Paulina Iannello and Olumakinde “Makinde” Akinola Olayato-Aribo met at a wedding in August 2019. Paulina was a friend of the bride; Makinde, a friend of the groom. “As I was leaving, Makinde came up to me and started a conversation, which led to us grabbing breakfast a week later, which would become our first date,” Paulina says. She later learned it wasn’t exactly fate: “I found out that Makinde came up to me because [the groom] had told him I was interested—so it was really the Cupid’s play from our dear friends, Joel and Justine.”
Six months into dating, the world shut down, and the couple decided to do lockdown together. “Though a tough and scary time for all of us, our time together during lock-in has some of our favorite memories together,” Paulina shares. “By the time we got back to a normal lifestyle, it felt we’d been together a decade.” It had only officially been two years, but the time was right: Makinde proposed on a trip to Miami at sunset.
In planning their wedding in Sicily, the focus wasn’t on decor, or food, or even music. “It was always more about how we wanted it to feel,” Paulina says. “The entire aesthetic was carefully curated with the help and energy of our designer, Orazio Greco from Wedding Sicily.” Their venue, Commenda di San Calogero, provided the perfect backdrop for this desired aura, and the ceremony location even more so: The couple would say ‘I do’ in the circular center of a vast wheat crop between a volcano and the sea. Avenir Wedding Films photographed the scene beautifully.
For a one-of-a-kind wedding, Paulina wanted a dress that completely embodied her and her love for “Makinde.” “I must have tried on more than 15 dresses, all various styles, shapes and colors, but I soon realized the only dress for me would be one that I envisioned myself,” she says. Her mother brought her to designer Antoniette Catenacci, who helped Paulina dream up a tulle and silk dress with a big bow at the back. She paired it with soft accessories and light and airy hair and makeup—provided by Modhair and Orazio Tomarchio—for an angelic first look.
Paulina’s second look was more “old Hollywood glam,” she says. For the shift from angelic to romantic, she removed the tulle overskirt of her ceremony dress to reveal a Spanish silk design with a high slit and added dangling crystal earrings and white tulle gloves. She took her glam up a notch, too, with a red lip and big tousled waves.
Makinde is also a fashion lover, and opted for a bespoke suit by his go-to clothier, Fari Hara. “The night we met, he was wearing a custom suit by Fari Hara, so it only felt right to keep up the dapper trend,” Paulina says. “He went for a cream-colored suit with a wide round lapel and satin trim to match my silk details and add some elevation.”
When they wed on May 23, 2023, their friends, Justine and Joel—the couple whose wedding they had first met at—officiated. “It was a no-brainer that we asked Joel and Justine to be the officiants as they—along with fate, destiny, and all that’s good—are the ones who got Makinde and my paths to cross,” Paulina says. And again, it was all about energy. “The more we thought about our ceremony, the more we thought about its moment. We knew we wanted it to be inclusive, warm and feminine—which to us meant circular, no harsh lines or edges, soft colors, simplistic, and natural.”
The ceremony was held in the round—inside the landscaping of a wheat crop, dressed up with vibrant ground florals by Intrecci di Fiore e d’Arte—with loved ones wrapped all around the couple. As Dammen Quartet played, “Makinde and I felt warm shivers, immense joy, so much love and bliss,” Paulina says. “We felt so incredibly happy and grateful to be in that moment in time.”
For the reception, they set up an extra-long king’s table on the front path of the estate. “As soon as we walked through the main path, we knew its beauty and length made it exactly where we wanted to have our feast, with all friends and families joined as if at only one table, together,” Paulina says. Caterer Squiseating served a traditional Sicilian meal: Busiate pasta with basil pesto, raviolo with eggplant and smoked cheese, sea bass with capers and lemon.
There were toasts throughout dinner. “Toasts aren’t for everyone but to us, this is one of our favorite parts of a wedding; it gives all guests a new level of intimate connectivity, recounting funny stories, touching moments, and words of wisdom,” Paulina says. Their parents, siblings and wedding party spoke, and the newlyweds themselves gave a toast at the cake-cutting. Then, DJ Marsoul curated a perfect playlist, mixing in African beats.
The newlyweds started the party—which was “full-on dance mode until very late in the night,” Paulina says—with a meaningful first dance to “Joro” by Wizkid. “This was the song we always had playing at the very start of our relationship, and it was his concert we were attending during the week Makinde proposed,” Paulina says. “He’s our favorite artist, and it’s the song that takes us back to the start.”
