You gotta give credit where credit is due and this gorgeous Bride knew what she was doing (she is a wedding photographer herself after all) when putting together her destination wedding. With the help of Weddings in Tuscany by Chiara Sernesi (found via SMP’s Little Black Book no less!), they created a romantic, ethereal and FUN fete that we can’t get enough of. Kylee Yee, with assistance by Tanja Kibogo, captured it all and Philip White filmed the action live – see more below and in our Vault right here!
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From the Bride… As a wedding photographer (www.juliemichaelsen.com) myself, I have attended over 100 weddings so when it came to our own wedding, my partner and I knew we wanted to go abroad and say our “I do’s” under the sleepy autumn sun and romantic olive groves of Tuscany.
We found our venue Ville Le Fontanelle after a rushed weekend of venue visits in October last year. We had originally wanted to be deep in the Tuscan hills but when we saw Villa Le Fontanelle we both had a very strong positive reaction to it! Conveniently 10 mins outside of Florence with the most picturesque 180 degree views of the city, including the majestic Duomo, it was so perfect. The owner Ilaria was welcoming and very accommodating.
Our vision for the day was an elegant but relaxed, fun day in the sun full of meaning and heart. We decided to have a humanist blessing (as neither of us are religious) and it meant we’d get to write the ceremony ourselves. My cousin Miriam was our Celebrant and she did such a magnificent job!
My late grandmother (who was an huge influence in my life) and my grandfather were a significant presence within the day. When my grandmother passed away she left their weddings bands to me to share with Ross, a huge honour and one we were so grateful for.
My talented sister-in-law Sadaf Mirzaei had helped us to create our ‘on the day stationery’ by taking my grandmothers watercolour paintings and designing menu cards, table plans and the place settings with my grandmother’s imagery.
Each guest found an envelope on their place setting with their names in gold calligraphy on it. Inside was a handwritten card from us telling them how grateful we were for their presence at our wedding but also in our lives. I feared that we wouldn’t get time to speak to every single person so as a precaution I wanted each people to know that they were loved and warmly welcomed at our wedding day. It took a long time to write these but I loved the idea of taking the opportunity to tell the people we love that we love them and what they mean to us.
The speeches were probably the highlight of the day, all of them were so funny, heartfelt and we were completely blown away when our family performed a surprise flashmob of Les Miserables! One more day! Even my dad stood up to do a solo! I went through a range of emotions including shock, pure joy, tears, and a very strong feeling to grab a microphone and join them! My Danish family had also written a song for us which they got everyone to sing, so much fun and probably a bit of a shock to the non-Danes as this is a tradition within our family!
Afterwards Ross also made the most wonderful surprise video for me which he showed after the speeches, not a dry eye in the house, it really was the most amazing day!
We found our planner through Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book, Chiara from Weddings in Tuscany, and what a hero she was. She made the whole experience very seamless, replying to flurries of WhatsApp messages and being a cool, calm and reliable presence throughout, she was a God send.
My partner Ross is a documentary maker so we both had very strong feelings about the videographer and photographer… after a bad experience with the first photographer we chose, we were lucky enough to find Kylee Yee who I knew through both being London based hybrid fine art wedding photographers. It was really important to me that our styles were aligned and that she ‘saw’ things how I saw them. I’m a stickler for detail, love symmetry and hate distracting elements in my photos, so I wanted to know that Kylee had this same eye… she made the whole experience very easy and enjoyable for us, being friendly, warm and relaxed whilst also being professional and inspiring trust within us. I so wanted to be on the receiving end of the experience I like to give my clients and thankfully Kylee very much gave us that as well as the most beautiful imagery which we cherish and cant wait to enjoy in years to come.
Our videographer was Philip White. Ross being a documentary maker obviously had high expectations for this portion of the day and Philip definitely exceeded him, he is a talented film maker and also a lovely presence who felt like a friend.
Photography: Kylee Yee | Videography: Philip White | Event Planning: Weddings in Tuscany by Chiara Sernesi | Floral Design: Jardin Divers | Wedding Dress: Anna Georgina | Invitations: Ever After Press | Shoes: Valentino | Catering: Galateo | Hair + Make Up: Consuelo Cardella | Calligraphy: Judy Broad Calligraphy | Band: The Gloves | Groom's Attire: Suitsupply | Day Of Details: elmo Paperstories ltd. | Film Lab: The Find Lab | Photography - Assistance: Kibogo Photography | Ribbons: Pompom Blossom | Veil: Halfpenny London