Paula and Giorgio's wedding was an Italian dream. A ceremony surrounded by palms and pines, an open-air reception, candles, tarot cards, and a selection of local delicacies. We talked to the couple about how they planned their wedding, as well as the story of how they fell in love.
How did you meet?
We met 11 years ago in Madrid, Spain while Paula was studying for a master's degree at the IED and Giorgio was doing an internship at the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Spain. From the moment we met, our love story started. We are now currently living in Porto, north of Portugal, where we moved in March 2020 (yes, we arrived here a day before the first European lockdown because of COVID-19, so everything has been an adventure and a challenge!)
What do you do for a living?
Giorgio works at Parfois, a Portuguese fashion company, and Paula, although she worked for many years in fashion, decided to change her career path. A few years ago, she decided to go on and study floral design and has worked as a floral designer ever since. She is currently working on a personal project, @brasaani.studio, a floral design company between Porto and Galicia, a floral project where she offers contemporary flower arrangements for any occasion.
What kind of wedding were you dreaming of?
We have always wanted to celebrate in a big way with our nearest and dearest. Our friends used to joke that we should do a party when we celebrated 10 years of being together. That was in 2021, but as we have been together for so many years and have so many close friends, we did not want to celebrate that milestone in the middle of a pandemic. So, we postponed it for the summer of 2022.
Where was your wedding?
We chose to get married in Puglia, the groom's homeland and a very special place for Paula. It also gave Paula's family and friends the opportunity to plan a nice trip together and get to know this wonderful area of southern Italy. So, 45 people out of a total of 100 guests came from across Europe – Galicia, Barcelona, Madrid, Colombia, and London, especially to celebrate with us.
How did the wedding unfold step by step?
A few days before the big day, Giorgio's mother wanted to surprise the Spaniards with a beautiful reception at her house, located in the historic center of Lecce. A house with a lot of history since it dates from the year 1700 and was restored by Giorgio ́s father, who was an architect. During the cocktail party, friends and family could taste local wines and typical dishes from the area prepared with love by Giorgio's mother and aunts.
On the 21st, the day before the wedding, Giorgio, along with a bunch of friends and family, surprised Paula with a serenade in the doorway of his house, the music was played by Giorgio ́s friends (accordion, transverse flute, saxophone, and Spanish guitar). Giorgio himself decided to sing a song that they both love. It was an incredible surprise and a magical moment that Paula remembers with special affection. Since that night, Paula has felt like the protagonist of an Italian film by Fellini or Sorrentino.
July 22nd was the big day. We celebrated a ceremony officiated by Paula's godfather who dared to speak also in Italian, with interventions by brothers and groomsman, accompanied by music and the voice of Sofía Brunetta, a friend of the groom. The bride and groom designed and printed booklets for the guests translated into Spanish and Italian to make sure that all of the guests could understand everything that was happening.
After the ceremony, there was a welcome drink, an appetizer, and a dinner followed by the party. The whole celebration was in the same place, an old “south Italian Masseria” near Lecce.
What was the concept behind your wedding and how did you find your inspiration?
The couple decided not to hire a wedding planner and did everything themselves because they wanted to do something unique. Starting from a series of concepts from both the Apulian and Galician cultures, they designed and produced the stationery for the wedding. All of the decoration for the event was designed and performed by Brasaanï.
The bride was in charge of the floral design, creating flower installations for the ceremony with preserved and dried flowers that accompanied a wedding arch that was also present in the design of the wedding invitation.
For the aperitif, Paula, with help from Giorgio who became a florist's assistant for a day, created some great floral pieces with a contemporary style consisting of local flowers.
For dinner, the bride and groom wanted to surprise their guests and created a magical atmosphere by decorating the imperial tables with mountains of salt, many candles, and amaranth flower installations evoking marine coral. For the seating chart, they made a giant game board where they positioned pumi pugliesi, typical ceramics from Puglia, hand painted in antique pink color, which simulated game pieces. Each piece had the name and the seat number of each guest. Once the seat was found, the guest would find on his plate a tarot card also designed by the couple, with a message on the back where they thanked the assistance and where they also announced that it was very important to keep this tarot card until the end. This raised a lot of curiosity among the guests, who would later discover that these cards doubled as raffle tickets.
Tell us about your outfits.
The bride wore a dress with detachable XXL sleeves in natural Italian silk that she designed together with her friend Marta and was crafted by a dressmaker from Porto. She also wore gold sandals from Zara. As jewelry, she wore the gold and diamonds engagement ring from Sansoeurs, a ring from Aristocrazy that was a gift from her friends at her bridal shower party, a choker from Caruncho and Codina, and a gold bracelet from her grandmother, who recently passed away. The groom wore a suit by Giorgio Armani, shoes by Pedro del Hierro, and a tie by Mirto.
Groom @giorgio_verardi
Photo @lovatiphotography
Decor & Florals @brasaani.studio
Venue @casina.calo
