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It feels as though this wedding day was a long time coming. After being together for almost 10 years, he asked. After being together for almost 12 years, we said “I do.”

Our wedding planning journey began in February 2021. Since we’ve been together for a while, we had discussed wedding details here and there even prior to the engagement, and I won’t lie. I’ve had a pinterest board of ideas for a while at this point. Once we had officially started planning, a lot of the major details came together fairly quickly. We knew we wanted to keep the wedding small, simple, and of course, in Florence, Italy.

A little backstory on why we chose Italy in the first place: In 2016, Marco and I travelled to Milan. It was our first time together in Italy, and truthfully, this was the year that we first really began to travel on our own as a couple. It was a work trip that allowed me to bring Marco along, and in many ways, this trip changed my life. It was early September and, I had just graduated from FIT after 6 years of college. I had given myself the summer to focus on my blog before I started to apply for jobs in the fall. After a summer of growth in social media, this incredible opportunity to travel with Marco came up. The trip was with Martini & Rossi, a chance to experience their harvest and learn about their wine. The final night of the trip was at a beautiful villa that overlooked the Asti region. The night was beautiful: amazing food, long tables and an unforgettable evening that ended with fireworks.

We were together a little over 5 years at this point, and we both looked at each other and said that it’s what we imagined our wedding could be like.

FLORENCE, ITALY

A destination wedding was something we always knew we wanted . Picking Florence specifically was my choice. It was my favorite city when I travelled to Italy in high school my senior year. There was just something about it, this beautiful city full of art and history nestled in the Tuscan region. I will never forget how being in Florence made me feel years ago, and that feeling is all I wanted for our guests as well. Now that we’re all back from the wedding, it has been so wonderful hearing from our family and friends that Florence was their favorite city, and now we all share such special memories together.

Marco and I had just under 60 guests, immediate family and dearest friends from all over, to share our special day with. And now, I am so excited to share this day with all of you that may have been with our relationship from the beginning.

WEDDING DAY

We were able to travel with some of our family to Rome where we hired a bus to take us all to Florence. Once we arrived, we checked into the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze a few days before our wedding to get settled in and relax before the big day. It was forecasted to rain that day and I just hoped and prayed that this would shift. Everything we had planned and envisioned relied on good weather, but lucky for us, things shifted and we could not ask for a more beautiful day. We woke up that morning to a sunny day after a weekend of gray skies and rain.

Marco and I enjoyed breakfast together that morning before we went our separate ways to get ready. They’re not lying when they tell you the day goes by so fast, so for my fellow brides and grooms: soak up every single moment.

MARCO’S TUXEDO

Marco’s entire ensemble is from Bergdorf Goodman. I had this vision for Marco for a very long time. We had ordered a custom Ermenegildo Zegna tuxedo jacket paired with a Dior shirt, and Tom Ford Tuxedo pants. His shoes are by Magnanni and as his accessory, I gifted Marco a Cartier Santos Watch for our wedding day. I love the clean look of a cream white Tuxedo jacket and we wanted to make sure his jacket popped when taking photos with all of our guests.

THE DRESS

I immediately fell in love with my wedding gown the second I saw it on Instagram. I had already previously decided on a different gown from Spina Bride but something about this just felt like it was the one. As soon as I saw the photo of it, I popped by the boutique and saw it in person. In that moment, I fell even more in love. Since the boutique is by appointment only, I had to come back for a proper try-on. The gown is by Santos Costura who was in NYC to showcase his latest collection. The trunk show was only there for the weekend so I luckily was able to come back and try on this dress while Santos was still in town.

When I went back to try on the dress, I cried the moment I saw myself in the mirror. It was everything I could have dreamed of for a wedding dress. The silhouette, the fabric, the sleeves, everything was perfect.

Truthfully, I had no idea what I was really looking for when I initially started shopping for wedding dresses. The first time I went dress shopping, I went with a larger group, there were more opinions and I think I just got carried away in the excitement. The original dress I picked was the one I liked the best that day, but I didn’t know what that feeling of “the one” was like until this Santos gown came into my life.

Once I tried this on, it was the perfect mix of classic and modern. The dress was conservative but still had a bit of sexiness to it. I knew that this was meant to be my wedding gown and I didn’t hesitate to say yes to this dress. When I tried this dress on, I only had one person with me, and it was the perfect experience for me in terms of finding my wedding dress. Santos was the one that did all my measurements for me and they were able to rush the making of this dress just in time for the wedding.

Learn from me and don’t rush making your choice. Whether you choose to bring a bigger group, smaller group, or even just going on your own, do what is best for you. Trust your instincts and also have fun with it. Try on different styles because my gown is far from what I originally had on my Pinterest board.

Choose the dress that makes you feel the most beautiful.

THE FIRST LOOK

We know that it’s not for everyone. Some choose to wait for that first true look when they’re walking down the aisle, however, we opted to do a “First Look” at the hotel before we left for the church.

