My Big Fat Southern Italian Wedding

It’s planning time!

Last month I got engaged and since then we have started to plan our wedding, which will be next year.

Even though there is still plenty of time, finding the perfect location, food, photographer and booking them have to be done pretty soon. Indeed, the sooner you start planning, the more chance you have to book your wished vendors.

This is the ABC, but if both families side come from South Italy, the alphabeth’s letters won’t be enough!

Everybody is like: “It’s your day, don’t let anyone else decide for you!” and then there’s the parents: “I want you to invite this person!” but they do not seem to understand that if we haven’t seen someone for several years, we do not wish to have them with us for this very special occasion.

My family has still that old Middle Age thinking: “What will other people say?”. To be honest, I don’t care about what others think. You can organise the perfect food, and still some of the guests won’t appreciate it. Will be that my problem? No, my wedding, my choice.

In a nutshell: we will have to invite unwanted people in order to avoid family crisis, but we sincerely hope these people won’t show up.

FOOD is the most expensive part of the wedding and one of the most important. If you go visiting your relatives the day after the big day, guess what they are all talking about?

Luckily, my Neapolitan family lives in North Italy, otherwise if my wedding had to be organised in South Italy, the reception would last till night with so much good food that you don’t need to eat for the next couple of weeks.

When I think about the amount of energy, time and money that we and the whole wedding team (location, preparation, food service, flowers, music…) are going to spend, JUST FOR ONE DAY, I feel like: is it all this necessary? Why are weddings so expensive?

I have already received opinions on how my dress should be: “There are many colours, not only white!” and even though white was once a purity symbol, if I love a white dress, I will wear it, FULL STOP.

I thought that a wedding day is “just that day” but I was completely wrong. A wedding is also:

• family drama
• details not so details
• organisational skills
• ton of patience
• ability to organise the reception tables
• accept compromises
• teamworking

How are we going to survive to all the comments, the judgements, the preparations, the decisions, the insecurities, the intrusions…? Thanks to the faith that that day will be our special day.

Stay tuned for future updates!

The bride-to-be