Scarlett and Jake’s September wedding was the kind of celebration that makes you want to pack a suitcase and book a one-way flight to Sicily. Set across a long weekend, their wedding was relaxed, joyful and rooted in everything they love the most; good food, time with friends and a setting that was breathtakingly beautiful but also completely unpretentious.
They’d originally been searching for a venue in France, but nothing quitye felt right. Then a friend shared details of Commenda di San Calogero in Sicily and that was that! Plans shifted, flights were booked and the dream destination wedding began to take shape. This glorious venue, with its wild gardens and faded stone courtyards, became their backdrop for a weekend that moved seamlessly from sea-view Aperols on Friday to poolside lounging on Sunday.
Scarlett wore Mira Zwillinger from Browns Bride in London, a decision made in the end with the help of a couple of margaritas and a looming deadline. Felicity Westamacott, the brilliant seamstress behind the veil and finishing touches to Scarlett’s gown, brought her vision to life with just the right mix of structure and softness. A sublime modern colour palette of pistachio green and buttercream, place a nod to the setting and the season and was woven throughout bridesmaids dresses, florals and gorgeous decorative details.
Huge kudos to wedding planners Loviú Events and talented photographer Studio Chloe David for creating and capturing such magic. Enjoy!
We Love Gigi & Olive
The Venue & Vision
I personally had always envisioned an abroad wedding and Jake was luckily on board with that idea too. I have always loved the Italian way of life, the culture, the food and of course the wine! Neither of us are religious and so the need for an English church wedding did not feel like “us” and we wanted to do something that felt like the perfect way for us to celebrate with family and friends and what better way to do that than on essentially a massive holiday!
We originally had our hearts set on getting married in France but nowhere quite ticked all of our boxes. After going round in circles and drastically widening our geographical search parameters, a friend of ours sent us a venue in Sicily and we thought: “that’s it!”. It was love at first sight, however our first choice of venue sadly didn’t work out but in hindsight we are so happy it didn’t because the venue we actually settled on, Commenda di sSn Calogero was everything we could have wished for!
Some Favourite Vendors
Visit the Love My Dress Directory to view more of our favourite vendors and venues.
Our wedding venue on the Saturday and Sunday was Commenda di San Calogero in Sicily. We chose it because of its beauty and the gardens. We wanted a wedding day that would provide multiple surprises for our guests throughout the day, so that as the day progressed from the welcome drinks to the ceremony to the aperitivo to the dinner and then dancing, there was a new part of the venue to explore. Commenda has such incredible gardens and the interiors of the buildings is stunning as well.
Obviously chosing to get married abroad, we had our hearts set on an outdoor wedding but you always need a Plan B (which we nearly did) and as Plan Bs go, Commenda’s interiors were gorgeous too. It was also well located, not too far from the airport so our guests could travel to us easily but also close to the sea as we wanted an element of the wedding to by the sea, which our Friday night Welcome Drinks were.
Our Welcome Drinks were held at Mangia’s in Brucoli (where many of our guests were staying) on the waterfront which provided a stunning sunset setting on the Friday night. We then had a day three pool party back at Commenda di San Calogero which was a lot of fun, followed by a small intimate dinner that they put on for the guests that stayed with us on site.
After much consideration, we chose to work with Laura and Enza at Loviu Events as they seemed very well connected and understood our vision for the day.
The Dress
My dress was by Mira Zwillinger from Browns Bride. My lovely seamstress, Felicity Westamacott helped me make some alterations to the bodice.
I am a perpetual over-thinker and incredibly indecisive, so finding The Dress, was not easy for me. However, the decision was somewhat taken out of my hands as I ended up having to make a decision in a time-crunch. So after a couple of margaritas later (back in Sicily) I called up Brown’s Brides and said I would take it!
Browns Brides were super helpful and helped me understand what it was that I wanted in a dress versus what I thought I wanted or what I thought I should have. I never thought I would go for an A Line or ‘Princess’ dress but they helped me find the perfect one that felt like me. I would definitely recommend them to other brides…the champagne was delicious too!
I loved the surprise on some of my closest friends’ faces as I don’t think they thought I would wear the style of dress I did either. It had quite a unique embroidery on it that gave it a slight edge and felt like detail without it being lacey. It balanced out the femininity of the dress. I also loved wearing a ring my Grandma leant me which was my ‘Something Blue’. The ring was a gift from my Grandpa, who is no longer with us, on their 60th wedding anniversary. Due to her age, my Grandma couldn’t fly out and be there for the wedding so it was lovely to have that piece of her there with me on the day.
Felicity also made my veil for me. I had always dreamed of a voluminous veil, very 60’s and Felicity bought this to life for me.
Because the dress was quite detailed, I opted for a very simple veil. I then had the letters ‘J & S’ embroidered on the bottom of it in two hearts and it is one of my favourite details of the day.
My shoes were inexpensive from ASOS. I am not a huge heel wearer and knew I would not be wearing white satin heels again and so opted to spend my money on other parts of the wedding outfit.
I wore a perfume that Jake had bought for me previously that I actually found when we were in Lausanne in the same holiday that we got engaged on. It is Tacit by Aesop.
I kept the jewelelry simple as the dress and veil had quite a lot going on. My earrings were from Orelia and I wore my Grandmother’s ring. I also had an embroidered handkerchief commissioned for Jake which I gifted to him the night before and he wore as his pocket square on the wedding day. I worked with the amazing Polly from Nonna’s Napkins who can embroider practically anything onto beautiful Italian linen handkerchief/napkins. I had some lyrics from the song I walked down the aisle to embroidered for Jake.
