Three days, one cliffside town, and a guest list that flew in from across the world. This Sorrento wedding weekend was built around the people in the room, with every detail quietly designed to surprise and delight them. Ratta Studio was there from the welcome dinner to the final recovery day, capturing a weekend that moved everyone who was part of it.
Location: Sorrento, Campania, Italy
Style: Romantic, Playful, Joyful
Time of planning: 2 years
Number of guests: 150
Setting: Villa & Hotel
Season: Fall
Jem and Pete are high-school sweethearts from Sydney, together for over a decade after first meeting at sixteen. They grew up side by side, traveled the world, and eventually made the move to London together. Wherever they’ve been, they’ve always been “each other’s home.”
Pete proposed at sunrise on Hamilton Island, at the top of Passage Peak, a hike the two of them had done many times before. This time, though, he’d secretly flown in two of their closest friends, who had climbed up at 3 am in “pitch darkness” to set up fairy lights and candles before the couple arrived. When Jem said yes, the friends jumped out to surprise them. They celebrated with a long weekend on the island, “one of our absolute favorite places.”
Welcome Dinner
When it came to the wedding itself, they weren’t initially sure about a big international celebration. Once they committed to it, though, one thing became the focus: making sure every person who traveled to be there had the time of their life.
Every detail was chosen with their guests in mind, from personal handwritten letters waiting at their seats to a secret cave after-party and a basket of flat shoes at the edge of the dancefloor. “It was so special thinking about the small ways we could surprise them,” Jem says. The entire wedding weekend was documented by Ratta Studio, whose fashion-forward sensibility and instinct for light and composition caught the candid moments that might have disappeared before anyone else noticed them.
The welcome dinner at Vista Rooftop Bar set the tone for the weekend ahead, with the couple’s looks doing as much talking as the views. Jem wore a sculptural ice-blue Deme by Gabriella gown, silver René Caovilla heels, and a vintage Judith Leiber 1967 minaudière, while Pete mirrored her palette in the soft-blue Isaia suit he had worn to their legal ceremony, so the two of them could arrive as each other’s something blue. “We had so much fun with those looks,” Jem says.
Bride's Fashion
The morning of the wedding was exactly what it should be: pizza, Italian coffee, plenty of sunshine, and the entire bridal party crowded in as Jem got ready.
Fashion, for both of them, was something they took seriously and had a lot of fun with. “We absolutely leaned in,” Jem says, “spending multiple weekends in a row in central London in changing rooms.” The dress itself came as a surprise. “It wasn’t what I’d expected,” she admits, “but it felt so, so me once I had it on.” She walked down the aisle in an off-shoulder Berta lace gown with a Zuhair Murad cathedral veil, Dior J’Adior slingbacks, and vintage Greene & Greene earrings. “I absolutely adored it with that incredible veil.”
Jem had kept her dress a secret for eighteen months, so the first look with her bridesmaids and her dad felt like a moment of its own. She and Pete had toyed with the idea of a first look together, but in the end, seeing each other at the end of the aisle won out. “It was really special,” she says.
Groom's Fashion
Pete’s ceremony look was classic and considered: a Huntsman tuxedo with a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch. The suit was made in collaboration with the Huntsman team at their iconic Savile Row store in London. “It was special to work with them on the tailoring,” Jem says.
For the reception, Pete changed into a white Ede & Ravenscroft dinner jacket, a shift that signaled the move from ceremony to party. “We loved that suit change,” Jem says. “It meant we could really step into a different vibe for the evening together.”
Ceremony
Threatening storms moved the ceremony to the greenhouse at Villa Zagara, a space so beautiful the couple had half-jokingly considered making it their Plan A all along. “It was a room so full of love it’s hard to describe how special walking in was,” Jem says.
The intimacy of the setting made everything feel closer, more felt. Pete’s dad officiated, a deeply personal touch, and Jem’s mum and sister did a reading that added another layer of meaning to the room. Jem had worried about getting through her vows. She did, just barely, and the emotion only made them more beautiful.
Guests told them afterward they had been moved by how intimate and emotional the whole day felt, something about that unexpected greenhouse setting making it feel like the most honest version of the wedding it could have been.
Cocktail Hour & Photos
The cocktail hour aesthetic was given the name “Gucci Garden” by their wedding planner at Quintessentially Weddings, all soft greens and pinks, and exactly the vision Jem and Pete had in mind. For the welcome drinks and the day-after party, bright summer colors felt like the only answer against the blue of the sea.
