A bride customized her sheer wedding gown with a removable sleeve and floral details to create a look that was both sexy and elegant

Nathalie Babis-Whitcomb, 31, and Matthew Whitcomb, 38, met on Bumble in November 2016.

"I just had this calming feeling," Babis-Whitcomb, a personal trainer and actress, told Insider of how she felt on her first date with her now-husband, who works in investor relations and capital markets.

"I walked home and I told my friend, 'I just met my future husband,'" she said.

The couple live in Vancouver, Canada, together.

They originally intended to have their destination wedding in Tuscany, Italy, on July 20, 2020, but they had to postpone until July 22, 2022, as a result of the pandemic — two years and two days after they were originally supposed to wed.

They got married at Borgo Sant'Ambrogio with 47 of their loved ones in attendance, and Magical Moment planned the event.

"I picked it over Instagram, and I'm so happy I did," Babis-Whitcomb said of the venue. "It was just everything and more that I could have wanted."

Babis-Whitcomb initially went wedding-dress shopping in September 2019, a month after she got engaged.

"I purchased a gown, which was the first one I tried on and I loved it," she told Insider. "But as you know, that could be a mistake sometimes."

As their engagement extended, wedding-dress trends changed, as did Babis-Whitcomb's budget, because staying home during the pandemic allowed the Whitcombs to save money.

A year later, in September 2020, Babis-Whitcomb decided to shop for a dress again, planning to sell her original dress if she found something she liked more than the first gown she bought.

The one-sleeved gown had a fitted, structured bodice with exposed boning and an A-line skirt.

A layer of sheer fabric adorned with flowers sat atop the bodice, stretching over one of Babis-Whitcomb's shoulders to flow into one sleeve.

The skirt was also made of see-through fabric, and a thigh-high slit elevated its romantic feel.

Delicate flowers covered the whole dress.

For instance, floral shorts peeked out from underneath the slit in the skirt.

Babis-Whitcomb had additional flowers added to the shorts, as they initially looked more see-through against her skin.

The skirt the dress came with was completely sheer, and Babis-Whitcomb wanted a slightly more subtle look.

"I got them to add a layer of organza, which actually helped a lot walking around in the venue," she told Insider, as much of the wedding was outside. "Organza is a material that doesn't let sticks and leaves attach to it. So it worked out really well."

The skirt also had pockets.

One of the elements that really drew Babis-Whitcomb to the Galia Lahav gown was the transparent one-shoulder sleeve, as it set the dress apart from many other gowns she saw.

"In 2019, I would not have found the one-shoulder sleeve," she said.

But the sleeve wasn't ideal for dancing, so Babis-Whitcomb worked with Galia Lahav to make the sleeve removable.

The Whitcombs' reception was dance-focused, so comfortability was essential to the bride.

"I loved how I was covered, but at the same time, I was sexy because it was sheer and see-through," Babis-Whitcomb said of her wedding gown.

"Without being a naked bride, it still had that sexiness to it," she added of her dress.

Babis-Whitcomb said she tried on many different dresses over the course of 2020 and 2021, but no gown stood out like the Galia Lahav dress.

"I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it," she said. "And when I would imagine myself walking down the aisle, I just couldn't imagine myself with my old dress. And this was the only one I was imagining myself walking down the aisle in."

In November 2021, she sold the first wedding dress she bought on Stillwhite for almost the same price she bought it, and she ordered the Galia Lahav dress from Bisou Bridal.

The veil was over 3 feet long and added drama to the bride's ensemble.

The Whitcombs' wedding day was windy, which allowed the veil to really shine — though it did become twisted during the ceremony, as Babis-Whitcomb told Insider.

"There's a picture of my dad holding the veil that I didn't even notice," she said of this shot. "The veil kept going. So my dad was just like sitting there and holding a side of the veil and he created these beautiful pictures."

"I wanted something really big for the earrings because I wasn't going to go with necklaces or anything else," she said of why she chose the large, gold earrings.

"My sister-in-law actually found those for me," she added, highlighting that her wedding was very family-focused as a whole.

She also kept her hair and makeup, which was styled by Veronica Tavella, simple.

"I felt sexy and beautiful. I felt like a princess at the same time, and I felt so elegant," she said of her dress.

"That dress was just everything and so comfortable," she added. "I never once felt uncomfortable in the dress. I could walk, I could dance, I could move, but at the same time, I felt very held in place."

"I was trying to justify the price and this and that, but at the end, my husband was like, 'Listen, if this gown makes you feel as amazing as you say, get it,'" she said. "And then on the wedding day, he was like, 'Wow, now I get it.'"

"He was really happy I decided to go with it," she added.

The couple did not do a first look, so Whitcomb didn't see his bride in her dress until she walked down the aisle.

