From there, the mood shifted into something cleaner and more sculptural. While the design of the wedding leaned into the villa’s grandeur, rich color, and all that beautiful drama, Lauren chose a bridal look that moved in the opposite direction, simple, classic, and sharply refined.
Her gown by Louvienne from Lovely Bride Los Angeles had a fitted silhouette, a sweetheart neckline, and soft ruching through the bodice that gave it shape without ever feeling overworked. For the ceremony, she added an overskirt, bringing in an extra layer of volume and movement while keeping the line of the dress itself sleek.
The accessories carried the drama in a more personal way. Lauren had a custom pearl necklace made by Marvel Jewelry in Los Angeles, centered around a vintage diamond brooch and paired with matching earrings. It gave the whole look a stronger point of view, especially alongside her white pearl-detailed mules, a pair that felt polished, bridal, and actually wearable for a full day.
The best part is that this was not even the original dress. Just a week before leaving, Lauren found herself back in Los Angeles searching for a replacement after an alterations mishap with her first gown.
“It was crazy, but the dress was a miracle find and now it’s a funny story,” she said. She also gave a heartfelt shoutout to Albert at Lovely Bride, who helped her through the last-minute search, and to the family friend who stepped in for the alterations. In the end, the whole experience made the dress feel even more meaningful, not just because it looked right, but because it arrived through the kind of care and support that stays with you.
Groom’s Fashion
Dave’s look followed the same classic direction, but with enough personal detail to keep it from feeling too expected. He wore a sharp black tuxedo finished with patent leather shoes and a bow tie, keeping the silhouette clean and formal in a way that made perfect sense against the scale and drama of the villa.
Then came the detail that made it feel way more personal: inside the jacket, his suit was embroidered with lyrics from the couple’s first dance song in purple, his favorite color. His groomsmen also kept the group look in his lane, with a mix of bow ties and ties instead of fully matched suits, which gave everything a more relaxed, stylish feel.
Ceremony
The ceremony took place right in front of Villa Mosconi Bertani, which already gave the whole moment a huge amount of visual presence before a single floral stem was added. The facade has that exact kind of old Italian grandeur that does half the work for you, so the design direction stayed smart and let the architecture lead.
Instead of crowding the space, the setup framed it: soft theatrical draping across the entrance, low florals in those rich burgundy tones, and just enough depth and color to make the scene feel dressed. It had that very specific kind of ceremony styling that feels elevated because it knows when to stop.
That setting made perfect sense for Lauren and Dave, who had fallen for the villa’s architecture from the start and wanted the ceremony to happen right there in front of it. The whole thing also stayed very much in their lane emotionally. They wrote their own vows, had one of Dave’s best friends officiate, and kept the format personal in a way that felt intimate rather than overly polished. A live harpist brought in that extra layer of softness, which only made the whole scene hit harder.
Then came the part they really wanted to protect: the actual aisle moment. Lauren and Dave skipped a first look and saved all of that emotion for the ceremony itself, which gave the whole thing way more charge.
“We just wanted all of our raw emotion to be apparent in the ceremony and wanted to authentically express our love in front of our closest friends and family.”
And that is exactly what happened. Dave said his favorite moment was seeing Lauren walk down the aisle, while for Lauren, it was hearing his vows. Out of the whole day, this was the part that stayed with them most, which honestly makes sense, because everything about the ceremony, from the setting to the structure to the emotion, felt completely locked in.
Cocktail Hour
The cocktail hour unfolded in the back garden. The styling leaned darker here, which worked so well against all that green: long tables wrapped in deep olive-brown fabric, low candles, silver pedestal bowls, and floral clusters in those same moody burgundy tones that carried through the rest of the day.
The food setup pushed that mood even further. Instead of treating cocktail hour like a basic drinks-and-bites moment, they turned it into a full visual spread, with rows of small plates, glossy fruit, creamy cheese, and colorful savory bites laid out almost like edible still lifes. You had those silver stands lifting everything at different heights, candles tucked in between bowls and platters, and the whole table running through the garden like a styled little feast waiting to be picked apart.
Moments Together
After the aperitivo, the newlyweds slipped away for a little time together, which gave the whole evening a different kind of rhythm for a minute. Their celebration was captured by Zonzo in a way that kept all of that intact, the movement, the quiet, and the sense that for a little stretch of the evening, it was just the two of them again.
Reception
After the garden aperitivo, the reception landed in a room full of frescoes, old-world detail, and exactly the kind of interior that could carry a richer design direction without feeling overworked. Danila Stella and the team leaned all the way into that mood with long banquet tables dressed in mocha linens, deep burgundy florals, fruit woven through the tablescape, and cameo place settings that gave the whole setup a clear Italian Renaissance reference without tipping into costume.
It was layered, dramatic, and incredibly well judged, the kind of reception design that feels immersive because every element is speaking the same language. Lauren had only known the general vibe going in, so seeing the tables for the first time became one of the best surprises of the day, and, as she shared, it turned out to be everything she had dreamed of.
The room also benefited from one very smart layout choice: two long banquet tables instead of a more broken-up floor plan. Visually, it made the reception feel even stronger, pulling the eye straight through the sala and letting all those tones, textures, and details read as one big statement. Socially, it worked just as well. Lauren and Dave loved that the setup made it easier to spend time with each other and with their guests, which gave dinner a more connected, communal energy.
Then there was the food, which mattered hugely to Lauren’s family and to the whole idea of getting married in Italy in the first place. As a destination bride, she had walked into it with some uncertainty since she had not been able to taste anything beforehand, but the result completely blew past expectations. Guests were especially impressed by both the quality and the quantity, and local dishes like risotto all’Amarone brought in that extra layer of Verona, turning dinner into part of the destination experience itself.
Music mattered just as much as the design, so their first dance landed on a rock song they both loved, Recollect by Hands Like Houses, which gave the night a more personal edge right when it needed it. From there, the dance floor kept going into the early hours, exactly as Lauren had hoped when she chose Villa Mosconi Bertani as the setting for a celebration that could really stretch out and live a little.
Speeches from family and close friends ran through dinner and gave the room that perfect mix of laughter, tears, and slightly chaotic affection that always makes a wedding feel alive. Later came the millefoglie cake, which Lauren still talks about like a personal loss, followed by fireworks during the cake cutting, a detail that felt especially fun for an American crowd and instantly sent the whole celebration into party mode.
Advice from the couple:
• If you’re doing a destination wedding, you have to have a planner you trust! Take your time in the beginning meeting with different planners and discussing their process until you find one who “clicks” with you. I met with about 8-10 different planners before I got that “i just know” feeling!
CONCEPT & PLANNING Danila Stella Events | DESIGNERS Danila Stella Events, Steven Fa Design, Papyros Studio| PHOTOGRAPHER Zonzo | VIDEOGRAPHER Wedding Soul Alex Bonaldo | CONTENT CREATOR La Dolce Vita Content Creator | VENUE Villa Mosconi Bertani | FLORAL Fluida Design | MUA Erika Fusca Wedding MUA | HAIR Anastasia Kataurova | DRESS Louvienne, Lovely Bride LA, Lovely Bride | JEWELRY Marvel Jewelry Inc | BRIDE’S SHOES Badgley Mischka | SUIT Indochino | CATERING Food & Sweet Catering | DJ Bianco Vinile
