Sweeping Views of the Amalfi Coast Framed This Dreamy Positano Wedding
How often does the honeymoon planning come before the wedding planning? In the case of New York–based Ciara Allen (32, a supervising producer) and Kaylah Burton (31, a social strategy director), the dream of honeymooning in Positano, Italy, ended up leading to a destination wedding there instead.
The cliffside village on the Amalfi Coast was “next on our travel list, and we determined it would be the perfect honeymoon destination,” recalls the couple. “While daydreaming, we paused to consider: ‘What if we created a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our closest friends and family, our community, and got married in Positano?’”
The couple’s desire to focus their wedding on connections and kinship is no surprise. Family ties were a big part of what cemented their relationship early on. “We both knew that we had found our lifelong partner as we got to see each other with one another’s families throughout the pandemic,” they recall.
And so, for the May 17–19, 2023, wedding celebration, a sublime guest experience was paramount. “We celebrated the power of love and liberation for three days with the community that taught us how to love,” recalls the couple. “All 48 of us will truly always hold this time, and Positano, close in our hearts.”
To ensure they would cherish the event for years to come, Ciara and Kaylah settled on a “timeless, minimal and romantic aesthetic, so we could look back at our photos over the years and feel like our wed- ding could be planted in any era.”
The festivities kicked off with a pizza party welcome event, which was fitting given that the dish was invented in neighboring Naples. And what ups the ante? Limoncello favors. Ciara and Kaylah set a joyful mood that evening that didn’t abate over the following days. Ciara and Kaylah didn’t want to compete with the vibrant scenery of Positano, so they opted for a muted color palette. The chairs and linens were all white and accented by simple flower arrangements. The designs included roses, hydrangeas, lisianthus, peonies and delphiniums in, you guessed it, soft shades of white.
Since the duo had been in town all week preparing, they’d grown accustomed to watching the sun rise and set from the steps of the villa where the wedding took place. When the time came, it felt appropriate to have their first look on the stairs. They also descended the steps with their fathers when they processed into the wedding ceremony, entering to a string rendition of “Knocks Me Off My Feet,” by Stevie Wonder.
The couple personalized the ceremony by creatively incorporating a community vow into the proceedings. “With such an intimate wedding, hearing our closest friends and family commit to supporting us and lift- ing us up was such a special moment for us both,” recalls the couple. A resounding “we do” capped off the community vows, which nicely complemented the couple’s own. In their personal vows, Ciara and Kaylah “reflected on the memories we’ve built together thus far and our boundless love for one another. We celebrated our ability to love openly, fully and freely.” Another meaningful component was when a close friend read from bell hooks’ All About Love.
To simplify the logistics of a destination wedding, Ciara and Kaylah legally married in the US at New York’s City Hall. In a full-circle moment, they asked the friend who introduced them at an art gallery in Brooklyn to officiate their nuptials.
Before exiting the Italian ceremony to “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love),” by Natalie Cole, the couple looked out at their guests. They recall it as one of their favorite moments from the entire celebration. “Seeing the faces of our closest friends and family, who had traveled miles and miles away to be with us, was an overwhelming moment of pure gratitude for us both.”
And now it was time to celebrate with those loved ones over Italian fare at cocktail hour. In addition to a Negroni signature cock- tail, guests enjoyed fried panzerotti, aranci- ni, fried stuffed olives and mozzarella bites. The mouthwatering offerings didn’t stop there. At the seated dinner, caprese salad started the meal and was followed by pasta with zucchini. Guests chose be- tween filet mignon or sea bass for the entree. A vanilla cake with lemon icing ended things on a sweet note. “It was the best cake we’ve ever had in our lives, and the lemon flavor felt so true to the Amalfi Coast,” says the couple.
Though most details focused on Italy, Ciara and Kaylah still wanted to celebrate their hometown. During the dancing portion of the evening, the duo recalls, the DJ “made us feel like we were back in Brooklyn for the night! Not a single person was missing from the dance floor.” The couple also shared a meaningful first dance to “Angel,” by Anita Baker. Early on when they were dating, the couple connected over Kaylah’s love of vinyl and spent many nights listening to records from her “vast record collection created over years and passed down from generations of collectors in my family. One of the first vinyls that Ciara gave me was an Anita Baker record that she purchased on a trip to Paris. I even got a lyric from the song engraved in Ciara’s wedding band,” says Kaylah.
So when the honeymoon inspires the wedding, where do you actually end up honeymooning? For Ciara and Kaylah, it was Lake Como, in Northern Italy. They share that the couple’s massage they registered for was unforgettable—their favorite gift.
“From the traditional welcome pizza party to the wedding day and postwedding beach day at Il Pirata beach club, every moment was one to be cherished and remembered,” recalls the couple. Ciara and Kaylah share that their intention was for the guests to feel “deeply loved and appreciated at every turn.” They also wanted the wedding events to be about more than their love as a couple, but also “a celebration and rededication to nurturing love in all of its forms in our guests’ lives, and we did just that. Connecting with our nearest and dearest was a dream come true.”