The Bride Wore a Cathedral-Length Veil for Her Fairy-Tale Wedding in the Clouds of the Italian Alps
On July 4, 2024, Alessandra Medina Garretti and Andrea Garretti exchanged vows in a setting befitting a fairy tale—a sun-drenched day in the Italian Alps, surrounded by family, friends, and the staggering beauty of Gressoney-La-Trinité. But this was not just another destination wedding. The choice of location was deeply personal: Andrea’s family has lived in Gressoney since the 1500s, and its landscapes hold decades of cherished memories.
Alessandra, who is in furniture design, and Andrea, a civil engineer, first met in New York in 2017 through Tinder—neither expecting anything serious, but fate had other plans. When Andrea proposed in Sicily in September 2022, he managed to surprise Alessandra despite her suspicions. “I had a feeling this would be the trip he would propose on, but when I teased him about it beforehand, he dismissed the idea, saying getting a ring would take months,” Alessandra recalls. “I decided to go with zero expectations to avoid being disappointed.” Yet, as they walked along the Tonnara di Scopello, Andrea dropped to one knee, producing the sapphire ring she had once described to him in passing. “I was amazed—not only that he got around getting the ring but that it was exactly as I had imagined.”
From the start, the couple knew their wedding had to take place in Gressoney. “Many of Andrea’s family members have been married and buried in the town’s church,” Alessandra explains. “His great-uncle, Umberto Mònterin, was even a pioneering glaciologist here, studying climate change.” With such deep familial ties, the town was the perfect setting to bring their loved ones together.
Planning a wedding in the Alps, however, was no simple feat. With limited examples of summer Alpine weddings to reference, the couple enlisted the help of Andrea’s mother, Yolanda Garretti, a renowned caterer and event planner, and Milan-based planner Consuelo Maggini of MO Eventi. “Consuelo and Yolanda were like fairy godmothers throughout the planning process,” says Alessandra. They even entertained the idea of incorporating Alpine cow parades into the celebration, though logistics made it tricky. Instead, two donkeys—Fulgencio and Linda—waited for the couple outside the church, adorned with flowers. “I even rode one as my getaway vehicle to the next part of our wedding,” Alessandra laughs.
Alessandra’s wedding day look was all about vintage-inspired romance. “I knew I didn’t want a puffy dress—I’d already worn one for my sweet 15, and I remember how it kept getting stepped on while dancing,” she shares. She found her dream dress at Danielle Frankel. “I felt like the little bridal figurine on top of the wedding cake—it was perfect.”
To complement the gown, she wore Manolo Blahnik for Danielle Frankel shoes and a cathedral-length mantilla veil, a cherished family heirloom passed down from her cousin. “There’s something very theatrical about mantilla veils,” she says. “On the donkey, with the veil flowing behind me, I kept being told I gave off Virgencita vibes.” Her earrings, designed by her friend Jo-Ann Arosemena, added a personal touch. (Meanwhile, Andrea opted for a classic blue Zegna suit with a green Marinella tie and his Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.)
On the day of the wedding, as the ceremony approached, Andrea was still watering flowers at his family home in jeans, while Alessandra was surrounded by her mother, godmother, cousin, and best friends. “They all teared up when they saw me, and my mom stayed with me until the last moment,” she recalls. Walking into the church, she was met with shouts of “Auguri!” from townspeople gathered in hiking gear to watch. “There’s a wonderful photo of some of them standing by the church, with a kid’s mouth wide open in awe,” she says.
The ceremony itself was an emotional whirlwind. “I smiled at our friends and family as we made our way down the aisle, but the moment I saw Andrea standing at the end, I had to fight back tears,” she shares. Their aisle songs—a harp rendition of Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” for Alessandra and a version of “This Must Be the Place” by Talking Heads for Andrea—added a playful, personal touch.
