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Home > Lea & Douglas | ‘Costiera chic’ super luxe Jewish wedding at Belmond Hotel Caruso , Ravello, Amalfi Coast, Italy

Lea & Douglas | ‘Costiera chic’ super luxe Jewish wedding at Belmond Hotel Caruso , Ravello, Amalfi Coast, Italy

12/05/2015 by Karen

Amalfi-Coast-wedding
Romance, art, al fresco disco — and a party that ends up in the infinity pool – today we’re off to one of our eternal favourite Jewish wedding destinations, the Amalfi Coast.

I  have a lot of a soft spot for this dreamy coastline (yes, I  honeymooned there!) and quite frankly it just keeps on giving and giving.

Lea and Douglas chose the refined, polished, ancient town of Ravello for their day, sitting high in the hills above the dizzying landscape of Amalfi. Stunning, stunning, stunning!

It was so beautiful they rustled up a famous contemporary artist and relative —  Jonas Wood  — to capture this magical setting and help them create the most impressive and frame worthy invite (and order of service) ever!

An artistic vein ran throughout this Ravello wedding, with a nod to France — where they met — and a rousing chorus of  Empire State of Mind  for Big Apple born Douglas.

Even though they planned the wedding from afar, amazingly, Lea and Douglas didn’t use  a wedding planner, they simply brought their own exquisite taste and personal touches to make the day unique.

I love that they struck such a fine balance between the natural — check out the gorgeous chuppah of green and white flowers — and the ultra glam – those  Valentino  powder pink heels and that silhouette enhancing, hand stitched, sequinned, wedding gown for a start. Pure Costiera Chic!

Gianni di Natale  sums up the day beautifully in these glorious, awe inspiring shots, together with his exquisite wedding film  at the end of the post.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
A luxury hotel venue that was once an 11th century palace, overlooking the Amalfi Coast

Lea, the Bride: We got married at the Belmond Hotel Caruso in Ravello  on the Amalfi Coast  for the wonderful scenery (the deep blue sea, the mountains) and the beauty of the village. Ravello is a romantic and very special poetic place. It is also still very authentic by its people (even with the numerous weddings celebrated there all year round) and the food is delicious.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
wedding stationery

Our invitations were specially designed by a very talented contemporary artist, Jonas Wood, a family member who made us the greatest gift by depicting a view of Ravello and authorised us to use it as our wedding invitations.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
A custom made  dress

My dress was designed by Zuhair Murad in Paris. For me, it was the ideal dress as soon as I tried the prototype on. It was completely  hand made and customised for me. I admire the hours of work put into it.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
Swarovski wedding heels by Valentino

My shoes were Valentino‘s powdery pink in satin with Swarovski smokey quartz, high heels sandals. I bought some heel stoppers as  the wedding took place in a garden.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
hair + make up

My hair was styled by  Andrea from Amalfi. I wanted to look as natural as possible to my everyday hair and used very natural make up by Bobbi Brown.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
The handsome groom

Douglas had his tuxedo made by his Parisian tailor, Samson. He wore his grandfather’s talit under the chuppah, but what made me swoon were his eyes and smile when I arrived down the aisle….

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
five colourful bridesmaids

I had five bridesmaids who  wore fantastic colourful dresses. They all chose something  different as they are all beautiful but I did not want to impose anything on them — I wanted to let them express themselves. I knew they had very good taste and that one model could not suit all of them. I only asked that they didn’t wear  black or  white. The dress code was ‘costiera chic’ for all the ladies!

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
Live music and poetry by Shakespeare  for the wedding ceremony

We had an orchestra of seven musicians performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto  as I walked down the aisle,  and my best friend Fiona read a poem by Shakespeare about love.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding_0010 Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
chuppah design

We worked with the best florist Armando Malafronte who understood my wish to have a very natural organic chuppah, only green and white flowers as if they were part of the wonderful gardens of the Caruso. He also understood my special request to have some hanging flowers inside the chuppah floating in the air from the top of the chuppah.

Armando also created the most  beautiful centrepieces all made out of  pale pink nude and white roses, and a fabulous pink antique rose bouquet for me

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
our incredible photographer and videographer

Gianni di Natale did an amazing job. His team were  very professional and    worked incredibly hard to catch every special moment. His work is both creative and modern, and he convinced us to do a HD video that we didn’t think we would go for at the beginning, but in  fact, it was fantastic, and of very high quality. Plus we loved the fact that the video makers were extremely  discreet.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
a traditional ricotta and pear wedding cake

For our wedding cake, we chose  a traditional local ricotta and pear cake. I decided to go all the way and make it hearted shaped! We also surrounded it with lots and lots of fresh pink rose petals.

a traditional local ricotta and pear cake
entertainment

We had some wonderful live jazz music for the cocktail hour… New orleans style! Then later on we  arrived to the reception to  Empire State of Mind byJay-Z & Alicia Keys, as Douglas comes from New York.

We had our first dance to  The Best Is Yet To Come by Frank Sinatra,  as Douglas is a professional Lindy Hop dancer and taught me how to dance.

We had a DJ come from Paris  who  played great music with a live sax player on the electro music.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
fireworks after dinner

And we  also enjoyed some amazing  fireworks after dinner!

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
artistic touches

The table names were named after our favourite artists (we meet at the Gala of the Beaux-Arts in Paris and are both art collectors) and all the table cards were hand-calligraphed in Paris.

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding
An after party in the infinity pool

All the guests dived in the infinity swimming pool after the party!

Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding Hotel Caruso Ravello Wedding_0021
advice to other brides and grooms

We really enjoyed and took advantage of that day but it goes too fast, so enjoy every moment! Don’t stress too much as everything will be fine in the end.


Lea & Douglas’S  LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Photography _ videography — Gianni di Natale
Venue —  Belmond Hotel Caruso
Bride’s dress —  Zuhair Murad
Bride’s shoes —  Valentino
Florist —  Armando Malafronte
Invitation art  —  Jonas Wood

 

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Filed Under: Jewish Garden Weddings, Jewish Destination Weddings Tagged With: Italy, Pink, Amalfi Coast Wedding, Gianni Di Natale photography, Amalfi Coast, Belmond Hotel Caruso, Zuhair Murad, Valentino, Real Jewish Weddings, Ravello wedding

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About Karen

Loves great design, cityscapes, berry cocktails, and the word “yes”. Founder and editor of Smashing The Glass. Follow me @SmashingTheGlass

Comments

  1. Clare Tam-Im says

    14/05/2015 at 12:34 pm

    What an amazing wedding! Love the photos from this, and that location is gorgeous. Beautiful couple as well.

  2. Genevieve ( Miss Gen ) says

    14/05/2015 at 2:17 pm

    wow gorgeous wedding! love that dress.

  3. Eva says

    29/05/2015 at 11:52 am

    What a dreamy wedding! I absolutely love the dress too

  4. Indian wedding website says

    06/04/2016 at 10:58 am

    awesome wedding, nice couple, amazing photography. thanks for sharing.

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