Throughout the day, the couple made a quiet habit of stepping to one side, away from the celebration, for just a moment, to look at everything they had built and everyone they loved in one place. “Those pauses to just absorb everything became some of our most treasured memories,” Jem says. In between, the couple slipped away for portraits across Sorrento, the kind of images that make the day feel even more real in the weeks after.
Reception
Jem and Pete had always been drawn to weddings that felt romantic and slightly playful, full of intentional color and joyful details, beautiful without taking themselves too seriously. The color palette for the reception came together surprisingly easily: soft mauve, violet, and lavender, Pete’s favorite color, and the right feeling for an evening that was always meant to feel warm and romantic. Candles filled the room, adding to that glow.
The reception at Bellevue Syrene was, in Jem’s words, spectacular. “There really are no words for it.” ALR Music coordinated the entire musical journey of the evening, with strings welcoming guests at the ceremony, BEAT band carrying the night through dinner and dancing, and DJ Charles closing out the after-party in the secret Roman caves beneath the hotel. The speeches moved through the maid of honor, Pete’s brother, and both dads, but it was the groom who stole the night. “Pete had everyone laughing and crying,” Jem says. “It was such a highlight of the whole wedding.”
Into The Night
The first dance was to Teddy Swims’ “You’re Still the One.” The couple had gone back and forth on whether to have one at all. “We’re awful dancers,” Jem admits, but the rehearsals turned into something they both loved, and the moment itself was one they wouldn’t trade.
The cake was a classic mille-feuille, cut to “That’s Amore” while espresso martinis were passed around the room. “We wanted to create that moment and keep the energy building,” Jem says. It did exactly that.
The night ended at 3 am, after the cave party wound down and the couple finally made it back to their room, where a tray of mini desserts was waiting, ones they hadn’t managed to try during the celebrations. They sat up in robes, working through the desserts and debriefing on every moment of the day. The perfect way, Jem says, to welcome in the morning, and gear up for the day-after party still to come.
Recovery Day
The day after the wedding, the group made their way to Conca del Sogno, the couple’s favorite beach club in the world, for a recovery lunch that stretched lazily into the afternoon. Sorrento, even in the off-season, had its own quiet buzz, and with guests arriving by ferry, car, or train from Naples or Rome, the whole weekend had felt effortless to navigate. “We loved that we could have our day-after party there,” Jem says. It was the kind of ending the weekend deserved.
The morning after, Jem arrived in a sheer raffia-edged lace shift with an orange silk scarf and Bianc earrings, coastal and considered. Pete kept it easy in white linen and a printed Kith shirt, an outfit he’s already reached for many times since.
"The personal letters for each guest, the secret cave after-party, the day-after recovery at Conca del Sogno with Sgroppinos and laughter, all of it made our guests feel so celebrated. The whole three-day celebration really felt like us, and it was so much fun."
Advice from the couple:
• It truly is all for you and your loved ones. It’s not that deep, you’re not being marked on it, so try to enjoy it like it is just fun. Of course, there are moments of planning which are tough because we live such busy lives and there’s a lot to fit in and get done but try to remember that everything will come together. There’s no such thing as perfect.
• It will be the most special time for you and your guests if you have fun with it. Your energy is the energy your guests will feel and have, and you are the guest of honor – not the host – so eat, drink, dance, and have fun. I’d also recommend a shared album with some of your closest friends so that you can all share photos and special moments which aren’t just the professional shots – especially on your honeymoon when you’re re-living the wedding on repeat!
PHOTOGRAPHY Ratta Studio | VIDEOGRAPHY Caputo Films | PLANNING Quintessentially Weddings | CEREMONY & APERITIVO VENUE Villa Zagara | RECEPTION & AFTER PARTY VENUE Hotel Bellevue Syrene | DAY 3 VENUE Conca del Sogno | BRIDESMAIDS HAIR & MAKEUP Beauty Livery | BRIDE & MOTHER OF THE BRIDE HAIR & MAKEUP Sarah Laidlaw | CEREMONY DRESS Berta | WELCOME, CEREMONY & APERITIVO FLORALS Laboratorio Floreale Aiello | RECEPTION FLORALS Flo Design | MUSIC ALR | PRODUCTION Blunotte | DAY 3 CAPS Refined Spirit | DAY 3 TOWELS Dock & Bay | STATIONERY Ten Story | DAY 3 BOATS Smeralda Boutique Boats | VESPA & FIAT HIRE Exclusive Dreams | DAY 3 INFLATABLES Sunnylife | CEREMONY & APERITIVO FURNITURE G&G Party Service | GUESTBOOK Maison Assouline | HANDWRITTEN GUEST LETTERS The Styled Writing Company | WEDDING WEBSITE Maria Mekhael
