Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
Did you also tune in this morning to avidly watch the wedding of the century? Yeah, me too - and I enjoyed it much more than I expected!
My eyes were glued to the TV trying to take it all in: the elegant guests, the arrival of Prince William with his brother Harry (so handsome, both of them), the arrival of the parents (did you as well initially mistake Kate’s mother for her sister? I totally did—and BTW I loved her pale blue coat) and finally seeing Kate in THE dress!
I was all, “Ahh,” when Prince William whispered, “You look beautiful,” and she broke into a smile, as it gave a glimpse past the formality of the occasion into the love between two people. I found the vows moving and felt a bit of envy that their day had arrived while ours is still months away!
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
After a short leave of absence to take care of some overdue travel, Mr. Caro and I are back! We had a great Easter in Paris and, along with macarons, shopping and gourmet food, we also found our alternative universe perfect wedding venue.
You know the parallel universe theory? The one that basically says (in very basic terms, please forgive my ignorance) that there are infinite parallel universes right next to ours, where infinite versions of yourself exist and perhaps make difference choices and live different lives. I like this theory because it makes me think that, if I didn’t get to do something in this life, I managed to do it in another. Perhaps in one I am a world famous novelist, and in another I have a perfect metabolism and can eat whatever I want without gaining a pound. Of course in all Mr. Caro and I somehow end up together!
And perhaps in some other alternate universe I will have my wedding reception at the Pavillons the Bercy: this place is so amazing I have to share in case any of you want to get married or are planning a trip to Paris!
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
In my previous post I explained the reasons why we decided to create a wedding wedsite and how reaching a successful final result helped us feel more confident in our potential as a team.
Step 1: Privacy settings
It is very important to decide how much information you want to make public on the web. Personal details on you and your FI (dates, ages, wedding date, locations) could easily be used by the wrong people to gain access to your identity, accounts and home. For this reason Mr. Caro and I have decided to install password protection to the site and to make it non indexed by search engines. This means that the site can only be accessed via a password and that it will never turn up on a search result list from a search engine.
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
As many bees before me, Mr. Caro and I decided to make a wedding wedsite. We wanted to create a great wedsite that would amaze our wedding guests mostly because, considering our professions, it was kind of expected from us (we both work in the online sector, I in marketing, and Mr. Caro in development).
Aside from that, we had some great reasons for wanting a wedsite:
Single Point of Contact: since our wedding is mostly a destination wedding we needed to have a central spot for information on the schedule, travel options and locations
Easy Updates: When we first changed our venue, then the ceremony, it was easy to update everyone by updating the information on the wedsite
Interactivity: Our guests can comment on the wedsite, answer a poll, and after the wedding they will be able to upload all their pictures on the site
Wedding Planning support: We decided to forgo an electronic RSVP but will have our registry on our wedsite
Anticipation building: Reading about us, how we met and about the wedding planning progress made many of our guests feel more close to us and has helped build anticipation for the wedding
I am very happy and very proud at how it turned out. You can see the home page screenshot here:
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
Mr. Caro and I will be celebrating our wedding in a converted church. It took us a while to find the right ceremony venue but we are very happy about our final choice: we think this church has a great intimate vibe and it fits our style perfectly.
The only thing I do not like about it is… the transparent chairs…
Don’t get me wrong: I think transparent chairs look really chic and cool in the right ambiance! I just don’t think the intimate and historic atmosphere of the church fits well with those stylish contemporary chairs for our wedding… Read more…
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
Life is full of coincidences—mostly minor but sometimes remarkable. During the wedding planning process you might encounter some funny coincidences, which you could try to find meaning in and ascribe to “fate,” or just have a laugh about.
For example, a friend of mine is getting married on the eighth anniversary of first meeting her fiancé. The funny thing is, they were not aware of that when they booked the date: they only realized it later!
We have experienced this ourselves in a couple of occasions.
The first coincidence is the church we are getting married in (yes, it’s a civil ceremony in a church). The name of the church is “Chiesa di San Giovanni.” The Italian equivalent of Mr. Caro’s name is, if fact, Giovanni (my friends often call him that!). So, we’re basically going to get married in his church…
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
In my previous post, I talked about how my fear of bad weather made me forgo a stunning, spectacular ceremony location. Still, I’m not sorry about it because I think the one we settled for is much more “us”—not to mention the fact that it does not give me any nightmares.
At the town of Torri del Benaco, in addition to the sweet but open-air lemon grove, they also offer their auditorium for wedding celebrations. Their auditorium is a 14th Century converted church.
When we visited it we fell in love with it: it’s a small, simple church with wooden beams on the ceiling and faded frescoes on the walls. It seats a maximum of 100 people and has wonderful lighting inside.
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
All my life I’ve heard the expression: “Better safe than sorry”—and I am a firm believer in it. I think preventing something negative is much better than having to deal with it. But when it came time to choose a ceremony location, I did not really follow that maxim.
