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Dream Wedding in Puglia

A traditional masseria, voluptuous olive groves, a setting embellished with vibrant citrus fruits and prickly green cacti, a romantic, whimsical and chic destination wedding in Puglia, Italy’s southern region. Enamoured with the picturesque landscape and fondness for Italian food, our Co-founder Josephine and her love Tobias were drawn to the white-washed stone walls, deep turquoise seas and authentic charm of Puglia for their wedding abroad. 75 friends and family from across the globe descended upon a celebration set amongst the unique scenery of the region. A 3-day event which began in picture-perfect Ostuni with an intimate civil ceremony, following onto a magical wedding weekend, Josephine and Tobias’ Italian celebration reflected their adoration for each other and their love for aesthetics.

All images by Kreativ Wedding

Set before a backdrop of verdant olive groves, the lovebirds’ wedding in Puglia at Masseria San Giovanni was a light-hearted and fun-filled affair. The goal was to offer their guests not only a weekend getaway but a lavish celebration that was filled with dancing, music and great energy. The soul mates exchanged vows in front of a charming ancient chapel adorned with roses in blush and cream hues, the bride glowing in a dreamy Kaviar Gauche gown.

Post-ceremony, the newlyweds dashed off in a vintage Alfa Romeo for some moments alone while the wedding party mingled in true Italian style on the masseria’s rooftop where aperitivo was served to the sounds of a lively Apulian street band. Overlooking an endless sky of olive trees, guests sipped on Aperol Spritz and indulged in the freshest local cuisine, from cold cuts and fresh seafood to mozzarella and hand made local panzerotti.

As dusk set in, guests moved from aperitivo to dinner where a three-course feast of local and seasonal dishes ensued. Beneath an intimate vaulted ceiling, a whimsical display of muted blooms and a myriad of candles adorned the table, complemented by artisan ceramics, brass elements, romantic crystal glassware and precious silks. Fusing feminine shades of soft blush with dark accents, tables spilled with dreamy arrangements of roses and dahlias in desaturated hues, black anthurium, cascading white amaranthus and delicate dried flowers grouped with figs, embodying a look of sober elegance and contemporary romance.

Read on to find out more about the two German lovers’ chic celebration as Josephine shares the details about their dream wedding in Puglia.

OUR LOVE STORY

I met Tobi 11 years ago in Marbella, Spain, where we were both working at a launch event. We were just friends (so I thought) and didn’t see each other again until 4 years later. Tobi was living in Singapore at that time, I had just finished university and was based in New York. We both flew in for the Oktoberfest in Munich where he chased me down in a club (my phone battery was empty but he still managed to find me!). When he told me that he’s been in love with me for 4 years, that I will be his wife and the mother of his kids, I thought he is either a full-on player or that he might be my soul mate! Turns out it was the latter! Everything went really fast then, I visited him in Asia and 2 months later I moved to Singapore for good. Fast forward 7 years and I’m indeed his wife, who would have thought!

THE VENUE

Tobi and I are both from Germany and have lived in Singapore for many years. Everybody kept asking us why Italy then? Asia has never been an option for us due to the long distance to Europe where the majority of our wedding guests are from. Both Italy and Greece hold a very special place in our hearts! As we started our wedding research we quickly realized that Italy is much more convenient in terms of logistics and travel time for our guests than the Greek islands. When we discovered Puglia with its ancient Greek roots, whitewashed walls, beautiful landscapes and dreamy masserias, we immediately fell in love!

