This is how newlyweds Carly Cucco and Austin Barnard met
In 2015, Carly Cucco and Austin Barnard met a lot in Los Angeles: both attended a friend’s birthday party at the Bungalow in Santa Monica. They started dating soon after, and in 2018, the couple attended Indian jewelry designer Shalini Kasliwal’s wedding in Bologna, Italy.
In Paris, Austin proposed to Carly
On the way home from the wedding, Carly used the travel planning skills she exercises daily at work to organize an elaborate trip to Paris: “We stayed in a suite at the Shangri-La Paris, which had a terrace overlooking the Eiffel Tower Then I organized a private dinner on the terrace,” he recalls. “We had drinks at the bar while everything was being prepared. When we got back to our room for dinner, I was in for a surprise: the entire staircase leading up to the terrace was decorated with candles. I couldn’t believe Austin could make it himself organized – usually that’s my share.”
The couple had to wait four years for their wedding
After the engagement, the wedding was initially scheduled for June 2020 on the Amalfi Coast. Due to the corona pandemic, Carly and Austin had to postpone their wedding until the following summer. Then, when the Omicron variant peaked before the 2021 deadline, they were forced to postpone the wedding for another year.
“We’d been waiting a long time and wanted it to be what we dreamed of—we didn’t want to deal with travel restrictions,” says Carly. We ended up being engaged for four years before getting married. Even though the planning process has dragged on, Carly can find something positive about it. “I’ve always dreamed of this wedding and wanted it to be my biggest planning success to date,” she says. “Finally, it was nice to be able to take our time with everything and not feel rushed, which also meant we were never stressed.”
Carly entrusted Diana Sorensen with planning the wedding
Carly has teamed up with Diana Sorensen of Sugokuii events together to make their dream come true: “When we first called, I felt like I’d met my soul mate,” she recalls. “We bonded right away. She totally understood me as a person and my vision. Diana only does two weddings a year, so I was worried she wouldn’t be able to convince her to plan it. Luckily, she felt the same way about me and agreed to help her. She has since become one of my closest friends. In the four years that we spent planning it, we became so close that our families even spent Thanksgiving together in Rome at one point.
Cynthia Cooke Brides was in charge of fashion
For her wardrobe, Carly turned to another wedding expert: Cynthia Smith of Brides of Cynthia Cooke: “I wanted timeless looks that I can still look back on years later,” explains Carly. “Cynthia is amazing at making sure every look tells a cohesive story. She got me thinking about all the little details.”
The wedding weekend started in Capri
The wedding weekend began with a welcome party at the famous Da Paolino restaurant in Capri. As guests entered the restaurant, they were greeted by a cart of hand-painted lemons. On the trolley were bottles of limoncello of various sizes and shapes, each labeled with the guest’s name and table number. Once guests found their tables, instead of place cards, there were beautiful Casa Felix menus that matched each table perfectly.
Carly’s choice of clothes matched the setting
For this event, Carly wore a pink layered Carolina Herrera gown that matched the lemon trees. She paired it with a sparkling lemon clutch by Judith Leiber as her nod to her surroundings. Since the dress and purse were so eye-catching, she and Cynthia decided to keep everything else simple: her hair was sleek with a side parting and the front pieces tucked behind her ears, while she accessorized her drop earrings in gold and diamonds by Sanjay Kasliwal and matching limited edition golden Isabel Marant sandals.