After deciding that we would not go for a religious ceremony (we’re not churchgoing people or strong believers, so it felt hypocritical), we checked out civil-wedding options on Lake Garda.
Our favourite options were:
The outdoor terrace on the castle in the town of Malcesine
The lemon grove in the castle in the town of Torri del Benaco (closed on the sides but open above)
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
Lots of people love relaxing vacations where they can be pampered and restore their energy. After all the planning and the stress of a wedding, a honeymoon is often the apotheosis of a relaxing vacation.
Mr. Caro and I, however, do not like relaxing too much on our vacations for some reason. After a period of doing nothing (say, two hours on the beach) we get bored and restless. So we are always planning vacations that take us left and right and leave us tireder after the vacation than before. Still, we love it!
This is why we decided to stay true to ourselves and plan a road-trip honeymoon. Where? In the States, of course! I want to be able to see the family that won’t be able to make the trip overseas to be at our wedding, and Mr. Caro has never even been there!
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
When we first defined our wedding budget, Mr. Caro and I did not even discuss the option of having a videographer as we didn’t think we’d need one.
Once I realized how common it is to have a professional wedding video, I started wondering if we should consider it as well—but I quickly changed my mind. I found all the videos I saw too cheesy, too cool/fake, or too amateurish. It just didn’t seem to be our thing, so we opted to spend more on photography instead and I was quite content with the decision.
That is, until I saw this video from Winston Tao. This video succeeded where all others had failed: it moved me to tears. Even Mr. Caro got emotional watching it! You should also check it out; I am sure it will brighten your day.
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
Having a wedding in Italy is great. The food is simply amazing. (Sorry, but you just can’t get food as good as Italian food in Italy.) The atmosphere is jovial. The scenery is wonderful. The history and culture surrounding you are enriching.
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
I last left you at the moment when Mr. Caro and I had to make a very tough decision: play it safe and bite the bullet, or risk it all and do it our way.
As you probably imagined, we decided to risk it all and do it our way.
But we were feeling so anxious and nervous about it! We were in Italy at the time and had only a handful of days of our vacation left. When would we find the time to look for a new place? How many of them would already be booked? Would we need to change any of our other plans because of the reception-location change?
And then, it happened: we were driving through the town of Garda, and I noticed a sign for the Ristorante ai Beati (which could mean either Restaurant of the Blessed or of the Blissful—you choose your favorite). In the space of a second I remembered noticing the restaurant during my wedding searches but dismissing it since we already had a reception place. I excitedly told Mr. Caro that we should go check it out!
The restaurant was located on top of the hills overlooking the lake and was built in a renovated 14th century mill. As soon as I saw the topiary trees covered with string lights at the main entrance, I thought we’d found our place. (I love topiary trees.)
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
In my last post I described how happy we were with ourselves for deciding to have a long engagement, as it was pretty easy to find an awesome reception place. Well, let me tell you, that feeling came back to bite us in the b*** big time!
As some of you probably already know, a long engagement has many advantages and disadvantages: one disadvantage is that things change.
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
When we started looking for a venue a whopping 15 months in advance, we had our pick: all the venues we contacted were still free for our September 2011 date. Mr. Caro and I took a one-week vacation to Italy and immediately started focusing on venues, as we wanted to finalize that before everything else.
Thanks to my internet research and my mom’s knowledge of the lake, we managed to visit a grand total of 30 locations in three days! Sound impossible? Well, the truth is we had a lot of requirements. So as soon as we’d realize that a venue did not meet one of the requirements, we’d leave and move on.
Indoor option: It’s Italy, but it does rain there too! You wouldn’t believe how many locations did not have an adequate indoor option.
View on the lake: Since most of our guests will be traveling to join us, we want them to enjoy as much beautiful scenery as possible.
Intimacy: We’d like an intimate, cozy atmosphere. Many big resorts cannot offer that.
Convenience: Needs to be close to hotels and on the eastern side of the lake.
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
As I previously wrote, there were a couple of glitches during the process of finding the right theme for us. Then again, it’s not like a theme is really necessary. Nor do I intend to follow mine to the letter now that I have one. But it really helps give a style to all the elements of the wedding and keeps the ideas and the inspiration at bay.
When Mr. Caro and I re-discussed our theme, we started from where we’d left off. We had basically determined that we wanted our colours to be soft and that our wedding keywords were:
Nostalgic
Playful
Charming
Travel
Carnivalesque
We also considered what we had in common and what would describe us as a couple. We started from our geekiness (we’re both a bit geeky), our passion for travel, our interest in historical novels, our love for swing music, and our appreciation for old-style amusement parks.
After some brainstorming and some Googling, we found the basis for all our inspiration: Jules Verne’s collection of novels, Extraordinary Voyages.