After inspecting around 15 wedding venues in Puglia last year in August, Masseria San Giovanni was everything we had hoped for. A modern farmhouse with whitewashed walls surrounded by olive trees and a cute little citrus garden. The masseria has been recently renovated combining Apulian tradition with a contemporary design and offered enough versatile entertaining spaces within the venue itself. It was important for us to have different locations for all our festivities to keep it dynamic and exciting for our guests – from our Apulian welcome evening on Friday in the olive tree garden by the pool, to the ceremony in front of the little chapel, to the aperitivo on the rooftop terrace, followed by a reception dinner beneath a nostalgic vaulted ceiling inside the masseria and the party under the Apulian sky. Fun fact: the property is owned by famous Italian actor Raoul Bova. We didn’t know him, but all our Italian friends love him (especially the ladies)! 🙂

FAVOURITE MOMENT

I always thought that the reception and the party afterwards was going to be the best part of the day. But despite the fact that I was so nervous about the exchange of our vows and that it started to rain shortly before the ceremony (we needed to delay it by an hour) this was my most favorite moment of the day. Standing in front of all our friends and family, feeling their love and our deep love for each other, was incredibly magical. The readings during the ceremony and also the speeches in the evening were such unforgettable and emotional moments which I will cherish forever.

THE DRESS

I tried on many dresses at different stores in Singapore but nothing felt 100% ‘me’. Everything was too small, too glittery, too poofy and 2 months prior to the wedding I was still without a dress. On our way back from our final venue visit we had a 24-hour layover in Germany before returning to Singapore and my friend made me an appointment at Kaviar Gauche in Munich. I always had a certain vision of my dream dress: long voluminous sleeves and a soft A-silhouette, making a statement with delicate details rather than volume. When I tried Kaviar Gauche’s Champagne Sleeve Dress it was exactly like I had always envisioned. It was also incredibly light and oh-so-comfortable to wear. I loved the airy sleeves and the shimmering lace combined with delicate silk, which created a romantic silhouette that complimented my body.

I accessorized with a Kaviar Gauche chapel-length veil, Givenchy heels, and baby’s breath pearl earrings by 14/QUATORZE.

I also chose a Kaviar Gauche dress for our intimate civil wedding in Ostuni 2 days before our big day. It was quite a surprising choice as I initially wanted to have something very simple, but that was before I fell in love with the Bubble Lace Cape! 🙂 You can check out the full story of our civil wedding on Frieda Theres here.

WEDDING PLANNER

I’m beyond grateful that I was able to work with Alessandra Linoci who did the planning and styling for our wedding in Puglia. During our first Skype call, it only took 10 seconds and I fell in love with her sweet personality – I immediately knew that she was “the one”! Alessandra’s creative vision matched my ideas and aesthetics 100%, we even ended up pinning the exact same inspirations on Pinterest before seeing each other’s boards. She was simply wonderful in finding all the vendors that we needed for our wedding and bringing all our aesthetics and visions to life. Her professionalism, aesthetic eye, attention to detail and incredible personality made her a dream to work with. We absolutely loved planning our wedding in Puglia with her, and Ale and I are totally in the mood to plan #MeisterAmore 2.0 – our vows renewal! 🙂 We are so thankful to have Ale and her team involved, they were truly invaluable.

WEDDING STYLE & DÉCOR

Apulian Welcome Evening

We had dreamt of a laid-back pre-wedding get together where we could truly embrace the Apulian atmosphere, so the garden around the pool set within with beautiful olive groves was the perfect setting to kick off the wedding festivities. Our Apulian Welcome Evening was a colourful celebration of the region with pink and yellow pop of colours. I wanted to keep it simple on Friday, so Alessandra and I did a DIY décor consisting of bougainvillea and lemons. We also used lemon leaves to decorate the pasta live cooking station and the Aperol Spritz stand which were both such lovely elements to emphasize the Apulian vibe and showcase local dishes that were famous from the region. For a relaxed atmosphere, we had picnic blankets that we styled with cushions in burgundy, yellow and cream complementing our colour theme. As dusk set in, candles and torches were lit around the pool and underneath the ancient olive tree. Also, our wedding favours were DIY; we gave our guests personalized bottles of limoncello that we made ourselves following an original recipe from an Italian friend. For the dress code, we chose “Dress fabulously in white or floral print”, which was fun and matched the vibe perfectly!

