A wedding in Tuscany – Camille + Fabio

To end the week in style, I'm taking you to Tuscany. Camille, founder of the agency Parisian Inspired shares with us one of the most beautiful moments of his life. With Fabio, they dreamed of a wedding under the Italian sky, surrounded by their closest friends.

With the beautiful images of White Coco Photographer, Camille tells us more…

The initial meeting

"We met in 2007 at a mutual friend's birthday party. One thing is for sure, I didn't expect love at first sight that night, but while we were dancing Fabio grabbed me by the waist and kissed me. We barely exchanged three words, but it was obvious.

Since then we have grown up together, inseparable. First students in Paris then him in Lille going back and forth every weekend before both leaving for Australia. When we returned Fabio still had to pass the Paris bar exam and I was launching into entrepreneurship… a few years later we were ready to take the plunge!

The marriage proposal

"Fabio is French-Italian, so we spend a lot of time in Italy as a couple or with his family who live in Tuscany and Rome. I'm crazy about Rome, for me it's an absolutely magical city and we try to go there as often as possible!

It was my birthday in the Orange Garden. The view of the city is superb, it's our little secret corner, hidden from tourists. I always dreamed of him proposing to me there so when he surprised me by taking me there I knew right away!

Wedding in Tuscany

"We decided on Tuscany very quickly. I love the Mediterranean landscapes, the olive groves, the vineyards... and above all it's his region!
I am a wedding planner and I also have a small wedding blog so obviously my first instinct was to look for Italian-inspired blogs… and unfortunately there isn’t much! So I went all out by marking out an area that we liked on Google Maps and zoomed in as much as possible to make each road, each villa and each “agritourism” appear and finally found the Fattoria di Cinciano.

It is a 12th century villa that belonged to the Bishop of Florence, it has three magnificent terraces with a breathtaking view of the Tuscan hills. We were looking for an authentic place, with charm, that could accommodate a good part of our guests… The Fattoria was therefore perfect since it is part of a small village that can be entirely privatized for 3 nights!

Then we found by chance the Baddia a Passignano Abbey, a medieval jewel perched on a hill in the middle of the Chianti vineyards and cypress trees. How I dreamed of this cypress avenue! There lives a small community of monks who are not in the habit of celebrating weddings but they ended up agreeing to receive us and especially to open the doors of their superb secret garden after our ceremony.

Wedding preparations

We got married on July 16, 2016, a year and a half after the proposal. So we had time to think about everything.
We wanted a big party, simple, joyful, with careful details while remaining relaxed. Which actually requires a lot of work!
But every choice we made is perfectly like us and is the fruit of a little story.

The dress made to measure by my friend Mélodie Boitard, Fabio's costume made by a little Neapolitan tailor straight out of a 50s film! The invitations and mass booklets drawn in watercolor by my niece, the playlist for the evening where each piece was carefully selected during crazy evenings or even the little bottles of olive oil for the guests made by my mother...

But the most important thing for us was to offer our French (and foreign) guests a real Italian experience. For this, our Tuscan friends were perfect, they opened all the doors for us: from the small wine producer to our excellent musicians for the church and the cocktail party…

D-day

We arrived in Tuscany a few days before the wedding, we really wanted to take the time to enjoy the place and especially our loved ones. A large part of our guests were accommodated on site in the different small villas of the Cinciano estate. By Friday there were already about fifty of us by the pool sharing an impromptu dinner!

The big day went very smoothly, we had decided to sleep together the night before and I think it was one of the best decisions we made! Preparations with our witnesses, a glass of prosecco in hand!
Then the ceremony, celebrated by the Congolese priest of Fabio's family. A real theatre scene! We laughed, cried, but above all laughed so much! The assembly encouraged by the priest applauded non-stop to the great despair of the monk who had clearly never seen such a mass! He nevertheless opened the doors to his garden, and we took the opportunity to take photos and admire the view.

Back to Cinciano for the cocktail on the highest of the three terraces. We had planned some stands of Tuscan products: mozzarella, fritture di mare, crostini… our guests are still talking about them and I haven't tasted anything!!

Our gypsy jazz band was amazing but it was the sunset light that made this moment truly magical.
Finally everyone went down to the second terrace for dinner before partying until the early hours! Our friends had prepared a choreography for us, seeing all these people who barely knew each other dancing together to Uptown Funk was completely crazy!

The wedding budget

“Much more than we expected, but we have no regrets!”

 

Their best memory

Camille : " Entrance into the church, on my dad's arm. I had chosen my favorite piece on the violin, Casta Diva by Bellini. The look on Fabio's face at that moment... I'll never forget it.
Then when my half-sister, who sings wonderfully well, took the microphone to accompany our Gypsy Jazz group during the cocktail party, everyone was already dancing!
Finally the speeches, so much love, surprise, attention… we can barely get over it.”

Fabio : “My best memory is when I was waiting for him in the Church and the pressure was mounting.
What emotions when the music started and I saw her coming towards me. The moment of the exchange of consents was incredibly strong in this unique place and in a different language.
I could only see her despite the 200 people around us. – And if we had to do it again: oh yes, we start again? When??

Advice from the newlyweds

• Enjoy every step of this year of preparations, it goes by so quickly! Dress fittings, creating the playlist, tasting weekends… so many great reasons to pamper yourself, party with your friends or take some time with your loved one!
• Try to spread your wedding over several days as much as possible.
  Most of our guests left on Monday morning leaving us with another lovely day (and evening) with them! We had friends come from Australia and Asia just for us, so we had time to see everyone!
• A good photographer or videographer. Even if memories never fade, Marie-Laure was able to capture the emotions and faithfully immortalize the atmosphere of this day. It is very important to surround yourself with professionals with whom the "feeling" passes and who really know how to listen to you. We were very lucky with each of them!
• We quickly get overwhelmed by all the little details, and I know what I'm talking about since as a blogger/wedding planner I had thousands of ideas in mind and we want everything to be perfect. But we must not lose sight of the essentials: a warm place, a good meal, enough champagne and good music! On the day itself we are so happy and moved that we don't understand anything anyway!

Wedding Professionals

Reception venue in Tuscany – Farm of Cinciano
Abbey – Badia a Passignano 
Wedding Coordination and Flowers – HAPPENING
Caterer – CLASS Recipes
Photography – White Coco Photographer
Video – My brother, MIX BROS
Wedding dress Melody Boitard
Shoes Little Mendigote
Costume – Neapolitan tailor, Fabio’s secret :)
Alliances – Perugia Paris

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TO BE CONTINUED…

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