“The truth is that we met on Hinge,” Estelle Palandjian says about first crossing paths with her current husband Francesco Falcone. Impressed by her biography – “born in France, raised in Holland, but I’m Italian”, he liked her back and within a few weeks they were at a bar in the West Village. After several Negronis, Francesco takes Estelle back to her Tribeca apartment in the pouring rain. They bought a pack of cigarettes at the bodega, even though neither of them smoked.
In 2023, Francesco, who works in the financial technology sector, proposed to Estelle, founder of personal shopping app Cake, at the family home in Woodstock, Vermont. Estelle remembers starting the day: coffee at Abracadabra, and then sandwiches from The Butcher Shop after a hike to a small lake. Still, at the summit when she took out the ring, “I fainted,” she says, laughing. “I just remember having tears and saying yes.”
Over the Fourth of July weekend, they held a summer wedding in Estelle’s backyard. “We wanted to feel comfortable. At home. And share one of our favorite places in the world with people who may never actually go to Vermont,” says Estelle, adding that the aesthetic of their wedding was “90% Vermont, 10% Italian.” Randy Nooney, a local wedding planner, assisted with the matter.
After an Independence Day barbecue, for which Estelle wore a Ralph Lauren dress, the couple married on Saturday, July 5, at Our Lady of the Snows Church in Woodstock. Estelle wore a custom gown by Danielle Frankel.
While some brides have a highly specific approach to their wedding day dress, Estelle, instead, decided to embrace Frankel’s natural artistry: “I immediately trusted her and let her do her thing. I didn’t really interfere,” she says. Final result? A minimalist white gown with a bubble hem. “It was perfect. Wrapped in this silk gauze material with sleeves and a matching veil,” she says, calling it a “cloud-like dream dress.” Francesco was waiting for her at the altar in a silk suit from Thom Sweeney.
