Elisa & Gerard

Where was your wedding located? What made you choose this location?

Gerard is American, I am Italian. We decided to get married in Italy as the tradition here is to get married in the city of the bride! The religious ceremony was in my hometown, Gavirate, specifically in my parish - the same where my parents and my grandparents got married! The reception was in villa Bossi, a sixteenth century’s villa close to my hometown. We chose it because, despite being a stunning Villa, it still gives a homey feeling, which we really wanted for our wedding!

Who created your gorgeous gown?

Rembo Styling! I have been looking at them for a few years and, despite trying something like 7 other ateliers and many brands, in the end I put their “First” dress on and was like “yep, here it is!”

What is one word that would best describe your wedding?

Community. We wanted the entire reception to be a big celebration of friends - like a large version of the home-dinners we like to host for our friends. It was such an international day! Guests flew in from all over the world for us - Gerard’s family and friends from Chicago, Charleston, Houston, Minneapolis, and Iowa, our friends from DC (where we met!), friends from Colombia, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and from all over Italy… - so we really wanted everyone to feel at home and among friends.

What is the most amazing thing about your man?

He’s adventurous. And not in the banal sense of the world, going on wild hikes or jumping from planes (although he probably would), but in the deepest sense. He moved to Germany for me, and the courage he had in doing that gives me now the courage to follow him back to the States. He always has the courage to say yes to life - to date an Italian met a week before, who was in the states for only 3 months; to propose after “only” six months of knowing each other, three of which long-distance - and then to actually marry me! :) Yes, if you have to ask me what I love of Gerard, the answer is that he is not afraid of saying “yes” to life.

What was the most challenging part of organising a wedding?

We organised our wedding remotely: we were living in Germany (because of my work) while organising the wedding in Italy. Thankfully my family was incredibly supportive - they tried the catering for us, visited the villa, my sister painted the save the date and the invitation…it was a shared mission!

Any funny moments?

Our friends organised some games for after dinner. One of the games involved having an American guest against an Italian guest - this brought out a super fun spirit of competition: half of the courtyard was banging on the table cheering “U-S-A! U-S-A!” while the Italian guest were cheering the name of the Italian player in hooligans style. It was just hilarious!

The most funny thing though is probably the fact that during our first dance, when everyone looked at us cause we were so in love and looking each other in the eyes, in reality we were “fighting” because we thought Gerard had lost his backpack (which was my present for him)!

What was your aisle song?

G.F. Handel’s March from Scipione, organ only. This is a fun story - my dad is a musician, he plays the trumpet. Traditionally, he has been playing this march (trumpet+organ) at EVERY single wedding of my family’s friends. He says that it brings good luck to the couple (never a single divorce when he played, he says :D). Obviously he couldn’t play it on my entrance because he walked me down the aisle, so it was played only by the organ. But he did play it when we walked out of the church! That was a beautiful moment for me - looking up at the organ balcony and seeing my dad play for us. Also, it was the same march my parents had at their wedding too! This idea of continuity and community is beautiful for me, and listening to it still gives me goosebumps!

What is one scene in the wedding that will forever be in your memory?

Definitely the dinner. Seeing many of the most important people in our lives celebrating with us, reunited at one single horseshoe table… I simply couldn’t stop smiling. 65 Americans flew to Italy for us! Gerard at the beginning was expecting no more than 20 to be able to come! It is nice to think about all the details of a wedding, but the most important thing for us was being surrounded by our friends, who accompanied us throughout our story.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We spent 5 days in Barcelona and 5 in Lisbon! Gerard needed to scratch two more countries off his Europe scratch-map!

How was your experience as a Forever Soles bride?

Lovely! Honestly shoes were the hardest thing for me to find. I did not want any of the classic bride-shoes and it was very hard to find something I liked - in Italy brides are pretty traditional and wear off-white super classic shoes - so NOT my style. Adding that I am never really comfortable on heels, I wanted something easy to wear and when I found Forever Soles I was just so happy! I couldn’t decide myself between the Peace and Love Nude and the Daydreamer Ivory so… Gerard pushed me to buy them both :D I wore Peace and Love all day, and changed to Daydreamer for dancing - adding a Flora Armband to sparkle up the party! That also made a great gift for my witness Elena!