The Bride Wore Custom Danielle Frankel for Her Bucolic Vermont Farm Wedding
“The truth is, we met on Hinge,” Estelle Palandjian says of the first time she crossed paths with her now-husband Francesco Falcone. Intrigued by his bio—“born in France, grew up in Holland, but I’m Italian”—she liked him back, and within weeks, they were at a bar in the West Village. Several negronis later, Francesco walked Estelle back to her Tribeca apartment in the pouring rain. They bought a pack of cigarettes at a bodega, even though neither of them smoked.
In 2023, Francesco, who works in the financial technology sector, proposed at the family home of Estelle, the founder of private shopping app Cake, in Woodstock, Vermont. Estelle remembers the beginning of the day: coffee at Abracadabra, and then sandwiches from The Butcher Shop after hiking to a small lake. Yet, at the summit when he brought out the ring, “I blacked out,” she says, laughing. “All I remember is tears and saying yes.”
Over the Fourth of July weekend, they held a summer wedding in Estelle’s backyard. “We wanted to feel comfortable. At home. And share one of our favorite places in the world with people who might never actually get to Vermont,” says Estelle, adding that the aesthetic of their nuptials was “90% Vermont, 10% Italian.” A local wedding planner, Randi Nonni, assisted with the affair.
After an Independence Day barbecue, for which Estelle wore Ralph Lauren, the couple wed on Saturday, July 5, at Our Lady of the Snows church in Woodstock. Estelle wore a custom gown by Danielle Frankel.
While some brides have hyper-specific visions of their wedding day dress, Estelle, instead, decided to embrace Frankel’s natural artistry: “I immediately trusted her and just let her do her thing. I really didn’t interfere,” she says. The end result? A minimalist white gown with a billowing bubble hem. “It was perfect. Wrapped in this silk gauze material with sleeves and a veil to match,” she says, calling it a “cloud-like dream dress.” Francesco waited for her at the altar in a silk suit by Thom Sweeney.
After a ceremony that Estelle describes as “pure joy,” the two hopped into a Ford F150 and drove to the Farmer’s Market to get Spindrifts. Sparkling waters in hand, they drove up to the house’s pasture upon a hill to take in their first moments as man and wife.
Then, it was time for cocktail hour, held in and around their barn. Guests enjoyed a raw bar and meats prepared over an open fire as horses roamed behind them. The couple had their first dance to Tom Petty’s “Wildflower” on the dock by the nearby pond “and smiled like idiots the whole time,” the bride says.
For dinner, the wedding moved back to the top of the pasture for a farm-to-table meal. After animated speeches from family and friends, the couple hosted an Italo disco after-party back at the barn. Guests danced to music by DJ Luigi Sambuy, only taking the occasional break to make s’mores by the fire pit or grab chicken fingers from local restaurant White Cottage’s food truck. Estelle changed into a party-ready mini dress by emerging designer Alexis Levan. “I wanted something fun, and easy and sparkly and not something I’ve seen a thousand times,” she says of her contemporary choice. In a nod to the bride, the designer now sells the dress under the name “the Estelle.”
“We wanted it to feel like the ultimate weekend away with friends. Not too serious. No stress. All joy and laughter and music and good food and we got that,” says Estelle. Do the bride and groom have anything else to add? “We love being married,” she says.
Photo: Henry Mac1/51When we thought about how we wanted to feel on the day of the wedding, home was the only place that made sense. So we got married at my parents’ house in Woodstock, Vermont.
Photo: Henry Mac2/51I wanted to feel totally relaxed while getting ready. So we did hair and makeup right at the dining table just with our moms and my maid of honor, Alex Entel. We wore Leset pointelle sets for peak comfort and I had on a La Perla robe—something borrowed from Alex. True story: My makeup artist Mariolga did an impromptu reiki session on me that I didn’t know I needed!
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