Debora Krasniqi and Flamur Beqiri credit their marriage to Mark Zuckerberg, as they first met via Facebook. “When we initially met, I don’t think we thought, ‘Wow, this is my husband/wife,’” Debora recalls. “But there was always something special about our connection and bond.
We could be many miles apart, and even though at that stage were only friends, we would spend endless hours over the phone. I became best friends with his sister over some time, and it was at her wedding where we actually fell deeply in love.”
“THERE WAS ALWAYS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT OUR CONNECTION AND BOND.”
“The proposal was magical,” she continues. “My husband flew both of our families over Christmas to a huge chalet in Kitzbuhel, Austria. I was asleep, and at 5 a.m. he spent the whole morning covering the floor with 1,000 red rose petals. He played ‘Magic’ by Cold Play, which woke me up to find him on his knee at the bottom of the bed surrounded by roses. This later also became our wedding first dance song.”
Quite miraculously, the wedding planning process took place over the span of three months. It was both spontaneous and draining, and Debora was constantly on Skype with her planner, Elena Pensini, going over every last detail.
Friends were flown out from all over the world to join the couple in their celebration. As a gesture of “thank you,” the couple paid for their accommodations at Grand Hotel Imperiale. On the wedding day, guests arrived via boat to Villa d’Este, and the bride watched from a window as they stepped off the boat, her stomach churning.
“I was so nervous,” she says. “I hadn’t eaten much but I managed a croissant and a lot of champagne. As I walked down the aisle, I heard nothing; I did not hear the beautiful lake, I did not see the flower decorations me and Elena had spent months picking, and I did not notice the guests on either side of the aisle. I saw only him and my son, and everything fell into place. I shook like a leaf reading our vows and when he cried reading his, I broke into pieces. As we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife, we turned to each other, smiled, and said ‘Pfff, thank God that’s over’.”
The rest of the celebration was filled with amazing food, dancing, singing, laughing, and cutting the wedding cake under a sky full of stars and fireworks.
“We are busy building our house and are now expecting our second child,” says Debora. “We haven’t yet gone on our honeymoon. We’ve been to the Maldives and Bahamas twice now, so we plan to do something different. We have been talking of a safari in Cape Verde or a crazy week in Japan.”
WEDING TALENT
Ceremony Dress: Pronovias: Receptions Dress: Maison Alaiä; Groom’s Attire: Custom
