Our Wedding

I pulled a selection to post here and they're not in order. You can see the full photo album on our photographer's site.



Weddings are typically a moment of a couple's beginning. A step to mark the start of a long journey. But for us, well, we've taken so many steps together already. We've been together for 16 years and legally married for 7. And so, our wedding felt more like a celebration of a life together that is has already been, and continues to be, well-lived.



It was intimate and filled with family. My only wish would have been to have more of our family and friends from the U.S. in attendance, but we knew it would have been a stretch. My mom, sister, and brother-in-law were there - as well as my longtime friend and freshman year roommate, Martha, and I was so grateful to have them with me. And Luca, of course. I can't even imagine our wedding without him present.



For those who don't know, and we've told this story many times now so you probably do know, the years-long delay of our wedding was caused by the seemingly never ending restoration of the original location. Villa Savorelli in Sutri holds a special place in Sergio's heart. He was set on having our wedding there. But honestly, to this day, they are still "restoring" the building and I think no longer renting rooms out. It's all a little confusing what's happening with the property. And then we would have had to figure out the logistics of getting a caterer up to the Villa, deal with questionable kitchen and bathroom access, not to mention having to run electrical everywhere. So, in the end, I think we ended up with the best of both worlds.

We had a photoshoot at the Villa park and grounds around Sergio's childhood home a few days before the wedding. The ceremony and reception took place at Lido dei Pioppi, a restaurant right on Lago di Vico. Sergio's family has been going there for over 35 years. Both families watched each others kids grow up. They taught Sergio how to windsurf on the lake. They treated us like family.



Everyone was invited over the phone or email. We didn't have invitations printed up. We did our menu-tasting and met with our florist the day after we arrived in Italy, just 4 days before the wedding. Our awesome photographer got us in touch with the makeup and hair person, as well as found us the perfect little fiat cinquecento. The owner drove us around the lake and to the ceremony, honking the horn to announce our arrival. I had a quick makeup and hair trial three days before the wedding. We purposely coincided it with our Villa shoot.



Instead of program cards, we had Italian translations of the readings Sergio and I did in English during the ceremony. Nora "officiated", that is, translated our vows into Italian as we read them. We did a last minute pull of childhood photos to display near the petite guest book. We took Instax portraits of each other the morning of the wedding to use as cake toppers. The restaurant also provided the cake. There was no seating chart or menu cards. Sergio's cousin, Luca, is a Blues vocalist and harmonica player, and in a couple of bands. He performed during the ceremony and at the reception. There was no playlist. He just performed. I'm not even sure what he sang while we walked down the aisle. Although, I did hear a lyric "She's so beautiful..." right when we arrived.



Because of where I am in my life, I definitely approached the day much differently than if it had been 7 years ago. There was so much more I trusted others with to help us make the day special. Sergio and Nora did the bulk of the organizing. This happened by default because the event took place in Italy and most of the guests were there. I tried to do other things that did not need Italian to help, like booking travel arrangements, ordering favors, making the printed materials, finding Luca's outfit, cake topper, photographer research, etc. I found the readings but Sergio found the translations and Nora verified them for us.

There was a bit of last-minute, day-before scrambling over whether or not to decorate the gazebo and rearrange the chair setup, but it came together. Our florist pretty much rocked. The sun even shone at just the right moment for us. We were both surprised by how emotional we became as we did our readings.





There was dancing. And the food was so delicious. The meal seemed to stretch on and beautifully on. Luca had a fantastic time playing with his cousins. Oddly, Sergio and I never really got to dance with each other. I boogied down with Luca and his cousins. But not with him. We'll just have to make up for it another time.





Menu
We had a full course, seafood-based Italian dinner. As I said before, it was gloriously drawn-out and leisurely.

