Getting dressed at her parents’ home, Louise had all the calm of a bride in her own element, leaving her bedroom door open for friends and family to drop by. For beauty, she opted for a sleek bun as a nod to her ballet years and light makeup. “Funny fact: I never saw myself as a bride that day as I never looked at myself in the mirror with my hair, make up, and dress!” Louise adds, “I had full confidence in everyone’s work and love for me to make things look the best.” As for the groom, he had a suit custom-made by Lorenzo Cifonelli. “This was a very special experience for me as Cifonelli was my grandfather’s tailor,” he says.
Louise was driven to the church by her father, and was able to enjoy a quiet moment with him before she entered the cathedral. “I walked down the aisle, squeezed his hand, and felt I was on a transcendental journey, and throughout the ceremony, this feeling didn’t leave me but grew. I was very carried by the religious choir and our soloist’s voice,” she says. Both Louise and Lorenzo recall being moved to tears. “I cried almost the whole time, especially when walking to a small chapel for the Virgin Mary to leave her my bouquet.”
Stepping out of the church as husband and wife, the couple was met with a burst of butterfly-shaped confetti and then they drove to the house in Mazan in an old Carabinieri car. “We were off with the police sirens in the most playful and joyful way,” she says.
The reception took place on the grounds of the Mazan property in an olive grove. When the weather forecast cited rain, the couple opted to erect a tent but they took special care to make sure it was tall enough to house the olive trees they loved so much. Louise had even hand-drawn the olive trees that featured in the couple’s invitations. She would also contribute watercolor renderings of sunflowers to the decor; sunflowers burst on the tables both real and illustrated, adding a punch of deep yellow to the all-white tent, which was dressed in white linens, blonde-wood chairs and wicker vases containing even more sunflowers.
By the time it was ready for cocktail hour, the rain had started to fall—a good omen, of course, but not one that Louise had fully anticipated, given it was causing brief electrical problems and the dancefloor was open-air. “You can imagine the heart of a wedding planning bride just dropping in her chest when thinking the music could eventually not work during our party!”
“I decided to just let go,” remembers Louise. “I asked the DJ to launch our entrance music and we just got the whole thing started.” Dancing wasn’t saved for after dinner, but began at once. “We started dancing in between the tables as the dance floor was not covered by the tent, and it was literally a storm out there. But it gave such an unexpected feeling to the party and made everything very sensual. People had to gather under umbrellas together, the space between the tables, but people looked so happy and were the mirror of our emotions, of our happiness and excitement.”
Fueled by sake shots, the party outlasted the rain. Things cleared up by 2 a.m. and guests migrated over to the dance floor where they remained until sunrise. “With the sky all blue and sun out. It was almost cathartic.”
Looking back at the wedding weekend, Louise feels sentimental when recalling the significance of the moment. “Getting married didn’t change our daily lives as we were already living together, but it sure changed how we encourage each other with love and respect and how we have confidence in each other.”