Location: Siena, Tuscany, Italy
Setting: Old closter
Wedding season: Summer
Amount of guests: 50
How long did the couple plan the event: 6 months
Wedding theme/style: Minimalist, effortless, fade-colored with a focus on natural materials, the venue, and guests.
Ekaterina is a photographer and Thomas is an engineer. Met in Germany, Ekaterina did her exchange studies and Thomas did his master’s project. They were that day on weekly international meet-ups when all the young expats of the town were gathering for a lecture about their country and then sharing some typical food of their culture.
Most of the time in the beginning these two were apart, at first Thomas has left for a backpacking journey to South America, then Ekaterina went to the motherland, Russia. After a year of a long-distance relationship, the couple got engaged and started living in Switzerland.
Their civil wedding was in France, in a little village of Alsace, where Thomas was born. It was a very intimate day which they shared only with their families and 2 close friends. But sweethearts agreed that at one point they will make a bigger celebration. 4 years after the plans came to life.
The hair and makeup were done by the bride’s friend, Lisa Starchak. Being a good stylist, she managed to find the perfect dress from RARA AVIS based on the bride’s preferences.
The dress was high volume but simple at the same time, the sleeves were definitely the highlight of the look, which added a little drama to the look the bride wishes for.
The earrings by Sophie Bille Brahe were landed by a friend. The shoes, Cult Gaia Su leather sandals, were found by the bride on net-a-porter.
Thanks to Ekaterina’s job, she constantly looks for inspiration and does a lot of mood boards. Even though she has never had a clear idea of how her wedding should look, she found quite fast the minimalist references on Pinterest on all the aspects of the wedding e.g. invitations, flowers deco, tables set up, dress code etc.
Her main idea was to appreciate the heritage of the venue and the Tuscany region. However, there was also a film that the bride kept in mind: Stealing Beauty. Ekaterina loves the artistic and easy mood of the film as well as the colors. That was probably the primary source of all the ideas she had while planning.
A day before there was a very scary storm that left the whole neighborhood of Siena without electricity. When the couple arrived at the venue a day before the wedding, the kitchen was working at half capacity, as no equipment was working. Lucky them that it happened just before and let them enjoy the perfect weather on their big day.
“The romantic place, the charming Certosa di Pontignano, and the perfect weather made this day unique.”
Outsourcing of planning and deco activities is definitely a life saver, but maybe keep at least some tasks for your own, especially where you can feel yourself as a true artist regardless of your life occupation. The flower cloud was fully made the bride, groom and grooms family. The art direction part was taken over by Ekaterina, while all the engineering was obviously curated by the groom and his brother as an assistant.
“We are still very proud about our creation and we are very happy we did ourselves, as it made us all spend high quality time together, somehow meditate and embrace our creativity while preparing for the celebration.”
“What we’d love to advise… Easy to say, but just relax. No one is perfect, and life is not perfect, keep this idea in mind, and just think about your wedding as a great reason to enjoy beautiful moments with all your darling ones.”
“Always remember that you organise it to celebrate your love, don’t think too much about what others think or like, focus on your ideas of what will make you the happiest.”
VENUE Certosa di Pontignano | EVENT COORDINATOR Eleonora Vannucchi | PHOTOGRAPHER Nina Gorshunova | BRIDAL GOWN Rara Avis | WEDDING STYLIST Lisa Starchak | DJ Diego Ulloa | BRIDE Ekaterina Fussinger
