There are events that surprise you, in which you expect one thing and another thing happens.

Usually when I design and plan a wedding in Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, I have a very precise idea of the bride, of her tastes, of the atmosphere to be created… in this case I found myself discovering, only during the event, that I was looking at a different kind of “character,” and that I had to – in the process – try to transfer that character to the whole event.

I imagined, from the few quick sketches made during the preceding months, that the bride, Australian, was a bit shy, even awkward at times. The style choices had been extremely refined and fine: from the custom-made dress to the total sharing of the design: a natural and modern flower design, geometric inserts, with the use of metals and transparencies. In my plans, the title of this design was “Natural Elegance.”

But the moment I came knocking on the bride’s room, I had to reframe everything I had imagined in the face of a “Crazy Funny” reality! A myriad of Australian, Italian-Australian and Australo-Albanian relatives crowded the room starting the festivities from the morning. Unspeakable chaos in which makeup artists, hair stylists, photographers and videographers were only a fraction of the natural pre-wedding confusion. Design was yes important, but much more so would be the fun!

There are events in which everything and the opposite of everything seems to happen. In which the weather just doesn’t help, and after custom-building the structure for the cover of the dinner, custom-made all the curtains, such a strong wind comes up (in the case of event organization in Sardinia it is not so rare) that you fear, until the last moment, that it might fly away at any moment.

And it is precisely in those critical moments that you can see the makings of a Wedding Planner and, more importantly, his unbeatable Wedding Staff… and so we pulled out all the stops at the end of the season, finding alternative solutions to every problem that came our way. Is the structure in danger of flying? We moved it – lifting it in eight people – and rotated until we found the spot that would make the least sail. We literally nailed it to the floor. We wrapped the fabrics in large skeins to the last, and then untied them during the ceremony, hoping that the wind, late in the afternoon, would drop.

We looked with our hearts in our throats at that ceremony gazebo made of the heaviest wood, swaying as if it was ready to go overboard at any moment, with two Staffers ten meters away ready to leap forward and hold it up.

And they were laughing, the newlyweds. Where another couple would have gone into total panic, they were laughing with gusto. I don’t know if it was because of the wind pushing them and knotting Laura’s very long veil over and over again, or because fifteen minutes into the ceremony still the bride’s dad was standing there next to her and hadn’t realized he had to sit down. He kept his cigar in his jacket pocket and winked at the groomsmen, exchanging smug glances.

We invented a last-minute photobooth, transforming it so that it could be as engaging as possible. The speeches -obviously- did not adhere to an order but came as they came, amid jokes and surprises and general hilarity and guests disappearing and having to be chased in order to move on. The DJ unexpectedly ended up with a playlist of techno music on which, incredibly, everyone was dancing wildly.

We did virtually nothing that I imagined for this gipsy glamorous wedding or that was planned in the planning, but in the end…did it really matter?

They were happy that they could be amazing, even with me. And while the groom came up with unimaginable things by telling me “you didn’t see this coming!?”, things that until a few years ago would have put me off instead turned out to be episodes destined to become legend in the stories of Elisa Mocci Events.

I still haven’t figured out what the bride and groom were really called. Seriously, among themselves they called each other by other names.

• I learned that in the contract I must specify what kind of ceremony will take place. As much as it was specified everywhere and elsewhere, it was clearly not clear enough that “symbolic” does not mean “legally.”
• there is someone who dances techno at weddings, and with great taste!
• other great things I won’t be able to recount here, but my next Academy trainees will have some great case studies to apply themselves to!

What I learned from this gipsy glamorous wedding, and what is ultimately the basis of the destination wedding planner experience, is that we are all different, and that happiness, in the end, is being ourselves and being okay with those who love us as we are. Even if a little crazy.

L+K – A GIPSY GLAMOROUS WEDDING IN COSTA SMERALDA | Sardinia, designed by Elisa Mocci Events – Luxury Wedding Planning & Design in Baja Sardinia.

A special thanks to Mrs. Paola Mancini, for L’Ea Bianca Luxury Resort.
Photo Antonio Patta | Videographer Alberto D’aria
Flowers Fioreria Daisy | Dj Igino Coni | Rentals Kaos Lab | Makeup Valeria Boncoraglio | Cake Pasticceria Eden 

Discover more wedding stories here.