An Elegant Destination Wedding in Tuscany

We’re kicking off this week with a day of international weddings, starting with this Tuscan beauty from L&V Photography and Chic Weddings in Italy. Helen and Daniel met in Australia, married in Tuscany, and then moved to Hong Kong, so it’s no stretch to say that traveling runs in their blood! This entire day is an absolute dream, and might just have us looking at ticket prices for our own Tuscan vacation…

From the bride, Helen: I am originally from London in the UK and Daniel is from Albury in Australia. We met in Sydney (where I lived for 6 years and Daniel for 18 years) and moved to Hong Kong soon after the wedding. Daniel proposed in spectacular style on February 14 2014, whisking me off on a seaplane over Sydney Harbour to a private beach where we enjoyed a romantic picnic and celebrated our engagement with champagne. One third of our guests (including two of the bridesmaids, the 4 groomsmen and our best woman) travelled to the wedding from Australia and the rest of our guests travelled from the UK so we were keen to make a full weekend of the event – having a welcome dinner the night before and a brunch on the beautiful Belvedere Terrace at Hotel Le Fontanelle on the Sunday after.

We wanted to create an intimate and elegant Italian Renaissance garden feel, merging the indoors with oudoors and maximising the beautiful views. We instantly knew that Hotel Le Fontanelle was the perfect venue for us due to its beautiful views of the surrounding Tuscan hills and also the superb food, wine and service. Daniel and I had taken a lovely vacation there the previous year and I had been secretly thinking about it as a potential wedding venue even back then.

Our colour scheme was pastels including charcoal and light greys and light blue. The flowers were neutral and pastel tones with cream and pink together with plenty of greenery and some silvery/grey. Pearl accents were also used within some of the decorations. I really loved working with our wedding invite and stationary designer Fin Fellowes. She managed to capture the floral and elegant theme perfectly and all the stationary was printed using very high quality materials to give a luxurious feel. All stationary was designed by Fin specifically for us and included a bespoke wedding crest as well as a beautiful floral wall on the back of the invites and escort cards.

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? I would highly recommend having a wedding planner for a destination wedding to take away the stress and provide the knowledge of local suppliers. Selecting Chic Weddings as our wedding planners and designers was absolutely key. They instantly understood exactly what we were looking for and were able to translate this into the stunning design themes as well as providing recommendations and co-ordination with many of our fantastic suppliers. On the big day, we didn’t have anything to worry about as Clara and Sara from Chic weddings together with the fantastic team at Hotel Le Fontanelle ensured everything ran completely smoothly. I found using a wedding website a great way to provide information to guests to enable them to make it as easy as possible to arrange their travel and make the most of their time in Tuscany.

See Also

Italian Castle Fairytale at Castello Di Piovera

Don’t miss the wedding day film from Marco Odorino:

Wedding Music:
During the ceremony my mother read a poem “Vow” by Roger McGough which was particularly special as Roger is a friend of my mother. He kindly signed copy a copy of the poem for her to present us with.
Processional: “When I Think About You,” written and performed by Tess
Register Signing: “That’s When I Knew,” Alicia Keys
Recessional: “All of Me,” John Legend
First Dance: “My Destiny,” Lionel Richie