Hotel Portofino Inspired Edit
There are few places as conducive to falling in love—or to having a languorous honeymoon—as Portofino. Portofino: a pastel painting, a pearl. It’s easy to imagine days here devoted to nothing more than aimless strolls and sun-drenched aperitivos, wearing wide-brimmed hats and linen dresses. The little town offers beauty so opulent, it’s difficult to know what to admire first: perhaps the villas painted in ochre, sepia, red, and yellow, “like the bright spines of so many books crammed together onto a bookshelf,” muses author Lucy Foley, “a quiet spectacle.” Walking through Portofino, even the most prosaic scenes move the heart—morning markets are filled with jeweled fruits, and there’s always laundry on the line, hanging in plain sight. As evening sets in, the bay takes on a poignancy, as fisherman return home.
The Most Exquisite Wedding Cake Artists Today
Many of us, when we were girls, dreamed at some point of opening a bakery. The bakery of my girlhood dreams was part flower shop—surprise, surprise—a Swiss chalet style building with flowers hand-painted on shutters, and great window boxes overflowing with flora. The doors would open to a space fragrant with fresh flowers and baking bread (how would those comforting fragrances combine? Unclear.). Daily, this bakery would offer be-ribboned boxes of pastries and bundles of flowers, little things to uplift an ordinary moment. It was a bit like Holly Golightly nibbling a Danish outside the Tiffany’s window, only in my version, the heroine longed for flowers with her breakfast pastry, not diamonds.
The Honeymoon Edit: Inspired by Sofia Richie Grainge & the South of France
Anyone who knows me well knows that, for the entirety of my adult life, I’ve been besotted with the South of France. When I dream, I dream of purpled pathways in Provence—of walking the lavender fields at dusk (presumably while carrying a basket purse and wide-brimmed sunhat). J’apprends le français depuis quatre ans et j’adore la langue, la culture, et bien sûr, tout ce qui est mode française. These French reveries and this admiration for the French style is hardly unique to me. Perhaps we all dream, at least once, of having a sun-drenched summer on the Côte d’Azur. Of a languorous honeymoon or romantic getaway with nothing on the agenda but gentle strolls, terrace aperitifs, beachy romps, and day trips to Italy.
11 Exquisite Reasons to Plan a Micro-Wedding
If there was one undeniably positive thing to come from 2020, surely it was the renaissance of micro-weddings. From at-home weddings reminiscent of Father of the Bride to destination affairs endowed with natural beauty; from museum weddings that feel artistic and cerebral to private villa events that explore the grandeur of architecture and landscape, micro-weddings demonstrate the expressive and emotional potential of weddings. The creative possibilities are quite nearly limitless for the bride whose design process is unconstrained by guest considerations. She can wear something couture and unexpected; she can deliver a poetry recitation or read personalized vows; she and her fiancé can steal away somewhere unimaginably beautiful and remote. Tables can become architectural, a study in lines and curves; flower can take on a sculptural and abstract quality, reading more ‘art installation’ than traditional wedding. The styling of the entire event tends to take on a more couture quality. More importantly, freed from the demands of planning a complex event, couples can spend more time praying for and nurturing their union, cultivating spiritual graces which cannot help but suffuse a wedding day with loveliness. A micro-wedding can feel as intimate as prayer, as hushed and sacred an event as any life offers.
