Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio and Bria Vinaite are married!
The celebrity chef, 44, and The Florida Project star said "I do" on Friday, just under six months after their engagement on Vinaite's 29th birthday in June.
"We have our handful of friends that stay engaged for years and we wanted to change that narrative," Voltaggio tells PEOPLE in an interview the day before their wedding in Hawaii. "We want to be married to each other, that's obviously why we're engaged. So we expedited the whole thing."
"We're like, 'Let's have our dream wedding and do it on our own schedule,'" he continued. "Everyone wants the dream wedding, but it's all the other stuff that comes with it that maybe gets you off track from what the meaning is behind the whole thing. And so for us, we really just focused on that. This is genuinely about just being in love with each other and wanting to be married to our best friends."
The pair traveled to the Four Seasons resort in Maui to celebrate their nuptials. The destination was an easy choice for the couple, considering that Maui is Voltaggio's "favorite place on the planet."
Their ceremony took place at sunset on the stunning Wailea Point, with a beautiful turquoise ocean and lush greenery serving as the backdrop. During the ceremony, a ukulele player performed a Hawaiian wedding song while Vinaite walked down the aisle.
The intimate celebration was shared between just the bride and groom and one friend — while other loved ones watched the ceremony through a livestream.
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"We started to plan the wedding and we tried coordinating with family and it just got to be sort of overwhelming. So we're just here by ourselves," says the Battle of the Brothers star who explains that they still consider it to be a "big wedding." "We did the wedding planner, we did the whole thing, but it's just the two of us."
While the pair did not want a "traditional" wedding, vows are one element they want to keep classic. "I feel like there's so much meaning behind those vows. And so I want to make sure that those points are said because I genuinely believe I am making that promise to my person," explains the chef.
One of the unique elements of the celebration was Vinaite's custom Moschino gown.
"I reached out to one of my really good friends who is Jeremy Scott. His stuff is super incredible and he typically doesn't do bridal so I was very excited to go on this journey with him and create something really special," says Vinaite. "So he made me a denim corset with a denim mini skirt with a 10-foot long train and thigh-high gold embroidered boots. It's literally bananas."
She loves the "untraditional" wedding dress and is amazed that Scott created this look for her. "Mind you, he turned this around while he was doing fittings for Fashion Week in Milan," says Vinaite. "So the fact that his team was able to execute this in such a short amount of time is just beyond."
Voltaggio, who is preparing to open his new restaurant Vulcania in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., found it difficult to find something to compliment the actress's denim dress but found a unique "tuxedo-suit hybrid" from Just One Eye in Los Angeles.
Following the ceremony, the couple enjoyed a dinner from Wolfgang Puck's team at Spago with dishes that the restaurant is known for, like smoked salmon pizza. The ease of coordinating the meal was particularly special to Voltaggio. "In my industry, hospitality is such an important thing and just the fact that we have each other to take care of each other in moments like this makes me love what I do so much more," he says.
Their wedding was all about love, according to both newlyweds, and Vinaite was most excited to make a promise to Voltaggio. "I never thought I would want to get married until I met Michael. He is literally all of my favorite things in one person and I am just so excited that my best friend is going to be in my life forever."
"I'm really excited for the ceremony," she continues. "I'm excited to kiss him all night and to just laugh and be happy and to celebrate our love." Voltaggio agrees: "It's a dream come true."
