Four Seasons Biltmore,
Santa Barbara, CA

    On the eve of her birthday, Maria was with friends at the Spotted Pig restaurant in New York, standing alone at the bar waiting for her drink. Ian was waiting there, too, and he turned and asked Maria if she were a ‘mix.’ “Odd question,” thought Maria, but she told him she was Greek and German. Ian said he was Irish and Chinese, and shared that he’d thought Maria was part Asian, too. As Ian was leaving, Maria called him back to exchange numbers. “My friends were in shock,” she says. “I had never approached a guy before in my life.”

    Sixteen months later, on the veranda at her parents’ beach house in Vroulidia, Greece, Maria mentioned the perfection of being at her favorite place with her favorite person. Ian then added to the perfection by suggesting that she read a new entry in a journal they kept. ”I didn’t suspect a thing,” Maria recalls, “so I opened the book and saw a page filled with his writing.” When she saw the final words, “Will you marry me?” she dropped the book and saw that Ian was now on one knee.

    Maria and Ian chose a nonreligious ceremony for their wedding. “We just celebrated us as a couple,” they explain. That celebration began in the Four Seasons Biltmore’s Mariposa Garden; cocktail hour was on a terrace, and the reception was held in one of the Biltmore’s ocean-view spaces.
    As lavender was Maria’s favorite color dating from her childhood, she and Ian incorporated shades of lilac for their color theme. Florist Mindy Rice created minimally structured arrangements incorporating lavender, gardenias, and sweet peas for both beauty and fragrance.
    To match the resort’s beachside location and Spanish colonial décor, Maria chose a Vera Wang wedding gown of light, airy lace and added a Spanish mantilla veil. Her Christian Louboutin shoes were in lilac.
Ian wore a navy Dolce & Gabbana suit from Barneys NY with a lavender-and-white striped shirt and a lavender tie.
    Guests and family members from as far away as China, Greece, and Germany enjoyed a reception dinner that included pan-roasted halibut. Toward the end of the evening, they all danced to Greek music. The wedding favors were custom-created pig-shaped cookies with a tag saying: “Maria and Ian . . . spotted at the pig.”

    The couple began their three-week honeymoon in Amsterdam, followed by a stopover in Tanzania for a safari, and concluding with visits to Zanzibar and Lisbon.