1. Real Weddings

An Elegant Destination Wedding at Castello di Vincigliata in Fiesole, Italy

Anthony Leo (28 and an adviser consultant senior associate) proposed to Jenna Bruno (31 and an associate director, account strategy) the day they met

Anthony Leo (28 and an adviser consultant senior associate) proposed to Jenna Bruno (31 and an associate director, account strategy) the day they met with a makeshift pretzel ring. But for their destination wedding, they pulled out all the stops: Their venue was an ancient castle outside Florence, Italy, with stunning views. Their reception embraced the classic food-focused celebration, kicking off with a one-and-a-half-hour cocktail hour, followed by a three-course dinner and a chef coming out to assemble the wedding cake in front of the guests. During the cocktail hour, their Italian folk band surprised them into taking a spontaneous first dance. “They provided perhaps my No. 1 wedding highlight: gathering most of our wedding guests in the courtyard of the castle and having them call out to us. When we came over they began playing 'That's Amore,' and all our guests sang while the trio played and we danced. It was a complete surprise, and we were both in total awe. That was our unofficial first dance.” —Jen Leahy

For her wedding ring, Jenna chose a band of emerald-cut diamonds set east-west in white gold, complementing her art deco engagement ring, a custom design in the "target" style. "It's a yellow gold bezel setting with a brilliant cut center diamond and surrounded by a halo of yellow diamonds," Jenna says. Anthony picked a classic and simple yellow gold band for his own ring.
Jenna filled her bridal bouquet with soft, romantic Juliet roses, and a mix of burgundy, blush, pink and peach peonies, ranunculus, astilbes, roses, seeded eucalyptus and more. "Peonies are important to me because, besides being beautiful, they remind me of my childhood home. They were always my favorite plants because they were transplants from my late grandmother's garden and sat proudly in front of our living room window," says Jenna, who put a lot of thought and meaning into what she carried down the aisle, "In the bouquet itself I collected small trinkets that had belonged to each of my grandparents. An initialed gold tie clip of my grandpa's, a brooch and pin of my grandma's and a locket that my other grandpa gave to my grandma."
The bridesmaid bouquets featured a mix of lighter-hued flowers such as Juliet roses, sweet peas, roses, lisianthus, seeded eucalyptus and olive leaves offsetting the bold burgundy blooms in the bridal bouquet and decor.
When it came time to pick out the bridesmaids look Jenna only had two rules, the dress must be in a soft blush tone, and floor length. These details created a cohesive bridal party look without the stress, and let each bridesmaid choose a dress that worked for her.rnThey paired the dresses with their choice of metallic or neutral, strappy heel and a pair of blush drop earrings.
For her bridal look, Jenna just wanted a more glamorous version of herself, choosing a simple long, and wavy half up hairstyle, keeping her hair out of her face, and cathedral length veil in place.
Jenna and Anthony took off from their ceremony in style, riding to their reception in a vintage Rolls-Royce.
Anthony splurged on a custom tux from Enzo Custom, choosing to pair classic black tuxedo pants with a more stylish blue and black jacket. To make his custom wedding attire truly special, the inside of his jacket features the iconic Florence fleur de lis print and his own initials. “He also had our wedding date printed on the back of the collar, which he popped and wore proudly on the dance floor during the wee hours of the night.” He paired his jacket with a classic white shirt and pocket square with a black satin bow tie from Tie Bar.
Anthony's groomsmen were decked out in matching 1905 Slim Fit navy suits by Jos. A. Bank paired with classic white shirts, white pocket squares, black suspenders, black bow ties and black wingtip shoes. To stand out from one another, each groomsman was allowed to choose cuff links to represent his personality. The result was dollar signs, Darth Vader and vintage car cuff links walking down the aisle.
The boutonnieres were made up of ranunculus and olive leaves. Anthony's also featured a pop of burgundy to complement the burgundy in Jenna's bridal bouquet.
