The Bride Wore Custom Oscar de la Renta for Her “Heaven on Earth” Wedding on the Amalfi Coast

In 2015, luxury travel advisor Carly Cucco and Austin Barnard met in a very L.A. way—they were both attending a friend’s birthday party at The Bungalow in Santa Monica. They started dating shortly thereafter, and in 2018, the couple attended Indian jewelry designer Shalini Kasliwal’s wedding in Bologna, Italy. 

On their way home from the wedding, Carly tapped into the travel-planning skills she exercises every day as part of her job to put together an elaborate trip to Paris. “We stayed in a suite at the Shangri-La Paris that has a terrace overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and I arranged for us to have a private dinner on the terrace,” she remembers. “We were having a drink at the bar while everything was being set up, and when we walked back to the room for dinner, I was shocked to find that the entire staircase leading to the patio was filled with candles. I couldn’t believe Austin organized this on his own since I always plan everything for us in detail.” When explaining how it all came together, Austin, who works in finance, quoted one of Carly’s own mottos. “He repeated a saying that I use all the time: ‘The concierge is your best friend!’ ”

After the engagement, the wedding was first set for June 2020 on the Amalfi Coast. When COVID hit, Carly and Austin had to postpone until the following summer—then, as the Omicron variant began to peak before their 2021 date, they knew that they would have to postpone for another year. 

“We had already waited so long, and we wanted it to be as we dreamed it to be—we didn’t want to deal with travel restrictions,” Carly says. “We ended up being engaged for four years before we got married.” Even though the planning process was a lengthy one, Carly notes that they were never in a rush to get married. “I had dreamed about this wedding forever, and I really wanted it to be my greatest planning achievement to date,” she says. “Ultimately, it was nice to take our time with all of it and not feel rushed, which also meant that we were never stressed.”

Carly partnered with Diana Sorensen of Sugokuii Events to bring her dream to life. “On our first call, it felt like I had met my soulmate,” she remembers. “We had an instant connection. She completely understood me as a person and my vision. Diana only does two weddings a year, so I knew her taking us on was a long shot. Luckily, she felt the same way about me and agreed to bring us on as clients. Since then, she has become one of my closest friends. We became so close over the four years spent planning that our families even spent Thanksgiving together in Rome one year.”