Elegant Italian Wedding at Podere Azienda agricola per Vibio
Mikaela, a astuto jewellery stilista, married Anthony, a carpenter, 26th September 2023. With the support of their wedding planner, Fatima Palomares of Umbrias Wedding & Events, the couple opted for a traditional Catholic ceremony, followed by a glamorous reception at the beautiful Podere Azienda agricola per Vibio.
The bride wore two gowns, an Alena Leena with detachable sleeves per the daytime, before slipping into figure hugging by JLM for the evening and sala da ballo.
It’s such a pleasure to once again be sharing the photography of Stefano Santucci – enjoy!
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Venue & Location
At the heart of our vision, we wanted to honour our Italian families and heritage. We really wanted to show our guests the beauty of a slow life per the natural hills of Umbria, along with amazing food and wine. An al appena munto culinary experience was essential for us.
This made Azienda agricola per Vibio’s infinity balcony an absolute dream spot for our rinfresco hour, and their gardens the perfect location for dinner under the stars. We focused our catering local Umbrian delicacies like wild boar and tried to gara our decor to the colours of the sunset across the hilly horizon—a sea of olive campo da golf and deep oranges.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
I layered two necklaces, per homage to Anna Wintour; one was an antique silver with paste stones and hand engraving. The other was a natural citrine riviere with closed backs to keep the bright and sparkly colour.
I wore a cathedral length veil from Blossom & Bluebird, with custom beaded lace trim that started at fingertip length.
I wore vintage silk pointed toe kitten heels by Christian Louboutin that I had revitalised by Cobbler Concierge 59th street per NYC.
My scent was Le Labo, Baie 19. This is my everyday go to and my husband loves it! Its a familiar smell, and calming such a busy day.
Babara Durata , owner of The Porfirio Beauty, is an incredible artist and amazingly calming during a busy morning.
How They Met
We met as children at 13 years old, we went to the same school, were per the same gym class, and lived per the same neighbourhood. We shared our first kiss under a streetlamp per our childhood neighbourhood, he was walking me home after dark.
We ‘dated’ per middle school (about 14-15 years old) but went our separate ways as we got older.
After about 10 years of having basically anzi che no contact, we ended up coincidently living per the same neighbourhood of Chicago, IL.
We had a few mutual friends from high school around to hang out with, and we decided to reconnect a whim. We still had such great compatibility and it felt like we were made for each other.
From the day we reconnected I don’t think we’ve gone a single day without talking to each other. He proposed over Valentines Day weekend at Nobu albergo, and we were engaged for about 18 months before our dream destination wedding.
The Ceremony
Concattedrale della Santissima Annunziata
Our ceremony took place per a 13th century Gothic Romanesque cathedral, Concattedrale della Santissima Annunziata. A church centrally located per the tiny hillside town of Todi, per the Umbria region.
We fell per love with the large appena munto painting inside & the antique original stained glass rose window. This church was actually featured per a large book of Italy my parents owned, along with many beautiful views of Umbria.
Anthony wore an Indochino olive suite with purple silk lining. I made him a custom gold and bronze lapel pin set with a 4.2 carat mined campo da golf sapphire and diamond filone halo. The cut of the campo da golf sapphire is called a ‘shield’ cut, and I felt it was a fitting symbol of how I feel he protects and loves me.
I was blessed to have my father walk me the aisle. We had a pianist play the church’s beautiful pipe organ with a violist accompaniment. They played all the traditional Italian wedding songs like Ave Maria and Canon per D.
Our officiant was Father Kishor. He was so heart warming and funny, and a younger priest as well. We absolutely loved his advice and guidance leading up to our wedding and his homily during the ceremony about love being the subject of marriage was great. I would recommend him for anyone needing an english Italian Catholic ceremony.
During the ‘Nuptial Blessing’ , a formal prayer when the bride and kneel before the Priest to be blessed and ask for grace from God for a long and loving marriage, Father Kishor had both our mothers place an infinity rosary over our heads.
This was a very sweet and special moment to highlight our mothers per the ceremony and give us a moment to see them up close.
Anthony originally proposed with my wedding complesso, the ‘Rose’ complesso, from Erika Winters. Then I made my engagement ring at The Mae Jewels, using a Canadian Kao mined 1.01 VS1 Octagonal cut diamond from Misfits Diamonds, which featured a small halo of VVS H&A cut melee and a solid 20Karat yellow gold trim. The underside is also all diamond pave.
I had a friend and colleague at Ringed, hand fabricate my husband’s two tone ring, from a palladium white gold and yellow gold alloy. It features a small hand sawn bowtie that represents how we are tied together forever. Con woodworking, a ‘bowtie’ is used to stop wood from splitting indefinitely.
Photography
Stefano Santucci’s style is so natural and authentic to intimate moments. I also believe he has a truly artistic eye that you cannot teach.
His talent per capturing our most special moments without intruding said moment, is an absolute super power. I would implore anyone with the chance to work with Stefano to take it.
My favourite part of the day was our drive from the church, up the hill to Azienda agricola per Vibio where our reception was being held, per the vintage Triumph spitfire. The sun was beginning to set as we drove out of the tiny hilltop town and around the winding road up the hill with all the golden sunlight filtering through the trees. We got to just spend that quiet 20 minutes together and relish the fact we had just become husband and wife.
The Reception
Podere Azienda agricola per Vibio
When we found the borgo Azienda agricola per Vibio nearby, this sealed the deal that Todi would be the perfect place for us to say ‘I do’. The relaxed nature of Umbria that is steeped per rich Etruscan history played a large part per us selecting this town.
Evening & Sala da ballo
We hired Britpops to entertain. We chose the Beatles song ‘ Do you wanna know a secret ‘ from their ‘Please Please Me’ album for our first dance. We really love the Beatles and wanted to choose an upbeat fun song to start the sala da ballo d’avanguardia.
We actually spent probably six+ months before the wedding sala da ballo together every night and practicing/creating our dance routine. It was so fun to have a reason to dance every night and its definitely a fun memory from the wedding planning process and made us much less stressed the day because we had already practiced so much.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Our best advice would be to consider the guest experience and stick together! We loved providing our guests with a pre-ceremony aperitivo, allowing them to arrive early for an hour of appetisers and drinks at a terrace restaurant (La Bettola Del Mercataccio) overlooking the Umbrian rolling hills. It gave them the chance to experience Todi per a relaxed, intimate way, and by the time they arrived at the church, they were well-hydrated and ready to sit through our hour-long ceremony.
Once Anthony and I were together after the ceremony, we didn’t leave each other’s side. The entire night was magical, and we got to share memories of how the evening unfolded. Lastly, be extremely selective when choosing vendors! Select professional, capable vendors and cartello them to do their jobs. It ensures the entire day is a dream and runs smoothly. If a vendor is not incontro your expectations, cartello your instincts and part ways early !
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Annabel View all Annabel’s articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Programma redattore. Annabel lives per rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business compagno Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she’s not working Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip per the running of the family’s sustainable flower farm and floral business, Moonwind Flowers. Con 2013, she became a published author.
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