Babis-Whitcomb said Whitcomb was "bawling" as she walked down the aisle, as their photographer, Barbarossa Studio, captured. WeddingMovieTeam provided videography for the day.

"I had never seen Matt cry in my whole life," she said, adding that Whitcomb's father was emotional during the ceremony too.

Whitcomb wore a simple black tuxedo to the wedding.

Although the Whitcombs wanted their loved ones to witness their wedding, they didn't want to share their vows with everyone.

"We didn't do the vows out loud," Babis-Whitcomb said. "We just played a song on top while Matthew told me the vows and then I told him the vows so only the two of us could hear them."

"When other people listen in, it's so much higher stakes, and then you want to say all these things just because other people are listening," she went on to say. "This way, we knew it was just going to be the two of us."

"We still did it in front of them, but nobody could hear. It was very, very special," Babis-Whitcomb added.

The Whitcombs' dogs, Mia and Bruno, served as their ring-bearers, delivering their rings to them mid-ceremony.

Once the dogs delivered the ring boxes, they passed them to each of their guests and had every person in attendance make a wish over the box for their marriage before they exchanged rings.

Both Bruno and Mia ran around the venue throughout the wedding day, keeping their parents company and posing for photos.

But Babis-Whitcomb said Mia, in particular, had a lot of fun.

"Mia photo-bombed all our pictures," she joked of the brown dog. "She's always by my side."

"I kind of love it," she added of Mia's presence in the photos. "She'll always be in our wedding pictures."

Babis-Whitcomb said "everyone coming in and hugging and all the love we received" right after the ceremony was one of the highlights of the wedding for her.

She went on to say that the small size of the wedding made her time with the guests more special.

"It felt like everyone became friends," she said. "All my friends from Switzerland became friends with the Canadian friends and with the US friends."

"Everybody had a blast because it was over three days, so they all got to know each other," she added. "I would do an intimate wedding all over again."

"While we were taking the pictures during the sunset, I just couldn't believe how beautiful it was because you never know what the weather is gonna be like," she said. "We got so lucky."

"I remember at the end, after taking all the pictures and everything, Matthew and I just took a moment to ourselves, and we were just looking at the sunset and taking the day in and thinking how lucky we were and what a perfect day it was," Babis-Whitcomb added.

"It's elegant, but it's also a bit rustic," Babis-Whitcomb said of her venue, which was exactly what she wanted her wedding to feel like.

She also wanted to play up the beautiful colors of the surroundings, so she turned to terracotta colors for decor.

The Whitcombs' guests were seated at two long tables, so it felt like a small dinner party, which L'Aurora Catering provided food for, set in a beautiful Italian landscape. The tables also included a nod to the postponed wedding date.

"That's how we named the tables" at the reception, Babis-Whitcomb told Insider of the postponement. "One table was two years, and the other one was two days."

When the Whitcombs entered their reception, their band played "Titanium" by David Guetta, which immediately got guests up and dancing.

The band also continued to play music throughout dinner, so it flowed seamlessly into the dancing portion of the night. Loris Vissani and Deb Jones provided entertainment throughout the wedding.

"The band would come in between courses and get people up and standing and dancing," she shared of reception. "It was a lot of fun."

The Whitcombs planned to dance until four in the morning on their wedding day, and although Babis-Whitcomb's gown was comfortable, she didn't want anything to happen to it.

A week before the wedding, she ordered a short, sparkly Nadine Merabi dress covered in fringed fabric.

Babis-Whitcomb wasn't able to try on the dress until the day before her wedding.

"I put it on, and it fit like a glove," she said.

"It was so much fun," she said of the reception dress.

Babis-Whitcomb also said the dress was pretty heavy due to the beading on the gown, but it didn't bother her because of the gown's form-fitting base.

"It was very comfortable to be in, and I just kept spinning the whole time," she said. "It was my favorite thing to do with all the beads."

"I'm happy it went the way it did," she said. "I think everything happens for a reason."

For instance, the bride she sold her original wedding dress to was just three weeks away from her wedding when Babis-Whitcomb sold it. She was grateful she could help the other bride.

"I am so happy that for the reasons that made us postpone it over and over," she added. "We got to enjoy the day even more and everything was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing."

"I always felt in any other relationship before that I had to hide parts of me, the ugly ones really," she said.

"Versus with Matthew, I never felt that," she said. "I was always completely myself, which sounds cheesy I guess, but that is the thing I love the most about our relationship, and same with him."

"I never felt any judgment coming from him," she added. "There is just understanding, and if there isn't an understanding in a moment, there is, 'OK, let's sit down and help me understand why or this and that.'"

The Whitcombs are expecting their first child in May.

You can see more of Barbarossa Studio's work here.