Fairytale Venice Destination Wedding

Barbara Meier und Klemens Hallmann Wedding 1 June 2019

Did you know there is an island in Venice you can rent entirely for your wedding day? Imagine, your friends & family on an exclusive stunning piece of Venice history celebrating your nuptials.

Well, you don’t have to just imagine the beautiful occasion because today we get to share a fairytale real wedding at the exclusive St. Clemente Palace Kempinski. Barbara & Klemens spent time on the island years before (while she was shooting a movie in Venice!) and once they were engaged the soon-to-be-wed knew there would be no better place to celebrate their wedding.

As you would expect, reserving an entire island in a historic Italian city has quite the regal ripple effect. With such opulence & grandeur from the city streets & palace hotel rooms, one might inspire to ‘go all out’ with their fashion and decor. Enter Galia Lahav: last year we collaborated with the Israeli designer on how to dress like a royal on your wedding day, and it’s no surprise that Barbara looks practically royal in her custom Galia Lahav wedding dress.

The Proposal

We went to the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival and were watching the opening movie. After the ceremony, we went to the restaurant of one of the nicest hotels at the Croisette and had a late dinner. The restaurant was fully packed and in the middle of the room, a harp player was playing her harp. After the main course, my husband remarked, that we have always so much stress and not enough time just for the two of us. He then clinked his glass with his knife and with that signal, everybody in the room (including the harp player) left without saying a word.

One minute later we were completely alone in the room. The hotel manager came to us, lifted a cloche and presented the ring. My future husband Klemens knelt down on his knees and asked me if I want to marry him. I was completely surprised and overwhelmed with emotion. Of course, I said “Yes” immediately!

Barbra Meier und Klemens Hallmann Wedding 2019

The Custom Galia Lahav Dress

I started at the Galia Lahav boutique in Hamburg, Germany, as I knew the brand from some Red Carpet stylings. After that, I visited many other stores of different brands together with my maid of honor. But in every boutique, we agreed: “The Galia Lahav dresses were better.” So my decision for Galia Lahav was pretty easy.

Then we started to work on the dress, as I wanted to have a custom-made dress with a very long train. I had some fittings in Hamburg, a Skype meeting with Sharon Sever who made the first sketch of my dress and finally a fitting in Tel Aviv, as I really wanted to meet Sharon and Galia in person. The journey to get my perfect dress was magical and in the end, it was the dress of my dreams.

The whole experience was really amazing and everything felt very personal. Galia Lahav really takes care of their brides and won’t give up until the perfect dress has been made. I couldn’t imagine a better brand to work with on a dress. On the one hand, I had some very clear ideas for my dress, yet I also did not fully know what I wanted. They handled both situations with a lot of patience, creative ideas and love. I always felt welcome and we also found a special second dress for me to dance the whole night.

The Bridesmaid Dresses

I am the Fair Fashion Ambassador of the German Ministry of Development and I’m also very passionate about helping save the environment in my personal life. On the day before the wedding ceremony, I wore a fair fashion dress and really wanted my bridesmaids to wear fair fashion dresses during the ceremony. So my close friend Sasha Gaugel and I started to do some research. We found peace silk (the caterpillars don’t have to die for this silk), organic color to dye the fabric and sequins that are made of recycled plastic bottles

The Destination

A year and a half ago I was shooting a movie in Venice – a historical drama that is set in the 19th century. After the shooting, I spent two more days together with Klemens at St. Clemente Palace Kempinski. We were just enchanted by the very special atmosphere on this island. The moment you enter the island you forget all the stress and hectic in your life.

When we visited the small chapel on the island, we both said to each other almost simultaneously: that would be a great place to get married! We were not even engaged, but somehow we already knew, that this was the perfect place. After our engagement, we thought about many different possibilities from the South of France to Vienna to a lonely beach, but we always came back to this special little island in Venice.

The Planning

The first step was to find the perfect location. We knew we wanted a very special place and as we had been there before and loved it, we decided to rent a whole island in the Venice lagoon with a hotel on it (the St. Clemente Palace Kempinski). With the location, we also set a limit for the number of guests. We had rooms for about 300 people and thought this would be the perfect number for us, as we have so many friends and family around the world but still wanted to keep a private feeling.

Then we tried to find a wedding planner we really trust. We chose our friend Sabine Königsberger from Eventboutique in Venice. After these first two big decisions, 1000 more followed. We had to find artists, bands, chose the dinner menus, find a decorating team, design print invitations, and many more decisions.

Favorite Moment

The moment when we said yes to each other. At the end a wedding is not about the music, food, dancing or decoration; it’s about a promise that you give to your husband to be there for him in good times and even more so in bad times. I’m not afraid of the bad times as I know, I found the man that I will love forever. It feels so good and liberating to know that I also have someone who will be at my side, no matter what I will experience in my life.

Besides that, we had a lot of unforgettable moments at our wedding: the second dance, I did with my father; the moment I entered the church with my dad and saw my future husband standing in front of the altar, the moment after the “Yes” when the choir sang “Hallelujah”, and the next morning, when I woke up, knowing I’m a wife now. We, and I guess most of our guests, will never forget these magical and special days in Venice!

Galia Lahav played an important role for me to really make me feel beautiful and comfortable the whole day! Thank you for making me the happiest bride in the world, or at least in Venice!

Advice to Other Couples

Relax and enjoy! Enjoy the preparation! It doesn’t matter how stressful it is! This time never comes back. And even more: Enjoy your wedding day. Don’t pay attention to anything that goes wrong! This is not important at all! It is just important that you have a good time and enjoy every second!

And of course: Buy a Galia Lahav dress! You will feel like a princess!