We meet a happy couple who enjoyed every minute of their Tuscan summmer wedding

We meet a happy couple who enjoyed every minute of their Tuscan summmer wedding

LUCIA AND WES MASON got married in the beautiful medieval town of San Gimignano, Tuscany in the summer of 2007. Here Lucia tells us about their special occasion.

‘I met Wes through an internet dating site in 2001 when I was spending a year working in London and he lived in Kent. I had logged onto the site to meet people and he contacted me because he spotted my first name. He immediately emailed saying he had to speak to me because he adored all things Italian. We met two days later, talked for hours and we’ve been together ever since!’

Lucia has Italian family on both sides. Her father’s side originally came from Civitavecchia, just outside of Rome, and her mother’s from the region of Parma. Lucia explains that on her mother’s side the family originally migrated to Wales in the early 1920s to find mining jobs, when employment was scarce in Italy, and they’ve been there ever since. She doesn’t know that much about her father’s side but said that her paternal grandfather thought that their name Tadecicco could have been Yugoslavian originally. ‘I still have lots of friends and family in Italy,’ she says.

‘Although neither of my Italian families come from Tuscany I chose San Gimignano because I went there on holiday with Wes and we just knew it was where we wanted to get married. Also the small village that my mother comes from is gorgeous but logistically it was too small for the kind of wedding we wanted and it was miles and miles from the autostrada!

‘We started our venue search by staying at the Relais La Cappuccina in San Gimignano as it was a central location for us to research throughout Tuscany. Funnily enough, it was one evening, having had another day of venue searching, that we were dining in the hotel’s restaurant when I suddenly thought, ‘This room would be perfect for the wedding,’ and I told Wes who agreed. So we asked the hotel staff if they hosted weddings, they said they did, gave us some brochures with names of wedding planners and that was pretty much it.’ There were two different wedding planners that Lucia had been recommended to contact and she emailed both of them but she immediately clicked with Elizabeth and Ann of Original Tuscan Wedding (www.originaltuscanwedding.com).

IN SAFE HANDS

It took some time for the big day to arrive with Lucia and Wes having started on their journey for the perfect wedding in August 2005. That was when they first got in contact with Elizabeth and Ann and they went to see them in March of the following year with Wes’s parents and Lucia’s mum and aunt. Then when Lucia’s cousin got married, a couple of month’s before she did, she visited the wedding planners one more time before her actual wedding day. ‘They were brilliant and I trusted them completely,’ she says, ‘I knew what I wanted but was also open to ideas and because they had been planning weddings for many years I knew I was in safe hands.’. Lucia was in constant email contact with her planners and they would always tell her not to worry about particular details until a particular time, thus taking all the strain off her.

Elizabeth and Ann helped with details such as the colour of the flowers too. ‘I was sure that I wanted gerberas – and that my bridesmaids would wear blue and my Maid of Honour would be in chocolate brown but hadn’t decided on the colour of the bouquets so they suggested a beautiful burnt orange colour which worked beautifully. It was an easy decision to make!’

Lucia had heard a couple of horror stories from friends trying to plan weddings in other countries with regards to getting documents organised (and these were EU countries) and therefore was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the process was for her. She left everything to the planners and it was done with no effort and no fuss. The only thing that was changed from Lucia’s original plans was the type of wedding she would have.

‘Being an Italian Catholic I wanted a religious ceremony but the new Pope had just announced that you could not get married in a church unless it was in your own parish and I’d only heard of an Irish couple being allowed as they’d brought their own priest over from Ireland.’ Elizabeth and Ann told Lucia that they would certainly try but couldn’t guarantee at that stage that there would be any change so, although she had every faith in her planners’ ability to make it happen, Lucia decided to cut her losses and get married in the Town Hall in San Gimignano, a venue that she soon realised was one of the most beautiful she could have chosen anyway, with its vibrant frescoes and high ceilings.

A TOUR OF EUROPE

Lucia admits it was not easy for her and Wes to put the guest list together, as obviously they wanted everyone to be there but logistically it was impossible. So they had 60 guests attend., ‘My Dad works for British Airways so we were joking that if everyone came we’d have to charter our own plane.’ Wes and Lucia decided to drive to Italy a week before the wedding. ‘It was fantastic, we drove from the UK and on the way to San Gimignano we stopped off at other places in Europe including the Black Forest and the Aosta Valley,’ she says happily reminiscing., ‘it was great because before we set off we had chosen places we wanted to visit specifically and we made sure that we had booked our overnight accommodation in advance. We’d driven to Italy that time of year before and because it was around the time of Ferragosto (August bank holiday) we couldn’t get in anywhere. We had learned our lesson this time!’

Wes and Lucia arrived in San Gimignano five days before the actual wedding day, which gave them time to relax and to catch up with friends and family in Italy. On the day of the wedding Lucia was very calm and enjoying every minute to the lead- up: ‘The ceremony was at 5pm because it was too hot to do it any earlier than that. It was perfect because I met with my friends for breakfast in the piazza and from there we went straight to the hairdresser, Alberto Taffi. He was awesome and I can’t say enough about him. I had had a few hair trials in England and to be honest I had been quite disappointed.

I was recommended this hairdresser by my wedding planners and he was amazing. He had four massive arch-lever files with hair designs and literally said to me, ‘pick one.’ I chose and he created a fringe that swept down one side for me and it was exactly how I wanted it.’ Wasn’t it a bit risky trying a new hairstyle on the morning of your wedding? ‘No, not really,’ says Lucia.’ ‘ I’m a very laid-back person and as the planners had recommended him I trusted him completely.’ The photographer, Alberto, from Story Book Wedding (www.storybookwedding.it) also came via the planners and was another gem of a find. He took some posed, romantic shots along with many fabulously relaxed reportage images that Lucia had specifically asked for.

…THE TOWN HALL IN SAN GIMIGNANO… WITH ITS VIBRANT FRESCOES AND HIGH CEILINGS

A HAPPY COINCIDENCE

Lucia did her make- up herself alongside her bridesmaids, her cousin Sofia and Wes’s niece Sarah, and her Maid of Honour, who was Wes’s sister, Kerry. Whilst some brides might be stressing about the shade of their foundation, calm Lucia found that she particularly enjoyed that part of the day: ‘It was really good fun and a lovely bonding session for us all!’ she says, laughing. Lucia’s beautiful wedding dress was by awardwinning dress designer Ian Stuart (www.ianstuart-bride.com). ‘I had always known that I wanted an Ian Stuart dress,’ says Lucia. ‘I actually was veering towards a sky blue one and when I was trying it on the lady in the shop said, ‘you do know that Ian’s made one called Lucia don’t you?’ Well that was it. I tried on the ‘Lucia’ design and knew it was the one for me!’

The actual wedding ceremony was beautiful and there were many excited locals who came to cheer on the bride and groom. ‘My uncle kindly drove me to the ceremony and when we arrived my Mum was asked by the locals if I was marrying a famous footballer. That was really funny!’ she chuckles. The reception was of course held at the La Cappuccina hotel and Lucia and Wes had a honeymoon touring the regions of Italy for two weeks. ‘It was difficult coming back home but at least we had a party in England to look forward to, with over 200 friends and family that couldn’t make it to the wedding in Italy.’ So what would Lucia say is her most treasured memory of her Dream Italian Wedding? ‘The memory that I will keep with me forever is that we got married in Italy. It’s where we both wanted to get married and nothing will ever change that.

It’s that something I will remember for the rest of my life. Getting married in San Gimignano was simply wonderful and it will always be a special place for us. The words that I’ll always cherish are when the celebrant said at the end of the ceremony ‘Now our town will always be your town.’