Surrounded by the rolling hills of Tuscany, this Florence fête was, in the Italian tradition, a celebration of love and life. With The Tuscan Wedding behind the planning, rose arrangements from Tuscany Flowers, and bites from Galateo (the same caterers Kimye’s used!), the couple ensured their 115 globetrotting guests had an unforgettable time. Escape to Italy and relive the romance thanks to beautiful images from Matteo Trombello, Lisa Poggi Photography and a sweet film from Momo Film Factory.
From the Bride… Tarek and I met and live in Miami, Florida. I was born and raised in the Bahamas but all my extended family lives in Italy. Tarek was born and raised in Toronto but his family origins are from Pakistan and India. We both moved to Miami for work and met through a mutual friend. Shortly after, Tarek requested me on Facebook where we chatted for a few weeks before we met each other again. Our first date was lunch at our favorite sushi restaurant. We hit it off right away and talked so much that we didn’t even realize a few hours had passed and it was dinner time. We sat there for over 6 hours. I’m surprised we didn’t get kicked out! We dated for 3 years before Tarek took me back to the same sushi restaurant for dinner and popped the question. The rest is history! Family is very important to the both of us. When discussing on where to get married we knew we wanted to have a destination wedding and wanted our family and most important friends to be there. We really wanted to spend some quality time, over several days, with the people that mean the most to us. Since most of my family lives in Italy and Tarek’s family lives in several different places we decided on Florence, Italy. It was near to where my family lived and would be an easy city for people to travel into. We chose to have our wedding at Villa di Maiano for it’s location and stunning view. The villa and its property have been around since the late 1400’s and is located right outside of Florence. We had 115 guests so we needed somewhere close enough to the city to make it easy to transport people to and from the hotel. We also fell in love with the amazing gardens surrounding the property and the view of Florence from its terrace. A lot of our friends and family were traveling from all over the world so we wanted to guarantee they had a great time and had a few surprises in store for them. The wedding party and the groom arrived at the villa in a 1962 VW van, which fits Tarek’s fun personality! I arrived in a 1978 Excalibur. The guests were all transported by bus. The symbolic ceremony took place on the terrace overlooking some vineyards on one side and Florence on the other side. The apperitif took place in the Italian gardens where we had different food corners including a meat and cheese corner, a fried food corner and a grilled fish corner. The caterer was Galateo, who coincidently also catered Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding! My favorite part of the apperitif was a water fountain that we had filled with rose petals. I fell in love with it! The dinner was upstairs in the regular gardens. We were very lucky that we had great weather! It had been raining almost all summer in Italy, which is very unusual. I was so stressed out the weeks prior to the wedding, but we were blessed with 3 days of beautiful weather! We started off the dancing to an amazing live band. We didn’t want a traditional American style cake so we opted instead to have a millefoglie cake made in front of the guests. It was something different and fun. The chef came out and layer by layer constructed this humongous cake in front of everyone. It was a hit! We had organized for fireworks to go off once Tarek and I cut our first slice of cake. It was a great surprise for everyone. It was definitely very romantic and special. We also had a photo booth and an ice-cream truck for the guests. After midnight we brought the party inside where the DJ continued and also to our surprise played the saxophone. It was by far the most memorable and special day of our lives so far! The rain started again at 2 a.m. that night! But at that point we didn’t care anymore because our wedding weekend was over.
Photography: Mattello Trombello | Photography: Lisa Poggi | Videographer: Momo Film Factory | Wedding Planner: The Tuscan Wedding | Floral Design: Tuscany Flowers | Wedding Dress: Anna Maier | Bridesmaids' Dresses: David's Bridal | Catering: GALATEO RICEVIMENTI FIRENZE - MILANO | Celebrant: Blessings from Italy | Bridal Boutique: Ever After Miami | Villa: Fattoria Di Maiano