Myself and my Bridesmaids hair was by Veronica La Terra who our Planners found for us in Sicily. Although there was a significant language barrier between all of us on the day, she and her team worked hard to achieve our requests and everyone was happy with their hairstyles (which I said they could chose themselves).
My sister-in-law/bridesmaid helped me with my make-up. It was lovely for it to be a joint effort and something special for us to do together.
The Ceremony
My Father walked me down the aisle to SG Lewis’s ‘Easy Loving You’, that we had remastered for the moment. Our close friend Louis, who initially introduced us, married us and did a phenomenal job.
We had three readings at during our ceremony by close friends; ‘I’ll Be There For You’, by Louise Cuddon, ‘He Never Leaves the Seat Up’ (Anon – and our friends took some creative license on this one which made it quite funny and tailored to us) and then one of Jake’s Groomsmen surprised me with a reading that he created but read as if from the perspective of our dog, Percy.
It is hard to explain but it was so funny and sweet and definitely got all of the guests laughing. We didn’t want anything religious or too serious but equally wanted readings that felt personal, heartfelt and applicable to us as a couple.
We are very lucky to have some very musical friends and family. The song we walked down the aisle to was remastered and tailored perfectly for the moment by our friend and one of Jake’s Groomsmen, Dicky who owns Migration Studios.
Our rings are simple gold bands from a local jeweler that Jake’s family have used for years. Mine is slightly chunkier and we both have each others names engraved on the inside.
How They Met
We met eight years ago through a mutual friend that Jake went to school with, and I went to university with. That same friend who introduced us on that fateful night in a bar in Clapham, is the same friend who married us eight years later in Sicily. It was Aperol that bought us together the first night we met and Aperol that sealed the deal on the dance floor many years later.
Jake and I got engaged in July 2022 when on holiday in the French Alps. We had a legal wedding in the UK with immediate family and grandparents and a few close friends.
Jake’s suit was from 40 Colori , an Italian designer and we chose Pistachio green, which was unintentionally very in keeping with the Italian theme.
Photography & Videography
We worked with Chloe from Studio Chloe David. Chloe was phenomenal. She was our saving grace and kept things calm all throughout the day. It also helps she speaks fluent Italian so could communicate with all the suppliers.
I searched high and low for the perfect photographer and when I found Chloe and saw her work I was instantly obsessed, as was Jake. Her ability to capture candid moments and work with the light to produce soft yet editorial and timeless images was exactly what we were looking for. I was most excited for our pictures both before and after the wedding and she did not disappoint.
Working with Chloe was one of the best decisions we made. All our friends raved about her pictures after too.
We knew we wanted to do something a little different and both loved the vintage effect that Super 8 film produced. Finding a Sicilian videographer who did Super 8 was not easy but we worked with Leonardo Tornabene and loved our video and will forever look back on it.
The Reception
Flowers and décor was a big thing for us and we worked with Noi 2 to bring this vision to life.
One of the reasons we chose our venue was its natural beauty and the mature gardens so it had in-built décor so to speak and didn’t need tones of flowers to dress it. We knew we wanted flowers for the ceremony and the aperitivo but made the decision that we wanted only candles on the table for dinner. This was one of the best decisions we made.
We wanted it to feel like an intimate, (albeit 120 person) dinner party and our florist really delivered here. 600 candles adorned our dinner table which was under a fairy-lit Olive grove.
Our lighting throughout the wedding was by Lion’s Service Group. They had worked with the venue countless times and really understood our vision, especially when it came to the fairy lights and the dancefloor. The venue also provided us with lots of candles that lit the garden during the evening and helped guide guests to the next stage of the evening. It was magical.
It will always be one of my favourite moments walking in to see that and I know our guests loved it also.
The wonderful chefs at Commenda di San Caolgero created a huge Tiramisu for our wedding cake.
The stationery was designed by myself and my Mother who is a Graphic Designer. We then had them printed in the UK by the wonderful Roopa at The Print Design.
Our table plan involved limoncello shots by everyone’s name so we could get the party started ahead of dinner!
I personally loved our dinner. It was exactly how I had pictured it. I could sit there and look up and down the long table we had and see each of our guests and watch them enjoying themselves. You are pulled from pillar to post before the dinner so it was a time to truly enjoy it and reflect. The food was delicious and I loved all of the speeches.
Evening & Dancing
The music for most of the day was controlled by our DJ, Jack and Jake’s brother and Groomsman, Archie. Having friends involved in our music was one of the best decisions and made it so personal. For the evening we had both a DJ (Jack) as well as a trumpeter, Andrea Ardizzone (who our planners sourced) and then various friends jumped on the decks throughout the evening.
Our first dance was to ‘A Little Less Conversation’ by Elvis Presley x JXL, which Jake’s Brother Archie remastered to fit our entrance perfectly.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Do what you want to do, not what you think you should do. There are a lot of outside opinions and noise throughout the wedding process but make sure you keep true to what you wanted to start with. It is very easy to get swept up in things and for money to feel like Monopoly Money so make sure at least one of you (Jake in this case) keeps a firm grounded head on them.
Equally we made sure all of our wedding planning felt as enjoyable as possible. So we would take our laptops to the pub to do wedding planning and get out of the house, which I thoroughly recommend. Plus there is alcohol on hand for the “gulp” moments when it comes to the budget!
Planning a Wedding in Italy or Sicily?
We recommend these amazing vendors – though you’ll find many more in our wedding directory.