Ceremony & Reception

On the wedding day, we envisioned the style to be romantic with modern sophistication. We worked with Chiara Sperti who I absolutely adore for her aesthetics and innovative floral designs. When Anne from Kreativ Wedding showed me the breathtaking flower set up in front of the little chapel on camera, it was so surreal. I couldn’t quite grasp that this was OUR wedding! Chiara and her team created a dreamy installation of muted roses, dahlias and luminous lunaria ascending from the ground into a unique shape, that complemented the charm of the chapel perfectly. Each rose was carefully opened and rolled by hand to create the delicate look. The ceremony with all of its deep emotions and the fairytale setting surrounding us was truly magical!

In the evening, I desired a tablescape that epitomized contemporary romance – warm and inviting at the same time. The colour palette of soft hues comprised of smoked blush and cream set a consistent theme, from the invites to the ceremony, through to the meticulous decor and embellishments of our evening dinner. To elevate the look for the reception dinner we introduced dark accents and added texture through customised elements such as precious silk napkins by Allegoria Textiles and handcrafted artisan ceramics. Tall black candles lined the centre of the long table, accompanied by versatile floral arrangements in variant heights, consisting of cappuccino and quicksand roses, black anthurium and cafe au lait dahlia. The compositions were paired with unique dried flowers and foliage such as bushy bunny tails, unexpected fern, cascading white amaranthus and ruscus, grouped with fresh local figs for a structural and ethereal look. What Chiara together with Alessandra created, exceeded my wildest dreams: a poetic balance of romantic elegance and bold simplicity – it looked incredible!

INVITATIONS & STATIONERY

I created our invitations with Erin from Paper Paper. I loved the minimal and elegant look in muted blush and cream, which perfectly matched the overall style of our wedding – informal yet with a touch of modern sophistication. Last-minute I stumbled across the hand-painted maps of Kathryn Green Illustrations and thought they were the perfect addition to our invites. As a hint of what was to come Kat created a bespoke water coloured map featuring all things which we connect with the region as well as a beautiful illustration of our wedding venue. Also our gorgeous “day of stationary” like the menu, place cards, seating chart, and bar menu was done by Paper Paper.

As I design The Asia Collective’s yearly travel guides, I naturally have quite high expectations when it comes to printed matters. Both Erin and Kat did an outstanding job and they have been so smooth to work with, even though I continuously made them move things 2mm to the left and right! 🙂

RINGS

We had our wedding bands made by our friend who owns Ayura. We have the exact same rings engraved with our wedding date and a little love message; clean bands in rose gold so I can wear it together with my engagement ring without being too much “bling”. Tobi also designed my beautiful engagement ring with Ayura, an oval diamond set in a rose gold double band. Ayura not only creates the most unique designs but is also able to source the highest quality stones at a fraction of the cost compared to the bigger jewellery brands, highly recommended!

ENTERTAINMENT

We had a Neapolitan Quartet for our Apulian Welcome Evening, they were great and set the mood perfectly! Initially, we wanted to keep the Get Together quite serene and relaxed but then thought why not have a bit more fun on Friday? So we hired a local DJ last minute! He was amazing and the Welcome Evening got much wilder than we had initially planned, but we are so glad it did! It was so much fun!

During the ceremony we had a guitarist/singer duo who was wonderful, I think there was no dry eye left. For the aperitivo we hired this incredible street band called Vagaband who really pumped up the energy in the afternoon and got everyone into the party spirit. They were such a hit, our guests were still talking about them the next day! We also engaged a saxophonist who guided people from one location to another and later played together with our amazing DJ, Alex from Munich who we found through a mutual friend. He was killing it on the decks and we danced until the early morning hours (with short interruptions of being thrown into the pool!).

HONEYMOON

Having each our own company, we allowed ourselves for the first time in years to take a long vacation and travelled around Italy and Greece for four weeks right after the wedding. Our first stop was Capri where our friends crashed our honeymoon. We rented a boat and spent the days relaxing on the water and unwinding at La Fontelina, followed by a few days at the Amalfi Coast eating pasta and drinking Aperol spritz all day long. As we got engaged in Santorini this couldn’t be missing on our honeymoon and so we spent a few amazing weeks hopping around the Greek islands. It was incredible, we haven’t been that relaxed in years!

Feel the vibe of our dream wedding in Puglia with this amazing teaser by Julia & Gil

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