Wedding in Tonnara di Scopello

Having your wedding in Tonnara di Scopello means diving into an absolutely unique almosphere of an authentic Sicilian village, where time seems to have stopped... It's an ancient tuna fishery hidden between rocks and facing crystal-turquoise sea.  Jenny Drew and Alex, a young couple from California, fell in love with it immediately, when they got there to spend a weekend while travelling in Sicily. They wanted to have their wedding on one particular date - the 3rd of July - the date when Alex proposed the year before. The problem was that the venue was fully booked for more than a year ahead, and there was nothing to do....until the moment when 10 days after my inquiry the Tonnara’s event manager called me and said that one couple decided to postpone their wedding and they have one free date - exactly the 3rd of July! That seemed pure magic! 

 

We immediately got to planning the wedding. They both were so involved, and every single element they brought in had a particular meaning. Jenny made hand-embroidered napkins with samples of her family members' handwriting as presents for her closest family. On the day of the wedding she also brought different things, like photos of her grandmother and some of her jewelry, a cigar box that belonged to her grandfather, and put them all over the room where she was preparing for the wedding: it was important to her to bring in the energy of the people who could not be there with her anymore...

 

Not to mention, on their plates all the guests found embroidered napkins with their names as place cards, and a personally addressed hand-written letter, telling why this person was so special for them, and saying thanks for coming.

  

The groom arrived to the ceremony by an old Sicilian wooden boat that was guided by an elderly man, the last living fisherman who worked in this Tonnara, who knows every single stone under the water, and he was able to moor right to the coast!

 

The cut of the cake was supposed to be done at the end of a small pier, but just after the main course was served, a high tide began, and the cake literally risked to get washed away by the sea! I announced that everyone has to eat very quickly as we needed to save the cake from drowning, and in the end the mission was completed with success!

 

This wedding was a mix of feelings and emotions: it was so romantic, sometimes melancholic and at the same time really fun, ending with almost-nude-dancing and swimming under the moon light!