Umberto and Federica dated for 6 years before he finally proposed on the wonderful coast of Sharm el Sheik, while on holiday. Once back to Italy they informed the family and decided on the date of the wedding, one year after. A story similar to any other couple with the difference that Umberto is the son of a wedding planner and Federica is a junior wedding planner. Yes, Umberto is my son and at that time I was training Federica to become a wedding planner, and for that year we had already 40 weddings booked…

Anyway, I couldn’t tell my son I was unavailable and started to re-plan my agenda.

The one-year planning went as smooth as possible, I tried to give them as much time as possible and since the wedding was in our city Ravello we could hire all our regular suppliers and of course, we decided to host the reception in our family hotel Bonadies.

Hotel Bonadies is a 4 stars hotel in the lovely piazza Fontana Moresca that had just been paved and closed to traffic. The hotel features also 3 lovely terraces with sea view and the couple decided to use all of the 3; one for the starters buffet and the other two for the seated meal.

Since I was super busy planning 40 weddings in the year, and Federica was due to work with me, we decided to have each of us a role in the planning; all in all, we are three people doing the same job as Umberto is the restaurant and banqueting manager at the hotel.

I was in charge of the design of the reception and supervise all suppliers; Federica was in charge of the design of the church, stationery and favors; Umberto was in charge of cooking orange marmalade for the favors, the menu and to DIY some decorations we needed and the photobooth.

We tried to tie the guest list as much as possible to stay in 150 because of space, but we couldn’t figure out who not to invite (Italians DO love wedding invitations…), so we finally decided to do a day-long wedding.

Church wedding at 11.30 (I was told it was 11 am as my son was sure I would have been late…), lunch reception for 150 till 7 pm; buffet dinner reception for 100 more and after-party.

Our family is huge and living in different regions, few very close friends arrived from the USA, Turkey, UK, Lithuania so most of them arrived one day before the wedding and we enjoyed a pizza dinner with them in a restaurant in town.

The day of the wedding finally arrived. I had shopped for myself only two weeks before the wedding, but my dress was completely matching the pink shade of the mood board and I was so thrilled that my son was getting married. We walked to the church with our guests and waited for the bride to arrive. Five friends and colleague wedding planners at the same time were supervising all the little details that we had planned for the wedding.

I never cry at weddings, it’s my profession, but when I saw Federica walking down the aisle with his father, I could hardly recognize her. I was aware of the dress because I had shopped with her and her mum for the wedding dress, but she looked so shining and I started to feel the tears.

After the ceremony, they went for the photoshoot while we all reached the hotel’s square for a champagne aperitif and waited for the newlywed to join us on the upper terrace. The starters buffet was a clear representation of our origins with food coming from 3 different Italian regions. Fish counter to represent Campania, cured meat and porchetta counter for Umbria my mum’s region, a great selection of cheese and traditional products for Abruzzo for my husband region.

Even it was September 17th, the day was warm and staying on the terrace was more than pleasant. The band played evergreen and just before the wedding cake the bride and groom did their first dance. As soon as it started to get dark, and most of the guests were gone, we moved to the banquet room to welcome the guests invited for the evening reception and we kept dancing till 2 am.

A long and tiring day, full of emotion and love and indeed one of the most amazing days of my life.

Suita Carrano

Thanks to Michelle, Olga, Agnese, Tonina, Basak, Malafronte Flower Designer, Allestimenti Le Rose, Roberta Nastro & band,

Nakutis Photography, Syker Video Creator