Juuso and Sofia had their Italy destination wedding at a small villa in Tuscany overlooking the small medieval village of Anghiari. The story of how our entire friendship came to be is my favourite!

Sofia’s Mom, Sirpa, had travelled to Canada from Finland, when she was younger and had met the future Dad of one of my 2017 grooms. Confused already?! haha I was when she first started explaining it to me! They became instant friends, and when Sofia came to Canada to visit years later, she got to meet Brock (my 2017 groom!), and one of my amazing brides Casey and their entire group of friends. Sofia and her Mom had been following me on social media for awhile because of these two and when I mentioned in an Instagram post that I LOVED to travel for weddings, Sirpa commented asking if I would ever travel to Tuscany for a wedding. UM YES. My husband is Italian and we had been starting to plan for when he would get to go back, and I would finally get to go!

Sofia and I started emailing back and forth and she kept apologizing for her poor English. Um it was amazing! She admitted she had to google translate some of the words I used, but I had no problems reading her emails! I started following her on Instagram and we became fast friends over social media. Her half Canadian, half Finnish World Juniors Hockey jersey she wore last year pretty much sealed the deal that we would be good friends :)

It was so hard to wait to meet in person, and it felt so surreal that we would actually get to! In Italy! Marco and I decided to add on a week to the wedding and travel around on our own and it was the best decision ever! A week of exploring Italy child free was incredible! (Stay tuned for those blog posts!)

We flew into Rome and after a short night there, we headed right to Anghiari for the rehearsal dinner! Getting to meet everyone was amazing! It was so cool to be standing in a villa in Tuscany, hearing Finnish conversation around you! Brock’s parents had travelled over for the wedding as well, so we weren’t the only Canadians!

The day of the wedding was magical! Driving up the long windy road to the villa and the weather was iffy. They were calling for rain, but the clouds looks SO stormy. Sofia was so relaxed! She was helping her bridesmaids do their hair, and putting on her own makeup as she danced around laughing and yelling at her brother. She told me that in Finnish it sounds like they are always yelling at each other! (and it totally did!) But it was done with all smiles!

The ceremony was at the city hall in Sansepolcro, which had a beautiful open air courtyard. As a photographer it was SO challenging and surreal to be photographing a wedding in Italian, being translated into Finnish. I had no clue what was going on haha. My approach was don’t stop clicking! Which was good because they have the first kiss halfway through the ceremonies in Italy! Marco found a way to get to the top floors and got some amazing photos of the ceremony from a few floors up!

After the ceremony, we popped champagne and walked the streets of Sansepolcro for photos. This city is beautiful! I mean all of Italy is beautiful, but these tiny Tuscan towns have such a deep history, and no tourists to be seen. It was as authentically Italian as you can get.

Back at the villa, we finished up photos, and sat down for a SEVEN course traditional Italian wedding dinner. It was AMAZING. Honestly hands down the best meal I have ever eaten before in my entire life. Marco was in heaven haha. I have never liked Tiramisu before, and now I know why. I have never had it in Italy. Every single bite was incredible! And the amount of wine was spectacular!

The minute the dinner was over, they went right into dancing. Sofia’s maid of honour grabbed the mic and started singing her heart out to Lady Gaga, Adele and any other female superstar you can think of. She had an incredible voice! They danced until they couldn’t dance anymore, and then everyone crowded around the long tables on the patio for more drinks, and celebration. They didn’t let a single minute pass without wholeheartedly celebrating.

The celebrating turned into good conversation, and sharing sentimental moments. The groomsmen who I had sworn didn’t know a word of English, got more comfortable around me (the wine may have helped as well!) and they tried out their English, which was phenomenal! We talked about life in Finland, and their school system and we left the wedding with open ended invitations to come and visit just about all of them in Helsinki. I am already working on Marco to go!

Juuso and Sofia, I can’t ever put into words how much it meant to me to be a part of your day. It was the most fun I have ever had, and we both felt so welcome from the minute we met everyone! We made so many memories, that I will no doubt get sentimental about for years and years to come! I love you guys so much and can’t wait for many many more visits! To Canada and Finland!

 

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