A Watters Gown for a Classic and Modern Lake Garda Wedding in Italy

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Hello loves – how has your weekend been? Mine was swept away in a blur of baking, cleaning, having a lazy sunday morning and everything basically whizzing past too fast. I’m really beginning to look forward to our holiday now in August – we’re off to Italy for a couple of weeks and the thought of being able to saunter down to the pool every morning is making me smile.

The couple in our first wedding of the week chose Italy to tie the knot. Caroline, an Interior Designer, married Mark, a Managing Director, on 30th May last year, at Isola Del Garda, Lake Garda in Italy. They were assisted in their wedding planning by Katiuscia Minozzi and Sara Saba of Italian Lakes Wedding. Now, there are one or two important lessons in this wedding that are a reminder of how important it is to check there are no ‘lost in translation’ errors when planning an overseas wedding (see the note about the cake!). That little mishap aside, this wedding is full of tasteful, modern and elegant touches.

“I wouldn’t say we had a particular inspiration for the day, we wanted a style that was classic but with a modern twist. I chose blush/nude tones and was obsessed with finding as much rose gold as I could for the colours and this ran through the styling for the day. We wanted our wedding to be as much an experience for our family and friends as it was for us so our amazing ceremony venue and location really spoke for itself!”

Photography by Andy Gaines

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Caroline wore the ‘Marnie’ gown by Watters, which she purchased from Adele Howarth-Winstanley Bride in Uppermill near Oldham.

“I wanted something floaty and free for our destination wedding and loved the ultra soft tulle on the skirt and the fact it had a blush tone to the underskirt, the top lace section was so different to anything else I had seen and tried with its illusion design. I did have a few issues with the dress when it arrived given it rubbed my shoulders terribly, thankfully I found an amazing lady locally (the wonderful Debbie at Paradise Grove) who altered it for me and she even added extra bling to the waist band and took out the buttons down the back which I had changed my mind about. It truly was my perfect dream dress.”

“After trials with Italian stylists I came to the decision to do my own hair and makeup; I spent a fortune on new makeup and had about four different trials with makeup brands in the UK and felt that I wanted my usual curl and natural look for my hair as I was most happy with this style. My bridesmaids helped me add a few extensions and to pin it up on the day and attach the veil and hairpiece.”

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“Bizarrely Charlotte Mills had just opened her shop around the corner from Adele’s boutique in Uppermill and after going round the houses trying to find a pair of Jimmy Choos I eventually opted for a pair of her Betty shoes which were perfect and so comfortable!”

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“I decided to have a random mix of bridesmaid dresses in various hues of blush pink and nude all in different styles. One was from a boutique called To Have and To Hold and the dress was a Dessy design, two were made by an online supplier called DIY dress and one was from ASOSI wanted the girls to feel comfortable in what they wore so it was good for them to choose a style that suited them. They all chose/wore their own and all I asked was they were either nude or subtle sparkly glitter/gold.”

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I wanted a simple bouquet of blush flowers including peonies and opted for gypsophila for the bridesmaids and flower girl. The main men had blush flowers/gypsophila for button holes and the mums had matching corsages.”

We drastically cut the flower budget and decided that the ceremony venue spoke for itself using only a few simple vases and flowers to match my bouquet, these were then brought to the hotel to decorate the reception. I wanted many tiny vases filled with a mix of flowers to adorn the tables. The florist was very kind and offered at the last minute to provide some spare flowers to increase the amount of flowers on the tables, with all the candles etc it looked truly stunning.”

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I found a local lady to make me a beaded wire headpiece which sat above my veil and wrapped around my hair, this way I was able to choose all the colours of bead and add to it as I needed to as opposed to buying an item online. She used different colour pink pearls and rose gold wire to create it.”

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“I wore my favourite ‘going out’ perfume which is Victor and Rolf, it reminds Mark of me and reminds me of good times together on our many dates over the years.”

“My accessories included a rose gold and pearl bracelet from Ted Baker and a pair of rose gold and pearl earrings by Mikey at House of Fraser. I wore a specially made tulle veil with tiny Swarovski crystals cascading down to the bottom.”

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“Mark and all our guests were taken on a large boat from a jetty close to our hotel to Isola Del Garda and I followed in a small boat with my Dad (James Bond style!), talk about arriving in style!”

“Thankfully there was a break in the rain and we managed to sail to the island without a cover on the boat. We all returned to the mainland after the ceremony together on the larger boat, we had a short cruise around the lake before arriving at Hotel Sogno.”

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“We visited Italy in 2013, during our trip we stayed on Lake Garda and we both said when we get married we should do it here! We couldn’t forget this when we started planning and Mark did some research and found the palace on Isola Del Garda, we just couldn’t resist it and booked the date before even visiting. We only managed to visit once a few months before the wedding and I cried constantly all day by how amazing everything was.”

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“We actually met in a bar back in 2009. We moved in together almost a year later and after designing my dream ring we got engaged at the beginning of 2014 on a trip to the Lake District. We had already made the decision to have a baby by this point so put our wedding plans on hold for a couple of years before tying the knot!”

“We had a civil ceremony three days prior to the main symbolic wedding as we were unable to be officially married on the Island.”

