Alexa and Nicholas are a beautiful American couple who wanted to get married in Italy, near the sea and dreamed of a traditional and romantic Italian wedding.
I proposed them one of my favorite locations: Ganci Farm in Celle Ligure.
Ganci Farm is a splendid villa among the vineyards with a wonderful garden, perfect location for elegant weddings with romantic atmospheres of times gone by.
The villa is located on the hills of Celle Ligure just 2 km from the sea, a lovely place, which enjoys a mild climate and an unparalleled sea view. The pool, the large terrace and the large flower garden in the shade of the olive trees, they offer characteristic and suggestive corners, perfect for an unforgettable wedding. Alexa e Nicholas, they completely trusted me and my choice and only saw the villa after booking it for their wedding. They were enthusiastic about it and this gave me great joy.
After choosing the location I started searching for hotels in the area for their guests, we have selected two to concentrate guests in the same points and facilitate travel.
The evening before we organized the "pre wedding", an informal party on the beach with open bar and typical Ligurian buffet with various types of focaccia, in the pan, anchovies, ecc. A very joyful and fun party which allowed the guests to meet again after the long journey and greet the bride and groom before the big day.
The bride's friends stayed at Ganci Farm (the property also has rooms), in this way the bride was able to have her closest friends close by during the preparation, by organizing a small exclusive party with them.
An American tradition that we have respected is the “First look”, that is, before the start of the ceremony the couple previews each other separately. In their case the First Look was prepared in the garden, Nicholas had his back turned and turned around as we started, admiring his Alexa for the first time in a stunning white dress. Obviously I had organized photos and videos ready to capture this special moment.
After the First look the ceremony began, symbolic but with an important reference to the Bible, as they are a very believing family. The ceremony was sung and played completely live by two very talented musicians who then also accompanied us during the aperitif.
The dinner was entirely Ligurian! With delicious trofie with pesto and fish and vegetables prepared in different ways, all according to the tradition of our splendid region. The wedding cake also reflected Italy and was in fact a delicious millefeuille with Chantilly cream.
Finally, the wedding favor for the participants: one last memory of Liguria could not be missing, of Basanotto bottles, the typical Ligurian liqueur with basil and chinotto.
At the end of the party, one last fresh surprise for everyone: the Italian ice cream buffet! A special corner where guests could choose how they preferred their ice cream, with many different flavors, fruit and chocolate, just like in a real Italian ice cream shop.
An idea that I really liked and that Alexa and Nicholas had to decorate the location was that of use photos taken with a Polaroid. In fact, the spouses brought pictures of the guests taken over the years, images that represented a journey, a journey taken by the spouses with the people closest to them: a truly beautiful and original idea! Photos that we hung between the various hedges and that the guests then took away as a sweet memory of that very special day.