Aperitivo : Spumante, Juice, Crostini
Antipasto: Carpaccio pesce di lago
Primo : Ravioli di pesce persico (perch)
Secondo : Spigola e Gamberoni Kids table: Filetti di persico fritti dorati
Contorno : Patata arrosto
Insalata mista
Dolce : Wedding Cake
Caffè
Digestivo: Biscotti e Angioletto

Sources and Team

My Dress
David's Bridal DB Studio Limited Edition Style: 061896890

Sergio's Suit
Hugo Boss from Nordstrom

Luca's Outfit
Rosebuds & Rosestuds consignment shop

Florals
Anna Coppola of Il Laboratorio Fiori di Zucca
Via Vittorio Veneto, 15
Sutri (VT) Italy
Tel: 0761 608199
Cell: 333 26 09 108
annastageart@gmail.com

Location and Reception
Lido dei Pioppi Ristorante
Via Lido dei Pioppi, 14
Ronciglione (VT) Lago di Vico
Tel. 0761 612029

Hair and Makeup
Michela Meschini of Enzo & Marco Parrucchieri in Viterbo

Photography
Andrea di Giampasquale

Videography:
Giulia Selvaggini



Music
Luca Vaglica and band

Accommodations
Villa la Paiola

Wedding Dress Shopping

I IM-ed Betsy on a Monday morning and basically said something like, hey, I'm going to David's Bridal at lunch to look at dresses. You want to come?

I never imagined myself shopping for my wedding dress at David's Bridal. I always thought I would go to a smaller, more intimate boutique.

SIDENOTE: In fact I do have a gown from such a boutique that I purchased when I first became engaged - must be like 8 years ago now. (I'm trying to sell it so if anyone wants a gorgeous silk, designer ball gown for their wedding, hit me up.)

I was keeping myself to a strict budget and I wanted to have access to the widest selection possible within that budget. David's Bridal fit the bill perfectly.

I pulled a short list of styles from their website and brought it with me. They didn't have all the styles in-store, but the stylist was good about finding a nearly matching dress in those cases.

The stylist was fun and there was always at least one other associate nearby to gush about how good I looked. It felt vaguely staged but that was ok. It felt nice to be gushed over.

The first dress I tried on was actually in their prom dress section. It was not on my list. I saw it on the rack while I was waiting. (They kept me waiting longer than I expected so I ended up browsing a bit.) They didn't have my size in this dress, but I was into the idea of wearing color. And the colors were so romantic on this one, like a mermaid princess.

I thought, "Hey, if it looks good..."

Well, it did not look good.

And I'm way beyond trying to pull off any kind of fantasy creature look. I had a lot of fun trying it on though. They stylist was totally just humoring me at that moment. I think he was off looking for shoes or something. Obviously not serious.

So I stuck with wedding gowns after that.

I loooooved the neckline in this next one. But I felt like my chest looked huge. And it seemed a touch matronly. And it seemed kind of serious.



This next one was my least favorite. I felt like I was wearing a maternity gown. You can see the stylist taking my concerns very seriously.



Next was actually a true contender. The stylist pulled it based on my other selections. It looked nice with the veil and I liked the sparkles a lot. But I was looking for a higher neckline and while the extra fabric on the lower skirt was really pretty (especially when I twirled!), it was a bit frilly for the look I wanted.



The one I chose was the second one I tried. I was ready to walk out the door with it! But being only the second dress, I felt like I needed to try a few more. I put it back on in the end and was so happy I found my dress! I felt like it was the most "me" of them all.



I found a different veil later at a Brides Against Breast Cancer event. And obviously I opted not have a belt. I wanted to keep the line clean and simple.

Thanks Betsy for being there and being the photographer!

P.S. Seeing these photos makes me want to have bangs again.

Our Wedding Video

Elsie&Sergio Wedding Film Documentary by Giulia Selvaggini from Giulia Selvaggini Wedding Films on Vimeo.

Giulia really did capture how the day felt to us so perfectly.

Villa Photoshoot

These would have been our engagement photos but the shoot took place just three days before the wedding. I guess we can just consider them part of our wedding photos. We are over the moon happy with these and so glad we chose this location. There was no time during the wedding to capture intimate, quiet photos so I'm glad we did this. I love them. Grazie Andrea!



All photos by Andrea Di Giampasquale.

We're getting married! Again.

We're finally having our Italian wedding ceremony.

