Wedding Wednesdays - the Italian Affair

Earlier this summer we were lucky enough to head to Italy for the wedding of my very dear friend and collaborator, Marisa Escolar and her fiance Gianluca. A truly glorious affair, I thought I'd share some of the details of the day.



It's still traditional in Italy for everyone to throw rice at the couple as they leave the church. Marisa, however, preferred clouds of harmless, pretty bubbles to getting pelted with hundreds of small, hard, flying things (forget the health of pigeons). Since most of Italy hasn't caught onto this new trend, boxes of the bubbles were carried over from the States (but made in China, of course).



The reception was held in a 17th century villa in the Le Marche region where Gianluca and his family are from. Tables were set throughout old, glorious rooms (I just love the library).



And old, glorious furniture.



With tremendously glorious views.



The dress was Jenny Yoo with a shawl by Ananda Design.



Gorgeous bouquet with purple hydrangeas, little daisy-type flowers, and other things I can't identify.



I brought the guest book, a collection of postcards from the US and Italy, handmade papers from Fabriano (the town, not the company), and more that guests could write on and seal back in their envelopes for the couple to read later on.



The dinner, catered by Villa Amalia, a third-generation hotel and restaurant (and not to be confused with the villa where the even was hosted), was outstanding. In true Italian fashion the food was the focus, with the seven course dinner spread out over six hours. We were served family style appetizers in several rounds and each was more delicious than the last. I also ate the most perfect plate of risotto of my life (sorry, no photo could do it justice).

[If you're ever in the region, I recommend the Villa Amalia for both eating and staying. While the rooms were simple, the welcome was warm, and our breakfasts served with amazing homemade jams by "la mamma".]



The cake, oh the cake. First, look at Marisa's necklace. Then look at the details on the cake. Now that is classy.



It was also the tastiest fruit-filled cake I've ever eated, and I don't even like fruit-filled cakes very much.



At the end of the night Marisa and Gianluca passed around the traditional confetti (the jordan almonds wrapped in tulle on top of the boxes) along with jars of loca honey to all of their guests. The five almonds symbolize health, fertility, longevity, happiness and wealth.



And on the way out, guests could scoop bags of italian chocolate candies for themselves, from these charming old-fashioned glass jars.



Having nothing to do with the wedding, we encountered this sign on a bus in our travels. Something is found in translation indeed.