Dream wedding at Castello Canevaro: musical entertainment and lighting by WowDj and Paolo Lavaggi featured on British Vogue
On July 3, 2026, Bre Graham —food writer and global editor for the Belmond hotel group—and Will, a hospitality technology consultant, were married at Castello Canevaro, on the cliffs of Zoagli. The day's lighting and music were by WowDj (wowdj.it) and Paolo Lavaggi. Their wedding was featured in Vogue UK's gallery of weddings in Liguria.
The article can be found here: vogue.co.uk/gallery/liguria-wedding
A castle, a promise, the sea
Bre says she visited the castle twice before the big day, along with wedding planner Helena, and that it rained both times. Yet, she says, it was still the most beautiful place she'd ever seen. On July 3rd, however, the skies opened over Zoagli and never closed again: as if even the weather had decided to participate that day.
The bride's entrance
There's a moment in every wedding that's as special as any other: the moment the bride appears. Bre knew this well, and to accompany it, she'd chosen a special song—the same one her parents had danced to at their first wedding dance, years before. She hadn't told anyone. The choice had been shared only with Paolo in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, embedded in the ceremony's set list like a little secret to be kept until the very end.
When the first notes began, Bre's parents didn't know what they were about to hear. And their faces, in that moment, said it all: the surprise, the recognition, the emotion of finding their own story within their daughter's. The music accompanied the bride's every step through the garden, until it stopped—precisely, silently—just as she reached the front row, surrounded by the faces of the people she loves most.
Throughout the ceremony, Paolo controlled the microphones live: a discreet job, made of small, real-time adjustments to the volume of the voices, to support the speakers without ever drowning them out—so that every promise, every word exchanged in front of the guests, reached the back row clearly, as naturally as it was spoken.
After exchanging vows and the first kiss as husband and wife, a second song—this time joyful, almost explosive—accompanied the couple's exit: the moment when a wedding stops being a ritual and becomes, simply, a celebration.
The aperitif, with the notes of Luigi De Gaspari
After the ceremony, the guests moved to the castle terraces, with the Gulf of Tigullio stretching out before them. The aperitif was accompanied live by Luigi De Gaspari, the singer who regularly performs at the Hotel Splendido in Portofino and aboard Belmond's Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. His classic Italian songs mingled with the clinking of glasses and the laughter of the guests, in an afternoon suspended between sea and music.
To ensure that moment sounded as it should—full, but never intrusive—WowDj took care of the entire audio support for the aperitif, ensuring De Gaspari's voice has the same quality it has on a stage like the one at the Orient-Express: clear, warm, capable of filling the terrace without ever drowning out a conversation.
Dinner: music, words, emotion
At dinner, on the castle's long terrace overlooking the Portofino sea, the day took a different pace. Between courses, speeches followed: the bride's father's—a moment Bre will cherish forever, she says—Will's, and finally her own, delivered without notes or a clear idea of what she would say, until the moment she began speaking.
It's in moments like this that our job becomes more delicate: knowing when to turn up the volume to let the room breathe, and when to turn it down to make room for a slightly trembling voice, because they're about to say something important—or to soften the enthusiasm of someone who, overcome by emotion, is overusing the microphone. Expert microphone management was a constant throughout the dinner: WowDj accompanied every speech with this attention, ensuring that it was the words of the newlyweds, not the technique, that were etched in the guests' memories.
Pink, the party, the night
As evening fell, the castle was decked out in pink. Not just in the flowers, not just in the dress Bre wore to the party—the only pink she owns, she says, even though she'd never been particularly fond of that color before that day. Even the lights in the ballroom and open bar were lit up in pink, bathing the marble floor, columns, and vaulted ceilings in a deep pink—exactly as Bre had imagined—which continued the party into the night.
Vogue reports that Negronis and Martinis enlivened the dance floor until a final round of espressos, before the lights came back on. Behind that atmosphere was WowDj's light show, designed to match the DJ's set and transform each song into a wave of light—the same attention to detail that had adorned the castle since the afternoon, brought to its most intense moment.
A day to remember, even on Vogue
Bre and Will's wedding at Castello Canevaro remains, first and foremost, their story: a day crafted with care, one detail at a time, together with the people they trusted to tell it. That that story also ended up in the pages of Vogue UK is all the more reason to be proud of the work we did—but not the reason we did it.
For WowDj and Paolo Lavaggi, it was a day to cherish: proof that when music and light know how to listen to a love story, they can accompany it to its most beautiful point.
Awards
Photo: We.Weddingphotograpy, WowDj
Music and Lights: WowDj, Paolo Lavaggi
Venue: Canevaro Castle – Zoagli
Planner: Helena D'Ambrosio
See the original article on Vogue UK: vogue.co.uk/gallery/liguria-wedding
