Bride Alix Creel Wore Three Custom Carolina Herrera Looks to Marry Brando Brandolini d’Adda in Paris
Sometimes mother really does know best. This was undoubtedly the case when Alix Creel and Brando Brandolini d’Adda were set up. “I met Brando’s mother, Muriel Brandolini, when I was having coffee with my mom at Sant Ambroeus uptown,” Alix, who works in marketing for a luxury travel company, remembers. “I was very intrigued by her work, as I was interested in getting into the interior design world.” After they met, Muriel was adamant that Alix meet her son Brando. “She invited my mother and I to a Christmas dinner at their home in December of 2019,” Alix recalls. “And the rest is history.”
By September of 2023, the couple was living together in New York City, and Alix had just returned home from a work trip to LA. Jet-lagged and disoriented, she walked out of her bedroom and into the living room to start her day. “Brando asked me to come into the kitchen and give him a hug,” Alix says. “He had just returned from getting us coffee, and I was still in a robe. But he got down on one knee [right there] and asked me to marry him. It couldn’t have been more organic or more ‘us.’” They celebrated later that night at the Lowell Hotel with Champagne—and fittingly, their mothers came to meet them for a glass of wine.
The wedding took place in Paris on the weekend of October 12. On Thursday, there was a gathering at Alix’s uncle’s apartment on rue de Seine. “It was family only, and it was so nice to be able to have Brando’s extended family meet mine,” Alix says. “Then, we had our welcome dinner on Friday, which was at the iconic La Coupole Brasserie. We really wanted our guests to feel like they were in Paris—and what better way to start the weekend off than at an iconic French brasserie. The evening was filled with music, dancers, classic French food, and ended with dancing.”
On Saturday, the ceremony was held at St. Clotilde Church in the 7th arrondissement. “We had so much fun planning our wedding,” Alix remembers. “Brando has lots of trust in me and knows that planning and organizing is where I thrive—and working with Victoria Botana de Beauvau and her team at Concept Haroue was an absolute dream. We automatically clicked and loved all of their ideas. We would do it all over again and again—but wouldn’t change a thing!”
The bride always knew that she wanted to do a custom wedding dress, so she approached Wes Gordon shortly after she got engaged. He was excited to work together—but he told her to first go look at wedding dresses to see what she liked and didn t like so they could go from there. Alix went to Dior in Paris, Reem Acra, Bergdorf’s, Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, and Monique Lhuillier, and she ended up going with something completely different than what she had originally envisioned.
“I was so happy to have the guidance from the amazing team at Carolina—Wes, Andrea, and of course, Melisa,” Alix says. While the vision for her wedding dress was relatively easy to land on, the bride struggled with choosing her other looks. “There are so many choices out there,” she says. “I was very adamant on wearing something different and unique, but classic, so I ended up asking Wes and the team to design my two other outfits off some inspiration that I had.”
On Friday, she wore a halter midi dress with custom embellishments all along the bottom, which were also replicated onto a sheer organza cape that the bride wore while she welcomed guests and then shed once dinner started. For her wedding dress, Alix remembers showing Wes a few pictures—and then falling in love with his very first drawing. “We had so much fun picking out the lace and working on the entire dress from start to finish,” the bride says. “It was a full ‘Carolina moment,’ which was so fun for me, as I grew up always borrowing all of my mom’s Carolina Herrera pieces—many of which she still has—so this was my time to have my very own, and all custom—which I am so grateful for and will cherish forever.”
