How can I include everything in the description of the wedding we came to Italy to attend?
Festivities began at the bride's house. About an hour before the ceremony, guests arrived to a house replete with every kind of good thing to eat - finger foods both savory and sweet. When it was time to leave, the bride appeared from upstairs with her father, and greetings and kisses followed with everyone. A line began to form behind them as they went outside where a group of village children waited expectantly for a barage of confetti candy (white sugar-coated almonds) and coins (the favored treat these days) to be showered on the bride from the house by her mother and friends.
In this case, Dora, the bride's mother, tossed out only confetti 3 or 4 times to the disappointed children before showering them with 80 euro coins! It was then the scramble began!
As the bride and her entourage began the walk to the ceremony through the streets of the town, others joined in.
Ilaria, the bride, met up with the groom, Carlo, at the Town Hall where the ceremony was held. They ascended the marble staircase of the Comune (Town Hall) to the balcony overlooking the piazza (square) with as many guests as could fit in the small space, where they were officially married.
Greeted with cheers, the throwing of rice and a toast-for-two, the couple made their way through an obstacle course prepared by their friends (for a joke) and then left for the reception in a black Porsche convertible decorated with flowers.
The guests then boarded the 2 privately-rented pullmans and headed out down 12 miles of mountain roads to the main road to the reception 1 1/2 hours away at the Regis Hotel just outside Pescara near the Adriatic coast.
The reception was elegant, both the ambiance and the food. Appetizers and desserts were served in the enclosed garden by a lighted fountain. The several white table-clothed serving tables formed the center of the garden, sharing space with a stringed band. Each table was adorned with several large balls of white roses and lit up by either candle light or small white electric lights.
Appetizers and desserts were served in this lovely garden, but the main courseS were served indoors by candlelight: boiled lobster with spaghetti, risotto, fish (called "coda di rospo," rolled in on huge platters, replicating the real fish with a huge mouth and teeth that looked like a barracuda!), and finishing with a salad. The appetizers and desserts were too numerous and too creative to even begin to describe!
Dancing began shortly before the "early" pullman returned guests to Campo di Giove at 2am. I never found out when the "late" pullman left!
As you can imagine, the event in itself was memorable enough, but the remewed connections with my Italian relatives put the "topping" on my own personal "wedding cake." :-)
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