April 2011 « My Italian Wedding

Archive for April, 2011

Grace+Tony: Love on a tree in Tuscany

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Hi girls,

I’ve just come back from a wonderful and busy week end in Tuscany where I met Alex and Tom, our lovely couple who will get married in the Tuscan countryside next September. We spent a lot of time trying menus and local wines, choosing flowers and thinking of table disposition…

I haven’t had time to dowload the photos Gianluca took while we were there, so in the meanwhile I thought of posting the pictures of this lovely wedding Catherine sent me a while ago and which took place in Tuscany, more precise in Asciano near Siena.

This is the love story of Grace and Tony, from Ireland - says their photographer Catherine - a fantastic bunch of very creative people that love enjoying life to its limits with dressing up parties & live music on end. When I asked the groom what type of pictures he would like to have for his wedding pictures, he told me he would love to have some couple picture on a tree. When they first met at a friend’s party he took her on his back and climbed a tree where they spent most of the night. How romantic is that?

wedding-lunch-countryhouse-tuscany

Podere Finneri is an old 1700′s farmhouse surrounded by the hills, offering thus a wonderful landscape for all the guests who participate to the wedding, and is just an amazing gorgeous relaxing place!!!
This small simple wedding location is the right place for the couple and the guests who would stay there not only for the wedding but also for a longer vacation enjoying the home made olive oil, the landscape and…the swimming pool !

I thank Catherine for sharing with us the beautiful pictures she’s had the opportunity to make over the last years in Podere Finerri by following foreign couples who chose this place to celebrate their wedding!

Location: Podere Finneri
Photographer: Catmon Photography

Posted in Countryside weddings, Real Weddings, Tuscany | 1 Comment »

The art of butter frosting! No milk please!

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Happy Easter everyone!

While waiting for the British Royal Mail to deliver the new fancy cupcakes tins I ordered in Ebay almost one month ago I keep on practicing the art of cupcake baking! A good idea for a wedding dessert?!

Well, not easy I have to say, looks more like a challenge really!

Chapeau to the cupcakes professionals whose blogs and websites I’ve been visiting on the last weeks! But fine, I’m doing my utmost, in my modest kitchen, with my modest equipment, and last but not least, with Maya keeping on being REALLY PATIENT while mummy is baking…

After a first couple of tries that have been complete failure ( in my view, there’s no need for milk in the butter frosting), here you are with what I’m going to propose my husband’s family tomorrow!

For more than 10 years, I’ve been simply cooking nothing for Gianluca’s family on occasions such as Christmas or Easter! But since I’m a wife and a mother – well, since less than 2 years things have changed!

Hopefully they enjoy my chocolate cupcakes! Happy Easter everyone!

Posted in Menù, Our Creations | 2 Comments »

Table decorations at mum’s house in Venice

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

When I went to visit my mum at her house near Venice, last month, I didn’t know I was supposed to help her getting rid of all the old stuff she had stored in her basement for ages…

Not too bad in the end, because I discovered an awful lot of little dusted treasures we all had forgotten of a while ago.
Hundreds of postcards from the ’30 or ’40 with lovely photos of the good old Italy (from Venice to Lago Maggiore), which had the same intense smell of old books; a complete pottery set whit floral decoration belonged to my great grandmother; an old coffee grinder rescued from a bin by my grandfather at least twenty years ago…and so on, I was so surprised every little object has a story behind it…

So, guess what I did?
Yes, I selected the ones which I really liked because of their shapes, colours or past and I created a wedding table composition! The only thing I bought was the blue hyacinth and pink buttercup bouquet.
I used an old table my mum had in her garden and moved it under an olive tree…I really wanted to give the idea of an Italian wedding table…

Since I had hundreds of postcards I thought to use them in two ways: one was like placehorders – so a postcard from Venice or from another wedding destination for each guest, maybe with a nice message from the couple (I will work on it to try and show you something), plus guests could keep it as a little present to bring home.
The second way was to hang some postcards on the olive tree using old pegs, just to decorate and make the “venue” more personal and warm…

Hope you like it! By the way, my mum and I spent the whole afternoon going through all these things just to realise we didn’t have the courage to throw anything away – so we close all the boxes we open and promise to check them again in another couple of years!

Posted in DIY, Our Creations | No Comments »

Discover Marche region for a tipical Italian wedding

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Good afternoon ladies!

This morning I had the insane idea to go to work wearing sandals (without tights of course!)…but it has been sooo chilly in this part of the UK today!
Nevermind, that reminded me of some beautiful sunny pictures Cinzia sent us a while ago about a wonderful Italian countryside wedding which took place last summer.
More precisely this is Claudia and Riccardo’s love story, which took place in Marche region – not a really popular wedding destination for foreigners…not sure why since you can find wonderful landscapes and even more chances to plan a real Italian style wedding.

Italian barber before the wedding

What about the wedding cake? On Claudia’s mind it had to be huge, white and … delicious!
Claudia and Riccardo drove around their region looking for the best confectioner. Finally, they found. His name is Gianni and he is from Osimo. He mixed chocolate, vanille, pieces of brownies and honey. Poetry for your mouth!

