A Bespoke Lace Dress and Mismatched Maids for a Rustic Tuscan Vineyard Wedding

It’s the weekend! I hope you all have relaxing plans (with a spot of wedmin to stay on track).

Let me ease you in with the stylish summer wedding of Lotta and Adrian, who married on the 17th of June 2017 amongst the vineyards and olive groves of Terre di Nano near Montepulciano in Tuscany.

“Adrian and I had a very clear vision that we wanted our wedding to feel like a holiday for our guests, so be super relaxed, to stretch over a couple of days, and to be a chance for our families and friends from Sweden, Italy and England to come together and get to know each other – and Terre di Nano  provided the perfect setting. The styling of the wedding followed a romantic, rustic style.”

Images by Igor Albanese Photography

“We just fell in love with this venue the moment we stepped out of the car. It has an otherworldly sense of peace, with the sun beating down on expansive grounds covered in lavender, and with one of the best views in all of Tuscany. 

“We both work with building technology startups, Adrian on the tech side and me on the marketing/strategy side. We met because I joined a company Adrian was working at, and got the desk next to him! A long period of flirtation followed but we both kind of knew early on that we had a lot of things in common and made each other laugh.”

“I first thought Adrian was a boring tech geek! But I soon discovered we both loved diving, playing the piano, travel and that he had lived all over the world.”

“Plus, he has the best sense of humour of anyone I know. We got married three years after we met, and after a year of getting engaged.”

Lotta donned a beautiful bespoke dress that was loosely based on a style she tried on in Noelle in Kalmar, Sweden.     

“My custom dress had a narrower, elegant skirt, and was in all white, whereas the original had a tulle skirt and was in off white/beige. It was gorgeous, but not a style that suited my long frame. I loved my dress because of its romantic feel and flattering V-shape on the front. It also has incredibly long lace bands that when elegantly tied make the whole dress and really adds to the sense of ceremony. I had six bridesmaids involved in tying them!”

The epitome of elegance, Lotta added a veil via Noelle, ‘Romance’ by Ralph Lauren perfume, Rainbow Club via John Lewis shoes, and two heartfelt jewellery pieces.

“I wore a tiny diamond pendant from my mother who has sadly passed away. We found it among her jewellery recently and it felt like the perfect accompaniment on the day. I also added pearl earrings that my dad gave me for my 30th birthday.”

“My older sister did my makeup – she’s trained as a makeup artist. And my little sister’s best friend did my hair – she’s just a natural talent! I added a a pretty hair accessory from my sister that was bought in the US.”

Adrian and Lotta enlisted the help of two wedding planners to sort all the little details – Laura Bravi and Viviana Tarantino of Bianco Antico – who they highly recommend.

“Both Laura and Viviano are not only extremely professional and had everything running incredibly smoothly, they also have exquisite taste when it comes to styling and are really nice people – it feels like you’re working with friends!”

Lotta’s six bridesmaid’s wore mismatched attire, accessories and shoes as chosen by them, upon the advice to match the colours the couple worked with in the wedding design of lavender, peach and olive green. They also added pretty floral wrist corsages to finish off their stylish look.

Adrian wore a smart bespoke Mark Marengo suit, paired with a tie and shirt from Hugo Boss and shoes from Russell & Bromley. His party wore a mix of light grey suits by Reiss and light blue suits from Suit Supply.

Lotta’s father accompanied her for the walk down the aisle to the piano version of ‘Canon in D Major’ by Johann Pachelbel and the newlyweds walked out to the uplifting ‘I Choose You’ by Sara Bareilles. The couple exchanged rings from Heming Jewels in Hatton Garden.

Adrian and Lotta’s priest flew into Tuscany with them from Sweden and, with his guidance, the couple tailored their vows. Here is an excerpt…

Adrian, I promise to love you,
to share joy and sorrow with you
and to be faithful until death parts us.
I promise, that when I make myself a cup of tea, I’ll make you one also. [private joke]”

“We had two readings – ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton and ‘Art of Marriage’ by Roy Croft, as below:

The little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say: “I love you” at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humour. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

Images of the couple’s sweet and heartfelt moments amongst the incredible Tuscan countryside were by Igor Albanese Photography and his assistant Gaia Borzicchi.

