These Brides Hosted Four Days of Karaoke-Filled Wedding Celebrations Across Two Countries
Kim Culmone and Stacy Zosky’s first meeting took place entirely by chance. The two were on a trip in Costa Rica with their respective spouses back in 2009 and happened to be on the same sightseeing excursion bus. “Later at the resort, I spotted her on the beach watching the sunset,” shares Stacy. “I approached and said hello—this was out of character for introverted me, but something drew me in. I look back now on that moment and feel somehow it was fate.” The two couples became friends and even traveled together the following year. “Life went on,” says Kim, who serves as senior vice president and global head of doll design at Mattel, Inc. “Our former marriages struggled and evolved. Both eventually came to end. Friendship evolved and turned to romance, and we’ve been together since 2016. And, we are both extremely lucky to still call our former partners our friends.”
Stacy, who runs a legal recruiting agency, decided to propose to Kim on Valentine’s Day in 2023. “I told my adult children, Lenna and Seth, I was going to pop the question. Their reaction: ‘Finally, mom!’ They absolutely adore Kim who had become a second mom to them,” she says. Stacy decided to hold off on the engagement ring as she knew Kim would want input in the design process. So, she decided to surprise her during a dinner at Caviar Kaspia in L.A. “I took out a notebook and read to Kim poems and song lyrics I had written for her over the years,” Stacy shares. “Then I handed her the book and asked her to read my last entry: ‘Marry Me? You’re all I want! You’re all I ever wanted now and forever!’” She said yes—and both tears and Champagne flowed. (When it came time to pick the engagement ring, Kim designed it with Lorraine Schwartz, who made the perfect design suggestion to include the initials “SLS” in diamonds on the band for her family-to-be: Stacy, Lenna, and Seth.)
Stacy and Kim split time between their homes in Toronto and Los Angeles, so they also decided to divide their wedding up between their two home bases. “Stacy’s parents couldn’t travel to L.A. for our wedding, so we wanted to make sure both weddings were unique and beautiful, though very different,” the couple explained. The events would begin on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, with a legal ceremony and dinner with 28 close friends and family in Toronto at Gladstone House. “We chose the date because it was a new moon, solar eclipse, and a lucky day for new starts in life,” they share. “It also fell on Rosh Hashanah, so we incorporated some of the holiday traditions into our dinner.” Their bi-coastal wedding would continue that Friday with a karaoke welcome party at the Pendry West Hollywood’s bowling alley bar. On Saturday, Kim and Stacy would host 130 guests at Hotel Per La in Downtown L.A. for their large ceremony and reception. A “Bagels, Mimosas, and Bloody Marys Brunch” followed the next day as a send-off to the celebrations.
Kim describes the planning process as “all-consuming and intense.” She adds, “It is hilarious now when I think back to our initial planner interviews where we said, ‘Oh it will be maybe 50 people; low key. In fact, maybe we’ll just elope or have only the kids, Kim’s mom, and Stacy’s sisters there.’” But when Kim realized her family in New Orleans was game to travel to California for the festivities, everything changed. “The realization that this was really happening—that we were formally merging our lives and families—became so real,” she says. “It was then that we knew we wanted to create an unforgettable celebration as a gift to all those we love and who have supported and enabled our love story to come to this moment in time.”
The couple teamed up with Emily Gaikowski of Heartthrob Events to bring their dream wedding to life. “I would imagine having a bride as a client who is also a designer can be overwhelming—I had mood boards for my mood boards,” says Kim. “Emily assembled a team of fabulous professionals who expressed my vision with their own flair, evolving my ideas and bringing it all to life with incredible detail.” The concept for the wedding put the guest experience first, while also placing plenty of attention on the details. “We wove together influences like our love of music, inspiration from our favorite hotels in New Orleans, L.A., New York, and Paris that all have moody, rock n roll vintage vibes, and a palette of matte black, deepest plum, inky imperial blue, and black cherry with warm creams and champagne gold.”
Curating the music for the weekend was a highlight for the couple, who organized a karaoke night, a New Orleans horn ensemble and Second Line, a playlist ranging from jazz standards to Chappell Roan, and a special performance from their son Seth, who took a break from performing in the Broadway show Titanique for the Los Angeles celebration. Another standout of the planning process was meeting multiple times with their officiant, Rabbi Heather Miller. “She helped us engage in deep reflection around the spiritual importance of our union and commitment to each other,” says Stacy. “Rabbi Heather, being a member of the LGBTQ+ community herself, understands the challenges faced by same-sex couples and the continued fight to secure rights for our community, including the right to marriage. She also included our children as a crucial step in the process having us openly communicate as a family around the meaning of this moment for each of us.”
Since Kim and Stacy had to build out a wardrobe for four days of events, they decided to work with stylist Sophie Strauss to help craft their looks. “I’ve never hired a stylist that I’ve worked so closely with and now I already miss our daily interactions,” says Kim. “Sophie introduced me to brands I wouldn’t have known and also helped me move out of my comfort zone.” To show off her footwear at her Toronto wedding, Kim donned a custom off-the-shoulder midi dress by Rachel Gilbert. “My dear friend Fabrizio Viti, who is the women’s shoes designer for Louis Vuitton and an avid Barbie collector, designed bespoke, pink slingback heels with anemone appliqués with black crystal centers that reflected the flowers in my bouquet and in our ceremony and dinner florals,” says Kim. For the welcome party, Kim donned a slinky black dress with a floral detail by Datt Official with white and crystal Louboutins. “In the end, it was Stacy’s favorite look and I felt comfortable and sexy in it,” says the bride. For her Los Angeles ceremony, Kim went shopping at LOHO Bride, where she fell in love with a gown by NEWHITE. “[It] was the first dress I tried on and not a look I had chosen for myself or expected at all,” she shares. “The credit goes to Sophie and Destiny at LOHO for finding the gown that expressed how I wanted to feel.”
