Nicola and Gary’s destination wedding at Castello Chiola in Italy was the kind of dream wedding most couples hope for. Placed high up on a hill, overlooking the picturesque medieval town of Loreto Aprutino, this ancient castle makes for the perfect Italian wedding venue.
In fact, when I took my first walk around the castle, I was left speechless, and not just because of the incredible heat. Everything looked stunning. I knew it would photograph perfectly, and the professional staff were so friendly.
Getting to the venue meant a short two hour flight from London to Italy with Richard, my assistant and second photographer. We touched down in the evening, found our hire car and began the 35-minute drive from Pescara to Loreto Aprutino. By then it was late, pitch dark, and with me being accustomed to driving an automatic, poor Richard didn’t have the most pleasant of drives. I, however, thoroughly enjoyed the twisting roads, and only forgot once or twice to drive on the opposite side!
We made it to the town just fine, but the satnav was struggling to find our B&B. So I did it the old fashioned way and put my faith in a couple of kind-looking Italian lads who gave us directions. It was a good job we did, as we would never have found the B&B ourselves. In return, those kind lads earned themselves a cold beer and an awkward Anglo/Italian conversation about football (the universal language!)
The next morning, Rich and I went into town for a nice Italian breakfast, including a croissant with Nutella. Delicious.
There were so many highlights I could mention from Nicola and Gary’s wedding, including meeting two of my previous couples! I caught up with Anna and George, whose wedding I photographed earlier this year at the Bentley Hotel in London, and Jen and Andy, whose wedding I photographed last year. George and Nicola are siblings, so it was great to see many familiar faces at this wedding.
I regularly shoot Jewish and Greek weddings and they are amazing fun to photograph, with all the different dancing and traditions. Now, with Nicola being Greek, and her husband-to-be Gary being Jewish, I knew this wedding had the potential to be off the chart! I had definitely been looking forward to the dancing, and it didn’t disappoint.
Another great moment for me occurred just before the best men were about to give their speeches. Suddenly, a power cut hit the castle! A tense 30 seconds of silence was broken by the world class band TOTEM, and they quickly relaxed the atmosphere once more with their amazing music and got everyone singing and dancing in seconds. Incredible.
All in all, the wedding was absolutely perfect, and I’d like to thank Nicola and Gary for asking me to be there as their destination wedding photographer.
“Just beautiful – I don’t really know what to say! THANK YOU!!” Nicola and Gary
Here are a few of the images from Italy:
