“No one ever got promoted at the company holiday party” is a popular seasonal saying. And while that may be true, the company holiday party is where Victoria Menechella, the director of marketing and communications for the hotel Fouquet’s New York, ended up meeting her future spouse. Prior to working for Fouquet’s, Victoria did a five-year stint at The Mark Hotel, and while there, she met her now-husband Sergio Bello at their annual event in the Mark Penthouse. “The Mark is one of his longtime clients—he runs a full-service design, production, and implementation studio based in Tribeca called Bello Projects—and we had worked together on a few projects over the phone and through email for months prior to meeting in person,” Victoria remembers. “We are still confused as to why he was invited to the holiday party as it was for top guests and travel agents. Regardless, I was very happy to see him there. We continued to work together for a year and would have the occasional run-in downtown until he finally asked me on our first date.”
Sergio proposed on June 24, 2023, at The Mark. He had planned a dinner at The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges, and Victoria was totally unsuspecting. “He was so calm, and it seemed like a typical Friday date night,” she remembers. After dinner, however, Victoria suggested ordering dessert, when Sergio instead asked her to come and see an artwork he’d installed in one of the suites. “It then hit me that he was about to propose,” she says. ‘We proceeded to have the most awkward elevator ride of our lives, both of us too nervous to speak. The suite was set up with flowers and Champagne, and he got down on one knee. My sister and a few of our friends came to the suite afterward, and we ordered truffle pizza and celebrated over martinis and Champagne. Sergio and I spent the night at the hotel, and after a lazy morning, we walked through Central Park and went for lunch at Tavern on the Green, still in our clothing from the night before. It was the perfect New York proposal.”
Their wedding was held at the Mezzatorre Hotel in Ischia, Italy on September 7, 2024. The location was chosen in part because it was where Sergio went on his first vacation with Victoria’s family. “My family is from the region of Campania, and we have a house about two hours from Ischia, so we grew up going to the island in the summers,” Victoria explains. “We decided then that we would get married there. We could not imagine anything more special or beautiful than a wedding set against the hotel’s iconic terracotta facade. Naturally, I always wanted to get married at a hotel and loved the idea of all our friends and family roaming through the halls throughout the weekend—it was like adult summer camp!”
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