A Luxurious Countryside Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding at Villa La Selva Wine Resort in Tuscany, Italy
Some couples see sparks fly right away, but these sweethearts needed time for their love story to blossom. It all started when Mark Ruby (32, a senior financial compliance associate) asked Amber Andrews (31, a special events manager) to be his date to their high school prom. She refused. Destiny, however, brought them together again years later, and Mark requested another date. Amber agreed. Despite initial nerves, the date went perfectly: Minutes turned to hours, and led to a first kiss and plans for a second date. “Little did I know that my decision to say ‘yes’ to that one date would lead me to say ‘yes’ to Mark’s proposal,” Amber says.
The proposal, which took place in September 2021, resulted in the couple missing the Cleveland Browns’ home opener that season. Amber could tell something was up, because instead of heading to the football game, which they had attended for three years since they started dating, the two were driving southeast of the stadium to Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Once there, Mark awkwardly made an excuse to get a better look at the picturesque waterfall.
“Mark’s palms were sweaty, as they always are when he’s nervous,” Amber says. “He managed to drop to one knee and propose.” She was still in shock from the sentimental proposal and applause from friendly strangers as Mark ushered her to the second part of his plan. A short walk from the waterfall, they came to a local restaurant where all their closest loved ones waited in a private room to congratulate them. Amber loves surprises, so it was the perfect way to celebrate her engagement.
When it came time to plan the wedding, Amber knew her first hire would be Melissa Williams of B Astonished Events in Washington, DC. “Melissa and I both went to the University of Maryland and are part of the same sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. I didn’t want to work with anyone but her,” she says. The two other big decisions, the guest count and location, were more challenging, since they involved some compromises. “Mark wanted a small wedding of close friends and family, and I wanted a large gathering,” Amber says. For the wedding locale, Mark didn’t have a particular place in mind, while Amber dreamed of throwing a destination wedding. In the end, hosting a small, intimate wedding internationally satisfied them both.
Nostalgia informed where the two would exchange vows. “As a college student, I studied abroad in several European countries and fell in love with the architecture. The venue we selected, Villa La Selva Wine Resort, is in the countryside of Tuscany, and it reminded me of that time. Our families had never traveled outside the country before, so this was an opportunity to share that experience with them,” Amber says. The couple had the best of both worlds on September 30, 2023, when they married before 25 loved ones. The vineyard location played a large part in the weekend’s aesthetic, with the couple’s decor and menu capturing the romantic and cozy sentiment of Tuscan culture and fall scenery.
For the rehearsal dinner, Amber and Mark chose a vibrant color scheme influenced by the jewel-tone dress code. The tablescape popped with orange and lavender taper candles and lush centerpieces of orchids, hydrangeas and dahlias. Amazing acrylic bouquet-shaped dinner menus completed the design and set the stage for an equally elegant menu. The couple served vegetable ragù with gnocchetti and burrata-stuffed tortellini followed by veal fillet with triple-pepper sauce on a terrace overlooking the Tuscan hills.
After the rehearsal dinner, the festivities continued with a welcome party in the same eye-catching color palette. A flower-covered bar, which appeared to be sprouting out of the ground, anchored the design and left guests awestruck. The bar poured spritz cocktails, limoncello, Italian beer and Tuscan vino (a must given the venue’s located in the heart of the Chianti wine region). Amber and Mark continued to embrace their host country’s cuisine with wood-fired flatbread pizzas and bites of pecorino, caprese, mortadella, finocchiona and Tuscan ham. “We were very open with our menu and not tied to anything. Our only stipulation was to have food that was true to the region,” Amber says.
For the wedding day, Amber and Mark based their soft, dreamy color palette on their names and new home. “After changing my name, I would become two colors, Amber and Ruby, so Mark thought it would be fun to have a wedding color that combines both,” Amber explains. This is part of how terra-cotta became their primary wedding color. “In addition, a year before the big day, we moved across the country to Phoenix, Arizona,” Amber adds. By selecting terra-cotta, the couple also subtly paid homage to Arizona’s desert landscape.
The ceremony offered scenic views of rolling hills flanked by towering cypress trees. Guests watched the couple toast with glasses of wine, a tradition in Tuscany that represents “celebration and shared joy but also hard work and commitment, since these are all needed to obtain good wine from the land,” Amber explains. As the newlyweds exited the ceremony, guests tossed white rose petals from vellum wraps with a watercolor illustration of the grounds and the couple’s custom monogram crest. The latter was everywhere, from the wax seal on the invitations to the napkins at the reception.
Another design staple was the ruby-red grapefruit, a play on the couple’s last name. At the cocktail hour, dried grapefruits surrounded a wood drink menu highlighting a festive spritz station with creative variations—like a mint green-apple and ginger shrub—and their signature drink, the “Ruby Romance,” with fresh grapefruit. Dried citrus reappeared as escort cards and in the dinner table settings, which had hints of terra-cotta in the china and centerpieces. “We wanted understated yet magical and meaningful decor,” Amber says. With that in mind, the planner did something the venue had never done before: set the table along a cypress-lined gravel path in view of the vineyard’s rows of grapevines. The outdoor dinner was a unique opportunity for guests to get a real taste of Tuscany.
Food remained a top priority for Amber and Mark. “We didn’t want to serve Americanized dishes in Italy. We took cues from the caterer about what would win over the crowd, and no course disappointed,” Amber notes. A risotto with a Chianti wine reduction and beef fillet with black truffle sauce were two standouts during dinner. For dessert, the couple served an Italian millefoglie, also called a thousand-layer cake, plus a gelato station with classic flavors like lemon, strawberry and stracciatella.
Even sweeter was what stuck with Amber and Mark the most from their wedding weekend: the touching moments they shared with friends and family. “During the father-daughter dance, my dad showed moves and rhythm I wasn’t expecting, because I lived across the country, and we couldn’t practice together. But there was no need. My dad stole the show,” Amber recalls. The surprises didn’t stop there. After Mark and his mother finished their dance, Mark’s mother lost her balance and fell into the pool. Later, after ensuring she was okay, they decided to do the unthinkable and make a memory that would last a lifetime to cap off the celebration. “We felt really bad and wanted to make her feel better, so we decided to express solidarity and end the night jumping into the pool fully dressed. It’s a moment we look back on and laugh at,” Amber says.