Classic Black and White Italian Inspired Wedding

Last year my beautiful friend Fawn got married at Villa Montalvo in  Los Gatos, CA in a goregous classic black and white Italian inspired wedding.  Her husband comes from Three generations of Italians in Los Gatos so it is no surprised that there are several Italian details to the wedding, including individual bottles of limoncello for the guests.

The traditional ceremony was juxtaposed with a more relaxed and modern reception. The photographer Todd Rafalovich captured all of the lovely moments below while their floral designer Asiel Design adorned the wedding with hues of blushes and ivories. Fawn and Bart were going for the feeling of the Godfather part I wedding which is at a enormous mansion on Lake Tahoe, tons and tons of people, old school, mandolin Italian dinner music in the background. The Limoncello that guests received was homemade!   The bride, her mother, groom’s mother and some of their friends all made huge batches of limoncello in the winter and spring and then let it brew for months to get it just perfect.

Their friends all drank the mini bottles of Don Julio tequila for the past two years at golf tournaments, holidays, etc. to collect the little bottles for them to use to put the limoncello in.  CB Hannegans, the local pub and friends of the couple had events at the restaurant and would sell the mini bottles of Don Julio and they would give them a discount or only sell it to them if they agreed to bring the bottles back for collecting.

Fawn had this to  says about her wedding day: “it was absolutely exactly the very feeling I remember being able to see/feel in my head when planning it: the veranda just full of people, everyone laughing and talking and passing food and wine and holding babies and mingling, the late afternoon sun on the trees, hot summer day, the Italian mandolin playing in the background.  Not too bright of colors, everything kind of washed out as if from the heat but still bold with the black and the damask print.  I wanted it to be exquisite, but not stuffy or stuck up.  I wanted it to feel down to earth but rich with meaning and love.  I wanted it to feel expensive too but not in a ostentatious way…  I wanted it to feel old world and classic and timeless.” I think she captured it all!