Real Wedding | Anita + Arinaldo

Anita and Arinaldo got married at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Anitas main inspiration for planning the wedding was Dolce Gabanna Alta Moda/ Venetian Glamour.

Despite a two year long engagement Anita planned the wedding in nine months, although in hindsight she wishes she only gave herself three months to plan the wedding. "I’m a Libran who keeps changing her mind! I’d lock in a vendor and 2 months later be like ‘Oh maybe I should do this instead!’ Embarrassingly, I had ordered and cancelled two wedding dresses, purchased a gold suit and 9 days before the event bought the suit I actually ended up wearing! (This one was my husbands fault as he dropped on me last minute that he hoped I was wearing white!)"

Anita was however very clear on a few things - she wanted lots of red roses, gold accents and had a light feature with the word 'Amore', the term that her and Arinaldo call each other.

Anita also had a clear vision in terms of dressing her bridesmaids. "They needed to be striking and Dolce-like. My husband had his suit custom made and the groomsmen were intended to be simple so that there wasn’t too much clashing!"

Anita planned the entire wedding on her own and wanted to make the day as special for her husband as it was for her. She simply handed him an itinerary the morning of the wedding so he knew when to show up!

Anita chose The Art Gallery of NSW because of her love of art. She felt that the scale of this building fitted the importance of the event and would create the perfect backdrop to their vision. They wanted a venue that was a restaurant over a function room- so that the food would be of utter importance. The couple had an accordion player greeting the guests, a surprise Italian Opera performance during the reception and a secret Cabaret performance of ‘Be Italian’ to close the night.

"My favourite details of the wedding had to be the flowers by Kashaya & Co., our photographer Max Doyle from The Future Mrs. (who captured everything up to the reception) and my bridesmaids outfits from Bronx and Banco! Fashion is an important part of both our lives and we wanted this to be an important part of the wedding. We also just wanted it to be so ‘us’. Nothing done in a way that wasn’t the way we wanted. And I think we achieved that!"