We were originally married in 2008 at the Beverly Hills Registrar's office. That afternoon, we went over to have dim sum in Chinatown, and then spent a couple nights in Catalina. It happened over a long weekend and we really didn't tell anyone except our immediate family until after we got back. I guess it could have been considered and elopement. About a month later we hosted a homespun reception in the front yard of our little rental house. Basically, we served up dim sum take-out from Chinatown and cut a large sheet of Chinese spongecake. Invites were sent through evite. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately this happened pre-blogging so I can't find the photos right now. I know they're backed up somewhere on a drive or cloud or both. Here are a few I managed to squeeze out from an old photo site. That last one is the morning after the house party.



Oh, and here's the old photo album site we set up seven(!) years ago of the wedding and Catalina trip. (You'll need flash player so you won't be able to view on mobile.): http://elsieandsergio.com/

ANYWAY, the plan always was to have a grander event in Italy "later," at the villa Sergio used to explore and play in as a child. Everyone was going to be invited. We even met with a party planner/caterer. We menu planned, talked flowers...then the caterer was suddenly forced into retirement for health reasons. And then the villa always seemed to be under renovation and then recently, it was given to the Franciscan monks so...it was just not meant to be. Meanwhile, we bought our house, had a baby, life happened...I honestly had made peace with never wearing the white wedding dress or walking down an aisle to say hey to my guy at the altar. Priorities shift massively when a baby enters the picture. But then, we booked a trip to Italy over this Summer and Sergio said we should just make it happen. He really wanted to have this celebration with his family around us.

And so we are making it happen.

Largely with the help of Sergio's mom, Nora. She's done so much and we are so grateful. She has made so many phones calls, talked to so many people...we would not have been able to plan this without her. We didn't print invitations so she made personal phone calls to all the family to invite them. She found a florist, she talked to the caterer, she found us a place to stay...she's even the officiant.

We've mentioned the wedding to friends here in the U.S. and we always tell them they should come. I'm not sure they think we're serious but we are. We don't belabor the issue though because really, the "wedding season" is largely over for our group. I feel almost embarrassed to talk about it because Sergio and I have been married for so long already. Everyone has kids, has so much life going on, we know it's not realistic to expect people to buy a plane ticket to Italy to attend a re-wedding. What I really wish is that I could afford to put everyone on a plane and rent out a giant villa. THAT would be dreamy.

BUT, the event we've planned will still be dreamy. We will be at a restaurant belonging to an old family friend. Sergio has been going to the restaurant since he was small and it sits on a nature preserve lake that he used to swim and windsurf in as a kid. So, even though not the villa, there is still a lot of history and roots being honored. We hope to do a pre-wedding photoshoot at the villa so that will still get incorporated into the festivities.


This is an old photo of our nieces at the lake. They are so small here!

I put together an inspiration board for the wedding if you're interested in taking a look. There's a better shot of the lake taken by someone else on there.

Follow elsie's board Lau Spina Nuptials on Pinterest.

I created a different board for my bridal look but have kept it secret for now. I purchased my veil last week and picked up my dress from alterations today. (It's a little snug. Eeep.) We are getting on a plane in two weeks. The wedding is just under a week after that. I'm so excited and kind of nervous. I guess just like a real bride.

East Coast Trip 2012 - Photo Diary 3

Gosh I love weddings. Celebration of love, friendship and public declarations of forever...food, drinks and dancing. What's not to love? This morning we headed out to Long Island for the wedding and quite frankly (despite my planning) were running a little late. It seemed that everyone was on the roads Memorial Day weekend, headed toward the water. Thank goodness for pre-ceremony cocktail hour!





The reception took place in the most beautiful glass ceiling room.






The stormy weather had cleared just in time for the wedding and luckily, (mostly) stayed that way for the rest of our visit.



The day after the wedding, we drove back out from Brooklyn to Long Island to meet up with some of my college peeps for brunch. Per Lauren's suggestion, we headed to Bruce's where I ordered the rightfully famous corn flake french toast. egads. I might try to recreate it!



It had been so long since I had seen this wonderful ladies. It was so good to finally catch up and grab some hugs!






Afterwards, Sergio and I drove around and explored. It's amazing how lush and green it is in Long Island. Fort Totten turned out to be one of our favorite discoveries.









I wish we had Mr. Softee in Los Angeles! I think the nearest is in Goodyear, Arizona. Roadtrip?

Photostream Album