Valery Kaufman Wore Dior Haute Couture to Marry at an Enchanted Mosaic Garden in Lake Como
Model Valery Kaufman and commodities trader Dimitri Varsano met exactly two years and seven months ago, during the Venice Film Festival. “We were brought together by chance as our mutual friends briefly introduced us,” Valery remembers. “We were seated at the same table at the amFAR charity dinner, and I went on stage to auction a jacket that had belonged to Mick Jagger. It had pink and silver stripes, and no one raised their hand for the longest minute, and then Dimitri came to my rescue. As soon as he raised his hand, other people chimed in, and in the end, it sold pretty quickly.”
They met again during Paris Fashion Week. Dimitri knew Valery was traveling to Paris with her dog Cosmo, so he sent a bunch of gifts to her hotel room and jokingly referred to himself as the “dog walker” in the process. “That’s when we got to know each other and our relationship went from being friends to realizing we’d fallen in love with each other,” Valery explains. “After just talking to him, I felt like I’d known him forever.”
Dimitri proposed to Valery right around their one-year anniversary while on a boat tour of Lake Como. It was Valery’s first time in the famous Italian resort area known for its dramatic scenery, and they were spending a weekend there together. “I did have a feeling that a proposal might happen, but I was expecting it to be in the evening at the restaurant full of candles and flowers,” says Valery, noting that she even brought a special dress just in case the occasion arose. But instead, it happened the morning after the couple arrived. “The night before, Dimitri told me that he’d booked the boat tour, which we had to go to early, and then we were going to come back for lunch at the hotel, so I didn’t brush my hair or look at myself in the mirror,” Valery remembers. “I just put on whatever was on top of my luggage and ran.” During the boat tour, while they were admiring the castles along the shoreline, Dimitri proposed. “He made me the happiest girl in the world!” Valery adds.
The couple returned to Lake Como for their wedding on May 11 at Villa D’Este in Cernobbio, after around seven months of preparation. “The most difficult part for us was landing on the right location,” Valery says. “The choice was between the south of France with its beautiful beaches and Lake Como. [My feeling is] do everything the way you and your heart wants, not the way everyone else advises. And if you want to hold a wedding abroad, [in a place that feels] torn from the hustle and bustle of modern life, you will not regret your decision for a second!”
The choice of Como for the location didn’t come without a few risks and worries, however. May is considered the rainy season. “I had been tracking the weather forecast for months prior to the wedding,” Valery admits. “We had a Plan B to hold the ceremony inside the hotel in case it rains, but that was obviously not have been as stunning.” The day the bride arrived in Como, it was indeed raining, and there were thunderstorms predicted. But just like in a fairy tale, the clouds parted for the perfect weekend weather-wise.
The couple worked with the Evelyne Layani Organization to plan the entire wedding weekend. “It’s a family business that is run by wonderful women with great vision,” Valery says. “We are really proud and lucky to have worked with some of the most creative, innovative, and just plain lovely people to plan the wedding of our dreams.”
After choosing the location, the bride began her quest to find the perfect dress. “Working in the fashion industry for years, I always adored and was in awe of Christian Dior designs,” Valery says. “They are so elegant and celebrate women s bodies, so I chose to have a haute couture Christian Dior dress. I had a clear idea of what I wanted and the execution was better than I could have imagined.” Meanwhile, Olivier Rousteing and his team at Balmain created three dresses for Valery to wear across the weekend—each one had a different style, shape, and form, but what tied them all together was the symbol of a white rose.
