Tying the knot

ITALIAN STYLE

OU CAN TELL with just with a few words that singer Jess Perks has left part of herself floating in Italy re-living her dream wedding. She got married to barrister David Platt this June in the beautiful setting of Ravello, the small village perched high above the Amalfi coast. They chose Italy because, as Jess puts it: ‘We really wanted to evoke the same romantic feelings we had for one another when we met on holiday in Greece. I was longing to do something different, simple and beautiful. Originally I liked the idea of Italy because I wanted a wedding that felt like we were one big family where everyone could talk to everyone else. Then as time went on it kind of morphed into something bigger. Of course you always have to bear in mind what the other person wants!

‘I’d never been one of those people who knew what they wanted for their wedding. I don’t even like white dresses so I really didn’t have a clue what I was after. David knew he wanted a big white wedding but we’d been to almost 100 in England and thought we’d like to do something slightly different, which is when we chose to do it abroad.’

Deciding upon which guests they could have attend the wedding in Ravello was almost impossible for the couple. ‘David has an absolutely enormous group of friends and it was very difficult to invite everyone so we had a very special party a month before our wedding, so that we could celebrate with everyone that wouldn’t actually be in Italy.’

IN SAFE HANDS

Jess and David decided to hand over the organisation of the big day to events and wedding planner Sophie Lillingston of Lillingston Associates, who was recommended by luxury travel company Mason Rose.

Sophie knew the owner of the Villa Cimbrone, a stunning hotel that has hosted a number of illustrious guests in its lifetime including E.M Forster, Jean Piaget, Henry Moore and Winston Churchill and it was this venue that undoubtedly contributed to making the wedding day the incredible experience that it turned out to be.

‘We went out a couple of times to see the Villa, meet the owner and to see the florist and musicians but other than that it was all in Sophie’s hands,’ says Jess with a sigh of relief. The importance of a wedding planner working abroad is that a good one will take the time to understand the couple’s needs and taste along with recognising the abilities of the people putting everything together.

For example with the flowers Jess says, ‘The Italians have a very traditional way of putting wedding flowers together, with a lot of roses and ivy, which is nice but over fussy for me and not what I had in mind. So Sophie arranged for us to meet Armando the florist and after a few emails back and forth, with him patiently trying different arrangements and sending us images, we got it just right.

He really was fantastic. We found out after the wedding that there was a problem finding the urns that we had requested for the arrangements (left), so he and his team drove around until they found a local hotel willing to lend four urns to them. It took four men to carry each urn and the whole village came out to help, apparently.’ Where else but Italy would you get that level of team spirit?

‘WHEN WE CAME OUT OF THE CHURCH WE WERE SERENADED BY NEAPOLITAN MUSICIANS...’

AND SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC

On that note, Jess mentions the local people who helped make the day perfect. ‘When we came out of the church we were serenaded by Neapolitan musicians that David and I had booked months before but I had totally forgotten about! The first musician came up to us as soon as we appeared and we all moved towards the first venue – taking our guests on a mystery walk. Then on the way we met up with three more musicians. It seemed so spontaneous and people thought that it was a pure coincidence they were there – I could not stop dancing and singing with them. The local people joining in the singing and clapping us along really made us feel like stars.’

The first venue was the stunning Hotel Caruso where Jess, David and their 40 guests sipped champagne and ate strawberries in the garden and family photos were taken (lower, right). Then everyone was taken on to the final destination, the breathtaking Villa Cimbrone, to see the sun go down. ‘It was a bit of a hike up there,’ laughs Jess. ‘My poor bridesmaids had to follow me in high heels (above) and I was living in a dream – honestly I was having such a fabulous time, I was in another world. I still can’t believe it really happened!

ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM

Jess went to Jenny Packham for her ideal wedding dress. ‘I wanted something light and airy for the heat and obviously something that was easy to pack. I had seen a few ideas at a wedding show although a lot of the dresses were a bit too slinky as I’m quite curvy so I knew that wouldn’t work.’ The dress she opted for was simple and floaty and worked perfectly with Jess’s figure and beautiful dark hair. ‘I was stressing about how it would look when we arrived in Italy though,’ Jess confesses. ‘I was getting advice from everyone as to how crinkles would come out, including hanging it in the shower.

