Caroline & Ben, who live in Shanghai, had a destination wedding in Verona, Italy. The bride’s father is from Northern Italy and so they wanted to have a wedding that reflected that heritage. “The idea of getting married close to my roots really appealed”, began the bride, “especially for the fact we could make a holiday out of it for our guests (and for ourselves!). Living abroad, we don’t get to see our friends and families as much as we would like, and this way we got to spend a few days with everyone. We had our ‘stag’ and ‘hen’ parties the night before for all our guests, and after the wedding a group of about 20 of us went up to the Dolomites for some skiing over New Year.”
“I originally thought that with the overseas wedding planning, I wouldn’t need to or want to worry about all the little details, but I had a very wise friend who knew I would care in the end… And I did care! The little details ended up being the things that we most enjoyed spending time over. I loved all the paper bits and pieces especially (and the aeroplanes escort cards made for good competition over dinner!)”
One of the most important thing to this couple was the photography and they booked the ever-fabulous Sassy of Assassynation Photography to shoot the day. “Photography was very important to us and Sassy’s eye and imagination really worked with what we wanted”, Caroline continued. “Her style was as far away from the soft focus and stilted shots that seemed to be preferred by the Italian photographers we could find. We’re lucky she fancied the trip over to Verona!”
The day started with an intimate legal ceremony at Verona Town Hall. Afterwards Caroline, Ben & Sassy wondered the streets of the town to get some really creative wedding day portraits. The ceremony with all their guests in attendance took place at Hotel Veronesi La Torre in the evening, and the reception and party followed straight after.
The bride wore two dresses. The first was a short one from Valentino Roma which she wore for the morning ceremony and portraits. Her evening gown was by Lusan Mandongus which she bought in Hong Hong. “I was intending to get a dress made in the silk capital of China, just down the road from Shanghai, where apparently 70% of the world’s wedding dresses are made. But my level of Chinese didn’t quite cut it and the style of dresses favoured by local buyers was out of kilter with what I wanted so it was difficult to get the vision across. I love the elegance and simplicity of the Lusan Mandongus design, the silk and lace is stunning. I didn’t want anything tight or restrictive, I wanted to be able to dance and eat and drink as much as possible, and that was certainly accomplished!”
“On the day of the wedding everyone was nice and relaxed, in holiday mode and different groups were all intermingled”, Caroline concluded. “We were blown away that everyone close to us made the journey over, even from far away locations including the US and Brazil, and the atmosphere on the day really felt like a big fiesta. Some of our favourite moments were looking across the dance floor (and looking through our photos) to see people who didn’t know each other previously getting on like old best pals – we’re very lucky we have such lovely friends and family!”
