admin After a single Zoom meeting to discuss the bride’s vision, Dilara sent Allyson a sketch of a custom corset gown with black ribbon details. “It was just… perfect,” she says now. “We fit the toile some months later in her London studio while I drank wine out of a Solo cup. I’m so beyond grateful to Dilara and her studio for making my wildest dreams come true.” Besides a pair of white ballet flats by Miu Miu, “so I could dance the night away”, the bride added little else to her fantasy gown. “The dress was so major, I knew I wanted to go low-key on everything else,” she says. “The only piece of jewelry I wanted to wear was my mum’s tennis bracelet. I was hoping she would forget to take it back afterwards… but she didn’t.”
The bride enlisted her friend Sandra Wannerstedt to do her make-up (“All I told her was ‘glowy’”), while Stockholm’s brow artist to the stars, Thomas McEntee, paid Allyson a visit a couple of days before the wedding, returning for a final touch-up on her big day (“He also cinched my corset to within an inch of its life”). In charge of bridal hair was Tony Lundström (“No one brings the vibes like Tony”), whose brief was Allyson’s signature tight bun, “but fancier.” “He came up with a huge sideways bow of hair that Adam had a great time removing when we got home at 4 a.m.”
Allyson turned to another female talent, Mega Mikaela, for her “sexy and fun” after-party dress. “She’s a young Swedish designer who handmakes these insanely awesome chainmail-esque pieces out of washers,” says Allyson. “I discovered her via Alpha, a talent incubator in the Nordics—she’s definitely having a bit of a moment and it’s so well-deserved. Believe it or not, the dress weighed twice as much as my wedding gown. I can’t wait to wear it again.”
The celebrations themselves were every bit as unique as Allyson’s looks, and filled with personal touches. On the eve of the wedding, the bride and groom brought the out-of-towners to Stockholm’s Pelikan restaurant, for a classic Swedish meal of herring and meatballs washed down with shots of schnapps. The bride’s friends, Josef Lazo and his brother Mikael, put together the traditional Jewish chuppah—including it was a “game-time decision”, Allyson says—on the morning of the wedding. Another close friend, the Iranian-Swedish actor and singer Shima Niavarani, conducted the ceremony. “She was funny and sweet and warm and personal, but that came as no surprise.”
The bride recalls getting “full body chills” as the John Erik Eleby Chamber Choir sang “Nothing Compares 2 U”, and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” “I hear there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, but I was trying not to look at anyone so I could keep my composure.” Once Allyson and Adam were officially declared man and wife, the choir’s rendition of “You Got It” by Roy Orbison—with help from Shima—brought the congregation to its feet. “Everyone stood up and started dancing… I was just exploding with happiness,” says the bride.
The dancing started early, and it didn’t stop after the reception, where several of the couple’s friends DJ-ed, and the Canadian contingent gave the Swedish guests an education in the traditional horah. “Afterwards, we relocated to an after-party in a cave-like basement around the corner,” Allyson explains. “The dance floor was still packed when the lights came on at 3 a.m.”
