A Romantic Tuscan Wedding With a Medici Villa Dinner Under Chandeliers

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Caitlin and Joe brought 80 guests to Artimino in Tuscany, for a Catholic mass in a church first recorded in 998, followed by dinner under crystal chandeliers on the lawn of a Medici villa. The day wove together their Italian American and Irish American heritage. The palette came straight from the local vineyards, burgundy and red against olive groves, Medici frescoes and 400 year old tapestries, before a silver beaded second look sent the after party into full Gatsby mode. Studio Fotografico Bacci captured every chapter with an editor’s eye, moving between crisp portraits and flash lit film frames that turn the whole day into a magazine spread.

Location: Tuscany, Italy
Style: Classic, Romantic, Cinematic
Time of planning: 1.5 year
Number of guests: 80
Setting: The Historic Villa
Season: Summer

Caitlin and Joe worked at the same restaurant for a while and somehow never shared a single shift, which is about as hospitality industry as a meet cute gets. Years later, in the winter of 2021, they ran into each other by chance at a different restaurant, and this time the timing worked. Cooking and travel became the core of the relationship, and seven trips in, an October 2024 vacation took them through northern Italy, from Lake Como and Piemonte to Liguria and Milan.

Joe proposed on a boat off the shore of Grand Hotel Tremezzo, right in front of Villa del Balbianello, the Lake Como villa that played Naboo in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and turned up again in Casino Royale. A few days later, still riding the engagement high in Portofino, they decided the wedding had to happen in Italy, a country full of their shared memories and part of their shared heritage.

Bride's Morning & Fashion

Caitlin built the visual plan from the town itself: olive groves and vineyards on every slope, a church documented since 998, Medici frescoes and tapestries inside the former hunting lodge, and a palette of burgundy and red pulled from the local wine. She layered in wedding scenes from classic Italian cinema, traditions from Italian American and Irish American family weddings, and actual accessories carried over from those earlier celebrations. Then came the hours on Pinterest every bride knows, editing vintage and classic imagery until it looked current.

The gown is a strapless House of Flora design with a boned corset bodice and a full skirt, and it was the very first dress she tried on. Her cathedral length mantilla veil and lace sleeves were handmade in Ukraine, and this is where the look gets interesting. Lace sleeves made separately from a strapless bodice also give one dress two silhouettes, covered and ceremonial for the church, bare shouldered whenever the sleeves come off, which is the modular thinking bridal design is leaning into right now.

The jewelry carries the family storyline. Her earrings belonged to her great grandmother, Amelia, and her tennis bracelet was a gift from Joe on the wedding morning, so the oldest and newest pieces of the day sat on the same bride.

"After a relaxed slow morning, once I put my dress and veil on, I was overcome with a flood of emotions: excitement, nerves, bliss and an ease that everything had come together so well."

Caitlin, the bride

For fragrance, she chose Cinquanta from Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, the Florentine institution with roots in a Dominican convent apothecary. The cologne was created to mark fifty years of Florence and Kyoto as twin cities, with bergamot, green tea and rose, a crisp and very Florentine choice for a June day in Tuscany.

Makeup artist Giulia Papke kept makeup and hair close to Caitlin’s natural features, exactly as requested, and the logic holds up under a cathedral veil, because the lace already supplies all the texture and framing a face could need. Her hair sat in a soft low chignon under the mantilla and came down into big glossy waves for the party.

Groom’s Fashion

Joe had two custom looks, and the split works as a small lesson in reading the room. For the Catholic mass, he wore a black Todd Snyder tuxedo with peak lapels, the most formal lapel in the black tie rulebook, plus a calla lily boutonniere to match Caitlin’s bouquet. He wanted the ceremony look classic and traditional, and a peak lapel delivers that with sharper lines and more authority than any notch could. Before dinner, he changed into a cream silk dinner jacket from Suitsupply with a shawl collar.

Ceremony

Caitlin and Joe chose a full Catholic mass at the church of Santa Maria and San Leonardo in Artimino, first documented in 998, to honor their traditional Italian and Irish American heritage. Its walls include reused stones from Etruscan tombs, so the building was upcycling ancient material roughly a thousand years before the word existed. Caitlin rode from the villa to the church in a vintage Fiat Spider, the same car that later drove the newlyweds away, while a violinist and cellist from Fix the Music played emotional renditions of classics such as Ave Maria for the waiting guests.

She entered to an instrumental version of Young and Beautiful on violin and cello, Lana Del Rey’s ballad from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. The couple skipped a first look on purpose, keeping the tradition of seeing each other for the first time at the aisle, and both call that moment the most memorable of the day. In their words, everything they had worked for, planned and stressed over melted away, and being there together with the people they love was all that mattered.

The church styling played contrast smartly. Modern arrangements in a rich burgundy palette by Criluflower sat on the altar against medieval stone, iron candle holders filled the side chapels dedicated to different saints, and lace ribbon was tied along the pews. That lace runs from the veil to the sleeves to the pews, turning one fabric into the ceremony’s entire graphic language. Caitlin’s white folding fan, a practical tool in June heat, completes the Southern Catholic picture the mantilla started.

