Some loves, “make immense loops and then return,” as a famous Italian song says. 

My story, and the story of these newlyweds has indeed taken immense turns. We met for the first time live, after a short mailing, in the piazzetta in Porto Cervo. The idea was to get married in Sardinia, but in the end they couldn’t find the wedding location that made them dream.

A few months later, they called me back: they had chosen Sicily, a fantastic location with a thousand identities in Brucoli: Commenda di San Calogero. And they asked me, “Elisa, are you coming to organize the wedding in Sicily?”

What a question, I already had my suitcase packed!

Once we landed in Catania for the inspection, with my planner Elisa Congiu, already the road to the location was magical. Halfway between Syracuse and Catania, on one side the sea, on the other the spectacular view of the volcano Etna. 

Once through the blue gate of the Commenda di San Calogero, we were literally enchanted: “a place where aristocracy combines with the flavor of the countryside, where Sicily smells in its thousand facets, a place where it is possible to combine simplicity, elegance and refinement.”

A huge wheat field overlooking the sea (where I immediately thought: here we’ll have the party!), nooks and crannies that look like they were born for iconic Instagram photos, with blue doors and lush flowers, the chapel perfect for intimate ceremonies, the restored farmhouse with 12 rooms one more beautiful than the other, furnished with refinement and taste, with fabrics and wallpapers from an old aristocratic country house.

We came home even undecided with respect to where to design the various stages of this sicilian wedding, so many were the wonderful options in the area: from Noto (in recent years a very popular destination for hosting the Ferragnez wedding), to Brucoli, a fishing village a few kilometers from Commenda, to the many Unesco heritage sites in the surroundings. For sure, we would have completed the wedding weekend with a welcome party in Ortigia: the beating heart and historic center of Syracuse, a labyrinth of churches, temples, historic palaces with iconic inner courtyards, castles and fountains of extraordinary beauty. Places of endless history, inhabited first by the Greeks, then the Romans, the Swabians, the Aragonese and the Arabs.

An infinity of influences and design cues, quite a challenge even for an eclectic team like ours!

On a very hot August day (welcome to Italy!) as our bride and groom celebrate their religious wedding in a baroque church in a small Sicilian town, the entire Elisa Mocci Events team, joined by the Commenda, lighting, catering and florists, is hard at work setting up a unique event.

But as in all fairy tales, the unexpected must happen: and what an unexpected! The volcano Etna greeted us with a small eruption! Followed by a rain that brought all the ash here and there, scattered by the wind. 

It is impossible to notice from the photos, but I can assure you that it was a busy few hours, to allow us to set everything up again on time!

In the end, this wedding in Sicily turned out to be one of the most beautiful designs, with a setup and natural settings (like the cornfield party) that will always remain in my heart!

A mix of traditional Sicilian elements, such as the luminarias, citrus fruits the tambourine place cards, and a country party table that plays with Sicilian blues without falling into the usual majolica cliché. A Sicilian wedding dream that this couple, and all their guests, will take back to France and worldwide forever.

Plan+Design @elisa_mocci_events⁠ at @commendadisancalogero⁠ Brucoli, Sicily | Ph @rosita_lipari_wedding⁠ | Flowers @michelademarco_flowerdesigner @vincenzaveronicafoniciello⁠ | Light @blunotteventi @dibenedetto_lightdesign⁠ with @chef_natale_giunta rentals @genimaisonevents

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