M i a mi W eddin g
Daniela & Justin
After meeting in Las Vegas, a Miami couple hosts a Vizcaya wedding of Sin City proportions. | By Riki Altman-Yee | Photography by Maloman Studios |
October 5, 2013
Despite what those commercials say, sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay there; it moves to Miami. At least that was the case for attorneys Daniela Fontecilla and Justin Drexler, who met in Sin City four years ago. She was part of a bachelorette party, and Justin was vacationing with some friends, when the two locked eyes at an Encore Beach Club Labor Day event. “It was a very natural union,” she recalls. “We come from different places and different cultures, but there are a lot of similarities that we immediately connected on. All of our friends thought, how did this happen here, of all places?” Since Daniela’s home was in Miami and Justin was based in California, they dated long distance for a few years. Then, one November weekend in 2012, Justin planned a romantic rendezvous at Shore Club South Beach, where he proposed on the balcony of their oceanfront suite. He soon moved across the nation, and the wedding planning commenced. They first considered a private estate on Miami’s luxe Star Island, but eventually decided on a more expansive and lush venue originally suggested by Daniela’s parents: Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, a Gilded Age estate with elaborately landscaped gardens. “We didn’t want it to be stuffy and in a ballroom setting. It was important to us [for it] to be open-air and outdoors, fun and carefree. It’s such a breathtaking place. It takes you out of Miami and makes you feel like you’re in Europe!” Though Daniela said both families were “great” when it came to helping out with the preparations, it was the planner, Joan Love of Love.Style.Events, who made the couple’s nuptial dreams come to life. “She definitely executed my vision and helped facilitate the whole process,” says the bride. Love called on Parrish Designs to help transform one of Miami’s most Mediterranean venues into a modern and glamorous South Beach scene, incorporating lots of glass, mirror-topped tables, candles, white flowers and arching orchids. “I wanted a fun party—that was most important,” Daniela explains. To honor the groom’s Jewish roots, the guests danced the hora. Then they participated in la hora
2 MODERN LUXURY BRIDES south florida and the caribbean |
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From top: Jason dreamed of having a Hublot watch since Daniela met him, so she surprised him with one as a wedding gift; the bride’s mother and two sisters assist with her Monique Lhuillier gown at her parents’ house. Opposite page: Justin and Daniela hold hands in Vizcaya Museum & Garden’s lush, tropical environs.