Getting Ready with Simona + Valerio in Puglia, Italy

 Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship?

Simona and Valerio here, Italians happily living in London with our two dogs, Teodoro and Olivia. We first met on the 7^th of February 2020 at a carnival party in Luxembourg organised by our work company. Valerio did the first move. After dancing all night dressed up as a scion from Hunger Games, he could not resist my Princess Leia attire, and asked for my mobile number. He did not wait more than ten minutes to then invite me for a romantic night burger at McDonald’s. Spoiler: it was closed. Our first official date happened a few weeks later in London, just before the pandemic. We went to a tasty pizza place, followed by a secret concert, followed by our favourite cocktail bar in London. Back then, we did not know it would have taken us four months to see each other again…and this is the beginning of our love story.

Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details.

We chose to get married in Valerio’s hometown, Bari (Puglia). When we started planning our wedding, we knew that “have fun” was the keyword and that we wanted to bring a taste of London with us. We were lucky enough to get married at the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Nicholas, in Bari, with our dogs waiting for us after the ceremony (yes, we drove 1,316.85 miles from London to have them at our wedding). We then had our reception party at Masseria San Giovanni, an amazing fortified Apulian farm dated 1600, surrounded by age-old olive trees a few miles away from the coast. We planned everything down to the smallest detail, perfectly in style with our attitudes – Valerio as marketing manager and myself as lawyer. Sage green, white and pink was our colour palette for flowers, stationery and photo-booth installations: we designed a cardboard London bus, a telephone cabin and Royal Mail post box props to get pictures with. We also had typical Apulian lights installed at the venue. We loved every single detail as it was tailored to us.

How did you spend the morning of your wedding? How did you deal with the nerves leading up to the wedding?

Tell us about your main outfits of the wedding day

I immediately fell in love with the Meeka Diana set and I could not kick off the day without it! I then decided to gift my bridesmaids and family girls respectively with Bella Lounge sets and Camillo robes: I loved how they stayed true to our colour palette! During the ceremony and the first half of the reception, I wore a custom-made bridal dress designed and made by Francesca Piccini, an Italian excellence for bridal and occasion dresses, paired with a pair of pumps in nude colour. I wanted a dress that could best represent me and the place where I was getting married, which resulted into a romantic, stylish and unique dress, made with love. I then opted for a glamorous sequin mini-dress by Francesca Piccini, paired with Amina Muaddi Gilda sandals and headband by Lelet NY for the post-dinner party. Earrings from Leo Pizzo enriched both outfits. Valerio wore a blue-navy tuxedo designed by Tagliatore, an artisanal Apulian tailor since 1972, paired with a matching tie for the ceremony and a bowtie for the party. Of course, shoes had to be Church’s. Last but not least, our dogs wore a bespoke flower collar designed by our florist.

What items or services did you think were a waste of money? VS what are you so glad you splurged on?

We couldn’t be more than happy for, and grateful of, all the amazing suppliers who made our wedding day simply as we wished. Investing on the right suppliers was definitely worth it: we were lucky enough to collaborate with talented local people that eventually became friends. Looking back, we could have avoided exceeding on food when getting ready in the morning, as no one was hungry and were holding themselves back to make room for the Apulian feast in the evening. Finally, we could have avoided booking sun beds in advance for the rehab party on the beach, weather turned out to be too windy to chill on them.



Any advice you would like to give to future brides

It’s your day, enjoy it as much as you can, without caring about things that may go wrong. Everything can be solved; your beloved ones will enjoy the day regardless of small aspects which may differ from your expectations: they are there to have fun with you and won’t even notice. Trust your guts when choosing suppliers, you will know immediately who the right ones are (when you know it, you know it).