Beauty Entrepreneur Irene Forte’s Sicilian Wedding Was an Elegant, Artisanal Affair
Writer Gabriel García Márquez said, “Going to Sicily is better than going to the moon,” and for Irene Forte, founder of her eponymous skin-care line, and tech entrepreneur Felix Winckler (the CCO and cofounder of Reflaunt, a startup connecting the firsthand and secondhand clothing markets), it was the only place to marry. The destination magically combined both familiarity and discovery for the couple, who has vacationed there since they met four years ago. The area is also home to the organic farm that produces ingredients for Irene’s line, as well as Verdura, a resort that’s part of her family’s hotel group.
French-born Winkler proposed on a trip to Paris in January 2020 with a classic oval diamond ring in a low-key restaurant in the 7th. “I could not wait to get out of the restaurant,” Irene says. “We were so elated.” The pandemic stalled their initial plans for a summer Sicilian wedding, and they rearranged it twice before deciding to marry intimately at Chelsea Old Town Hall on the original date. “We did the legal wedding thinking that possibly we wouldn’t be able to do the actual wedding, but both our families are Catholic, so it was important to get married in a church, and we basically had planned the wedding already,” Irene reasoned. So when restrictions lifted, they decided to go for it.
The stacked invitations by GG Print went out: “They were really fun and had luminaria on them, and each day had a different calligraphy on it.” On arrival, guests were greeted by the French, Italian, and British flags flying high at the Verdura and a custom “I F” flag hanging from the tower. In their rooms were the perfect accoutrement for a Sicilian weekend: coffa bags decorated with recycled materials in the shape of oranges, lemons, and prickly pears (the hero ingredients in Irene’s skin-care line). Inside, Forte placed her Rigeneranti Essenziali Kit, boxed with a watercolor painting of the organic farm at Verdura.
Conversations about the dress started just before the pandemic with family friend Luisa Beccaria. “We spoke breathily about this wedding, then Irene came to Milan to our atelier in late spring,” says the designer. The bride fell for a floral-print organdy fil coupe in pinks and red. “Irene loved the print in the original dress, so we decided to reprint this organdy in the shades of white on white but leaving the leaves in the green. It was quite a difficult process, and many different swatches arrived as we refined the digital printing process,” says Beccaria. Forte’s fashion designer mother commissioned the exquisite Roman embroideries that were added to the dress. Summer arrived, and there were only two fittings: first in Capri, where Beccaria had a summer pop-up, then in Sicily. Because of travel restrictions, the finished dress arrived on the day of the wedding.
The couple chose the Norman cathedral in the medieval mountaintop town of Caltabellotta for the ceremony. The town is built into the rock face, and its rugged charm was further illuminated by traditional luminarie (light archways) decorating the approach. Inside the cathedral’s chapel of Santa Maria della Catena were 16th-century stucco and frescoes by Antonino Ferraro da Giuliana, which served as the pastel color palette for the floral decoration inside and outside, curated by Sebastian Bierings and Frank uit het Broek (who work for the Rocco Forte properties in Rome, Hotel de Russie and Hotel de la Ville).
The flowers for the church and tables were picked with symbolism in mind, including myrtle (love and fidelity), eucalyptus leaf (purity), olive branch (peace and victory), larkspur (serenity), clematis (ingenuity), and anemone (anticipation). “Myrtle flowers have been used for centuries in wreaths during Roman festivals honoring Venus and Minerva,” says Sebastian, who also mixed in fennel, which was prized by the ancients. They believed it to give courage to the warriors prior to battle.