Intimate Tuscany Castle Wedding at Castello di Casole

Melissa Baran
December 16, 2018
Categories: The Blog

This dress. The view. A castle!… oh my. I’m really not sure where to begin with this beautiful celebration of love. It’s elegant, yet casual and intimate, yet collected. For this Bride & Groom (who happened to meet in an airport!), that combination feels just about right. They decided on a gathering in Italy, where they could truly join their families and loved ones and with the help of Brenda Babcock Celebrations, the result was just that and so much more. Emm and Clau were in attendance to document every moment, which I have no doubt will spark inspiration for your own Big Day.

From the bride… We met when Saumil was visiting Vancouver for business, and on his way home he was waiting for his flight at a bar in the Vancouver airport. I happened to be seated next to him and we struck up a conversation. Even though we exchanged phone numbers before going our separate ways, I didn’t think anything would come of it knowing that we lived in different countries. We kept in touch, and months later I happened to be visiting Palm Springs, California on a holiday. Knowing that Saumil lived only a couple hours’ drive from there, I told Saumil I was going to be visiting, and Saumil drove to Palm Springs to take me on our first date. We hit it off right away, and Saumil ended up taking me on our second date the very next day!

We wanted our wedding celebration to be an intimate gathering of our families and closest friends. Our guests would be traveling from Canada (my home), the U.S. (Saumil’s current home), and India (where Saumil grew up). Italy, being centrally located between all those places was a big plus. I also happen to be half-Italian. My mother’s parents were both born in Italy and Italian traditions have played a big part in my life. Saumil also felt that Italy’s family-oriented traditions were very similar to those he grew up with in India. Knowing Italy’s reputation for hospitality and gastronomy, we thought it we would be the perfect place for our wedding celebration.

Since Saumil and I had grown up and lived in different countries for most of our lives, our families and friends did not know each other very well and so the idea of an intimate gathering was most important to us. We felt that a traditional one day celebration would not allow our our guests enough time to get to know each other, and so we decided to have our wedding celebration over three days with everyone staying on location together. Finally, we wanted Italian traditions and activities to be a big part of our celebration.

Once we picked our location, we communicated our broad ideas and desires to Brenda Babcock, our wedding planner, and gave her a lot of freedom to work on all the details. Both Saumil and I felt that we would enjoy our wedding more if we knew less about every single detail. We wanted our celebration to be as much of a surprise to us as it would be to our guests. We were extremely lucky to find someone like Brenda and her team who really embraced this idea and executed it flawlessly. Brenda really took all the stress away from us, and she made sure she understood our likes and dislikes during the planning process. Brenda was able to transform our broad ideas and desires into a celebration planned to the smallest detail, which included three very different yet very Italian dinners; a day full of Italian activities, such as a bocce tournament, pasta making class, and wine tasting; and finally a romantic yet modern wedding. At the end, Saumil and I really felt like guests at our own wedding, totally relaxed and excited by all the surprises Brenda had planned for us.