A Three-Day Celebration The place Australian Couture Meets Sicilian Soul on the Historic Tonnara di Scopello

Food & Drink

Food was by no means an afterthought — being italian myself, it was central to your complete expertise. We labored carefully with Pitó Catering to design a menu that may totally immerse our friends in an genuine Sicilian feast, utilizing the freshest native components.

The night started with stay present cooking stations — buffalo mozzarella made contemporary on the desk, freshly shucked oysters, octopus, tuna tartare and a uncooked seafood bar overflowing with Sicilian crimson prawns.

Our signature couple’s cocktail was the ‘Stilldaone’ Spritz — a playful merging of our names, Filda and Steve, and alongside the complete bar menu, we created 4 signature cocktails named after our mother and father: BiancoNic and NeriGroni for my mother and father, and TonNora and Mitch’s Marg for Steve’s. It was our little approach of honouring the individuals who formed us.

For dinner, we served risotto with crimson prawns and ravioli in pistachio pesto, adopted by the freshest catch of the day. The evening ended with a late-night snack of bread, tomatoes and anchovies — and naturally, limoncello, amaro and caffè. We needed each chew to really feel like Sicily itself.

Florals & Decor

Florals and décor advised a special story throughout every of the three days, all designed by Andrea Patrizi Floral Designer. The welcome dinner was ample and earthy — terracotta pots spilling over with summer time fruits like peaches, lemons and grapes, interspersed with warm-toned blooms in shades of butterscotch, ochre and rose.

The wedding ceremony day shifted to one thing extra ethereal — a sweeping set up of white flowers on the ceremony, designed to really feel like clouds rising from the traditional stone, with six asymmetrical aisle preparations that framed the Tyrrhenian Sea past.

The dinner tables had been wearing ivory silk, with alternating floral preparations in golden plates and terracotta pots, golden candleholders with conical candles in ivory and mocha, and crystal glassware glowing within the candlelight — and amongst all of it, the enduring Sicilian teste di moro — ceramic Moorish heads synonymous with the island’s tradition — added an genuine and deeply native contact to the tablescape.

At dinner, every visitor discovered a personalised thanks card at their place setting — a small however heartfelt gesture to let each particular person within the room understand how a lot it meant to us that they had been there.

In maintaining with the Sicilian spirit, friends discovered their seats by means of hand-lettered terracotta pots — each bearing visitor names in white script, nestled amongst olive branches.

As evening fell, the traditional courtyard was remodeled by Lion’s Service Group, whose suspended lights stretched throughout the historic stone partitions, bathing your complete area in a heat, cinematic golden glow that made the night really feel like one thing out of a dream.

Wedding Cake

Our wedding ceremony cake was a basic italian millefoglie — a big spherical white cake topped with concentric circles of contemporary combined berries, easy and hanging. Rather than a standard dessert desk, we needed our friends to expertise an genuine Sicilian unfold alongside it — miniature cassatine siciliane, freshly crammed cannoli, gelato cart, and a stay present cooking station the place frittelle and baci d’aria crammed with ricotta and pastry cream had been made contemporary to order. It was the sweetest doable ending to a Sicilian celebration.

Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs

Music was by no means simply background — it was the soul of our wedding ceremony. I walked down the aisle to a string quartet taking part in the theme from Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, a quiet nod to my Italian roots, adopted by Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish.

Our ceremony was officiated by my brother in three languages — English, Italian and Albanian — and in probably the most shifting second of the day, Steve delivered a part of his vows in Italian, together with a promise to my late mom. There wasn’t a dry eye within the room.

In my vows, I spoke of resilience, of affection that endured distance and hardship, and of the quiet power of figuring out that it doesn’t matter what life brings, we’d all the time discover our approach again to one another.

As we entered the reception, a stay rendition of Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay crammed the traditional courtyard. The ten-piece Redmonium Art Band — that includes Joe Romano, winner of the newest version of Italia’s Got Talent — had friends on the dance flooring earlier than the primary course even arrived. Traditional Albanian songs performed throughout dinner as tambourines handed between friends, in honour of my Albanian heritage, as friends fashioned spontaneous circles beneath the traditional stone partitions.

For our first dance, we choreographed a bachata routine to Cool by Alesso ft. Ryan Tedder — a nod to the Latin dance evening in Bondi Beach (Sydney) the place we first met. The evening ended within the “grotta”, dancing till the early hours.

Special Detail #1

From the very first second, we needed each element to really feel intentional and deeply private.

Our stationery, designed by Lynda Athey Watson (@lyndaathey), set the tone earlier than friends even arrived — every invitation that includes a hand-painted watercolour illustration of the Tonnara and the Sicilian shoreline. On arrival, friends had been welcomed with handcrafted jute baggage, embroidered with ‘Andiamo!’ — Steve’s favorite Italian expression, that means “let’s go” — every containing a hand-illustrated card that includes Steve and I on the enduring Italian Ape automobile, crammed with native sicilian sweets.

It was our approach of claiming: depart every thing behind, you are in Sicily now!

At the welcome dinner at Baglio di Scopello, Steve and I arrived on a classic Sicilian Vespa with sidecar from Gandolfo Luxury Rental — greeted by the sounds of Mizzica Mizzica, a standard Sicilian folkloric band. It set the tone for every thing that adopted — joyful, heat and utterly alive.

Special Detail #2

One of probably the most emotional particulars of the day was a reminiscence desk displaying framed images of family members who had been now not with us — set on the identical heirloom lace and crochets that had been in my household for generations.

After dropping my mom a number of years again, our wedding ceremony grew to become greater than a celebration. Before she handed, she shared one remaining want — that we’d have fun our love totally, surrounded by household, music and pleasure. Honouring that want grew to become a quiet basis for every thing we deliberate.

Our wedding ceremony grew to become greater than a celebration. It grew to become a tribute — to like, to resilience, and to every thing that introduced us right here.

Special Detail #3

On the morning of the marriage, earlier than getting into couture, I wore a silk gown handmade virtually a century in the past, handed down by means of generations of ladies in my household — it was one of the crucial significant issues I wore all weekend.

Each day of the weekend had its personal style story. Australian designers had been a deliberate selection all through — a nod to the nation that grew to become our house over the previous fifteen years.

For the welcome dinner, I wore a minimalist silk costume by Australian designer Michael Lo Sordo — relaxed but refined — paired with Aje heels and, in fact, Italian equipment by Gucci (sun shades), Prada (head scarf), Dolce & Gabbana (earrings), Hogan (hand bag) and Tod’s (bracelet).

For the ceremony, I stepped into my customized Pallas Couture robe; because the evening gave strategy to dancing, I turned into a brief Aston Bridal silhouette styled with a Cerrone pearl necklace and Cult Gaia heels.

The seashore day known as for one thing softer — a pearl-embellished Shona Joy costume, Amber Sceats jewelry and a handcrafted hat made in Italy. It was, in each sense, mare, sole, amore!