“We were so so lucky to find Igor. He is married to our wedding planner, but she purposefully didn’t sell him to us; we simply looked at his work and loved it. We met in Italy twice before the wedding and got to know each other, and he also did some engagement photos for us that we could use for the invites.”

“On the day, Igor and his assistant were simply everywhere – capturing the day in detail, even though things were happening in different places across the venue. We couldn’t be happier with the result and we never thought that we would get photos that actually let us relive the day in such great detail. And that are so beautiful.”

“We highly recommend! Igor is a cool cat, super relaxed, friendly, funny, and makes you feel that you’re being photographed by an old friend. Together with Laura’s styling and wedding direction, they really are an unbeatable pair.”

“The flowers were provided by Il Profumo dei fiori and were chosen to fit the rustic theme, with olive branches, lavender and large peach roses. Both my bouquet and the table decorations were enough to make people stop and just look – utterly gorgeous. Kudos to Viviana Tarantino of Bianco Antico who did a phenomenal job with the table – it’s one of the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen.”

How utterly stunning is the couple’s stationery?! It was created by SuzeStudio Design with hand-painted watercolour olive branches. And in keeping with the olive theme, a small bottle of olive oil was given as a favour for each guest at the dinner table and sourced via the wedding planners.

“To decorate, we used things that were already at the venue, like the old wine barrels, and our wedding planners and florist provided lanterns and other small decorative elements.”

“I can’t choose a favourite bit, as each section of the day was so different and magical! But I can say what I think worked very well:

We invited all guests for an afternoon of games (5 stations) and a pizza party on the terrace the day before the wedding. It was perfect for getting people comfortable with each other, so that on the wedding day everyone already knew each other.”

“Spending five hours with my six bridesmaids, all getting ready together, eating lunch and drinking prosecco, on a rustic terrace with the warm Tuscan wind in our hair, overlooking the estate’s vineyards. Only thing was we needed more time!”

“We made a little booklet with a guest quiz – a sentence about each guest, followed by a question about them. During the aperitivo, the guests were handed the booklets and all set about mingling to find the answers. It worked like a charm to get everyone talking.”

“We got our dream wedding in Tuscany for the same budget as we would have spent for a very traditional wedding in London.”

The venue prepared a delicious feast for everyone, as well as their traditional Italian cake.

“We opted for a traditional millefoglie, prepared in front of the wedding guests, with our help. It provided an extra bit of ceremony, and stayed within our theme of a casual, rustic, and participative wedding.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

 “Don’t start planning four months before the wedding, like we did! It all worked out really well, but it takes a good while before you’ve done the basics of getting all guests confirmed and organised (especially for a destination wedding) and all the basics like venue, catering, and decorations sorted. That’s when you start having time to look into the fun extra bits, like entertainment, secrets and surprises, custom T-shirts, gifts for the wedding party, speeches, performances etc.

And you want time to do that, to really enjoy every decision. It only happens once! So – even if you have wedding planners, expect to spend a lot of time organising yourselves and your guests.”

“If you’re planning a destination wedding, expect almost half of your invitees to not be able to come (so over-invite). You will come to see that different people reason very differently about what is doable in terms of travel, especially if they have young children. You have to respect that, and it’s good if you prepare for it, so you’re not disappointed.”

Breathe in, breathe out. I promised to relax you lovelies and Lotta and Adrian’s most beautiful day totally delivered this with their simply divine wedding in the utterly breathtaking hills of Tuscany. For even more inspo, see these beautiful weddings under the Tuscan sun from our Love My Dress archives.

Thank you to the gorgeous couple, and to Igor, for sharing and setting up our weekend dreaming of romantic destinations … I’ll be giving Google a workout later on as it’s added to my ‘must-see’ travel list.

Love Jo -x0-