Wearing my big white dress, I was ready and it was time to head to the Castle of Malcesine. Our wedding ceremony was due to commence at 11am. My father and I were sitting outside in the garden of Hotel Maximilian, waiting for our ride. It was a sunny morning and the views over Lake Garda were breathtaking.
I was excited and a little nervous but thank goodness I wasn’t getting emotional just yet. I was thinking to myself “I can’t believe it’s all happening now!”. The idea of our friends and family, and my fiancé of course, waiting for me at the castle, felt somehow surreal. That feeling of disbelief didn’t shift – I was really on the ninth cloud all day, just floating around in my princess dress feeling happy and loved.
The town of Malcesine is made of narrow, cobbled streets and the most convenient and fun way to get to the castle in a big dress was in a tuk tuk! I’d seen these white, flower-decorated wedding tuk tuks around the town during the week and I was happy we had chosen one for our transportation as well. My father and I had a fun ride and we felt like celebrities with people clapping their hands and shouting “good luck” as we drove past them.
We reached the castle and I could hear the harpist play on the terrace. My maid of honour and my flower girls were waiting at the castle entrance. They looked so pretty in their dresses and flowers. As the harpist started to play J. Pachabel’s Canon in D, I knew it was time for me to walk down the aisle. Exciting!
At the very last minute I remembered to lower my double layered veil and we started our ascent up to the terrace where the ceremony would take place. I was focused on not tripping over, clutching on to my father’s arm. The castle terrace was decorated with flowers of my choosing – white and blush roses with greenery – and white organza but I have to admit I didn’t pay notice to any of it. I just saw my fiancé at the end of the aisle holding Maia and wearing a dark blue tuxedo, looking dashing.
When I got closer I also noticed that Maia had a runny nose and she had lost her little headband already. Oh well… We then had a funny moment with my fiancé trying to lift my veil while holding the baby! But we managed and we were seated under the white canopy, in front of the registrar of Malcesine Town Hall and our wedding planner who would translate the Italian ceremony to English.
I held Maia who looked a bit poorly. How unlucky that out of all days she would catch a cold on our wedding day! She buried her snotty nose in my cleavage (eww…) and I gave her a big squeeze. Believe it or not but I had missed her already during the morning hours we were apart. I didn’t mind Maia being there with us. On the contrary, it felt special to have her take part in our wedding ceremony.
The ceremony was beautiful and I must say the script for the Italian civil ceremony is lovely – very warm and family focused. The harpist played three pieces of music in between different parts of the ceremony: “Ave Maria”, “Comptine d’un Autre Eté” and “A time for us”. My maid of honour did a great job with Maia when she got a bit restless (she’s been renamed as “the Baby Whisperer”).
I knew I was going to get emotional but I was trying really hard not to! Well it didn’t work and I literally sobbed through my vows. Slightly embarrassing but I couldn’t help it! 😊
We could have made up our wedding vows but we decided to go with one of the traditional wordings: “Yes, I [Bride name and surname], take as my husband the here present [Groom name and surname] to have and to hold, to love and to cherish until death do us part.” Or that’s how it was supposed to go, I’m not sure how many of those words I managed to get out of my mouth but they all knew what I meant!
We had two of our friends do readings of their choosing at the end of the ceremony. I love the tradition of readings although it is new to me. I’m more familiar with traditional religious (Christian) church ceremonies. Originally my personal preference would have been to get married in a church (well, “my church” not “a church”) but since that was not possible as we weren’t getting married in Finland we decided on a civil ceremony. But our wedding ceremony on the castle terrace with the live harp music was as beautiful and full of love as any church wedding I’ve been to! It was perfect.
As walked back the aisle together, my husband carrying Maia, the harpist played our least traditional music choice – the Game of Thrones theme song!! (I love the TV series!) From a few grins from the crowd I knew that at least some of our guests recognised it. 😄
After the ceremony we had group photos taken on the castle courtyard after which our guests could enjoy a champagne toast with a light lunch spread – canapés, pizza slices, fruit etc (or so I was told, I actually never made it there myself!). In the meantime we had our photos taken around the castle grounds. I will post more pictures as soon as I get them. The views were spectacular and the weather was amazing!
Again, our family and friends truly stepped up and looked after Maia (and this was not an easy task as she was a bit overwhelmed), giving us the opportunity to have our photos taken in peace. This was actually a lovely chance for us to have a little moment to ourselves right after the ceremony, as Mr and Mrs!
Somehow two hours had already passed and it was time to leave the castle. It is not allowed to throw confetti or rice in Malcesine and we weren’t keen on getting bubbles on our clothes, but our wedding planner had a great idea of releasing white balloons to the air at our exit! This was so much fun and also something a bit different!
The whole experience at the castle was really was quite something! I was so happy our ceremony had taken place at 11am already because the day was flying by – I didn’t want it to end! This time I hopped into the tuk tuk with my husband and we enjoyed many cheers of “Auguri!” while we drove through the town. So much fun!
We left the castle at 1pm to head to the harbour of Malcesine where we would enjoy more refreshments in a relaxed setting before taking a boat trip to the wedding reception venue. To be continued. 😊
xoxoxo,
Sini