The Bride Wore Brandon Maxwell to Marry Under Pink Umbrellas at the Mezzatorre Hotel in Ischia
“No one ever got promoted at the company holiday party” is a popular seasonal saying. And while that may be true, the company holiday party is where Victoria Menechella, the director of marketing and communications for the hotel Fouquet’s New York, ended up meeting her future spouse. Prior to working for Fouquet’s, Victoria did a five-year stint at The Mark Hotel, and while there, she met her now-husband Sergio Bello at their annual event in the Mark Penthouse. “The Mark is one of his longtime clients—he runs a full-service design, production, and implementation studio based in Tribeca called Bello Projects—and we had worked together on a few projects over the phone and through email for months prior to meeting in person,” Victoria remembers. “We are still confused as to why he was invited to the holiday party as it was for top guests and travel agents. Regardless, I was very happy to see him there. We continued to work together for a year and would have the occasional run-in downtown until he finally asked me on our first date.”
Sergio proposed on June 24, 2023, at The Mark. He had planned a dinner at The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges, and Victoria was totally unsuspecting. “He was so calm, and it seemed like a typical Friday date night,” she remembers. After dinner, however, Victoria suggested ordering dessert, when Sergio instead asked her to come and see an artwork he’d installed in one of the suites. “It then hit me that he was about to propose,” she says. ‘We proceeded to have the most awkward elevator ride of our lives, both of us too nervous to speak. The suite was set up with flowers and Champagne, and he got down on one knee. My sister and a few of our friends came to the suite afterward, and we ordered truffle pizza and celebrated over martinis and Champagne. Sergio and I spent the night at the hotel, and after a lazy morning, we walked through Central Park and went for lunch at Tavern on the Green, still in our clothing from the night before. It was the perfect New York proposal.”
Their wedding was held at the Mezzatorre Hotel in Ischia, Italy on September 7, 2024. The location was chosen in part because it was where Sergio went on his first vacation with Victoria’s family. “My family is from the region of Campania, and we have a house about two hours from Ischia, so we grew up going to the island in the summers,” Victoria explains. “We decided then that we would get married there. We could not imagine anything more special or beautiful than a wedding set against the hotel’s iconic terracotta facade. Naturally, I always wanted to get married at a hotel and loved the idea of all our friends and family roaming through the halls throughout the weekend—it was like adult summer camp!”
Prior to making the trip, the couple was officially married on June 15, 2024, at Peninsula Lakes—Victoria’s family’s golf course in her hometown of Niagara, Ontario. “My grandparents could not travel to Italy, so it was important to us to have an intimate ceremony with them,” she says.
The planning process leading up to the Italian wedding weekend felt like a passion project on top of their everyday jobs. “Given my background in hotels, I think the team at the Mezzatorre was a bit scared to work with me,” Victoria admits. “Within a week of signing our contract, I had a running Excel sheet of the room assignments and challenged their every policy. However, they met all of my expectations and jumped through hoops to make our crazy visions come to life.”
Both Victoria and Sergio specialize in marketing and branding, so they had fun with all of the bespoke elements and collateral—from sourcing 135 tambourines hand-painted with each guest’s name to creating custom charger plates adorned with tomatoes, also a motif on most of their stationery—to Sergio printing the custom tablecloths for Thursday night’s welcome dinner that we personally lugged from JFK to Ischia. They worked with event planners Maria and Fabrizia of Capri Moments on every aspect. “We spoke to so many planners, both in New York and Italy, but ultimately found it most important to work with a team who knew the island of Ischia and who could travel to the Mezzatorre to be our eyes and ears from afar.”
In addition to hiring a planner, Victoria reached out to Bailey Moon, the New York–based fashion stylist behind Naomi Biden’s wedding looks, who the bride knew through friends. “I had gone to try on wedding dresses and I found the whole process very overwhelming and uninspiring,” Victoria explains. “I had always liked the idea of designing a custom dress, and he was the perfect person to collaborate with. I also particularly loved that we both wanted to work with a designer and find looks that were not traditionally bridal.”
When Victoria and Bailey first met to discuss the wedding, she showed him inspirational images, and they were both enamored with the idea of a boat neckline. “It is just so timeless and elegant, yet unique and not overdone,” the bride explains. “You don’t really see many gowns with this neckline.”
The two ultimately decided on a custom Brandon Maxwell dress. “We had a brainstorming session with him and Brandon came up with the concept for the dress right there,” Victoria remembers. “We loved the juxtaposition of the super-low back with the high neckline in front. We thought it would be a surprise to guests to see the back when I walked down the aisle–as it was really so unexpected. We also wanted a subtle drop waist and then Brandon added incredible pleating and buttons all along the back, which were both such chic touches.” White slingbacks from The Row and a Gigi Burris veil complemented the look.
On the morning of the ceremony, they woke up to perfect weather, with clear skies forecasted for the day ahead. The couple planned a 5 p.m. ceremony so that guests could enjoy the pool and sea all day. “By mid-afternoon, the sky had turned gray, and it had started to pour,” Victoria recalls. “My friends were constantly checking in on me to make sure I was holding it together—I was, barely. Luckily, the storm quickly blew over, and we had beautiful weather for the ceremony and reception.”