Bride’s dad played a key role on Claudia and Riccardo’s wedding. He was a singer at 20. Fourty years later I Diamanti, one of the best known 1960′s Italian band, are back!
Vittorio, the bride’s dad sang in 1960 with Mina, the most famous Italian singer. And now, so many years later on his face, he has been the protagonist of this romantic story that held on a summer day last year.

“My husband, Riccardo and I met at my mum’s restaurant. We were 14 years old and just friends.
Three years ago my cell rang at night. Riccardo was speaking: “Happy Birthday to you!”, he told me. Last time I spoke to him was five or six years earlier.
He made me feel really special! And, of course I could not take my eyes off him since then.
Our wedding story started on a Wednesday evening. He came to me with the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. “Do you want to marry me?”

Dress: Alida Giordani Boutique
Venue: Villa Poggio Verde
Wedding Cake: Gianni Lombardi

Posted in Countryside weddings | No Comments »

A Decadent Idea…

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Hello!!
Who said you can’t put a hat on for an Italian wedding? Well, I would love to see a destination bride with a nice hat on…
Having said that, I would like to introduce you an Italian hat stylist – her name is Cunene and I symply love her gothic and decadent style…
I interviewed her a while ago so, after these amazing photos which were taken in an old palazzo in Milan, you will read what she told me about her work…

How did you start designing your creations?
I started a while ago creating jewels and after that I tried with hats too. At the beginning it was just for fun, because I was looking for a kind of style which was available only abroad and which was quite expencive.
What is the main feature of your products?
I hope they are unique and original, even though it’s quite difficult beeing original nowadays, with internet and all the inspirations it can give you.
What gives you inspiration?
I love looking at illustrations, photos and movies. In general I’m particularly found of the end of 19th century fashion design, but I also like the ’20s, ’40s and ’50s ones.
How do you choose the fabrics and the other decorations?
It depends on the colours as well as on the patterns, I love brocades!
Is there any new trend?
I would say there is a particular interest for the Victorian style, as well as for the pin up fashion. Mini cocktail hats are getting popular too.
Have you ever sold a hat to a bride to be?
Yes, it has been a while ago and she is probably getting married this spring. She is an Italian bride who lives in England. She wanted a bespoke hat to match her dress – a white wedding dress with red hearts…really original!. So she went for a heart shaped red hat with white decorations.

Posted in Gothic | 2 Comments »

Emily+Peter: a Jewish wedding in Amalfi

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Hi girls,

The wedding season has started so we have less time to post (sorry!), but I’ve got a nice real wedding story to end this busy week with: a Jewish wedding in Amalfi!
I’m pretty curious about everything that has something to do with wedding paperwork and burocracy and I realized that I’ve never written anything about Jewish wedding ceremonies in Italy.

That’s the story of Emily and Peter, both from US, and of their wonderful wedding captured by Claudia and Antonella Francese Photographers (thanks for submitting your pictures!).
I will let Emily talk about the wedding cerimony procedure, but before that have a look at these inspiring pictures! I love the location (Villa Santa Maria) and the bride’s tiaras!

Their wedding was at first sight pretty simple, but their celebration was pretty long because it was celebrated in hebrew language and then in English and Italian (Peter’s relatives are from Amalfi)

Pete and I had a symbolic religious ceremony. In Italy, for a Jewish wedding to be recognized, you have to get married inside a synagogue (just like for a catholic ceremony you have to get married inside a church).
In Italy the Jewish synagogues are Orthodox. I am a reform Jew and Pete is Catholic so we could not get married inside a synagogue. There is no procedure for having an outdoor symbolic religious ceremony. You only have to organize it with your religious officiant.
We started planning our wedding about 12 months in advance. I had to book the villa, find a photographer, DJ, catering etc.
We had the symbolic religious ceremony at the Villa and then we had a “civil” ceremony in Amalfi to get the marriage license. There was a lot of paperwork to have the civil ceremony and get the marriage license in Italy.

Picture courtesy of Antonella and Claudia Francese Photography
Venue Villa Santa Maria in Amalfi
Celebrant: Rabbi Barbara Aiello

Posted in Beach weddings, Burocracy, that's amore!, Real Weddings, South | 1 Comment »

Our new website

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Hi loves!

We are happy to proudly announce that WE EVENTUALLY MADE IT!
My Italian Wedding has got its brand new website: My Italian Wedding…Simply Planners

A special thanks to:

Our two halves who constantly support us in this amazing project
Danilo for the funny morning in Pordenone and for taking nice shots on the carousel
Gianluca for allowing us to use his pictures in our website
Little Maya for not crying so much at night when working on the website
Lucia for taking the time to create our wonderful logo

We will continue writing about inspiring stories on this blog (we are really addicted to it now!), but we thought to create a new place where we can promote our wedding planning service in more detail.
Let’s rock and roll…

Posted in All you need is love | No Comments »

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