This Scandi Vogue Editor Wore a Custom Corset Gown and Miu Miu Ballet Flats for Her Stockholm Wedding
Allyson Shiffman and her now husband Adam Tideman met “the old fashioned way”, she says. “On Tinder!” After an initial drink, their early dates saw Allyson popping to Adam’s house on Monday nights to watch Game of Thrones, “because I didn’t have a television and I thought he was cute. By the end of that final season of the show, we were boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Four years on in August, Allyson, who is print editor at Vogue Scandinavia, and Adam, a corporate tax lawyer, exchanged vows at Van der Nootska Palace, just around the corner from their apartment in Stockholm. “Even though it’s a palace, it isn’t so extraordinary from the outside,” the bride says. “But the moment we stepped inside we knew this was the place—so old, so charming.”
It was the groom who noticed the building’s potential as a venue, even though he hadn’t previously regarded a wedding as an essential step for the couple. “Over the years we sort of mutually agreed that this was a forever situation. Adam wasn’t big on marriage because his parents, who are together and super happy, aren’t married,” explains Allyson, who, for her part, liked the idea of making it official in front of their loved ones. “We did agree that it would be pretty special to get my Canadian family over to Sweden to meet his family. So one day he just said, okay, let’s do it.”
Unsurprisingly, given her line of work, Allyson immediately set about curating her wedding day wardrobe, and there was only ever one designer on her list for the main event. “I had been dreaming of wearing Dilara Fındıkoğlu on my wedding day,” she says of the Turkish-born, London-based talent, whose fierce and feminist creations have found their way into the closets of Zendaya, Margot Robbie, and Cardi B. “She’s a genius in her construction, her attention to detail, and the way she celebrates the female body.
“Our mutual friend Idil Tabanca—who was my boss a million years ago at her fantastic magazine, Bullett—helped me get in touch. Thankfully, Dilara said yes to making me a custom gown, even though she is so busy dressing every cool and noteworthy person in the world right now.”
After a single Zoom meeting to discuss the bride’s vision, Dilara sent Allyson a sketch of a custom corset gown with black ribbon details. “It was just… perfect,” she says now. “We fit the toile some months later in her London studio while I drank wine out of a Solo cup. I’m so beyond grateful to Dilara and her studio for making my wildest dreams come true.” Besides a pair of white ballet flats by Miu Miu, “so I could dance the night away”, the bride added little else to her fantasy gown. “The dress was so major, I knew I wanted to go low-key on everything else,” she says. “The only piece of jewelry I wanted to wear was my mum’s tennis bracelet. I was hoping she would forget to take it back afterwards… but she didn’t.”
The bride enlisted her friend Sandra Wannerstedt to do her make-up (“All I told her was ‘glowy’”), while Stockholm’s brow artist to the stars, Thomas McEntee, paid Allyson a visit a couple of days before the wedding, returning for a final touch-up on her big day (“He also cinched my corset to within an inch of its life”). In charge of bridal hair was Tony Lundström (“No one brings the vibes like Tony”), whose brief was Allyson’s signature tight bun, “but fancier.” “He came up with a huge sideways bow of hair that Adam had a great time removing when we got home at 4 a.m.”
Allyson turned to another female talent, Mega Mikaela, for her “sexy and fun” after-party dress. “She’s a young Swedish designer who handmakes these insanely awesome chainmail-esque pieces out of washers,” says Allyson. “I discovered her via Alpha, a talent incubator in the Nordics—she’s definitely having a bit of a moment and it’s so well-deserved. Believe it or not, the dress weighed twice as much as my wedding gown. I can’t wait to wear it again.”
The celebrations themselves were every bit as unique as Allyson’s looks, and filled with personal touches. On the eve of the wedding, the bride and groom brought the out-of-towners to Stockholm’s Pelikan restaurant, for a classic Swedish meal of herring and meatballs washed down with shots of schnapps. The bride’s friends, Josef Lazo and his brother Mikael, put together the traditional Jewish chuppah—including it was a “game-time decision”, Allyson says—on the morning of the wedding. Another close friend, the Iranian-Swedish actor and singer Shima Niavarani, conducted the ceremony. “She was funny and sweet and warm and personal, but that came as no surprise.”
The bride recalls getting “full body chills” as the John Erik Eleby Chamber Choir sang “Nothing Compares 2 U”, and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” “I hear there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, but I was trying not to look at anyone so I could keep my composure.” Once Allyson and Adam were officially declared man and wife, the choir’s rendition of “You Got It” by Roy Orbison—with help from Shima—brought the congregation to its feet. “Everyone stood up and started dancing… I was just exploding with happiness,” says the bride.
The dancing started early, and it didn’t stop after the reception, where several of the couple’s friends DJ-ed, and the Canadian contingent gave the Swedish guests an education in the traditional horah. “Afterwards, we relocated to an after-party in a cave-like basement around the corner,” Allyson explains. “The dance floor was still packed when the lights came on at 3 a.m.”
Photo: Vanessa Tryde1/23Getting ready in the bridal suite at Stockholm’s Diplomat Hotel.
Photo: Vanessa Tryde2/23Allyson organized the wedding herself without the help of a planner. “But Ewa Kantecki at the venue was incredibly helpful—we couldn’t have done it without her.”
