massimo bonon pubblication

d r e a m i t a l i a n w e d d i n g s & h o n e y m o o n s 33

w e d d i n g p l a n n e r

sister, and he was sent home from his tourto help his family repair damage. ‘Peopleonly saw New Orleans on TV,’ says Heather,‘but in Gulfport the suffering and loss ofhomes and jobs was tremendous.

‘It was Greg’s idea to get married in Italy.When he first asked me if I wanted to getmarried in Italy I couldn’t believe it! Wewere both so excited to be visiting and gettingmarried in one of the most beautiful coun-tries in the world.’

Their planning had started in Januaryand with an estimated wedding date of May,perhaps it could have been a little tight for a destination wedding! ‘We began lookingon the internet for wedding planners inItaly and found who we believe to be thebest wedding planner ever, Bonnie Marie.She made our journey so easy and stressfree. All we had to do was send her the rightpaperwork and make sure that we made allof our flights to get there on time.

‘Since the wedding date was imminentand Greg was in Iraq, we decided to do theAtto Notorio in Italy and this affected ourchoice of venue. As time was of the essence,getting everything done in one day wasessential, and a wedding in Florence became the ultimate choice.’

Heather and Greg had envisioned theirtrip as a wedding-honeymoon, so they startedin England and moved down throughEuropean countries from there. ‘Before travelling to Florence people told us that itwas by far their favourite place in the entireworld and that we would fall in love with it,and they were completely right. Our hotelwas absolutely wonderful. We had our ownprivate balcony which overlooked the hillsof the city. We would just sit there and lookat how beautiful everything was.’

A T A L O S S F O R W O R D S

Needless to say, they were in awe walkingthrough Piazza della Signoria and seeing theWedding Hall. ‘One day before the weddingBonnie took us into the Red Room and letus see where we would be getting married.Greg and I had seen pictures of the roomand thought it was beautiful, but once weactually got to walk in it and see how amazingit really was we were completely speechless!’


32 d r e a m i t a l i a n w e d d i n g s & h o n e y m o o n s

WarW EDDING PLANNERS

share all the emotions of planning a special day

for couples getting married abroad and theanticipation, excitement, and tearful happiness up to the ‘just married’ momentis simply inebriating. But when the groomis a combat medic in Iraq on his thirddeployment and the bride-to-be is planningtheir fairytale wedding for when he will behome safe, the emotional stakes are onestep higher.

Coming from a military family whoseDaddy was deployed to Vietnam for 18months in the late sixties, I know how thatsilent waiting weighs and I have seen whatit means to have your plans continuallychange as they extend your tour at the lastminute. So when Heather first wrote to me and mentioned that Greg was in Iraq, I knew how important it would be to support her during the planning processand accompany them both through to their wedding day, flawlessly. ‘I chose youbecause I saw ‘military family’ on your website,’ Heather wrote, and our bond was immediate, deep and without words.

A N U N L I K E L Y B E G I N N I N G

Heather and Greg are used to not only therough times of a country at war, they arealso both from Gulfport, Mississippi, one of the areas hit the hardest by HurricaneKatrina. It seems like those hard times bringthem luck though – they met in the hurricane’s aftermath as she had to changejobs and ended up working with Greg’s

‘SINCE THEWEDDINGDATE WAS

IMMINENTAND GREG

WAS IN IRAQ,WE DECIDEDTO DO THE

ATTONOTORIO IN

ITALY…’


A BREAK FROM

We find out how specialist wedding planner

Bonnie Bates helped a brave soldier and his

beautiful bride enjoy the best day of their livesW O R D S a n d I M A G E S : B O N N I E B A T E S




sister, and he was sent home from his tourto help his family repair damage. ‘Peopleonly saw New Orleans on TV,’ says Heather,‘but in Gulfport the suffering and loss ofhomes and jobs was tremendous.

‘It was Greg’s idea to get married in Italy.When he first asked me if I wanted to getmarried in Italy I couldn’t believe it! Wewere both so excited to be visiting and gettingmarried in one of the most beautiful coun-tries in the world.’

Their planning had started in Januaryand with an estimated wedding date of May,perhaps it could have been a little tight for a destination wedding! ‘We began lookingon the internet for wedding planners inItaly and found who we believe to be thebest wedding planner ever, Bonnie Marie.She made our journey so easy and stressfree. All we had to do was send her the rightpaperwork and make sure that we made allof our flights to get there on time.

‘Since the wedding date was imminentand Greg was in Iraq, we decided to do theAtto Notorio in Italy and this affected ourchoice of venue. As time was of the essence,getting everything done in one day wasessential, and a wedding in Florence became the ultimate choice.’

