Saturday 1 May 2010

Getting married to an Italian

Bel fidanzato and I have more or less decided on our wedding date! It will most probably be the 9th of July 2011 which works well for my twin sister who will be coming over during uni holidays with her husband, my beautiful little nephew and my as-of-yet-unborn other little niece or nephew (yes, my twin is pregnant again...and with a baby as cute as this one below, you can't blame her!)


It will also be school holidays for my other nephew (below we are both feeding the babies) so he will not have to miss out on school - or not much anyway.





Our wedding will be rather low-key when compared to many Italian weddings. Coming from an Italian family myself, large, elaborate weddings are not new for me. I want to do as much myself as possible, and although the wedding is more than one year away I am going to start arranging the bomboniere.

Bomboniere (sometimes spelt differently, especially when looking on an English language website) is something that my family uses in Australia. I believe in the UK they are called wedding favours and basically it is a small gift that you give to wedding guests to thank them for coming to you wedding. The tradition started centuries ago with mainly French and Italian aristocrats. They used to give a box made of crystal, precious stones or other beautiful materials and inside they would place sugary sweets.

This tradition has spread to many nationalities, and today with the Italian weddings we give a little gift, and some sugared almonds wrapped in a material sack. Bel fidanzato's mother has all of her bomboniere, collected from many weddings and other special occasions stored in her glass cabinet. Bel fidanzato and I too have a little collection going and that is only from the weddings/parties we have attended here in Italy...not sure where all my Australian ones have gone. Probably packed away in my parents garage!


I prefer the tulle arrangements, and (at the moment) I am thinking of having 3 layers of tulle/organza:  light grey/silver, white and darker grey. White is nice and all, but I want something a little different! I have found on the internet lots of little tulle flowers, ribbon etc...as it is cheaper to buy them online, and saves me the hassle of hunting down fabric stores here.  I have an idea of a gift, but my twin has to go and source them as I saw them when I was last in Australia. I know it is very early to start arrangements, but as you may recall, we are in the process of saving money for our house (the new roof will hopefully go on this summer) so if I start buying little bits at a time it will not hit us so hard! 

Most of the time the parents pay for the weddings here in Italy, not all of it, but some of it (and in Australia too depending on the couples) but bel fidanzato and I want to pay for it ourselves.

So stay tuned for more wedding news!

6 comments:

marybeth said...

Tanti auguri!
I enjoy your blog, reading of your transitions from town to town and continent to continent...thanks for sharing. I travel often to Italy and hope to live there someday, too...

LindyLouMac said...

The tulle and organza arrangements, usually themed to the brides colour scheme, filled with sugared almonds have been presented to guests at weddings in the UK that we have attended.
As you say a lot of work to make them all yourself.
I am certainly looking forward to following your wedding plans :)

Carolina said...

One of the most amazing things to me when I got married in Malito was the tradition of the groom's family being responsible for providing the newly wed couple with a place to live and the bride's family providng the "corredo" of all the bed/bath and kitchen goods needed to fill it. We had nothing similar to this in California!! Girls that I knew there had closets full of linens, pots/pans, china, crystal, towels, sheets, etc- and of all of high quality- much had been given to them as gifts from when they were very young. It seems that this tradition is changing a bit, but it was overwhelming when I saw all of the items girls would bring to the marriage (first bed: primo letto was always one of the most important, if not THE most important!!). I had nothing but started buying some things as I could with the money I was making teaching English... Good luck with your bombonieri! Great idea to get started now!

Leanne was in Italy now in Australia said...

Hi marybeth,
Glad you liked the blog! Thanks for stopping by.

Hi LindyLouMa,
It may be hard work to make the bonbonniere, but that is why I want to start more then one year early!

Hi Kelsbels,
So 9th July is a good day for your family - hopefully it will be for us too!

Ciao Caroline,
You just gave me a great idea for a post!

italian said...

I enjoy and happiness your blog.
This is nice family.

viaggi said...

good on you, you a lucky and happy woman, continue like this
Maria