That’s amore! Mie Marie Ejdrup, CEO of Cecilie Bahnsen, just tied the knot in an ethereal Lake Como ceremony. Read on for all the details
It would be easy to assume, given the attention to detail with which Mie Marie Ejdrup planned her wedding – a serene boat ride across Lake Como timed to coincide with violet hour, a tower of gleaming metal Champagne coupes for the post-ceremony affogato, her moodboard of bridal looks – that she’s been thinking about how this day might unfold her whole life. “Not at all, actually,” she says simply. “I’m not that type.” Rather, when the Danish bride – who is CEO of beloved Scandi brand Cecilie Bahnsen – and her fiancé of five years, Andreas, finally got around to planning their wedding, it all came together organically.
Related: 4 Cecilie Bahnsen brides on why the Scandi designer was the only choice on their wedding day
For one thing, the Copenhagen couple knew straight away there was only one place they wanted to do it. “We both used to live in Italy,” explains Mie, who ultimately elected not to hire a wedding planner to help them organise the destination celebrations. “We share this love for the country: the language, the food, the wine, the art scene… the fashion, obviously! Lake Como is where we had our first summer together, it’s where Andreas proposed, and it’s where we had our first summer with our son, Leonardo, who is two now. We have all of these magical memories of Italy, so adding our wedding into the equation makes it even more special.”
That being said, Mie also wanted their Scandinavian sensibilities to be reflected in their wedding. “It was important for us to make our wedding a merger between the two countries we love so much,” says the bride. “It’s a combination of the Scandinavian – understated, minimal and discreet, but always with that emphasis on craft and creativity – with Italian passion and drama!”
The drama was amply taken care of by Mie’s custom wedding gown, crafted from Sophie Hallette lace (the same French family business that supplied the lace for the Princess of Wales’s Alexander McQueen wedding dress, and in which Chanel now holds a minority stake), and inspired by the Valentino dress Claudia Schiffer wore on her big day in 2002 – which itself referenced a look Schiffer modelled on the Valentino runway back in 1995. “It has a lot of these old Valentino references from that era,” says the bride. “The veil that will be covering my face when I walk up the aisle with my dad will also be a very special moment – the train is almost three metres.”
Unsurprisingly, given her line of work, the lace gown was one among several looks Mie curated for her wedding weekend. For an aperitivo, the aforementioned violet hour boat ride, and a relaxed dinner on the Friday, she chose a “very stunning” vintage Chanel dress with a short hemline, to reflect the more casual vibe as the celebrations got underway. “I had been looking at this dress for a long time to be honest with you,” says Mie, smiling. “When it came up [on Vestiaire Collective] I thought, okay, I’m just going to buy it and fingers crossed it actually fits.” Sure enough, it was perfect, and the bride selected a pair of YSL mules, a Sophie Bille Brahe anklet, and earrings by Charlotte Chesnais to go with it. “I love Charlotte. I spent some time with her in Paris in June and she was kind enough to offer to lend me her personal pair. I was honoured.”
Related: How Cecilie Bahnsen accidentally became one of Scandinavia’s go-to bridal designers
For dancing following the ceremony and speeches on Saturday night, Mie selected a short white cotton poplin dress by Alaïa. “It’s a little shift in scenery,” she says, explaining that guests will be strolling from the villa to the local town after the wedding itself. “Then everyone knows it’s party time. The Alaïa is very simple, but you just want to be able to move and have fun in that moment. I’ll have my Havaianas, just to make sure that I can continue dancing for the whole night.”
For a mimosa brunch – and a much-needed debrief – on the Sunday, the bride packed a particularly sentimental look: the Cecilie Bahnsen dress that closed the label’s Paris runway at her first show as CEO. “It goes without saying that I love anything Cecilie creates,” the bride says of the designer, who was among the dozens of Copenhagen creatives decamping to Como en masse to see Mie and Andreas exchange vows. “They’re like pieces of art.” Plus, she says, “I just want to wear white all weekend!” A pair of classic Chanel Mary-Jane flats (“all the icons,” says Mie) were the final flourish.
As much as she’s enjoyed sourcing her bridal fashion, and curating a spectacular Italian experience for their guests, Mie was looking forward to letting go of planning mode and soaking up every minute once the celebrations began. “That’s the thing to remember at the end of the day,” says the bride. “It’s amazing to have the dresses and the cake and the wine, but really it’s an opportunity to be with all of the people you love. Those moments in time are very rare.”
Originally published on British Vogue