A luxury Lebanese wedding story.

When I was thinking these days about which of the weddings organized by  Elisa Mocci Events in the last fifteen+ years would “inaugurate” the Real Weddings section in this new Blog… I couldn’t help but start with this one, which has been for my Wedding Planner career a point of arrival – and of restart.

Because it was so desired, and if you would like to discover why, you can find the story that led me to this event here. It was the year 2014, and I was only twenty-six years old, although my career as a wedding planner had already been well under way for about six years.

Renate & Jad come from Dubai. They choose to live their big day in our island, in the exclusive and reserved northeast coast of Sardinia. The location of the wedding and reception is in fact the Hotel Cala di Volpe, in Porto Cervo, Costa Smeralda, that part of Sardinia reserved for the most luxurious events in the world. At the time I received their request, I did not yet know that I was looking at the first million-dollar wedding of my career.

Surrounded by the crystal-clear waters of the cove after which the venue is named, the bride and groom enjoyed a luxurious event experience, surrounded by very elegant friends and relatives who arrived from the Emirates and around the world to celebrate this luxury Lebanese wedding.

The mood of the event is vintage-inspired, as the bride told me at our first Design meeting “Gatsby-esque but sweeter, full of details and emotions.” Challenge accepted!

The design of the event was designed and crafted in such a way that it came to life step by step, in every tiny handmade detail: from the French lace umbrellas for the ceremony, to the tableau that I personally hand-wrote on large mirrors, which hides a fantastic anecdote.

It fell to me-after almost six hours of work, 250 names written with a gold nib! – erase everything with turpentine and do it all over again. I had forgotten some acronyms that appeared in the margins of the guest list, such as HRH (His Royal Highness!).
It was the moment of real realization of the importance of the event, and of great excitement at the anticipation of what we would be experiencing in a very few days together with my Wedding Staff, made up, for the occasion, of 25 staffers.

The ceremony was designed on the seashore in a riot of flowers by the extraordinary Philippa Craddock (the very woman who, years later, became the flower designer of Harry and Meghan’s Royal Wedding), a flower designer who flew in from London for our bride and groom with 35 florists, then arrived at the “cocktail garden” by crossing a bridge completely covered with flowers: hydrangeas, peonies, English roses.

The dinner structure was custom designed and made for the event, inspired by American outdoor parties, so striking, so rich in centerpieces and small decorations.
But the real novelty – which anticipated for the first time, in Italy, a trend that has since depopulated to this day – was the very first stringlights outdoor project, custom-made and supported by 22 wooden poles to cover a striking sky for the 250, prestigious guests.

To the notes of Frank Sinatra, Renate and Jad danced and crowned their dream of love on a June night that I will never forget in my life as a Wedding Planner.

PROUDLY FEATURED ON

Photographer: Tanja Lippert   +   assistant photographer:  Gorete Ferreira   +   Venue: Cala di Volpe, Sardinia Italy   +   event design & planning: Elisa Mocci Events   +   dress: Vera Wang   +   jewelry: Liali Jewelry   +   stationary: Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondance    +   shoes:  Jimmy Choo   +     floral design: Philippa Craddock   +   cinematography:  Matteo Castelluccia   +   band:  That’s Amore Italian Swing Band   +   Venue – caterer: Cala di Volpe, Sardinia Italy + Technical – Rentals: Container Allestimenti