For the traditional Italian Catholic ceremony, Jenna paired her dress with a cathedral-length veil. Luckily it ripped before she walked down the aisle. "One tradition we included by accident was a rip in my veil," she says. "It's good luck in Italy, but we definitely didn't plan on it."
For the ceremony, Jenna and Anthony settled on traditional music, choosing "Pachelbel's Canon" for the procession, Wagner for the wedding party and Mendelssohn for the bride. Playing the music live was a harpist, who created the perfect atmosphere for the stunning church wedding.
When Jenna and Anthony were faced with decorating an naturally stunning church, they kept it simple and romantic, introducing tall candles and garlands filled with olive branches and seeded eucalyptus along the aisle and across the altar. Guests were handed rose petals wrapped in "Harry Potter" book pages. "Since Anthony and I are both 'Harry Potter' fans, we used pages of an old and loved 'Harry Potter' book to hold the rose petals that guests tossed in the air during our recessional," Jenna says.
After outgrowing their original church closer to the venue Jenna and Anthony moved their ceremony to one of the oldest churches in Florence, Italy, Chiesa di Santi Apostoli, a Romanesque-style church built in the 11th century. The couple had a full, traditional, Roman Catholic ceremony, "Our ceremony followed a standard Italian Mass schedule, which is slightly different from what we're used to in the US," Jenna says. "It included four readings, which allowed us to include some important family members. It also allowed for Anthony's father to do a reading in Italian, for our many Italian-speaking guests. To make things easier, we printed out booklets so guests could follow along with nearly every word. It was so different at parts that I actually didn't know when it was time to kiss!"
In a picturesque little city outside Florence, Italy, is the Castello di Vincigliata, a medieval castle with stunning views; Jenna and Anthony hosted their wedding reception there. The two decided to let the rustic venue influence their decor, complementing the iron chandeliers with baroque flatware, gold-rimmed Mirabeau glasses and elegant gold-rimmed Ginori china. When unexpected showers uprooted the outdoor cocktail hour and dinner, they had to bring out plan B. "The room that we ended up having our reception in [our rain-plan room] had white wooden floors, stone elements, large windows and an elegant white draping all over the ceiling," Jenna says. "We really fell in love with the finished look, it didn't go exactly as planned, but plan B turned out pretty great."
The Italian folk band hired to play the cocktail hour surprised Jenna and Anthony into taking their first dance around the puddle-strewn courtyard to the tune of "That's Amore." Later, they danced their planned first dance to Adele's "Sweetest Devotion."
"Our sweetheart table was adorned with a flower-strewn garland along with candles," Jenna says. "The backs of our chairs also had garlands and signs with 'Moon' and 'Struck' written on them as a nod to our favorite movie and our love for New York City."
For their seating chart, Jenna and Anthony created a large scroll that featured a custom watercolor painting of the venue, which was also featured on their invitations. The scroll was displayed on a large gold easel and draped in a garland that resembled the one on the sweetheart table.
It was important to Jenna to look like herself on her wedding day, so she added just add a bit of glam to her everyday winged eyeliner look. After the ceremony, Jenna mixed up her bridal look, introducing a second veil. "My friends loved that I switched my veil after the cocktail hour to my shorter party veil, which was also my something borrowed," Jenna says.
After a traditional Italian Catholic ceremony, Jenna and Anthony hosted a traditional Italian reception, which features a millefoglie (translates to "1,000 layers"), a traditional Italian wedding cake. It was assembled right in front of guests, with a chef wheeling out a large table and building each layer in an artistic style. The layers are an alternating pattern of Chantilly cream, puff pastry and fresh berries, finally topped with powdered sugar for good measure.
"As a big fan of rose and sparkling wine—okay, wine in general—I thought, why not have a sparkling rose tower? So we did! It was fun, unexpected and delicious," Jenna says.
For the journey from the ceremony to the reception at Castello di Vincigliata in Fiesole, Italy, Jenna and Anthony rode in style and managed to snag some alone time.