This Bride’s Dream Wedding in a Greenhouse at Villa d’Este on Lake Como Became a Reality
Who exactly is responsible for Celine Yousefzadeh and Jonah Lazowski’s match-up is still up for debate. A mutual friend introduced them, but the groom’s sister, jewelry designer Jesse Lazowski, the founder and designer of Marlo Laz, likes to take credit too.
Celine, who is the founder of CY Kitchen—a culinary events and custom caviar company—and her friend Cassandra were both working on a project to raise funds for restaurants and charities at the start of COVID. Cassandra brought Jonah, who runs an advertising company called A Lot Media, to one of the Zoom calls in June of 2020, and they followed each other on Instagram soon after.
A few months later, Celine got a call from Cassandra telling her that she’d found her husband. “She said, ‘Do you remember that guy Jonah? He’s your person. I’ve never introduced you to anyone because no one has ever been good enough. But he is,’” Celine remembers, noting that she was hesitant at first as they lived on opposite coasts. “Being the good friend that she is, Cassandra pushed Jonah and I into conversation, and we immediately hit it off. Texts turned into phone calls, which turned into many several hours of FaceTiming a day.”
After several months of FaceTime dating, Jonah finally traveled to L.A. for their “first date” in real life. A few months after that, he built a closet for her in his Brooklyn apartment. Celine moved in quickly after that. “How could you not?” she jokes.
Jonah eventually proposed in 2022 on his birthday in the couple’s apartment in Brooklyn. “He used the day as a cover, and while we were out getting his favorite bagels at Russ Daughters, he had our siblings fill our apartment with white roses and photos of us,” Celine recalls. “When we returned home, Jonah opened the door and I saw the flowers lining our hallway… I was so caught off guard that the first thing I said in a whisper was, ‘Jonah, I’m in a sweatshirt!’ He then assured me it was just us and no one else. It was very sweet and intimate. Just us in our own home in our sweatshirts!” Dinner had been ostensibly planned to celebrate Jonah’s birthday later that night, but in actuality, it was a small engagement party that Jonah’s sister Jesse had organized in the private room at Nine Orchard.
The wedding, which took place in October 2023, was held at Celine’s dream location: Villa d’Este in Lake Como, Italy. “I remember Jonah asking me where I imagined getting married,” Celine says. “And I brushed it off because I felt that what I had dreamed of would never be possible. After a few times of him asking, I confessed that I had always imagined getting married at Villa d’Este ever since I visited there when I was 20. I had been living in Milan for a few months and took a day trip to Como specifically to see the property. I’ll never forget looking at the mosaic garden for the first time and thinking this would be the place I would get married.”
Italy has been a special destination for both Celine and Jonah since the start of their relationship. After traveling there as a couple and discovering the best tiramisu in Portofino—as well as taking a family trip to Villa d’Este in the winter of 2022—they were firm that it was their dream wedding destination. And after just one call with Emily FitzRoy of Bellini Travel and Liz Linkleter of Liz Linkleter Events, Celine and Jonah knew they were the perfect partners to plan the wedding. “Emily‘s incredible knowledge of Italy, and especially her deep understanding of the food and hospitality, was really key for me, and Liz truly understood our taste and vision and knew how to bring it all to life,” Celine explains.
The overall brief was to create a wedding weekend that felt like a “very chic Italian adult camp,” and throughout the weekend, in a nod to Celine’s heritage, there was a Persian tea table with sweets for guests to enjoy as well as a game room across the hall with custom cards and backgammon boards. “It’s impossible to host Persian guests without having Sadaf cardamom tea on tap and backgammon readily accessible,” Celine notes.
Friday’s Shabbat dinner was focused on family, and was held in Villa d’Este’s Impero room. Florals were kept all white, tapered candles lined two long rectangular tables, and name cards and menus were designed by Bernard Maisner. After a dinner of ossobuco and Dover sole, the couple joined friends who were just arriving on the property for negronis at the bar.
The inspiration for Saturday night’s pre-wedding dinner, on the other hand, was “la dolce vita.” The bride had a vision of bold deep red florals with tall candelabras, overflowing fruits, and waiters in black and white jackets serving pasta from large platters. Dana Rosenfield of d.rosi designed the most amazing stationery, including deep wine red calligraphy and edging details. The night began on Villa d’Este’s iconic terrace with an Italian aperitivo and a live band playing jazz as the sun began to set over the lake. Guests enjoyed plates of pomodoro and pesto pasta while listening to speeches, and as the main course came to an end, Amalfi lemon sorbet with candles was brought out to surprise those who were celebrating birthdays while Italian Opera singers performed. Trays upon trays of Italian cookies were also passed around, and guests were surprised one more—this time with a fireworks display alongside a playlist of Italian classics like “Con te partirò.”
On the wedding day itself, the design directive was to create a very soft, classic aesthetic in white and green. “I’m a first-generation Jewish Iranian-American, and Jonah’s grandparents are Holocaust survivors from Poland,” Celine explains. “It was important to both of us to weave in our traditions throughout the wedding process and honor our families.”
The couple’s civil marriage was held under a chuppah in the groom’s parents’ backyard in Connecticut a few months prior to the Italy nuptials, and overseen by Jonah’s 93-year-old grandfather. There, they signed the ketubah in front of their closest family and friends. “It was really meaningful and important that we did that because we knew he wouldn’t be able to travel to Italy,” Celine says.
