What made our wedding so special?

In kind of chronological order:

• The morning dramas. People were coming in and out my house, to come and bring me presents, wish me luck, help set the table and arrange the refreshments. i was ready well in time, but when we realised that the photographer left without taking photos of me coming out of the house, we had to call him back, resulting in me being fashionably late and the priest being annoyed as he had another service an hour later.

• My auntie whose health is very fragile was taken to the hospital the morning of the wedding and risked to miss the wedding. We were very sad and she was devastated. When the wedding was about to start, my auntie arrived. She made it!

• The church. I got married in the church where I grew up with many locals in attendance. The reception was only 5 minutes away from the village where my beloved grandmother was born and from the cemetery where she rests.

• The bilingual service. as well as providing our guests with a bilingual order of the service, Alan simultaneously translated the homely, which was entirely ad lib. He was impeccable, so good that people thought he was Italian.

• The church music. I categorically avoided Wagner and chose the Canon in D Major by Pachelbel as our nuptial march. Erika, the singer, performed Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. I was a bit hesitant about this choice because, as Steve pointed out, it is a bit chavvy to have it at weddings. But I insisted and was right. Erika's performance was very emotional and dramatic. Ave Maria by Schubert and Dolce Sentire followed by Mendelssohn's March was the rest of a classic line-up.

• My gorgeous bridesmaids were immaculate and read the prayers in both Italian and English.

• Te church readings. Eight friends and family members agreed to read passages from the Old Testament and Gospel. The service was concluded by the reading of Shakespeare sonnet 116, performed by my Italian friends in London who also organised my English Bachelorette Night (Silvia's Midsummer's Night's Dream).

SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

• The cosmopolitan ambience. Out of 150 guests, 64 came from abroad. We counted at least 12 nationalities: Russia, Mexico, France, Austria, America, Australia, Romania, Wales, Brazil, Japan, UK (England, Scotland and Wales) and Italy, of course. The interaction between the locals and the international guests made a fun combination as everybody was intrigued by the novelty.

• The most stylish girlfriends. Many of them were wearing glamorous hats and all of them wore adorable little dresses.

• The speeches. Steve delivered a very sweet speech which made all the ladies weep, the gentlemen laugh and his wife melt. Alan's great job in translating the speeches allowed my Italian friends and family to fully appreciate the English speeches. One of my bridesmaids remarked that it was the first time she could really appreciate Steven's sense of humour.

• Two birthdays. Steve's grandma turned 85 on our wedding day. It was also Steve's cousin's birthday.

• The band. Dr Sixties were amazing. They performed uninterruptedly from midnight until 4.30am. Erika was breathless by the end of the night.

• The weather. It was a sunny warm day which made the venue a glorious setting.

• Steve's rock 'n roll and anti conformist spirit. He cried, lied on the floor, spilled champagne all over us, made a theatrical exit from the church, and was reluctant to pose, which means that we had to cut the photo shoot very short and don't have one *traditional* full length photo.

• Surprise photo slide show. One of my bridesmaids confabulated with the photographer, and at the end of the dinner a slide show narrating the day just gone by appeared on the big projector. Lovely touch!

• A handsome driver. ; )