It was a really sweet moment to be able to share this together in private, calm each others nerves before we headed off to the ceremony. The first look also allows for the chance to take a few photos together before our ceremony began because we knew that once we got to the church, the day was just going to fly by. I can confirm that we both cried and I needed a make up touch up afterwards so be sure to have your make up artist ready if you have one!

HAIR & MAKEUP

When it came to my wedding look, I knew I wanted to go with something simple and natural. The best advice I heard from other brides is that you want to look like yourself but elevated. Anthea Bueno and I became friends via Instagram a few months before the wedding, and so when she mentioned that she was available to come to Italy from the Philippines and be my make-up artist, I just got even more excited because she is one of my favorite make-up artists that has worked with so many beautiful Filipinas. She made me feel so beautiful and I was so sad to have to remove my make-up by the end of the night.

Our wedding planner, Elia, found Giulia Ceccherini to do my hair as well as my mom’s hair and make-up. She was so wonderful and did my hair even better than I imagined.

Make-Up: Anthea Bueno

Hair: Giulia Ceccherini

THE CEREMONY

Marco and I were both raised Catholic and we completed our Pre-Cana course back home over the summer in order to have a church Ceremony in Italy. We always knew that we wanted to have a Church wedding in honor of our faith, our parents, and to keep God present in our marriage as we began our next chapter as husband and wife.

Chiesa di San Salvatore in Ognissanti is a Baroque church in the center of the city and because of its ornate style, we didn’t need to do much in terms of decorations for our ceremony. We had a traditional mass along with our ceremony and also included Filipino Traditions such as the Veil and Cord. The veil symbolizes protection and the cord symbolizes unity in the marriage.

After our ceremony, we loaded our guests into vans that we had booked for the day. These shuttles took our guests from the church to our reception and from the reception to their hotels once the night was over. When it came to planning the day, we wanted our guests to always feel thought of, to make sure that they were never inconvenienced in any way.

We kept our reception venue a surprise because we wanted them to be able to see it all for the first time in person. The villa was a quick 20 minute ride from the church so we all arrived in no time. Marco’s request for the wedding day was a classic convertible car that we would drive to the venue together and it was perfect. The minutes we spent on the drive to the villa from the church was so much fun. We drove through Florence with the biggest smile on our faces, excited that we just got married, and very ready to get the party started.

WADE

There was no doubt that Wade had to be a part of our special day, we couldn’t imagine getting married without him. We’re so glad we were able to bring him along and thanks to our incredible planner for introducing us to Wedding Dog Sitter. Thanks to Elisa, Wade was taken care of the entire day and we didn’t have to worry about him at all. Highly recommend Elisa’s services if you’re looking to get married in Italy and plan to have your dog with you. It was not something we would have wanted to ask any of our guests to take responsibility for.

I’ll have more details on Elisa’s services once we get Wade’s wedding photos back!

COCKTAIL HOUR

We booked Villa Medicea di Lilliano for our reception and hosted our cocktail hour on the terrace which offered stunning Tuscan views. During cocktail hour, we mingled and celebrated with our guests, took photos, and enjoyed drinks and light bites before it was time to lead our guests to dinner.

I dreamed of this doorway that leads to the other side of the villa, where our guests would be greeted by a sunset behind one long table. We could not have asked for a more perfect day and for the size of our wedding, the venue truly was so perfect. We booked this venue site unseen and had only relied on photos to decide that this was the venue for us.

DINNER

Our table was everything I dreamed of. We wanted one long table for our guests to all sit together at and putting together the seating chart was fairly easy. Because we had already hosted a Pre-Italy BBQ back at home, a welcome lunch for our guests the day before, everyone was already so well acquainted with each other and dinner was just hours of laughing and talking about the trip. We mixed our families throughout the table and it was genuinely one of the best feelings sitting at the head of the table and seeing all our loved ones get along so seamlessly, as if we all really were meant to be one big, happy, family.

We welcomed our guests to kick off dinner service and had two speeches throughout the night. We loved that they were scheduled between courses and because we had a smaller guest count (60 is small for 2 Filipino families) we were able to mingle with all of our guests throughout the night. It did get a bit chilly once the sun went down so just something to keep in mind if you’re looking to plan an outdoor wedding this time of the year in Florence! The outdoor dinner was noted in our Wedding Website so that our guests could bring jackets or shawls.

Will be sharing our wedding website soon as well!

THE SURPRISE

After dinner, we had a live show of our traditional millefoglie for our wedding cake. We were so excited for this moment because we had been planning this surprise for our guests. We made sure that “Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay was playing when we started to cut our cake because right when the chorus began, that’s when we planned our big surprise. Right on cue, the string lights above our dinner table went out, and the fireworks began. It was such a wonderful thing to share with our guests. It was absolutely incredible ending dinner with a fireworks show because when else were we going to have the chance to go out with a bang?

The fireworks really got the party started and after this, we took our guests inside to the hall where the dance party would begin. Being Filipino, of course “September” played.