Danielle Mastrangelo, cofounder of Brooklyn-based interior design firm Decorative Traces, and her husband, Brad Walish, marketing coordinator for Woolrich, go way back. “We went to high school together,” explains Danielle, “but we didn’t really know each other. It wasn’t until after college that we reconnected at our friend Mike’s apartment in New York. Brad had just moved back to the city from Los Angeles to finish school, and I had been living here for a few years. We hit it off as soon as we re-met, and went on our first date the next week.”
The couple saw each other for five years before Brad proposed at their shared apartment on the Lower East Side. “Brad was waiting for me to get home from yoga class,” remembers Danielle. “When I walked through the door, he had a song playing from a band we had just seen in concert, The Mattson 2. He ushered me into the living room by the hand, got down on one knee, and proposed. It was very intimate and lovely. We opened up a bottle of champagne and started to call our closest friends and family members.”
They then celebrated with dinner at The Heath, where their friend, who was the chef there, hooked them up with the star table. Afterward, Danielle’s best friend and her boyfriend (now husband) and her brother and his girlfriend joined them for post-dinner drinks and dancing.
From the beginning of the planning process, Danielle and Brad knew they were going to have a destination wedding. “We wanted it to feel like we were on vacation with all of our closest friends and family,” explains Danielle. “We had a few ideas, but Tuscany really stuck out because I had studied and lived there after college, and Brad loves the culture—especially the food.”
Once they ultimately decided on Tuscany, they started working with wedding coordinator Cindy Salgado, who helped them find the perfect venue in Arezzo, where Danielle spent time living with a family after college. “The venue was wonderful because the majority of our guests were able to stay there,” says Danielle. “We loved being able to see all of our guests at breakfast or around the swimming pool throughout the weekend. We were able to have tons of quality time with everyone.”
Both Danielle and Brad love the ’60s, so they took lots of style cues from 1960s Italian cinema, while also highlighting the rustic beauty of Tuscany. “We started with our invitations, which were custom-made by a San Francisco–based illustrator, Lindsay Gardner,” says Danielle. “We wanted them to feel fun and carefree. We developed a color palette inspired by Tuscan summers, and that palette informed all the other design choices.”
Danielle was less decisive about her dress. “I wasn’t the type of bride that dreamed about her wedding dress,” she says. “But I knew how I wanted to feel in it. I also had to be able to carry my dress on the plane, so it couldn’t be too heavy.” She chose a floral French lace gown with a fluted skirt by New York–based designer Anna Maier. “It felt classic and modern,” says Danielle. “And it had Art Deco–inspired rosette lace that was graphic but soft.”
Danielle’s jewelry was simple but elegant. “I had found a gorgeous vintage pair of diamond earring jackets at the Brimfield Antique Show while on a buying trip with my business partner,” she says. “I wore the jackets with my diamond earrings, as well as a 1960s rhinestone bracelet by Kramer that I had bought a few years ago, also at Brimfield.”
For beauty, she took inspiration from 1960s Lee Radziwill. “My hair was pulled back into a low full bun,” she says. “And my amazing makeup artist, Giulia Cresci, made my lashes look incredibly full and long without using false ones!”
The ceremony was in a wooded garden that the couple’s florist, Dario Benvenuti, had draped in garlands of Greek leaves and fabric. The space was small, so their guests sat in a semicircle rather than in rows, which gave it an intimate feel.
The couple spent a lot of time beforehand considering the music. “We had a guitarist and pianist play Led Zeppelin’s ‘Going to California’—an homage to Brad’s roots—as guests took their seats; Van Morrison’s ‘Into the Mystic’ when my bridesmaids walked down the aisle; and then Bob Dylan’s ‘Wigwam’ for me,” says Danielle. “Our friend Mike—who was responsible for reconnecting us—officiated the ceremony, and my friend Katie, my brother Nicholas, and my mom sang a beautiful rendition of ‘Heaven’ by the Talking Heads. Then we recessed down the aisle to ‘She’s a Rainbow’ by The Rolling Stones while our guests showered us with rainbow-colored confetti.”
The reception kicked off with a cocktail hour—“But in Italy, it’s really two hours,” jokes Danielle. “Aperol spritzes were flowing, prosciutto was freshly sliced, and there was a fresh honeycomb dripping over Pecorino Toscano.” This was followed by a seated four-course dinner that lasted for about three hours. The meal started with a vegetable carpaccio; then the first pasta course, a risotto with white wine, saffron, and Pecorino; then Tuscan pici and wild boar ragu; and finally Florentine steak. The couple opted to have an Italian-style dinner, which meant there was no dancing, just eating. “I knew our guests were going to be full and sleepy after a long seated meal, so Brad and I came up with the idea of having a New Orleans–style second line march out post-dinner,” says Danielle. “It got everyone out of their seats and excited to keep the party going!”
They then cut the cake and had their first dance to Leon Bridges’s “Coming Home” before everyone joined the newlyweds on the floor as Umagroso—an amazing soul band they found in Tuscany—played. “They hardly spoke any English, but only performed American songs,” laughs Danielle. “It was amazing.”
After the reception, a DJ played music until about 2:00 a.m. “He surprised us by projecting the corresponding music videos, which was so much fun,” says Danielle. “And then, I know a lot of people stayed to watch the sunrise. We definitely did not!”
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