The priest who married them, Fr. Mastrolia, is also from New York and has known Caitlin’s family for decades. He grew up with her father, years later presided by chance over the church where her parents married in 1989, and officiated their wedding too. “To come full circle all these years later and marry their daughter was so special,” the couple shared.

The night of the rehearsal dinner delivered a scene a screenwriter would cut for being too neat. An older couple walked into the church and quietly sat in the back pew, and once Caitlin, Joe and the wedding party had finished, the man asked if they were getting married there. That day was his and his wife’s 55th wedding anniversary, and they visit the church every year, a random and deeply touching moment that set the emotional tone for the wedding day.

After the ceremony, the Irish side of the family got its moment. Caitlin’s dad’s side is Irish, so a bagpiper from Scottish Piper Italy played, and Caitlin’s brother, a drummer, joined the performance. Bagpipes ringing out in a Tuscan hill town are about as literal as a meeting of two family traditions can get, and guests singled it out as a thoughtful, unique touch. They also spoke very highly of the ceremony itself and called it a beautiful experience.

Cocktail Hour & Moments Together

The welcome sign skipped foam board entirely in favor of a white fabric banner on a brass stand, tied with long red ribbons and grounded by anthuriums, hydrangeas and roses. Its shape recalls a gonfalone, the processional banner Tuscan towns still carry in civic parades, rewritten in wedding calligraphy. The invitation suite brings some humor to the heritage, with a green card that literally reads “Join us under the Tuscan Sun,” a wink at the 2003 film, alongside watercolor landscape liners, red wax seals and gold detailing.

The aperitivo ran longer than planned because of the heat, and as the music and drinks kept flowing, guests barely noticed. Caterer Delizia Ricevimenti suggested a part of the villa grounds that is fully shaded and cooler at that time of day, so guests settled into rattan chairs on the lawn while an Italian folk trio from Fix the Music played classic songs, took contemporary requests and kept the energy interactive.

The menu went Sicilian and Tuscan at once, with Sicilian specialities next to Tuscan wines, cured meats and cheeses, plus small bites like a savory cannolo filled with Tropea onions and rosemary ricotta, a dessert format flipped into an aperitivo snack.

The bar styling went full gallery mode. A classical white bust wore a crown of red and nearly black anthuriums, green hydrangea and bells of Ireland, set next to gold bottles and a gold pineapple vessel on a draped white bar. Antique sculpture paired with hard, graphic tropical flowers is one of the defining collisions of current editorial set design, and here it lands in a villa that actually owns the classical credentials.

For the portraits, Studio Fotografico Bacci worked the villa like a fashion set, with Karma Wedding Video filming the day alongside them. In the villa’s frescoed loggia, the color film turns warm and slightly faded, so the couple and the old pigment on the walls share the same palette. The vintage Fiat Spider got its own portrait as well, with the cathedral veil spilling out of the open door onto the grass, pure convertible romance in the spirit of Dino Risi’s Il Sorpasso.

Reception

Dinner moved to the front of Villa La Ferdinanda, facing the town of Artimino and slopes of olive groves and grapevines. Crystal chandeliers wrapped in greenery hung above the long tables from iron hoops, with lighting by Alba Wedding Lighting. The table florals by Criluflower were simple and sculptural, mixed with seasonal fruit in greens, reds and burgundy, while white linens and white wire garden chairs kept the base clean.

Caitlin and Joe made their entrance down the villa’s double staircase. The bride counts that entrance among the most special moments of the day, stepping out to see every guest and the whole landscape at sunset. Their first dance was to Il Mondo, Jimmy Fontana’s 1965 classic, which is the most Italian answer possible to a first dance playlist.

A four course meal paired with wines from the Artimino estate was another highlight, and guests raved about the food. Once dinner service started, speeches came from Caitlin’s father, the maid of honor and the best man, each one equal parts sweet, funny and tearjerker.

After dinner, guests gathered on the portico and staircase to watch Caitlin, Joe and the pastry chefs assemble the traditional millefoglie wedding cake together, which turns dessert into actual theater. Joe said a few words of gratitude to the guests for coming all the way to Italy, then opened a bottle of champagne with a saber, a fun surprise from Delizia Ricevimenti.

The after party started inside the villa, with espresso martinis and prosecco flowing while Caitlin changed into her second look, a silver beaded Bronx and Banco gown with scalloped trim and a vintage silhouette straight out of Gatsby, so the song she walked down the aisle to finally got its outfit.

Advice from the couple:

• Breathe, give yourself enough time to plan thoughtfully, and absolutely hire event coordinators if you do not have a full service planner. A destination wedding being planned abroad comes with a unique set of challenges, and having support in the 1-2 month lead up to the event was so helpful. We had a stress free wedding day because of the amazing behind the scenes work of our event coordinators Chiara & Silvia of Aries Wedding Events. Remember to keep your relationship centered and not to get lost in the overwhelm.