Real Italian Destination Wedding: Suzanne & Lee

Posted by Weddings Dresses Ideas

If you're worried about the English weather ruining your wedding day, consider a destination wedding. We celebrated our big day in France, and although going abroad is no guarantee for sunshine, it certainly paid off for us. Suzanne and Lee had a similarly wonderful wedding day in June in Italy! Surrounded by stunning Italian countryside, in a tiny medieval village, they created a romantic, rustic themed wedding day with the help of their wedding planners, Amoretti Weddings. With peach, blue and pink as their accent wedding colours, and adorable Italian wedding details {cute Fiats! a massive cake!}, I've fallen head-over-heels for their wedding. Don't miss Suzanne's helpful hints and tips - Lee's suit, and the bridesmaids' dresses were all bought on the high street, saving money without stinting on style. Huge thanks to local photographer Andrea Calvano for his beautiful pictures, more from the reception coming soon!

We got married in a little medieval village called Citta'Sant'angelo, in the rural province of Abruzzo Italy on 4 June 2012 – the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. We knew we didn’t want a packaged up cardboard cut out affair. We wanted something different, something genuinely Italian, something special that our guests would always remember {and, as Lee would remind me, something on budget!!).

Very early on in our engagement my friend leant me a wedding book which had a photograph of a gorgeous bouquet of light pink, peach, cream and hydrangea blue flowers – it was very 'me' – I fell in love with it there and then! I also found beautiful peach bridemaids dresses so we planned everything around those colours.

My dress was made by the brilliant Rita & Chenca Westenius at Ritva Westenius. The shoes were Freya Rose, and the veil was a simple long piece bought from Ritva Westenius.

We were inspired by the venue and the location for the theme and the fact the wedding was abroad. Our invitations had a vintage aeroplane motif and generally for the wedding we wanted something romantic, rustic and classic - but not too over the top.

My headpiece was my great great grandma's first worn at her wedding in 1906 and passed down through the family – I was very anxious about taking it all the way over to Italy on the plane!!

My bridesmaids dress were silk maxis from Ted Baker, their necklaces and earrings were beautifully handcrafted by Lou Lou Belle Designs, and I bought them each a little hair comb from Glitzy Secrets.

We searched high and low for outfits for the groom, ushers and fathers as we wanted suits that wouldn't be too confined or too hot on the day. In the end, on a whim we went to Bicester Village and found beautiful fine wool grey/beige suits in Savoy Taylor's Guild.

We got married in a little known part of Italy where hardly anyone speaks English or recognises English tourists. That in itself was the first hurdle, though it was quickly overcome by the rugged beauty of the region and the excitement we felt when we visited and grasped the potential Abruzzo could offer 'wedding tourists'.

Lee and I met in 2006 at work, I was a temp secretary at the time and he was a solicitor! We got engaged in June 2010 at the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building.