The Roman Holiday Wedding (part 1)

I’ve been keeping back this wedding back especially for my first post on the English Wedding blog, and what better time than now for a bit of mid-August sunshine? All weddings are a journey in a way, and this one was rocket propelled. The groom, Ross, works in the film business and the whole experience was a bit like exploring an incredibly beautiful movie.Ross is English, whilst Kika is Italian. They created a spectacular four day wedding in Rome, and I was very touched that they booked me to fly out and cover their wedding.

Italians tend to leave Rome in August as it is searingly hot and humid but if you can cope with the heat the city is also at its most stunning. Staying as we were near the Vatican, we were confronted by iconic sights at every turn, saturated with sunlight. On the first night the guests were invited to cocktails on a hill above Rome at Ross and Kika’s favorite cocktail bar, Casina Valadier. Guests were also wined and dined at a favorite pizzeria and treated to a visit to the Sistine Chapel.

Kika got married from her mother’s house and her mother organised a traditional Italian bridal ceremony. When an Italian girl leaves her mother’s home to get married, flowers are strewn on the floor of the threshold of the house and her mother says goodbye to her formally.

The ceremony was at the ancient Byzantine church of San Georgio in Velabra. Wonderful ecumenical Roman Catholic priest Father Mark took the ceremony and struck a good balance of reverence and humor. He even thoughtfully kept water behind the chairs so that the bride and groom did not pass out in the heat! The couple were invited to light separate candles and then once they were married, to blow these out and light one large candle together as a symbol of their union.

The bride and groom then chose to have an extended tour of Rome in a silver Bentley, to maximise their opportunities for photography. Travelling through Rome in the front seat of a silver Bentley is something I will never forget. The beauty flashes before your eyes in moment after sunlit moment. (Being on the back of a scooter with Francesca driving in a wedding dress was quite an experience too. But for that you’ll have to wait for Part Two…)

We visited the Vatican, where people were most bemused by the Bentley. The local police requested the driver’s papers, which luckily the driver had!

And then the indefatigable couple toured Trastevere, where passers by kept wishing them ‘Auguri’.

Meanwhile, surprise! Ross and his brilliant wedding planner, Brenda from Italia Celebrations, had organised a big red double decker to convey the guests to the secret venue, about an hour outside Rome.

An hour became two hours as the bus struggled up the hills of Lazio in the oven heat, and the English wedding made the local papers as it created a two mile tail back entering Frascati! But at last the baked guests arrived and all their travel woes were blown away by the couples’ glorious venue; Villa Grazioli.

It is a magical, frescoed villa. The couple reminded me of the betrothed couple from Il Principe’s ‘The Leopard’ as they danced together in the frescoed upper room. (read it if you haven’t!) On the front lawn in the twilight an aperitivo of canapes and cocktails was waiting for them.

Supper was held on the terrace with the twinkling lights of Lazio stretching away beneath flaming torches and columns of flowers.

I loved this wedding for all sorts of reasons but most of all because Ross and Kika are a wonderful and very inspiring couple and have since become friends. I suspect they will walk gracefully through life’s challenges together without being fazed and I wish them many beautiful years together.