InkBlog

Tyler Cohenour and Mia Zarrella are married!

On Oct, 21, the frontman of glam rock group Royal Sugar, 29, married Zarrella, 27, in a Nashville wedding extravaganza. The wedding ceremony took place on the veranda of The Hermitage Hotel in front of 80 guests.

"We chose The Hermitage Hotel because of its historic connection to the women’s suffrage movement," the senior social media editor at Rue Gilt Groupe tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. (In the summer of 1920 leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, Tennessee was the clutch vote and The Hermitage Hotel served as a gathering place for the final talks.)

"We have various members of Nashville’s entertainment community, from music executives to fellow artists. We’re incredibly touched by the turnout of our Nashville fam," Zarrella continues.

For Cohenour, "getting married means I get to chase the funniest, most sincere, beautiful woman for the rest of my life. She’s fast. And worth every step."

When planning their special day, the couple aimed for a celebration that felt like a modern, Italian-inspired wedding. They used an ivory and emerald green color scheme to match Zarrella's emerald engagement ring and Manolo Blahnik pumps.

To keep the Italian traditions running, the duo handed out bomboniere confections in the form of candy-coated almonds to each guest throughout the weekend.

"It wasn’t until recently that I learned that in Italian weddings, green is supposed to bring good fortune," Zarrella says.

For the ceremony, the couple decided to keep it short and sweet. Zarrella says she wanted to use a female officiant, which she found through The Knot. With Cohenour in the public eye, the two decided to exchange their intimate vows in private before the ceremony.

"We wanted something to be just for our eyes and ears only, so we hand wrote vows to read to one another during our first look. We will then read somewhat traditional vows during the ceremony," the bride said ahead of the big day.

To walk down the aisle, Zarrella wore a Sarah Seven wedding gown called the Rosanna. Although it wasn't the style she was originally looking for, once she tried it on, it fit her vision perfectly. "I ended up doing things a little backwards: I chose my shoes, then the veil, and then the dress," she explains.

Keeping true to his signature glam style, Cohenour rocked a custom double-breasted velvet tux from Indochino featuring flare pants with patent leather boots. He completed the look with a skirt from Saint Laurent.

"We worked together to create a tuxedo that showcased his glam rock style but wouldn’t clash too much with [my] traditional gown. We even embroidered the words 'Ti amo' inside the jacket, so it’s a real special piece of clothing," Zarrella says.

She adds that during the rehearsal dinner – which Cohenour and Zarrella hosted the night before the ceremony – she wore her grandmother’s dress that she eloped in.

"It even features two rosettes on the back that match the yellow roses that the suffragettes wore in the 1900s. It was a perfect fit, thematically and in size — I didn’t even have to alter it," she adds.

Following the ceremony, Cohenour and Zarrella hosted a cocktail hour followed by a reception in the hotel's grand ballroom.

At the cocktail hour, the couple had a flatbread station, a cheese station and hors d'oeuvres including shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon crostini, beef Wellington and oysters on the half shell.

"We knew that a lot of our guests have food allergies, Tyler included, so we went with stations for our reception," Zarrella says.

"At the reception we will have a pasta station serving orecchiette with sausage and broccolini and a vegan cream & pesto gluten free penne. There is also going to be a carving station with a garlic & rosemary slow roasted prime rib and BBQ spiced roasted pork loin," she continues.

The signature cocktails of the night were Aperol spritz for Zarrella and a ginger margarita for Cohenour.

For dessert they served a traditional Tuscan millefoglie cake, which Zarrella says means “a thousand sheets” in Italian.

"It’s single-tiered, 51 x 36 inch cake made of Italian vanilla custard and puff pastry, topped with berries," she says. "We hired a baker from Tuscany — which was very hard to find in Nashville. And for our guests with allergies, we have an incredible gluten-free and vegan creme brûlée."

Later in the night, Cohenour and Zarrella shared a first dance to "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra. They also surprised guests with a performance by Royal Sugar.

"Since we’re not doing public vows, we wanted our family to experience our shared love language: music," Zarrella says. "They’ll play some original songs along with quintessential wedding songs, with a glam rock twist."

On Sunday the couple closed out the weekend with a farewell brunch at Drusie & Darr.

Cohenour and Zarrella met on a dating app in August 2019 while Cohenour was passing through Nashville on a road trip.

It wasn’t until months later that Cohenour sent Zarrella a voice recording of a song he wrote for her called "Telephone Numbers."

Getting married, says Zarrella, "means that I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. It also means that I’ll have to spend the rest of my life asking restaurants if they have gluten and dairy free options for my husband!" says Zarrella.

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