Arden Cho Wore Custom Vera Wang to Marry Christopher Lee at a Historic Villa in Florence

For nearly two decades, actor Arden Cho and orthopedic surgeon Christopher Lee lived in Los Angeles without ever crossing paths. It wasn’t until they were both in their late 30s—focused on their careers and ready to take a more intentional approach to dating—that they connected on a dating app.

“Dating apps felt less like a trend and more like a practical way to meet someone outside our everyday routines,” Arden, who is known as the voice of Rumi in KPop Demon Hunters, says. “As a public person, dating online came with its own challenges. I had actually been kicked off a few apps because people reported my profile, assuming it wasn’t really me. Fortunately, one app took verification seriously, and within just a few days—and only two dates—I met Chris. Looking back, it feels like timing was everything. We found each other exactly when we were supposed to.”

In March 2025, Chris proposed in one of Arden’s favorite places: Maui. “He planned a beautiful, intimate proposal set against one of the most breathtaking backdrops imaginable, and somehow he managed to completely surprise me!” Arden remembers. “It was incredibly romantic, and I’ll never forget it.”

The wedding took place just over a year later at Villa Cora in Florence, over the weekend of June 27. “Planning moved surprisingly fast!” Arden says. “Between KPop Demon Hunters and a busy awards season, we didn’t start planning until right after the Oscars, which gave us just about two months to pull everything together. Thankfully, we worked with Nancy and Pae at So Happi Together, who made the process feel much more manageable.”

From the beginning, the couple’s goal wasn’t just to host a wedding, but to curate an unforgettable weekend for family and friends in Florence. “We fell in love with Florence and wanted the weekend to feel like a beautiful vacation where everyone could slow down, celebrate, and make memories together,” Arden says. “Italy is special to us, not only because of the food and culture, but because this is where I decided he was my person. It became less about the event itself and more about bringing all of our favorite people together in one magical place.”

Even though the setting was idyllic, the weekend had its fair share of challenges. “Looking back, it’s incredible how many obstacles arose before the celebrations even began,” Arden shares. “Our airline misplaced all four of our checked bags on the way to Florence—including my husband’s custom tuxedo, our hanboks, and the traditional attire for our Korean pyebaek ceremony. I remember sitting there in tears thinking our wedding weekend was already falling apart. Thankfully, with the incredible help of Villa Cora, we recovered everything just in time.”

Right after that, Christopher’s family’s flight was delayed and ultimately canceled. “For a while, we genuinely thought they might miss the wedding,” Arden admits. “We were especially worried because our traditional Korean pyebaek ceremony is centered around honoring the groom’s parents. Fortunately, they arrived safely, and we simply moved the ceremony to a beautiful midnight celebration that ended up feeling even more intimate and special.”

As if that weren’t enough, Florence was under a record-breaking heat wave and a level-three “red” heat alert on the wedding day. The couple’s planners shifted the ceremony to later in the evening, while vendors—including JD Events, which doubled the reception’s air-conditioning units—went above and beyond to keep the celebration comfortable.

“Looking back, this is what made the weekend so special—life isn’t perfect, but the people in our lives came together to make it feel like it was,” Arden says. “In Korean, there’s a saying, ‘액땜했다,’ which roughly means that a small hardship spares you from a much bigger one. That’s exactly how we choose to remember our wedding weekend.”

“In many ways, it felt like the perfect beginning to our marriage,” Christopher adds. “We learned that even when things don’t go according to plan, we can face them together—with the love and support of the people around us—and still end up with something even more beautiful than we imagined.”

The wedding weekend began with a hanbok welcome party on Friday night. For the welcome party, Arden and Christopher both wore custom handmade hanboks created by MeeHee. They also encouraged their guests to wear hanboks. “There’s a saying that Koreans are the Italians of Asia,” Arden says. “We both love great food, cherish family, take pride in our cultures, and celebrate life passionately—so this ceremony felt like a fitting way to begin our wedding weekend in Florence.”

The couple also incorporated a traditional Korean pyebaek ceremony, during which they honored Christopher’s parents and received blessings for their marriage. The ceremony included symbolic foods—including jujubes and chestnuts representing prosperity and future children—and culminated with the parents tossing them for the couple to catch together.

For the ceremony the next day, Arden wore a custom Vera Wang dress. “Because of my work, I’ve had the privilege of wearing many extraordinary looks over the years, so I wanted my wedding dress to feel truly singular—something that could only belong to this moment,” Arden explains. “The dress featured exquisite Italian lace, a subtle nod to the location of the wedding, and it felt unmistakably Vera Wang—elegant, romantic, and deeply feminine. The lace sleeves added a sense of softness and old-world romance, while the custom veil lent an ethereal quality to the look.”

Even though Arden is an actor, she was surprisingly nervous about reciting her vows. “My husband had been teasing me for months that his vows were so good there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the room,” she says. “In the end, I think he cried the most. Looking out and seeing so many of our family and friends crying and smiling alongside us was incredibly moving. It was one of those rare moments where time seemed to slow down. I never imagined a wedding could truly feel like a fairy tale, but somehow it did. It was everything I had hoped for and more.”

After the ceremony, an Italian folk trio led guests to the cocktail reception, and the newlyweds spent time with their guests before sneaking away for a quick drive together as husband and wife—a quiet moment before the celebration began.

For the reception, Arden changed into a custom Eden Aharon dress. “It was my couture princess moment for our first dance and reception,” the bride explains. “With its sculpted corset, delicate lace appliqués, and layers that create beautiful movement and lightness, the dress felt both dramatic and effortless.”

Once inside the tent, the focus was on the food. “One of our love languages is sharing a good meal together, so we knew that it would be a big priority for us during our wedding weekend,” Arden says. “For one of our courses, we served all of our favorite pastas—classic carbonara for me and spicy rigatoni with red vodka sauce for Chris. It was just one more way to reach our goal for the entire wedding, which was to share the things we love most with the people we love!”

The wedding cake was a classic Italian millefoglie with berries and chocolate cream—Chris’s favorite flavor. Chef Matthie left it unfinished and rolled it onto the dance floor so the couple could complete it with berries, cream, and powdered sugar. After the cake, Arden surprised Chris with an impromptu serenade of one of the couple’s favorite songs: Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One.” The newlyweds danced surrounded by all of their guests, who eventually joined in. “The love and joy in the room was palpable,” Arden remembers.

Later in the evening, the bride changed into her final look of the night for the after-party. “I wanted something that felt entirely different from the dresses that came before it—a final fashion moment to close out the night,” she says. To that end, she collaborated with Los Angeles–based bridal designer Natalya Valentine to create an exclusive custom minidress.

“The vision was to create a dress that felt celebratory yet refined: a modern interpretation of after-party dressing,” Arden explains. “Together, we explored different silhouettes and necklines, shaping the design into something that felt both distinctive and deeply personal.”

The finished piece was hand-encrusted with nearly 20,000 sequins, beads, and crystal elements. The sculptural proportions and intricate embellishment felt bold enough for the final hours of the celebration, but elegant enough to remain unmistakably bridal—and designed for dancing until the very last song.

The bride had one final surprise in store: a custom ramen station. “Chris is obsessed with ramen,” she explains. “We had custom cups featuring our engagement photos, and the whole thing ended up being one of the biggest hits of the night. Between the live band, late-night ramen, and karaoke that carried on until sunrise, it was the celebration we’d always dreamed of.”

This article was originally published on Vogue.com.