Julia Toledano Wore Dior to Her Civil Ceremony in Paris—And to Her Bigger Celebration in Turkey
Julia Toledano, the founder and designer of the popular shoe brand Nodaleto, and soccer agent and manager Roman Ichbia met when they were just 6 years old, quickly becoming childhood friends. “When we turned 14, our love story began,” Julia remembers. “We had our ups and downs and got separated by a breakup for a couple of years, but timing brought us back together when we eventually found each other again six years ago at the birthday of a mutual friend.” Since then, they’ve barely left each other’s sides.
The two got engaged during the pandemic in the summer of 2020, with Roman planning the wedding all throughout lockdown. “It will forever be one of the most magical moments of my life,” Julia says. “We were in the South of France with our family and friends, and Roman took me for a little escape at our favorite Hotel Les Roches Rouge in Saint Raphael. I didn’t suspect anything at this point as we usually go there for a couple of days every summer. But on our second night there, he specifically asked me to get ready earlier to enjoy the sunset together at a restaurant on the beach, which seemed unlike him. I remember feeling very lazy after the beach that day, so I did a quick makeover in just a matter of minutes and then headed out, as I wasn’t expecting anything.”
The two hopped in a car, and Roman put a blindfold on Julia. “It turned out he was actually driving me to my favorite place on earth: The Palais Bulles,” she says. “When we got there, he took off my blindfold, got down on one knee by the infinity pool, and proposed. He had organized a dinner with a French chef, and we enjoyed this magical place together.”
After the engagement, the couple set out to plan two wedding celebrations, the first of which was a civil ceremony in Paris. (They worked with Evelyne Layani to plan the service and then the subsequent party at Hotel le Marois.) For the civil ceremony, the bride wore a super light, modern version of a bar jacket by Dior with straight-cut large pants in a very specific cream color. “For the after-party, I wanted to go for a sexier look, so we went for an open-back men’s bustier that preserved the elegance of my look while giving it some modernity,” she says. “I chose to wear a pair of Nodaleto shoes, of course—the Bulla Smith in gold radiant. I love the super ’90s style of a closed mule. It was the perfect pair to match with my Dior look because they communicate the same story, but through a different aesthetic.”
In early May, Julia and Roman married again in a much larger ceremony that took place in Kaplankaya, Turkey. “We wanted to host our bigger wedding in Turkey because we share mutual Turkish origins,” Julia says. “It’s really important for us to celebrate and cherish our cultural heritage. We have many mutual memories, and we wanted to share these with our family and friends on this special occasion.”
The couple started traveling to Turkey at the beginning of November to plan the wedding weekend, and they immediately fell in love with the natural beauty of Kaplankaya. “This place is out of the world, and it very quickly became our home and a place that represented our coming together,” Julia says. (They worked with Ceremony Events at the Six Senses Hotel to plan everything.)
Once the location had been decided, Julia then reached out to Dior to see if they might be able to design her dress. “After 8 months and many fittings, I will never forget how we all had tears in our eyes during my final fitting,” Julia says. “The Dior team became my family. They were able to bring my vision and my dream wedding dress to life. I didn’t even want to look anywhere else. I wanted to give all of my trust to Maria Grazia Chiuri.” To kick off the wedding weekend, Julia wore a long, airy dress from the Dior cruise 2022 collection and a customized Marucca diadem for the vibrant Turkish Night celebrations, which began with a seated dinner and ended with a bonfire on the beach.
For the actual wedding ceremony the next night, the bride again looked to Dior for a couture dress by Chiuri. “I wanted to go for an aesthetic that resembles me and that is an accurate reflection of my style,” Julia says. “[To that end,] we chose to design a simple yet technical dress, focusing primarily on the silhouette, the fabric, and the technique on the tombé. I wanted to feel like a Turkish goddess and for the dress to encapsulate purity. I was also aware of how magical the setting of the wedding ceremony was and how we were going to be surrounded by nature and the sea, so I kept this in mind as I wanted my look to feel as organic and as natural as the surroundings.”
