Wedding | Sydney & Julien

Tell us a little about yourselves!

Julien and I met in college and have been together for eight years now. We live in Philadelphia, PA and have two dogs. We love to do the simple things together on a day to day basis such as walking the dogs, cooking dinner, and running errands. We also love to travel, art, and having new experiences. We enjoy spending quality time with each other and our loved ones and one of our favourite ways to do that is with good food and good wine.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

I have always known I wanted a destination wedding from a young age and when Julien and I started to plan a wedding he also wanted the same thing. I had always dreamed of getting married in the Italian countryside for its natural beauty and intimacy, whereas Julien had studied abroad in Rome so it held a special place in his heart. When we were searching for venues online we found Casale Del Gallo and realised that it could fulfil both of our dreams.

How many guests did you have?

We wanted our closest friends and family, good food, good wine, quality time, and new experiences with all of our guests. This led us to booking Casale del Gallo for a full week with 34 of our closest friends and family.

What was your budget?

When planning our wedding we knew that in the U.S. this budget would easily be spent in one night and we may not have the experience that we dreamed about. When we sat down to map out what was important to us we realised it was the things that we experience in our day to day lives. Within this week we not only got married, but we toured the Vatican, explored Rome, took a cooking class, completed a wine tasting, had a pool party, and got to spend a week celebrating with everyone we loved in Rome (many of whom had never been).

Tell us about your outfits.

After we got engaged I started dress shopping and candidly, the more white dresses I tried on the less I felt like myself. Upon chance, I went into a random bridal salon with my sister-in-law the morning of her baby shower and saw the Morning Glory dress by Tara Latour. We both literally ran to the dress and asked if I could try it on. The minute I put it on I knew it was my dress and could not stop smiling. The vibrant colours and design not only felt like it fit me, but it also felt like it fit the Roman countryside. My husband and I also both love art and the dress felt like it was a piece of artwork.

From there I knew I wanted my veil and bouquet to be unique aspects to complement the dress. As for the bouquet, I wanted my purse to be the bouquet so the florals could have their moment all night long — I sent a picture of what I wanted and a picture of my dress to Motif Floral, and they executed the vision and colour scheme beyond what I would have imagined.

For my husband’s look we wanted something that complemented my dress but fit into the Italian countryside, which is how we decided on a double breasted tan linen suit by Propercloth. He had purchased his wedding shoes (Gucci) the last time we were in Rome together and so the look was based around those.

At the end of the evening I changed into a shimmery Shona Joy two piece set in order to be able to dance and stay comfortable.

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

The most important thing for us when we planned our wedding was that it truly felt like us. We wanted the things that we enjoy as a couple to be shared with all of our friends and family. One of our favourite things to do on a weekend is to host a dinner party where Julien will cook a multi-course meal, complete with wine pairings. We kicked off the evening with a live saxophone and charcuterie spread for cocktail hour. From there we served our guests a classic five course meal paired with wine and completed with a dessert bar and tiramisu tower.

We opted for a U-shaped table so that we could see all of our guests and talk the whole time, which made the atmosphere feel more like a giant dinner party. We really wanted all of our choices to be intentional and to be rooted in things that were important to us.

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

It was important to us to incorporate as many personal details as we could. To do this we welcomed our guests with custom sweatshirts for the cool Rome evenings, customised itineraries, and custom made keychains that I designed. I also embroidered napkins with all of our guests’ names as place cards that they were able to then take home and reuse when enjoying meals to remind them of the fun we had in Rome.

More than just the details, our families are both very important to us so we wanted to ensure we made choices to incorporate that into our day as well. I wanted to honour both of my grandmothers as well as my late aunt and to do that I incorporated jewellery pieces from each of them into my accessories.

We also did a first look with both of our families and had a pre-ceremony champagne toast with them before heading down the aisle. We made sure our dances with our parents were to songs that felt meaningful — mine was the song my dad would sing to me as a baby, and Julien’s family’s first language is French so he and his mom chose a song that was sung in French. Lastly, we knew that our friends loved a good time and so to complete the evening we made sure we had a cigarette and cigar bar.

Any tips for couples getting married?

Our advice to couples getting married is that it is not as stressful as everyone makes it out to be. Give yourself time and grace. Find what is important to you as a couple and make your decisions in pursuit of that, instead of what is trendy or what others may think — all that matters is that you are happy at the end of the day.

Also, communicate with your vendors! They are professionals and they want to support you; tell them what is important to you and they will do their best to help you achieve that!

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

There was no way that my vision could have come to life without Lexi Truesdale, Motif Floral, Zahra Studio Events, and Giulio at Casale del Gallo. I knew what I wanted and what I dreamed about and they all worked so hard to deliver beyond expectations. We knew what was important to us as a couple, but we also knew and trusted that our vendors knew what they were doing and could execute our vision. We let them have a lot of creative freedoms and I am so glad we did. I would recommend them to everyone and anyone!

Photographer & Videographer: Lexi Truesdale @lexitruesdaIephotos | Styling: Zahra Studio Events @zahrastudio.events | Flora: Motif Floral @motifloral | Ceremony & Reception Location: Casale Del Gallo @casaledelgallo | HMUA: Ruslana Regi @ruslanaregi | Catering & Beverages: Casale Del Gallo @casaledelgallo | Entertainment: Destination Rome Wedding Music @destinationweddingromemusic | Ceremony Dress: Tara Latour @taralatour | Reception Dress: Shona Joy @shonajoy | Suit: Propercloth @propercloth | Shoes: Gucci @gucci | Bag: Cult Gaia @cultgaia