Swank Hotel Affair

• By Lauren Murrow

Ranee Bartolacci and Nir Meir

Plaza Hotel, August 8, 2009

N ir Meir proposed to Ranee Bartolacci on Christmas Eve 2008 while strolling along the Pont des Arts in Paris—a suitably dramatic prelude to the pair’s no-expense-spared wedding eight months later at the Plaza Hotel. “I was kind of in shock,” says Ranee, 36. “He said, ‘I have something for you.’ It was Christmas Eve, so I thought it was a Christmas present. It ended up being an engagement ring.” Ranee, an event planner, designed the ornate affair herself, from the elaborate table arrangements to the immaculate white dance floor. “It was never stressful at all,” she says. “We just wanted to have a fun, classy party.” She wore a custom-made Catherine Malandrino gown, and the couple exchanged vows beneath an airy white chuppah adorned with orchids. (Nir, 35, recited his vows in Hebrew, while Ranee said hers in Italian, a symbolic melding of their families’ heritages.) Afterward, the 200 guests dined on sea bass and filet mignon at tables bedecked with towering candelabras before dancing to a live set by Kool & the Gang. “I stepped back for a moment and looked around, and everyone, from our friends to my grandfather, was dancing and having fun,” Ranee recalls. “It was a fun, fun night.”