Annarita & Jarrod – Villa Bonifati – Italian Destination Wedding

Jarrod and Martin went to undergrad together and ever since we have remained close friends and reliable travel buddies.  During the first time that Martin and I lived in Madrid in 2007, Jarrod and our other friend Sean came over to visit and we all planned a trip to Rome together.  Jarrod dilly dallied in his plan making and as a result was not able to sit with us on the plane ride from Madrid to Rome.  When we arrived in Rome, Jarrod told us all about the sweet Italian girl he sat next to.  Jarrod didn’t speak a word of Italian and Annarita didn’t speak a word of English – so they conversed in their common Spanish.  Anna kindly helped us figure out the train into the city – and that was that.

A couple of years later, Jarrod mentioned Anna again – “Hey, remember that girl I met on the plane to Rome?  Yeah….so we’ve been talking….”  By keeping up with each other via facebook and email, a romance formed.  Anna moved to London to learn English and Jarrod visited Europe a handful of times a year to see her.  As such, Jarrod and Anna have visited more places WITH us than anyone else – including London, Madrid, a Scottish roadtrip and a fjords tour in Norway.  It quickly became apparent that these two were clearly made for each other, were meant to be together and even an ocean could not keep them apart.

Italian Destination Wedding in Paola Italy

Annarita finally moved to the states (yay!) and I was extremely lucky to photograph their amazing wedding back in her hometown of Paola in Calabria, Italy this summer.  Words cannot express how cool it is to have witnessed the evolution of this love affair from day one and to be able to document the culmination of it at the gorgeous Villa Bonifati. This was such a beautiful Italian Destination Wedding!

Church: Chiesa del SS. Rosario in Paola

Reception venue: Villa Bonifati

Wedding gown: Morilee by Madeline Gardner

Groom’s attire: Hickey Freeman

Florals: Oltre ai Fiori

Hair: Carmelina Luna

Makeup: Manuela de Nitti

Catering & Cake: FeG Katering

Ceremony musicians: Laura Molinaro (pianist) Giorgia Teodoro ( soprano), Manuel Arlia (volinist)

Reception Band: Show Duos