Wedding | Alex & Peter

Tell us a little about yourselves!

Hi! Peter and I are both born and raised from Boston, Massachusetts. We started dating senior year of college and after a few years of living and working in the city, we relocated to Southern California. We’ve been loving every minute of it with our fur baby Piccolina!

We were engaged after a decade of being together and eloped a year later.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We both love to travel, particularly to beautiful coastal locations, and one of my favorite pastimes is researching beautiful hotels. 

We decided to go all out for our elopement trip - visiting two Northern Italy bucket list spots: Villa Feltrinelli in Lake Garda and the Belmond Splendido in Portofino, where we tied the knot.

Peter has strong Italian roots so it also felt like a homage to him and my new last name (the most Italian last name ever).

How many guests did you have?

It was just the two of us (and our lovely photographer Jimena from Volvoreta).

What was your budget? 

Because it was just the two of us, we didn’t set a strict budget for ourselves.

Tell us about your outfits.

I am pretty decisive about most things except when it came down to finding a dress, especially one for a non-traditional elopement! 

After striking out on finding something that I really loved, I went the custom route with One/Of by Patricia Voto. It was such an enjoyable process, being able to touch and feel different French laces and make small personal touches to the dress.

I accidentally forgot to pack my wedding shoes on our elopement trip (!!!) and ended up splurging on a pair of Dolce&Gabbana heels at their iconic Portofino store. They were truly more perfect than the pair I had originally had! When in Italy…!

Peter wears a suit almost every day for work so he was a bit disenchanted by a suit decision. He went with a custom suit from a local shop near our home.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

The most important aspect of our elopement was for us to enjoy ourselves and have fun! After making the decision to elope, we really leaned into it and decided to plan an all out trip for ourselves. 

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

We tried to keep things minimal and not get overwhelmed by incorporating too many details. 

Photos were very important to us, as it was just the two of us and we wanted to have a memory bank of the day. Our photographer Jimena (Volvoreta) felt like a natural extension to the moment and made the day so much more enjoyable. 

We didn’t end up booking a videographer but right before we left for Italy, I purchased an old school camcorder and we filmed much of our trip ourselves, that I will had edited into a low-fi video. 

Any tips for couples getting married?

Do whatever you want to do! 

Everybody tells you to soak it in because it goes by so fast and that is so true. After months and months of planning, the moment is over in a split second.

Photographer: Volvoreta @volvoreta | Ceremony Location: Hotel Splendido @belmondhotelsplendido | Celebrant: Isabella Cazzoli @isabella.cerimonie.simboliche | HMUA: Barbara Corso @barbaracorso | Dress: One/Of by Patricia Voto @oneof_ny | Alex's Engagement & Wedding Ring: Platt Boutique Jewelry

@plattboutiquejewelry | Peter's Wedding Ring: Marrow Fine @MarrowFine | Shoes:  Dolce&Gabbana 

@dolcegabbana (Alex) & Ferragamo @ferragamo (Peter)