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Believe it or not even after my alterations, Marks Michelsberg Tailors suit cost more than my dress! It was worth it though, it looked fabulous.”

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“My dad accompanied me down the aisle to the sound of a track from the Shawshank Redemption movie, called ‘So Was Red’ – a really beautiful piece of music.”

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“I had my engagement ring made by Form Bespoke Jewellers who are located not from where we live. We asked Tim at Form to create our wedding bands, mine was made to match my engagement ring and Mark had a simple platinum band made. They were recommended online and have won many awards and the service we received throughout the engagement and wedding process was second to none.”

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“We were given a number of vow options by our wedding planner and we read through them all carefully before picking our final choice.

We had a tough time finding readings, so many were extremely soppy which wasn’t really for us but we managed to choose three readings read by my brother, his wife and marks sister – they were ‘Look To This Day’, an extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, and our favourite, ‘Love’, by Roy Croft.”

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“One word to describe our photographer Andy Gaines is AMAZING! We are over the moon with our wedding photos and how he dealt with everything on the day, we can’t recommend him enough and will cherish forever the record that we have from our big day.”

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“It was all such an amazing experience, like the boat ride over to the island, the epic thunderstorm during the ceremony, the gorgeous food at the reception meal, having a laugh with all our friends and family – it’s hard to pick a favourite part, although I the think Mark would agree that the moments we shared just the two of us while having photographs were truly special, I think we will both cherish those times away from the group when we were able to really take it all in and savour the feelings we had for the day.”

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“We had the wedding reception at Hotel Ristorante Sogno in San Felice Del Benaco, they catered for us and it was amazing, one of my friends said it was the best food she had EVER had and not just at a wedding. The evening meal was a lengthy affair consisting of 6 courses and didn’t finish until almost 11pm…..guess that’s just how the Italians like to do things.”

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“I was desperate to festoon the venue with hanging lights and pinwheel fans but the hotel were not really on board with this and unfortunately rain on the day meant we had to change location of the reception to an indoor conservatory at the last minute so things didn’t go how I expected. I’d purchased blush pink pinwheel fans, pretty gold circle bunting, just married banners etc some of which were used.”

One element that really stole the show were the hand-painted timber signs by our friend Matt of Bravo Boards – he’s a professional sign writer and was originally unable to come to the wedding so we asked for his involvement by getting him make our welcome signs and a few others. In the end he and his girlfriend decided a week before the wedding to drive to Italy for the big day and hand deliver the signs.”

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“We had a saxophonist play for the guests during the aperitif when we arrived at the reception after the ceremony on the island, thankfully the rain had stopped at this point and we all had Prosecco and Peroni in the garden. We wanted the saxophonist to play for our first dance so we did this before the meal. We had a DJ in the evening who played a selection of music we had chosen, both the DJ and saxophonist were organised by the wedding planner.”

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“After much deliberation I decided to design the invites myself and have them printed by a local company who created a silver foil print. I used a girl I found on eBay to print the labels and tags we used for the favours and table decorations and I designed and printed everything else myself including menus, table plans etc.” 

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“We had an escort table which had everyones name and table number, the ladies escort gift was a small bottle of limoncello (sourced locally by the wedding planner) and for the men it was a little red Ferrari (purchased online from a miniature car website and sent direct to Italy). Each guest also had a place setting with a name tag and little hessian bag which contained Italian biscuits – I ordered the bags from ebay and filled them with biscuits bought when we arrived in Italy.”

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“We kind of had two first dance tracks, as mentioned we wanted our saxophonist to play alongside our first dance track which was Boy Meets Girl – Waiting for a Star to Fall, Mark and I have a bit of a thing for 80’s music and this track was just perfect for us.”

“In the evening when the DJ played we had a track by Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over, this was a song that reminds us of when we first got together, of those early days and very happy times.”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Although many people told me to stop getting hung up about the ‘little things’ I was guilty of this and looking back some of these things really didn’t matter because, as everyone always says, the day goes so fast and even if certain things may not go as you expect the only people who will notice will be the two of you, your guests will be none the wiser and will just enjoy the day, which is exactly what the happy couple should do too.

Try to take a step back during the day to take it all in and savour the feelings you share, Mark and I stood on the jetty next to Lake Garda in the evening while Andy our photographer snapped away in the distance, we were chatting and I remember saying to him ‘breathe this in, take it all in because it will soon be over’, those are some of our favourite photos from the day and we know the emotions will stay with us forever.”

“Perhaps a professional videographer would have been our only other regret, the budgets just wouldn’t stretch to this but we do have the important footage to look back on at least.

We originally budgeted less than £25k for everything but this gradually rose over the year after we booked the venue and was probably closer to £30k in the end- scary to think about looking back but it was all worth it!”

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A most beautiful day indeed – my love and thanks to Caroline for sharing so much of her beautiful day here. Are you planning a wedding overseas? Our very own Emily Deaman landed in Italy yesterday for her own wedding in just a few days time. Watch this space ladies and gents! In the meantime, you can use our new search tool to find specific destination wedding locations (click the mini magnifying glass icon).

Love Annabel x

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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