Inside Olivia Culpo and Christian McCaffrey’s Classic New England Wedding

Olivia and Christian’s wedding weekend began with an intimate dinner with their two families on Thursday, June 26. The next night, they had a welcome dinner for all guests on the lawn of Ocean House, which they turned into an Amalfi Coast–style garden. “It was the most beautiful blue-and-yellow color story, and the evening combined my New England background with my Italian heritage,” says Olivia. She wore a Dolce & Gabbana chiffon dress with bishop sleeves. As the night progressed, guests headed into the hotel’s Bemelman Gallery, which Olivia and Christian had turned into an espresso-martini lounge. Several of Olivia’s former music teachers played live jazz throughout—a nod to her roots as an accomplished cellist—and at one point her brother Gus also played the piano.

On Saturday, they married at the 150-year-old Watch Hill Chapel. Olivia wore a Dolce & Gabbana long-sleeve, crewneck crepe ball gown with a voluminous skirt and button-lined back. “I didn’t want it to exude sex in any way, shape, or form,” she says of the dress, which she wore with a 16-foot lace veil and 15-carat De Beers diamond earrings. “I wanted it to feel effortless and as if it’s complementing me, not overpowering me. There’s so much beauty and simplicity.” Her beauty, too, was pared back: She wore her hair down in a simple middle part and skipped mascara, lip liner, and eyebrow makeup. “I never felt more beautiful than when I was in my ceremony dress and under my veil—I really wanted the simplicity of each component to harmonize perfectly,” says Olivia. She walked down the aisle to Jeremiah Clarke’s trumpet voluntary, played by a string quartet that included her own mother. Her sisters, Sophia and Aurora, were her bridesmaids and also wore custom Dolce & Gabbana.

Olivia says she felt an overwhelming sense of peace during the ceremony. “Even with so many people in the room, it felt like it was just Christian and I,” she adds. The groom, however, was perhaps more nervous than he’d like to admit: “Christian blurted out ‘I do!’ within the first 30 seconds of the ceremony,” Olivia says. “The priest told him we weren’t quite there yet, and our family and friends had a great moment of laughter at his eagerness. As a bride, there’s no better feeling than your husband not being able to wait a second longer to marry you.” Finally, the time came. The couple said vows they wrote at the altar, which was adorned with white and green garden flowers.

After walking down the aisle to the cheers of their families and friends, the two drove back to Ocean House in a vintage Rolls-Royce.

A cocktail hour, complete with Champagne and lobster rolls, was held on a veranda overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. As golden hour began, guests entered the dinner tent through a floral archway by local florist Semia filled with garden roses, peonies, ranunculus, and oakleaf hydrangeas. The tables, meanwhile, were set with vintage silver floral vessels, antique garden urns, and bone china. “My dinner reception was a combination of old-school elegance and lush garden florals,” says Olivia. “It was really important to have a lot of greenery. I wanted the florals to be lush but garden style, as if they were organically growing.” The bride changed into her Dolce & Gabbana reception dress for the occasion: an off-shoulder high-waist chiffon gown with a handmade silk flower on the neckline.

Finally, under crystal chandeliers, everyone headed to the dance floor, where they stayed for hours. Olivia snuck off to change into her final look of the night: a silk bodysuit with a mini cage skirt—both adorned with handmade organza flowers— accessorized with tulle gloves and a satin flower choker. Guests showered the couple with biodegradable confetti as they made their exit to their supper-club-inspired after-party back at Ocean House.

A day after the wedding, Olivia and Christian say they’re still taking everything in. But what they predominantly feel is gratitude, both because of the weather (“We got so lucky,” the bride notes) and the amount of loved ones that came to Rhode Island. “Both Christian and I felt our wedding weekend starts our life together as a family,” Olivia says. “I wanted everything to feel intimate but also include the gravitas of the moment.”