So many beautiful details at this picturesque destination wedding in Sicily; including our stunning Brides original 1960s vintage wedding dress worn by her Mother on her wedding day. Lovingly restored and altered to fit her like a glove, with a silhouette to die for, appliqué details and sheer sleeves.
The views will also have you gasping with love and have you wanting to book your own destination wedding in a heartbeat. It’s hard not too when you see the fluffy white clouds, blue mediterranean sea and dream of warmer evenings and romance.
And if all that wasn’t enough to entice you, wait until you see the floral bouquets – divine, simply divine.
The Dress
Lucy The Bride: I wore my Mum’s wedding dress from 1966. When I first tried it on, I absolutely loved it and it fitted perfectly. I did also tried on a few modern dresses at various bridal boutiques but nothing compared!
However, after nearly fifty years in the loft, my Mum’s dress had discoloured quite badly and we realised that the top layer would need to be replaced and that it needed a few other alterations to be made. After a not so good attempt at repairing the dress by one dressmaker and with not long to go until the wedding, I found Yvonne Sweeney Reed who has a studio close to where we live. She was absolutely brilliant and completely rescued my dress!
My shoes were flat gold sandals from L.K. Bennett, they were incredibly comfortable on the day and are great as they’re the type of shoes which I can wear again. I kept my jewellery quite simple and as well as my engagement ring, I wore some small gold Dinny Hall earrings and also a gold Dinny Hall bracelet which Will had given me on my last birthday.
Grooms Suit
Will The Groom: I must have visited just about every shop in the West End! I stumbled upon Tiger of Sweden, just off of Piccadilly Circus and took an instant liking to their suits. The staff there bent over backwards to make sure I was happy with the final alterations. I highly recommend them.
The Venue
Lucy The Bride: We knew that we wanted to get married abroad and chose Sicily as we had been there before and absolutely loved it. With the help of of our amazing wedding planner, Karen Cacopardo, we decided upon Castelmola Auditorium for our ceremony and Villa Antonio for our reception.
Castelmola is away from the hustle and bustle of nearby Taormina and is perched high in the clouds with views of the Mediterranean sea and Mount Etna. As soon as we visited the auditorium with Karen, we knew that we had to have our ceremony here as the views are absolutely breathtaking!
We chose Villa Antonio as our reception venue for a number of reasons but after trying the food during our venue scouting weekend last year and with its stunning views of Isola Bella, it was an obvious choice! On the day, Lina and her team were brilliant. We had given them a rough guide of how we wanted the tables etc. to look and everything was even better than we imagined.
The Food
We love food and it was one of the main reasons why we decided to get married in Sicily. We knew that the food would probably be amazing at any of the potential venues but Villa Antonio really stood out.
When everyone arrived for the evening reception, there were drinks and canapés on the roof terrace. Following this, we went downstairs to the lower terrace for the wedding breakfast and speeches.
Antipasti; Typical Sicilian antipasti of caponata, anchovies and ricotta croquettes.
First course; Gragnano pasta with seabass, courgettes, cherry tomatoes and shrimps.
Main course; choice of either baked fillet of beef with black truffle sauce and potato puree with herbs or fillet of amberjack with aubergine, olive and basil sauce and spinach with raisins.
Dessert; Almond parfait with chocolate and ginger sauce.
Villa Antonio also provided the beautiful wedding cake which was lemon with chantilly cream and decorated with fresh flowers.
Bridesmaids Dresses
The Jigsaw dresses were the first things we bought! During a shopping trip with my Mum and my Sister, we saw these dresses and loved the colour. My Sister (who was a Bridesmaid) tried the dress on and loved it so we bought them there and then hoping that the other dress would fit my other Bridesmaid who lives in Germany (it did, perfectly!). The younger Bridesmaid’s dress was a pretty white dress from Bonpoint.
The Wedding Planner
Our wedding planner Karen was fantastic, this wedding simply couldn’t have happened without her. She was there at every stage of the wedding from the initial planning and paperwork through to providing amazing support on the day. Karen organised every aspect of the wedding from the flowers to the DJ. She also arranged a BBQ and Sicilian band the night before the wedding. This was such a great evening, the food was delicious and the band were great fun! We were so happy that we did this as it allowed guests who hadn’t met before the chance to get to know each other before the actual wedding day.
The Photographer
We are so pleased that we found Amy B. Her talent, attention to detail and meticulous planning are matched only by her enthusiasm and energy! Amy put us completely at ease and is such a lovely person too. We are absolutely thrilled with our photos!
Flowers and Decor
We kept everything quite simple in terms of decor as the reception venue itself is naturally stunning. The tables were decorated with bougainvillea and the place settings were small luggage tags tied around stems of rosemary and bovardia.
The bouquets and flower arrangements were a mixture of ranunculus (my favourite flower!) and bovardia with lots of greenery including eucalyptus and ruscus.
Photography by Amy B Photography
- Dress Maker Yvonne Sweeeney Reed
- Bridal Shoes L.K Bennett
- Jewellery Dinny Hall at Liberty
- Grooms Suit Tigers of Sweden
- Venue Villa Antonio
- Wedding Planner Forever Sicily
- Florist Petali e Capricci
- Invitations Maple Tea
- Bridesmaid Dresses Jigsaw
- Bon Point at Selfridges
Author: Lorna Shaw
Beautiful, strong photos! Sensual and full of love… Lovely wedding!