Dreamy Italian Destination Wedding At A Tuscan Castle

I think this might just be my favourite destination wedding ever. I know! Big words indeed, but Emma and Matt's dream Italian wedding at a Tuscan castle is very much deserving of this honour. From the flowers, to the fashion, from the decor to the traditional Italian cake, every last detail has been perfectly chosen by Emma and her wedding planner Vanessa. The beautiful images obviously come from the wonderful James Frost, whose style is just unrivalled as far as I'm concerned. Book him for your wedding and you won't regret it. Emma and Matt certainly don't...

Our Story & The Proposal

Emma & Matt : Matt and I met 5 and a half years ago, whilst both at work on the Great British Bake Off. It was bread week when we went on our first date, and not long after that was my birthday...Matt surprised me with a romantic weekend away in a gorgeous countryside house. 4 years later, in January, we went back to this same house where Matt proposed. We were cozied up in front of the log fire and it had just started to snow outside the windows! It was the perfect weekend!

Floral Bridal Wedding Dress

I struggled to find a dress at first, I visited a few boutiques where, to be brutally honest, had I not been polite I probably wouldn’t of left the fitting room. I found Flora Bridal on Instagram, and from their found Blackburn Bridal who stocked their dresses. Not long after that, Blackburn Bridal held a trunk show of the new collection and that’s where I found my perfect dress, with the help of my mum and gorgeous Carly from the boutique. It felt summery, fresh, relaxed and the beautiful fabric was like no other dress I’d seen before. One of my favourite things I wore on the day was my gold leaf headband by Jennifer Behr, which perfectly complimented the delicate leaves on the edge of my dress. For the evening I also wore her large gold floral earrings – because it just wouldn’t have been me if I didn’t wear some big earrings at some point.

Dreamy Italian Destination Wedding At A Tuscan Castle

We got married in Castello Di Vincigliata, in a small town called Fiesole, just outside of Florence. The castle sits right on top of a hill, and now every time I hear Ed Sheeran’s ‘Castle on the Hill’, it reminds me of our wedding day! One of the reasons we choose the venue was because of how naturally beautiful it was, so we didn’t need to do much décor at all, we mostly decorated with flowers with a simple white, green and grey colour palette and gold metallic accents throughout, as well as adding personal touches for our friends such as scattering every table with old photos of us and them. We wanted our wedding day to be a celebration not only of us, but also of our friends and family who are such an extremely important part of our lives. I only asked for 2 things in our flowers, eucalyptus and pampas grass! I absolutely loved the soft romantic feel of the pampass grass and the texture it added. Other than that we let our florist choose the rest of the blooms and I loved them! I asked for a BIG oversized bouquet, and they did not let me down!

Wedding Planner In Tuscany

Everything was brought together by our amazing wedding planner Vanessa Cacioli! She truly went above and beyond to bring our vision of our perfect day to life and made the whole planning process easy and stress free for us! From the moment we arrived in Italy she made us feel looked after and nothing was too much trouble, she came to see us multiple times and really made us feel like we had nothing to worry about. Everyone commented on how seamlessly smooth and effortless the day seemed to run and that was all down to Vanessa’s incredible hard work and attention to detail. Vanessa definitely became a friend to us as well as a wedding planner.

The Ceremony And Wedding Readings

We wanted our day to feel personal, and to be a true reflection of us. As we were legally married in the UK before flying out to Italy, we were lucky enough to be able to choose who led our ceremony. Matt and I both had one person in mind for this, and luckily, it was the same person! Kat is my oldest school friend and the person I can honestly say I ‘grew up’ with. She’s now an important friend to both Matt and I and we knew she would do an amazing job. The three of us wrote the ceremony together over a dinner or two, and the words felt even more special coming from her on the day. We chose the readings ‘Marry Your Best Friend’ and Bob Marley's ‘He’s Not Perfect’. Our final reading was written for us by one of our best friends Paul, which we didn’t hear until the day. It was very personal and very special and made us laugh and cry all at the same time!

The Food

We really can’t say enough about our caterers, yes the food was delicious of corse, and their service was outstanding, which many of our guests commented on! But what made us love them was their subtle touches of care throughout the day. When I stepped out of the car they were waiting for me with a glass of water, (which was MUCH appreciated) and when we returned back down the aisle after the ceremony they presented us with 2 glasses of champagne! Those are just small examples of things they did throughout the day that really made us feel special. The wedding cake was never something I had been excited about to be honest! However our caterers told us about their traditional millefoglie cake, which they make live in front of our guests, not only was it delicious but ended up being such a fun part of the day.

The Photography

We both by far agree that the best decision we made about our wedding was James! I had admired James’ work for ages, and was over the moon when he said he was available and would love to shoot our wedding! 
We did an engagement shoot with James the day before the wedding, and by the time the big day came around he felt more like a friend than a photographer. He was calm, put everyone at ease, and was fun to have around. He put a lot of effort and attention into making sure everything was perfect on the day and even stood for about half an hour with his back against a painfully spiky plant to get the perfect shot! Of course his photos speak for themselves and we could not be any happier with them, we’ve stared at them all in awe countless times now and they never gets old. Beautiful timeless photos that capture the magic and feeling of the day perfectly! Thank you James!

Advice For Planning A Destination Wedding

My advice to any couples planning a wedding would be to enjoy the whole process! For us the wedding wasn’t just about the day itself, but about all the little things that lead up to it. Asking our friends to be part of our bridal party, writing our ceremony with Kat, coffee shop stops with my mum whilst we waited for dress appointments, shopping days with friends for their wedding guest outfits, my dad walking up and down our living room trying on his suit for the first time and the half hour we spent beginning to make our own confetti before realizing that life is too short and ordering it online ;) The hours spent putting together playlists and the car journeys where we tested them out! Each trip to the jewellers to try on our wedding rings and every excited text from our friends to tell us they just booked their flights! If you’re planning a destination wedding, make the most of it! We wanted to make sure we spent as much time as possible with our friends and family, we chose a hotel that many of our friends stayed at, to me nothing was more exciting than coming out to breakfast to see all your best friends already at the buffet! We also held a pizza party the evening before, so by the time our big day arrived, our guests had all met, spent time together and formed new friendships, which meant the day went off like fireworks! We also had a pool party the following day where we heard everyone’s’ drunken stories and re-lived the day! It's not often you’ll have all your favourite people in one place at once, so enjoy every second.