Read about how Andrea and Maria’s prayer was answered after their meeting in Rome during the Millenium Jubilee

Read about how Andrea and Maria’s prayer was answered after their meeting in Rome during the Millenium Jubilee

THE GREAT MILLENNIUM JUBILEE led by the popular and much-loved Pope John Paul II brought over two million people to the Eternal City of Rome after three years of repentance, prayer, and plenary indulgence. Like grains of sand on this beach of followers, Maria and Andrea met each other that October and began on their journey together.
Starting your relationship under the Pope’s benediction is a rarity, but Maria had been praying long and hard for a change in her life and when she met Andrea, she knew that her time had come. ‘My best friend had told me everything about him, so it was as if we had already known each other forever. I prayed that my life would change from that point on, and it did.’
Little did Maria and Andrea know, they were also blessed with a family of planners who would prove to be essential players in their destination wedding in Lecce.

'my best friend had told me everything about him, so it was as if we had already known each other forever...

COMMON BACKGROUNDS

Maria and Andrea both grew up in towns which were not their birthplace. Andrea’s parents, originally from Genova, lived in a number of cities before settling in Rome where his father was CEO for a construction firm; Maria’s father - a Lt Colonel in the Italian armed forces - toted her and her mother around Italy before finally building the family home in Lecce - which is not exactly around the corner from Rome where she lived and worked as a journalist at the Vatican radio station.
Maria spent many a weekend travelling overnight by bus to visit her parents, and since it is Italian custom to marry in the bride’s hometown, the distance from Lecce would have a decisive impact on organizing their wedding.

WEDDING DESTINATION: LECCE

Lecce is located in the Puglia region, almost at the very tip of the heel of the Italian boot-like peninsula. The city dates back to ancient Greece and holds some of the finest examples of baroque architecture in Italy, and is thus nicknamed ‘the Florence of the South’. The blond stone used, which is unique to the area, is a sort of limestone which is extremely malleable, and this feature warrants continuous care and maintenance for buildings made of Leccese stone. It is so soft that the face of many buildings in the historic town centre have been chiselled by the wind and are covered in small swirls showing how weather- worn they have become in time. And the town has many ancient buildings, like the Roman amphitheatre in the centre of town which was built in the 2nd century and could seat 25,000 people.

START PLANNING

When it came time to start planning the wedding, Maria was well-prepared. Being a certified event planner herself, she knew where to start looking, what to look for, and how to delegate. She was surrounded by a supportive family of planners and creative designers who would each take care of an organizational aspect of their special day: local logistics, creative design, onsite organization.
The guest list counted 100 coming from all around the country and, due to Lecce not being particularly well-connected, the logistics needed to be orchestrated carefully.
A single hotel was able to accommodate the entire group, Brindisi airport pickups were scheduled and information packages including directions, points of interest and maps were provided for all those travelling from afar - which for this group meant as far away as Switzerland!

PARTY IN 14TH - CENTURY CLOISTERS

Andrea and Maria wanted to set a theme representing the two of them, their origins and the territories they came from. After careful scrutiny of wedding designs provided from various events held, some of which they had attended, they soon secured the four basics: church, reception location, caterer, and photographer.
They chose the 14th-century Franciscan cloisters in Lecce for their reception party because of their simplicity and architectural style which Andrea, an architect himself, was particularly fond of. The next step involved finding a florist, set designer and caterer and this proved to be more daunting than anticipated, but finally, after a number of trips to Lecce carefully planned for tastings, theme setting, and pricing, they found an excellent company that took care of everything impeccably, from set design to floral arrangements and celebratory meal.
‘We chose Maglio for the quality of their products but also for their presentation and attention to season and design. Everything they do is exquisite!’

WHAT A FEAST!

The setup in the cloisters included four buffet tents, and hanging from the centre of each tent was a colourful chandelier decorated with their floral theme of orange, cream and red roses and gerbera. Couches, loveseats, and ottomans offered a comfortable, relaxed ambiance for this garden party. A four piece jazz band played background music and a cool October breeze blew quietly through the pillars lining the open space.
Each tent hosted a buffet of hors d’oeuvres to satisfy even the most finicky of palates. The vegetarian station served a variety of quiches made with fresh, seasonal produce; the seafood station included California rolls and a cuttlefish, shrimp, and julienne vegetable salad, along with salmon and tuna carpaccio, and puff pastries filled with swordfish or octopus; of the two remaining stations one served local specialties such as prosciutto, a variety of cheeses and the famous mozzarella di bufala; and the final station served drinks throughout the day and into the evening.

the setup in the cloisters included four buffet tents, and hanging from the centre of each tent was a colourful chandelier decorated with their floral theme...

HOLY CHOICES

Now that the ‘easy’ part was done, it was time to arrange the actual wedding ceremony in Lecce’s majestic duomo, where Maria had spent part of her childhood as member of the parish youth group. This posed an immediate problem for the wedding mass. The clergyman who had guided them through the pre-cana requirements was the priest on base where her father was stationed; but spiritually, she had been close to the parish priest in Lecce as a child, so choosing between the two was not an option. After diplomatic consultations, both priests agreed to celebrate the marriage and mass together - hallelujah!
Choosing readings for the mass was not difficult for Maria and Andrea. Pope Wojtyla was their inspiration and they chose his Preghiera degli Sposi or prayer for the spouses as a homage to the blessing they had received in meeting each other. Designating the readings concluded at the welcome dinner, Bonnie Marie offered to recite the fourth prayer of the faithful and took care of giving cues and checking equipment in church. Claudia, the creative designer in the group, took care of designing and printing the mass booklets and wedding packages for all the guests new to the area.

LAST MINUTE STAG PARTY

While Maria had pranced around joyously the day before the wedding with a ‘Bride-to-be’ t-shirt and rollers, Bonnie Marie got together the groom’s best buddies for a final night at the pub – with a reasonable 1am curfew so that Andrea would be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning. ‘I hadn’t seen my best buds for a while, even though we live in the same city we’re just all too busy with our jobs,’ ‘The most incredible thing about our wedding,’ says Maria, ‘was that we didn’t even have time to eat anything because we had so many guests we hadn’t seen in ages and so much to catch up on that by the time the event was over, we were starving! So when we left the cloisters to start our honeymoon night, we stopped at a cafe’ and grabbed a bite to eat - wedding dress and all!’
For more info on Bonnie Bates, Wedding Planner for My Weddings & More: Web: www.myweddingsandmore.com Email: info@myweddingsandmore.com