Heather and Greg had envisioned theirtrip as a wedding-honeymoon, so they startedin England and moved down throughEuropean countries from there. ‘Before travelling to Florence people told us that itwas by far their favourite place in the entireworld and that we would fall in love with it,and they were completely right. Our hotelwas absolutely wonderful. We had our ownprivate balcony which overlooked the hillsof the city. We would just sit there and lookat how beautiful everything was.’

A T A L O S S F O R W O R D S

Needless to say, they were in awe walkingthrough Piazza della Signoria and seeing theWedding Hall. ‘One day before the weddingBonnie took us into the Red Room and letus see where we would be getting married.Greg and I had seen pictures of the roomand thought it was beautiful, but once weactually got to walk in it and see how amazingit really was we were completely speechless!’


32 d r e a m i t a l i a n w e d d i n g s & h o n e y m o o n s

WarW EDDING PLANNERS

share all the emotions of planning a special day

for couples getting married abroad and theanticipation, excitement, and tearful happiness up to the ‘just married’ momentis simply inebriating. But when the groomis a combat medic in Iraq on his thirddeployment and the bride-to-be is planningtheir fairytale wedding for when he will behome safe, the emotional stakes are onestep higher.

Coming from a military family whoseDaddy was deployed to Vietnam for 18months in the late sixties, I know how thatsilent waiting weighs and I have seen whatit means to have your plans continuallychange as they extend your tour at the lastminute. So when Heather first wrote to me and mentioned that Greg was in Iraq, I knew how important it would be to support her during the planning processand accompany them both through to their wedding day, flawlessly. ‘I chose youbecause I saw ‘military family’ on your website,’ Heather wrote, and our bond was immediate, deep and without words.

A N U N L I K E L Y B E G I N N I N G

Heather and Greg are used to not only therough times of a country at war, they arealso both from Gulfport, Mississippi, one of the areas hit the hardest by HurricaneKatrina. It seems like those hard times bringthem luck though – they met in the hurricane’s aftermath as she had to changejobs and ended up working with Greg’s

‘SINCE THEWEDDINGDATE WAS

IMMINENTAND GREG

WAS IN IRAQ,WE DECIDEDTO DO THE

ATTONOTORIO IN

ITALY…’


A BREAK FROM

We find out how specialist wedding planner

Bonnie Bates helped a brave soldier and his

beautiful bride enjoy the best day of their livesW O R D S a n d I M A G E S : B O N N I E B A T E S




to look for him, he would be gone… then wewould spot his white telephoto lens spyingthrough a crowd of tourists across the square.

Heather remembers a touching momentjust outside the Palazzo Vecchio: ‘One of myfavourite memories will be the little kidsthat were outside the palace on a field trip,standing around Greg and I, clapping for us,and then when the photographer told him tokiss me they all said ‘ewwww!’. Then on our wayto an intimate toast waiting at the Golden ViewOpen Bar (www.goldenviewopenbar.com),Greg asked me if I felt like a princess yet,and with this huge smile on my face I said ‘Yes!’’

For more information, visit www.myweddingsandmore.com

First impressions stick and I knew that itwas important for Heather and Greg to feelat ease in this ‘home away from home’, sincethey had left everything behind them to maketheir wedding day truly unforgettable. So Imade a point of walking them through thedifferent stages and introducing them to thepeople who helped shape their special day.The trip to the florists, Franco Fiori(www.franco-fiori.com) made Heather’seyes sparkle. She had a hard time decidinghow to match her bouquet with her pearlwhite wedding dress, but Gianluca’s creativetalent and exquisite taste guided hertowards a splash of peach and yellow, witha matching peach boutonniere on Greg’slapel, for a lovely spring day.

But as we all know, spring also means agood chance for rain. ‘Sposa bagnata, sposafortunata’ were words that echoed all morninglong as the rain, rain, rain came down,down, down! ‘Everyone in the town clappedfor us and told us ‘auguri!’’ says Heather.‘They said that we were lucky because it was raining on our wedding day.’

S P O T T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R

However, that didn’t affect photographerMassimo Bonon (www.studiobonon.it) atall. Expert eyes and top quality equipmentmade the rain drops disappear and the magicshine through every close of the shutter.Massimo found the perfect distance and anglefor some wonderfully romantic shots outsidethe Palazzo Vecchio and throughout Florence.We decided that the distance must be the keyto great photos because when we would turn


diw&h

‘THEY SAID WEWERE LUCKY

BECAUSE IT WASRAINING ON OUR

WEDDING DAY ’

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