This Wedding at Lake Garda in Italy Was Inspired by Artist Cy Twombly
When Rachael White and John Young met through mutual friends at a party in New York City, she had been living in Madrid and was headed to London in the fall to get her masters in fine art. “I’d had something of a carefree summer,” Rachael says. “I had every intention of moving permanently to Europe, but John knocked me off of my feet. We had a whirlwind romance before I departed in late August.”
The couple dated for six years—the first of which was spent divided across the Atlantic—before they became engaged. “We didn’t expect to wait so long,” Rachael reveals. “We were just having so much fun!”
In the winter of 2017, the artist Cy Twombly’s retrospective was set to open at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and Rachael, who is a specialist in post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, booked a trip as soon as she heard the news. She encouraged her aunt and uncle, who were already planning on being in Spain, to come as well. “We arrived on a sunny February day and immediately went to the Pompidou, where I fell in love with one painting in particular—Empire of Flora from 1961,” Rachael remembers. “It was painted in the months following Twombly’s marriage to his Italian wife, and it was filled with energy, passion, and love. Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel. I was in a total daze, completely overwhelmed by what we had seen and where we were. In the room, we started reflecting on the romance of it all, and John shifted the conversation to focus on us, and our own romance, then he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. It was the most dizzying moment for both of us, so much so that we forgot my aunt and uncle downstairs waiting to go to dinner with us! An hour later, we emerged, ring on hand, tears in our eyes with news to bear!”
They all dashed off to a festive dinner at Septime, but Rachael and John were too excited to eat. “It wasn’t until we arrived back at the hotel, well after midnight, that we could manage food: burgers and a bottle of champagne, in our own celebratory way,” Rachael says. “We spent the next four days in Paris, eating, drinking, and museum-ing our way through the bliss of our engagement.”
Rachael had been to Italy a couple of times, but is the first to admit she didn’t quite understand all of the enthusiasm around it. “John, the most Italian non-Italian person I’ve ever met, was appalled, and felt like he had to rectify the situation with a vacation in the summer of 2018,” she jokes. He had already spent a lot of time in southern Italy and wanted to try something new, so they set their sites on the Italian lakes. “We serendipitously stumbled upon Lake Garda, which reminded me of Tuscany, the South of France, and Italian lake romance all rolled into one,” Rachael says. “I fell in love.” After several days at Villa Arcadio, it quickly became evident to them that they’d found the perfect spot for their wedding weekend. The festivities would include a boat outing (in honor of the surroundings), a barbecue (a nod to Rachael’s Texas heritage, and an outdoor movie (a favorite pastime for the couple).
The couple wanted to create some continuity with their engagement, so they gave wedding planner Kristin Doggett of Bellafare an image of Twombly’s Empire of Flora to serve as the inspiration for the weekend. Lia Burke Libaire did her own rendering of the painting, which became the foundation for the invitations, as well as the palette for the flowers and setting for many of the weekend events—and the bride’s outfits. “I just loved tying everything in together—our mutual passion for art, travel, and that special engagement moment,” Rachael says.
“I was lucky in finding Amir Taghi,” Rachael says of the designer who custom-made her dress. “He is truly a visionary and was able to give me exactly what I wanted: classic and timeless, with a contemporary twist.” The blue bow was dyed to achieve the exact shade of French blue that Rachael was envisioning, and they tweaked the design a few times until they arrived at the final arrangement: part bow, part sash, and lots of drama! “I loved it so much, I told him not to give me the option of bustling; I wanted to maintain the dramatic effect for the whole evening. The veil was his idea entirely. He had seen our invitations, and Twombly’s Empire of Floral, and had the idea of incorporating that design onto the dress.”
Earlier in the summer, Rachael and John had a religious ceremony at her grandparents’ house in Texas, which left room for Italy to be more focused on fun. “We asked my cousin Ben to officiate, which was one of the best decisions we ever made,” Rachael says. “He is incredibly witty, eloquent, and hilarious, and he was able to weave in history and literature and poetry and humor all into one brief ceremony.” They stood against the dramatic backdrop of Lake Garda as they said their vows. “It felt like we were in the midst of one of the biggest group hugs,” Rachael says. “We had already been officially married for a few weeks, so we really just got to enjoy ourselves.”
From the ceremony, everyone moved right into cocktails. Hors d’oeuvres were passed, and there was a massive charcuterie table with Italian cheeses and meats and bruschetta. A band set up in the corner, serenading everyone with traditional Italian songs. “My father started a game of bocce at one point, which was so fitting for both the setting and his spontaneous personality,” Rachael says.
After that, guests climbed a set of hidden stairs through the small vineyard to arrive at the dinner table where a jazz band was stationed at the end, singing old school classics like Frank Sinatra and Etta James. “John and I wanted the feeling to be that of an outdoor dinner party, not a typical wedding reception,” Rachael explains. “Kristin and her team achieved that perfectly.” The music was designed to crescendo as the dinner progressed—from jazz to the Beatles to the Rolling Stones—getting everyone amped up for the party to follow. At the end of the meal, instead of a traditional wedding cake, each guest was served a slice of olive oil cake infused with citrus flavors—a nod to the limoncello that Italy is known for.
Once the sun set, guests were escorted upstairs, where Kristin and her team had transformed the pool into a fabulous party space. Rachael changed into Missoni for dancing—a last-minute find that she stumbled upon while shopping in Milan with John one week before the wedding. “He actually picked it out!” she notes. “I envisioned how much fun I would have dancing in all that fringe, and I was right—it was spectacularly fun.” Once she’d made her outfit change, the newlyweds ran out to Hall Oates’s “You Make My Dreams.”
“Right as we hit the dance floor, John leaned in and whispered, ‘I did something silly’—and fireworks started going off above our heads!” Rachael remembers. “I love fireworks more than anything in the world, and we’d been told they wouldn’t be possible, but John and Kirstin did some scheming, pulled some strings, and surprised me with a blow-out show that lasted three songs.” Their guests went wild, and then swam, ate late-night pizza, and danced until the early morning hours.
Photo: Olivia Rae James1/47We knew we wanted Empire of Flora to be the inspiration of our paperie, and Lia Burke Libaire was brilliant in transforming it into her own design. We used pops of her design for the save-the-date, then pulled motifs of lemons and olive branches into the rest of the invitation suite as a nod to our wedding venue.
Photo: Olivia Rae James2/47You can’t experience Lake Garda without experiencing the lake! On Friday afternoon we brought our guests out on boats. Here we are awaiting their arrival. Some guests got the party started a bit early—in fact, I think it was my father who supplied the beers from a local shop!—I just loved that everyone really got into the vacation spirit.
