Marry Me In Tuscany was delighted to be the wedding planner for a beautiful wedding in Barga, near Lucca at the end of May.
Megan & Mike choose Barga as they had visited the area lots and had fallen in love with it and so it was the perfect wedding destination for them. As they knew the area so well they knew exactly what they wanted for their wedding which made my job very easy and having been up there several times during the planning process I can see why they love the area so much. Barga even has a fish and chip festival in August a must for all visitors but also great for all us expats that dream of good old haddock and chips!
The day before the wedding we went along to meet the lovely Lucia at the town hall for the verbal declaration and as the Council Chambers was being used for a conference, she offered us the choice of another very pretty room or the terrace for the wedding the following day, as the weather forecast was looking very good for Tuesday, hot and sunny, Megan & Mike decided that that was where they wanted to hold their wedding, with fabulous views over the rooftops and the surrounding countryside.
So on a perfectly sunny day they and their guests were driven from I Cedri to Barga and walked through the narrow windy streets to the town hall, as Megan & Mike live in Scotland and their sons are Scottish they each donned their kilts which is always wonderful to see and which the Italians love too, more of that later! Barga has strong ties with Scotland being twinned with East Lothian and is probably the most Scottish town in Italy it is also affectionately self nominated as the home of happy marriages which is an added bonus for all newly weds.
Megan choose a wonderful lilac outfit for her wedding and wanted a small bouquet that would compliment it the florist used lily of the valley, white hydrangeas and purple sweetpeas to create this small but beautiful bouquet.
With a slight delay, Vittorio Salotti started the lovely wedding ceremony, the first time that a wedding had been celebrated on the Mayor's terrace, which you can hear on Barga News and also read their blog and see some official photos. They even made it onto the local news too!
On a beautiful summers day, Megan & Micheal were finally declared united in matrimony to lots of smiles a few tears of joy and resounding claps and cheers from their friends and family. It's quite usual for the town hall to give the happy couple a present to commemorate their wedding at Barga the presents just kept coming, an Italian flag and a beautiful inscribed silver plate both great mementos for Megan & Mike.
After a few photos on the terrace Megan & Micheal led their guests down to the local bar for an aperitivo, as they came out of the town hall the local ladies placed a rice heart on the ground for the couple to step into.
I Love the story behind this tradition, the heart is put down not only to represent the love from all the people that have passed or are not able to be present to see the couple getting married but also to protect them from and bad thoughts from anyone that doesn't wish them well.
During the aperitivo I hopped over to the restaurant Il Pozzo to decorate the tables and put out the wedding favours and place cards and then led my Mike & Megan the guests arrived to be greeted with a glass of prosecco before lunch as Mike & Megan's sons were wearing kilts I was asked the questions that all Italians love to ask when they see them "Is it true that they don't wear anything underneath"? Of course being a good English lass I knew the answer to that!! The waitresses were going off duty at 6 so they made me promise that there would be a show before they left, clearly they didn't trust that it was true and wanted to see it with their own eyes!
The food was delicious and course after course arrived, the wine flowed and then the wedding cake came out, with a sparkler that Rachel had sneaked through in her bag from Scotland..
And so at 6 O'clock just as the girls were going off their shift with much giggling they were delighted to find the answer to the question they'd asked earlier, I think the wine helped and it was all very tasteful but there was a lot of blushing and it wasn't from the boys!!!
The meal finished with grappas and Amarettos and the taxis returned to take everyone back to the villa to relax round the pool. A truly memorable day and I met some truly wonderful people and so after another fabulous wedding I kissed everyone goodbye and headed back to Siena. You can read what Mike & Megan said about Marry Me In Tuscany in "what people say".
Here are some more photos of the happy day which Megan sent through to me, as you can see they had a wonderful time 😉
Ahhh, another beautiful wedding Jackie...well done 🙂
Another good write up - looks and sounds like it was a fabulous day.
Hi Jackie, nice to see your pictures appearing from Barga which can so often be forgotten being a little north - so many bypass the Garfagnana and see Tuscany as Siena and rolling hills.
Nice site by the way - let me know if we can ever work together
Hamish
How wonderful to tie the knot amid such fabulous surroundings!
It looked a beautiful wedding with a difference with some lovely local traditions. We got married in Spain which was also very special with Diane's brothers in kilts. I think Bruce danced all night at the disco in his kilt!! Hope you will be very happy and Hope we get to meet up some time.
Diane's sister down under - Valerie
What kind of papers do you need to get married in the town hall in Barga? More than passports?