Magazine: Brides United Emirates

real life wedding

Italian dreams

Poppy Philips and Richard Skinner Wedding date: 31st October 2009 Married at: Castello di Montegufoni, Montespertoli, Italy

April 2010

emirates bride

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THE WEDDING With Italy the perfect destination, both Poppy and Richard knew the importance of having perfect wedding planners. It was important, with people coming from all over the world, that everyone should be able to have the event and stay on site and the planners not only found this with short notice, but a location that took their breaths away.

✿ Reception venue: As the chapel could not fit all the guests in comfortably we chose to get married in the largest room of the castle. A wonderfully bright, opulently decorated hall, which led directly into the area for our reception.

Theme: As we were getting married in such an

Their story

R

Poppy’S WEDDING TIPS: ✿ Don’t panic. Even two weeks before the wedding things were still coming together but just remember everything will get done. The more relaxed you are the more you can enjoy your day. ✿ The help of our friends was invaluable. We designated jobs to each bridesmaid/usher so that on the day we could get ready in peace. ✿ Be honest. It’s quite easy to feel bullied by wedding planner/ photographers/ family but if you stick firmly to what you want you will be grateful on the day.

ichard and Poppy, 32 and 28 respectively, were friends for nearly 10 years before they started dating. Having met through mutual friends, it wasn’t until a rather boring party that they realised they had so much in common.

They chatted all night and by the end, Poppy had agreed to a dinner date with Richard the following weekend. Nearly a year to the date of their first date, Richard surprised Poppy with a trip to Paris and proposed. With advice to keep the proposal low-key from Poppy’s mother, Richard got down on one knee in the hotel bedroom with an amazing twotier Tiffany’s inspired ring handmade by Vikram at UMI Pearls, Dubai. For her hen do, Poppy had dinner with some close girlfriends in the UK, while Richard’s stag was spent in Bournemouth with the boys. As Poppy’s mother had grown up in Italy, she had always wanted to get married there. Having found the perfect villa in Lucca, disaster struck when four months later the villa was unavailable. Poppy’s mother flew into surrogate wedding planning mode flying to Italy to find two other planners in Carolina and Fulvia, who found the couple a new dream wedding location at the beautiful Castello di Montegufoni.

Little black bridal book:

amazing rustic location, our theme was classic

Hat-maker: I opted for a 50’s inspired hat with small veil made by the brilliant Jane Taylor Millinery jane@ janetaylormillinery.com Flowers: Roberto Lepri in Castelfiorentino +39 (0)57164426 Bridesmaids dresses: Reiss www.reiss.co.uk Dress: S*uce www.shopatsauce.com Cake: Made by Guiseppe at the castle Venue: Castello di Montegufoni, Montespertoli. www.montegufoni.it. Owner of the castle Cosimo Posarelli was an invaluable help Wedding planners: Carolina Casini and Fulvia Conforti from www.tuscandream.com

theme of vintage throughout the wedding by

with a vintage twist to reflect this. We kept the using antique plates, table settings, furniture and rustic colored flowers.

✿ Guests: 120, with friends coming from mainly Dubai and England.

✿ Dress: I wanted something unique that I could wear again. My friend spotted the dress for me in S*uce, Dubai Mall. It was perfect – a 30s vibe, with tiered capped sleeves, small peplum at the waist to add a twist, and fitted to the floor. It’s my first long dress and I felt a million dollars.

✿ Shoes: Blush pink satin Louboutin’s with a small bow at the toes. I bought them from the Christian Louboutin boutique with my mother on a trip to the UK, as soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them!

✿ Hat/Veil: Again, as I didn’t want anything typically bridal, I had a 50’s style cream pillar box hat which had a large pink and cream taffeta flower on the back and short peach veil with cream pearls.

✿ Rings: Vikram from UMI Pearls designed my full diamond band to fit around my engagement ring. Richard opted for a plain, platinum thin band.

✿ Bridesmaids: My four closest friends wore dresses from Reiss. It was a group effort with me choosing the dresses, one friend finding the shoes and another the hair-pieces. My friend Antonia also made each of them pearl necklace from her collection. (tamsinadesigns@hotmail.com)

✿ Cake: A traditional one-layer millefoglie cake surrounded by fruit.

✿ Flowers: Amnesia roses mixed with Old Dutch roses for my bouquet and then Old Dutch roses with cream roses for the tables.

✿ Caterers: Guiseppe, the brilliant on-site chef.

He had us sold from our first tasting evening with him! We had two pasta dishes to start, followed by beef with rosemary potatoes and green beans.

Desert was our wedding cake with desert wine.

✿ Unique touches: As is traditional in Italian weddings, a bag containing five sugared almonds was put on each person’s table setting. Also, as our favorite smell is lavender, a little sprig of lavender from my Aunt’s field was placed on each setting.

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emirates bride

April 2010

April 2010

emirates bride

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