“We knew we wanted to host our wedding in Europe because I am from the Netherlands and Max was born in Paris so it has a special place in our heart. We were looking for a warm and sunny destination.
My journey to Puglia began about three years ago when I started a one month internship at Bro's, a Michelin-starred restaurant, to cook. It was during this time that I fell in love with the region! Puglia has a rustic charm and feel; more rustic from the rest of Italy. We realized it had the perfect weather, atmosphere, and incredible cuisine, which was the ideal choice for us. Most of our guests had not traveled to this area before either.
During our wedding, our top priority was to break away from tradition and create an atmosphere that felt less like a conventional wedding and more like a vacation shared with our friends and family while celebrating love.
The food and cuisine played a big role during our wedding, we wanted everyone to be able to experience the local cuisine to the fullest as food plays a big role in our lives. The welcome dinner was an ‘Apulian Street Food’ night with food stands over the piazza with a cheese stand, charcuterie, all sorts of grilled vegetables, meat, local fish and bread.
For our wedding cake, the Michelin star chef Isabella Poti, who I trained with, created our own Nekohama Matcha Cake for us. For the first time ever the whole wedding cake was eaten by every guest! As a little wedding favor we gave every guest a little bottle of local olive oil from the garden.
Our ceremony was officiated by our dear mutual friend, Jason Gorskie, in between the ancient olive tree grove. The wedding style was exactly my personal aesthetic; beautiful, sophisticated, marked by simplicity and purity. Taking inspiration from Japanese Ikebana, I chose a floral and decorative theme that highlighted the elegance of minimalistic arrangements, showcasing delicate stems instead of big bouquets. I wanted my bouquet and my bridesmaids bouquets to feel fun and loose and not too ‘overdone’.