Walking into a cosy, yet beautiful wood panelled room inside ‘La Scuola Grande Dei Carmini’ (where they filmed ‘Casanova’, I might add), the wedding planner smiled and suggested that this might be suitable for our small wedding party, which consisted of just me and my then, fiancé. It was a beautiful room, granted, but my curiosity overcame me and I asked to see the larger room she had mentioned in her e-mail, just-in-case. Awe struck at the magnificent ornate room with painted ceiling that stood before me as she opened the adjoining doors, I decided that small wedding party or not, this was where I would be saying my vows.
I’m pleased to say that overall, our wedding in Venice went without a hitch. It had been a last minute decision to go for Venice, based purely on my visit as a 12yr old and stories of the infamous Carnival they held every February. So, in the January, my fiancé on the other side of the world (don’t ask), and not yet officially engaged, I chose our Italian wedding planners off the internet, and began the journey of a typical bride, but all condensed into two months.
The wedding planners thankfully spoke English as my Italian was a little rusty, but weren’t cheap (from memory, it cost us about £4,000). However, being able to relinquish the stress and responsibility to them for organising the official documents, the wedding translator (for my hubby), the musician, photographer and the flowers was well worth it. Our wedding, you see, was going to be a little bit different to the normal Venetian weddings because we were taking advantage of the Carnevale and dressing in full period style costumes, complete with most important accessory, the ‘masquerade masks’.
28th February, the day of the wedding, and I’m being squeezed into a divine 17th century gold and cream gown which had been altered the day before by a team of experienced seamstresses, and taken out to my awaiting husband-to-be. To be fair, he didn’t look that comfortable in his wig and high heels, but we headed out to the private gondola and to the place we would become man and wife. We ended the night at one of the poshest ‘Masquerade Balls’ in town and for the price (approx £200pp), we were entertained with traditional dancing, a feast of never ending gorgeous food and Bellini’s galore.
I can safely say that our wedding was the most extravagant thing we have ever done and probably will ever do. The day was completely ours with no worrying about guests or table decorations (that was all to come a week later when we threw a masquerade ball back in England for our friends and family) and that in itself, will be the most memorable time for us.
Just one thing to note for those who might be considering a similar wedding, there are thousands of masks in Venice but seem to fall into 2 categories – the cheap and the very expensive. Looking at our wedding masks now, with bits of ribbons hanging off, I only wish I had been able to use of my own designs and could have matched it to my dress!
You can have your own masquerade style wedding and wow your friends, have a look at the stunning masquerade masks at Masque Boutique.