WEDDINGS IN ITALY – MARIELLA & STRACCO
HOW TO PLAN YOU MEDITERRANEAN WEDDING
July 26, 2017
WEDDINGS IN ITALY – STEFANIA & DAVIDE
September 22, 2017
Weddings in Italy. My dear friends, today I’d like you to come with me, as I follow two people’s journey through the most magical day of their lives. Meet Mariella and Roberto – his friends call him Stracco. They are awesome: bright, charming, funny and, most of all, madly in love with each other. It’s impossible not to be infected by their enthusiasm.
Weddings in Italy – Mariella and Stracco
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
Mariella is everything you would expect a beautiful Mediterranean girl: resolute, headstrong and yet caring, efficient and yet forever undecided, with a keen eye for details, forever writing down ideas in her “wedding under construction” notebook. Stracco is her exact opposite. While she has a mathematical mind, he is a dreamer, with his head constantly in the clouds and a creative streak, which is very useful in a Designer. They love each other deeply and, being around them, one can feel it feel it at all times, even when little misunderstandings arise. Those too turn out to be expressions of love.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
Hunting for the right venue, with such different characters, required that we spend a number of weekends travelling to explore options, which allowed us to get to know one another better and exchange ideas and opinions on what their special day should look like. She would like a villa with a vast garden, in which to hold an en-plain-air dinner. He wants something unusual and convention-defying, with as fluid a structure as possible, to get creative with the planning. I had a hard job, but I do love a challenge and these two inspiring young people certainly provided one! It took me a couple of days to secure the perfect venue: a post-industrial space that will allow us to build a garden within it. “Le Officine del Volo”, in Milan, was the ideal match. This venue has a unique visual appeal and a strong emotional vibe. It offers three spaces on two levels, each with unique material, design and furnishings that give it its own personality. Tall pillars, wood and concrete are the trademarks of the Eliche room. The Biplano room has huge glass windows, wooden trusses and old woodwork flooring. The Monoplano room boasts distinctive skylights, white walls and intricate diagonal trusses. This was clearly the best pleca for Mariella and Stracco’s dream to come true. As we inspected the venue, I just had to look at the dreamy expression on their faces. It was one of those moments in which I am reminded of how much I love my job.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
As time passed, ideas kept on piling up and emotions kept flying higher and higher, until the big day finally arrived: June 3rd 2017. Everything was ready, everything was perfect and our staff couldn’t wait to get started.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
The sun was high in the sky and, after an unseasonable bout of cold weather, the season was finally starting to warm up. The weather too was smiling on us. Mariella, our unconventional bride, started calling us early in the morning because “she was bored of waiting” for her mom and her friends to come and help her get ready, so she wanted to check in on the preparations at Officine del Volo. She even wanted to come and help, but we immediately reassured her with pictures of our amazing flower designer Silvano Erba, working on turning his preparatory sketched into a fully formed floral arrangement.
The lawns on the ground floor start to take shape, the majestic olive trees tower over everything and suddenly it feels like being in Apulia, where our beautiful bride was born. Silvano Erba’s highly skilled staff moves quickly on to the upper floor. Even though the venue has a roof, it feels like we are standing under a porch in a garden. Maria Antonietta arrives, she is the sales manager at “Alfonso Muzzi Catering”: they are our go-to establishment for perfect catering services. Not only they provide delicious cooking, but their service is also outstanding. All of their staff is highly trained and competent, as well as polite and attentive.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
For Marinella and Stracco, we planned four gorgeous imperial tables, with a contemporary-inspired mise-en-place. Rusty-black mats and three different glasses, all extremely elegant. As for the menu, we took our guests on a journey throughout Italy. The oyster buffet, care of “I Love Ostrica”, was stunning and incredibly inviting, with a vast selection of different types of oysters on display. On the opposite side was Carlo, Alfonso Muzzi’s favourite chees-maker, who created his own tasty buffet, but also staged a spectacular impromptu show-cooking with mozzarella, creating tiny, bite-size mozzarellas for the guests. We can guarantee the performance look just as amazing as the mozzarella tasted. Muzzi also provided a stunning raw-ham construction with several excellent varieties, from San Daniele to Parma, from Norcia to Tuscany, from Spanish Serrano to simple smoked ham, all accompanied with a delicious home-made focaccia and slices of cantaloupe. And, of course, a vast selection of finger-food, both hot and cold, from the land or the sea.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
When Mirella and Stracco got to the venue, everyone was feeling deeply emotional and friends and families couldn’t wait to get the party started. The atmosphere is vibrant: everyone present seems to be deeply touched by this wedding and most guests are hugging and kissing, raising their glasses and toasting the happy couple. Our photographer Michele dell’Utri and his staff, of course, are there to capture these precious moments for posterity.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
As the bride and groom arrive, the dj from Matrimoni & Musica (specialized in Weddings in Italy) gets the party started with some lounge music, a pleasant, unobtrusive background for the guests to mingle, share and enjoy. Because happiness is only perfect when you share it, says our Stracco, as he cuts into the beautiful wedding cake. Glasses are raised high and emotions are raw at this point, so we just take a step back and silently watch and cheer as these two people’s dream comes true.
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
||Real Wedding in Italy ©Michele Dell’Utri||
Our thanks go to Mariella and Stracco, for trusting us with the vital task of planning their wedding, the most important day in their lives, and to our amazing staff for making this possible. Weddings in Italy.
||Wedding Planner: Matrimoni D’Autore | Location: Officine del Volo | Catering: Alfonso Muzzi | Flower Designer: Silvano Erba | Fotografo: Michele Dell’Utri | Musica : Matrimoni & Musica ||
THANK YOU,