Inside Olivia Palermo and Johannes Huebl’s 10th Wedding Anniversary Celebration in Baden-Baden
Once Olivia and Johannes were dressed and ready, the dinner at the Beaux Arts hotel served as the first official moment to greet their guests—so there were lots of hugs. Friends and family mingled outside before everyone was led into the hotel via a hot pink carpet lined with arches of greenery and hanging floral spheres, flower arrangements in wicker pedestal vases, and lots and lots of draping.
The group then entered the Wintergarten restaurant to find one long rectangular table running the length of the dining room, covered with moss, votives, florals, and cherry-blossom arrangements. More draping overhead created an atmosphere that got moodier as the sun set. “Johannes and I are fond of cherry-blossom trees and loved how much height the centerpieces gave to the room for a dramatic effect,” Olivia explains. As Baden-Baden is a spa town known for its wellness culture, the couple wanted the menu, led by chef Stefan Naatz of the Brenners Park-Hotel culinary team, to stay true to that approach with locally sourced ingredients and lighter but satisfying dishes.
After dinner, guests moved into the adjacent Fritz & Felix restaurant, which had been outfitted to give the feeling of a private members’ club one might find in London. Paradise palms were strategically positioned around the room, with deeper-hued floral arrangements placed on banquet tables to create an old-school vibe. For this late-night portion of the evening, Olivia changed into a Bronx and Banco sequined halter-neck dress that matched the mood. Salmanzars of Bollinger flowed, while DJ Dani Dévényi had everyone dancing until the sun came up.
The next day, guests were escorted to a luncheon at Iffezheim Racecourse, where Olivia wore a candy apple green strapless silk taffeta draped dress with a silk duchesse belt tied in a bow. “I grew up riding, so this was another special touch for our guests that spoke to something personal to us,” Olivia explains. The Brenners Lounge is a private space above the grandstand that looks out over the racetrack with its own terraces. There, guests sipped rosé while taking in the running of the horses and sampling a menu prepared by executive chef Sebastian Haverkemper from the Brenners Park-Hotel culinary team.
That evening, Olivia and Johannes wanted to treat their guests to another culinary experience, so they held dinner at the acclaimed restaurant Ebanat on the grounds of the Kopp Winery. Chef Stefan Schmidt and the Ebanat culinary team prepared a farm-to-table meal with wine pairings from the vineyard, and for this final event, Olivia wore a sequin-embroidered Giambattista Valli lace bralette and skirt with a tulle-and-silk-chiffon-draped cape. “We gave a second life to our florals from the previous events to be a bit sustainable and help soften the more contemporary architecture of the venue that is so dramatically different to the Beaux Arts architecture typical of Baden-Baden,” Olivia explains. “The views of the vineyard from the floor-to-ceiling windows and outside terrace are gorgeous, and I had grapes used as part of the decor to bring the outside in.”
Reflecting on the weekend, Olivia notes it was the bringing together of all the most important people in her and Johannes’s lives that felt most special. “It was the most amazing finale to a weekend we didn’t want to end,” she says. “It was a beautiful series of events at quite different locations that allowed all our friends and family to come together in the south of Germany for a weekend that was all about love and friendship.”
