PUGLIA PLEATS
Loui & Jimmy
As with all good love stories, the details of Loui and Jimmy's wedding day fell seamlessly into place. The first dress the bride tried fit her perfectly, the couple selected their breathtaking Puglia venue sight unseen and Loui found her dream shoes before she sent out save the dates. Some things are just meant to be — read on for the full story now.
Photography by Harriet Clare
"I bought the shoes before I’d bought anything else! They were my first wedding purchase. I always wanted this shoe, but I felt like I’d seen so many people wearing the white version and knew I wanted something a bit different. My engagement ring is a chunky gold Bombe ring, and I knew I would wear chunky gold earrings too, so gold just felt like the right choice. And I just knew they would go with any shade of white I chose for all of my wedding outfits. I loved wearing them, I loved seeing peeks of them when I was walking in my wedding dress, and they were fully on show with my party dress."
Shop Camellia in Gold
"I only ever had my eyes on this outfit from The Own Studio as my main wedding dress — I didn’t actually try a single dress on apart from this one. It wasn’t so much the dress but the cape which I was absolutely obsessed with, I just thought it was so cool and so timeless, yet modern. I was lucky enough to find both in an archive sale as they were moving warehouses.
"The dress itself had been made for a bride who had changed her mind and not worn it, and by some stroke of luck it fit me perfectly. I honestly felt amazing in it, I loved wearing the cape so much I actually didn’t take it off!
"My party dress was Jacquemus. I always wanted my party outfit to just be fun — something that wasn’t overly bridal and definitely not short. I saw it in the sale, one left in my size, and it felt like it was a sign AGAIN after the success of dress number one, so I ordered it! It came, it fit like a glove and that was that!"
"We hadn’t seen the venue in person when we booked it, but we just knew it would be very us. Luckily, we travelled to Puglia for our friends’ wedding not long after booking the venue, so we popped in to see it and knew we’d made the right choice! It’s so beautiful, very rustic and down to earth, and in the middle of nowhere surrounded by olive groves.
"We stayed at the venue with our family, so it meant we could put our daughter to bed whilst we carried on drinking cocktails and dancing! And we hosted everyone again the following day with by the pool with a pizza truck and Aperol spritz. It was the perfect venue for what we wanted our wedding weekend to be. Relaxed, boozy and full of great food!
"We loved (more than any detail or moment of the day) having everyone we love with us in Italy. We were so overwhelmed by it, which is why we were quite stressed about wanting everything to be perfect on the day. Everyone had made such an effort for us, we just couldn’t believe it. All our favourite people, in Italy, just for us. It was so magic."
"I had almost too many favorite details to count — here are just a few:
We held the ceremony in the gardens of the venue, looking out over the endless olive groves. I wasn’t sure about the ceremony being here at first, but the florist made it look so beautiful with white linen drapes hanging from the tree and a beautiful floral display on a linen covered podium. We got married under the shade of the tree and we gave out white parasols and fans to our guests which actually looked so gorgeous in the photos.
":The tables looked absolutely stunning. I was so so happy with them. They were exactly how I imagined them with black ribbons, lots of candles, grapes, figs and beautiful flowers.
"THE FOOD! Jimmy said his favourite part of the day was the antipasti carts — then he quickly backtracked and said it was seeing me walk down the aisle (!). But seriously, the caterers Rotondo were amazing. We had canapés by the pool after the ceremony with Aperol Spritz. Then it was over to the lawn for antipasti — they were making mozzarella live in front of the guests. It was really special.
"And my flower girls — our daughter Goldie and niece Noa — looked so gorgeous in their little outfits. Matching white floral tops and bloomer shorts with little ribbon bows in their hair. Not a single petal was sprinkled on the floor!! But they were the two cutest things we’d ever seen."
"All our favourite people, in Italy, just for us. It was so magic."
"I am a Creative Director by day, so I’m quite used to being all over all the details. It was quite overwhelming at times! But because the wedding was in Italy and there was only so much we could really do, I had to just kind of trust the process and relax a little bit. I knew we were working with the best suppliers and so I hoped it would all be great on the day, and it was!
"We also spent money where it really mattered, for example we didn’t do wedding favours, or any wedding stationary apart from name cards on the table. We did a wedding website, and sent the invites out via email, and we had two long tables so didn’t think we needed a table plan. We wanted a free cocktail bar all night instead, and a pizza truck to come and feed everyone the next day!
"The first few hours I found quite stressful, just hoping the day is going to go to plan, that the food will be good, that everyone will have a full drink in their hand etc.. So if I had the day again, I would say to myself — relax, everyone is having a good time. Because they really are!"
"My twin sister did a beautiful reading in our ceremony called ‘love like a river’ by Whitney Hanson. All the speeches — my dad, Jimmy and his best man Tom — they were all amazing. Walking down the aisle with my daughter, my sister, my niece and my dad, it was totally chaotic only having one bridesmaid and two toddler flower girls but everyone was laughing! And seeing Jimmy at the end with tears in his eyes."