I tried that but the problem was that the ventilation was so brilliant in our hotel that the steam didn’t have a chance of having even the slightest effect.’ Jess decided that she wanted to take her dress on the aeroplane herself and was slightly surprised when she rang the airline in advance to be told that it was not possible to hang it in the stewardesses’ cupboard as she had seen people do with their suit jackets. She had only three days to go before the departure so she tracked down the Empty Box Company and they calmly created a unique and pretty box for her in only two days, including proper tissue lining and a sturdy surround that meant she could take it on as hand luggage with no problem at all. When she arrived at the hotel, the staff (supervised by Sophie) steamed the dress carefully for an hour, layer by layer.

As guests arrived they all were given maps of Ravello, the villa and the wedding itinerary. An elegant touch was the commissioning by Jess and David of a hand-drawn map of Ravello which was shrunk down to fit the itinerary page. As is normal, some guests forgot to look at their itinerary but Sophie was always on hand to round people up.

THE DRESS JESS OPTED FOR WAS SIMPLE AND FLOATY AND WORKED PERFECTLY WITH HER FIGURE AND BEAUTIFUL DARK HAIR

On the morning of the wedding she knocked on doors and dropped off button holes, ensuring that nobody was left behind. The wedding began at 5.30pm when it was a perfect temperature and an exciting evening was about to unravel before them.

THE ‘WOW’ FACTOR

It’s clear that for Jess, being a singer, the music was a very special part of her day.

When was the moment when she remembers thinking ‘Wow’ at her wedding? ‘That’s easy,’ she replies. ‘We had the most amazing choir, local people from Naples and we had requested I Was Glad, Zadok the Priest and a piece of Wagner (Tannhäuser) but we’d never heard them sing before. There were 12 singers and a small orchestra of eight musicians and when we came in we couldn’t see anything at first in the church because it was so bright outside and our eyes had to adjust.

So the first sensation was hearing I Was Glad, whilst starting to walk up the aisle and it was nothing short of perfect. It was simply brilliant. Like an out-of-body experience!’ Jess laughs. ‘The church bells went off around all the valley and mountain when we were saying our vows,’ she continues. ‘I felt as if we were in a film.’ Other special moments for Jess and David were sipping Bellinis with the guests on the clifftop Belvedere of the Villa Cimbrone as the sun went down over the sea (timed perfectly by Sophie and the villa owner) and the five minutes of torrential rain that had appeared as they came out of the church – which is good luck in Italy of course. The reception was held in the Villa (right) and due to the number, all the guests were able to sit at one table which delighted Jess as she had been longing for the Italian family feel to their wedding.

The photos also really captured the day for Jess and David. They chose Contre-Jour for its renowned reportage style and the mixed use of colour and black and white shots. ‘The black and white totally gets the atmosphere of the day and the photographer Pascal was simply fantastic,’ says Jess. ‘He was so much more than the photographer – he helped with little details and told me when I would have to do certain things such as when I should be thinking about starting having my hair done and he helped me pack my suitcase! I could not have done without him. He was with me all day tirelessly.’

The following day the bride and groom went on a boat trip with the wedding guests around the coast, despite the fact that most of them hadn’t got to bed until 3am that morning. Again Sophie rounded people up and ensured they got on the bus to the boat.

HEAVENLY HONEYMOON

David had organised the honeymoon, a trip through Italy, and kept it a secret from Jess until it was time to go, which was when they returned from the boat trip with their guests. ‘I loved the honeymoon!’ says Jess, reminiscing. ‘We spent two nights in the beautiful Posta Vecchia, based in Ladispoli just outside Rome and built on the Roman town of Alsium.

Then we got a chauffeur-driven transfer to Porto Ecole in Tuscany where we stayed for three nights. We then travelled to Siena to stay in the Grand Hotel Continental, which has the most exquisitely painted ceiling. I adored Siena – there was a fantastic buzz and the town had a real party atmosphere.’ They stayed there for two nights, travelled to Corsica for five days after that and then spent the last few days back in Italy discovering the delights of Venice at the Hotel Cipriani.

‘I would really like to go back to Italy for our first anniversary,’ says Jess. ‘Back to the place we got married as well as discovering other areas. Italy will always be a special and emotional place for me,’ she says. And with that you get the feeling that she’s off again floating towards Ravello, re-living that perfect wedding day.

INFORMATION: Wedding venues – www.villacimbrone.com www.hotelcaruso.com

Wedding dress transportation box – www.theemptyboxcompany.co.uk

Wedding planner – www.lillingston.co.uk

Wedding dress – www.jennypackham.com

Honeymoon – www.masonrose.com



Photographer – www.contre-jour.co.uk

To visit Jess’ website and hear sample tracks, log onto www.jessperks.com or www.myspace/jessperks