Now that we’ve been settling back at home for a few weeks I finally have some time to reflect on our wedding in Tuscany (I talk about how we chose to do a destination wedding in this post)! We flew into Rome from DC with our immediate family and after landing early Saturday morning and spending the night, we took the train to Florence to head to our venue on Sunday. This would be the first time we saw it in person! The Villa had a 360 tour on its website so we were pretty comfortable with what to expect, and in person it lived up to the expectations.
The Welcome Party
The festivities kicked off Sunday evening with a welcome pizza party. It was a perfect way to have a more casual gathering and get to welcome all of our guests, we had 31 people total including ourselves. I had been holding back on having any Aperol Spritzes for months so I wouldn’t get sick of them before our wedding, ha! Drew and I snuck off during the evening to have a moment to ourselves, we couldn’t believe we were finally there! Experiencing what we had planned for a year.
I searched high and low for a dress and finally fell in love with the Corniela Midi Dress from by Borgo de Nor. I planned to wear white at our other events, I wanted to do something with color for the first evening.
Taste of Italy
On Monday we hosted a wine tasting on Villa la Palagina’s property, and then spent the afternoon hanging out by the pool with our guests. We really enjoyed the pace of this day, since the tasting was about 2 hours and it allowed us all to enjoy the nice weather and property. I wore the Seren Mini Dress by Significant Other, I purchased and wore it on my Bach back in June, and loved it so much I wanted to give it another appearance.
I also did my hair & makeup trial this evening, normally you of course do this months in advance but given the nature of a destination wedding this was my first time getting a test run. The artists were great, to my relief – you never know! It was definitely a risk and I was a bit nervous the makeup could go wrong, and there was not going to be a chance to change plans. It actually worked out really well because then I ended up with professionally done hair and makeup for the rehearsal dinner, whereas normally I think most brides just go home and don’t get to put the trial to ‘good use’ after.
The Night Before
Monday evening we hosted our rehearsal dinner in the villa’s vineyard. One of the reasons we chose Villa La Palagina is we loved the variety of spaces it offered. We got to hold each event in a different location and really utilize the property. It reduced the hassle of anyone needing to leave, but also still felt spacious. For the rehearsal I wore the Jasmine Halter Maxi Dress from Show Me Your Mumu. It’s technically a bridesmaid dress based on how they advertise it. I loveeeed this dress. Super comfortable and it was the sexy but classic style I was going for.
Our rehearsal dinner food was actually my favorite meal of our whole Italy trip. The Tuscan bread soup, panzanella, and the bruschetta were SO good. The tomatoes in Italy were so fresh & tasty. As the sun set and the string lights came on, it was a wonderful atmosphere. We also happened upon one of their property cats that I quickly befriended.
I loved the villa’s outdoor lounge seating they had out back, with the perfect evening weather I found our guests gathering there each night. Drew & I dipped out early on Monday night since Tuesday was the big day, but others stayed up to play Fishbowl, which I am bummed to have missed out on! Hot tip is to make sure you do a 4th round with a bed sheet over the person. 😉
The Wedding Day
Tuesday was the big day! Our planner advised us that for most multi-day weddings, the couples have the wedding day in the middle. So arrival day, wedding, recovery day. We decided we wanted to ‘build up’ to it, and then have everyone depart the next morning. We have no regrets about the order we did our events in.
I’m introverted and I found by Tuesday I was fairly skittish and trying to get my things in order (steaming, jewelry, etc) before my bridesmaid & mothers arrived to start hair and makeup. I wore this Sleeper PJ set with feather detail; super comfy & the feathers are removable for easy washing. Surprisingly, I never once worried about the vendors or the event set up. I knew our planner, who had arrived earlier that morning, had it all covered and would handle everything. I hung out in the villa all day with my girlfriends coming in and out, and then it was ceremony time!
I really tried to soak in my morning to memory and be present to ground myself. I can find it hard to focus when so much is buzzing around me, but everyone disappeared around us during the ceremony and I felt in my own world with Drew. We had his Aunt read Blessings for a Marriage, which is such a sweet reading. I’m looking into getting it printed & framed for our apartment, which I think would be a nice memento.
We had the aperitivo after the ceremony while the staff set up our dinner table right behind the lawn where we had the ceremony. When it was time for dinner I was truly stunned by our florals and table arrangement. It came out better than I expected. I’m still so captured by our flowers from that day. I really wanted bright, whimsical designs. Our florist did a phenomenal job, some of the flowers were so unique and I had not seen before.
We opted to do our first dance as our entrance right when we were ‘announced’. This way we could enjoy the moment and then sit down with our guests, versus having to anticipate it. The only real snafu of the day was my planner could not figure out how to bustle my gown. We gave up on it after about 15 minutes of trying since our guests were waiting for dinner to start. The first dance was a bit tricker with my train and didn’t allow for a ton of movement, but still was great!
Dinner was fantastic and we enjoyed 4 courses of traditional Italian dishes and red wine. We opted for the traditional Italian wedding cake as well, millefoglie with berries #wheninrome. I’m a big buttercream girl, so candidly I was skeptical how much I would like the cake since European desserts are not nearly as rich and sweet as US ones. I actually loved it so much I had a second piece! The cream in between the layers was SO good.
After dinner wrapped around 10:30pm we headed into the tented area the venue has permanently set up and dancing commenced. We also had midnight snacks come out that included mini burgers, arancini and some other small bites. Music wrapped up at 1:00am and guests trickled to their rooms after. I changed into another dress after dinner, this Lunaria Dress by Amanda Uprichard, which I have 0 photos of me in! I’m so glad I did because my wedding dress would have been hard to maneuver in and the dress was really comfortable. I paired it with these Badgley Mischka pearl strapped heels.
Reflections
Even though we only had 29 guests, I still found it hard to concentrate on 1:1 conversations throughout the days. It was almost like I was always distracted and worried about taking care of everyone that I think I bounced around and made briefer appearances. And we had 3 days together! I’m sure many couples experience this, but I felt like I floated through the days. It’s just a surreal experience.
Drew’s family was the last to leave on Wednesday. As we sent them off and watched their van drive away I found myself surprisingly emotional. You’re surrounded by so much love and dear friends and family, it’s really overwhelming. And likely the only time you’ll have that exact group of people together in your lives! To have so much build up to this event and emotions throughout, we felt so much gratitude in the end. Once in a lifetime experience and memories.
All our vendors were great and I would recommend, especially our wedding planner, Irene:
Wedding venue | Villa La Palagina | @palagina_la_dimora
Wedding planner | Irene, Fairytale Weddings | @fairytaleitalyweddings
Photographer | Olga & Ricardo, Magnolia | @_magnolia_photo
Hair and makeup | @tuscanybridalbeautystylists @mariagraziabonarellimua
Dress | Allure and Kleinfeld’s | @allurebridals @kleinfeldbridal
Florist | Mainardi | @mainardi_fiori
Celebrant | Jo, Tuscan Pledges | @tuscanpledges
Music | Violin & Cello | @two.strings
DJ | Giulio Maddii | @mad__dj
If you’re wondering how we went about picking our venue, I wrote a post on that process with tips here!
52 Responses
Thank you Ashley for mentioning @tuscanybridalbeautystylists for hair and makeup 💕🩷
💕
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