White World

Perfect Weddings
White World
Don’t allow the biggest day of your life to be drowned in an endless
logistical torrent – Upward Curve identifies the very best wedding
planners out there with luxury venues to boot
S
o you want a wow factor
wedding, but you’ve got a
lot of competition this year
with the two Kates tying the knot.
First up are Kate Middleton and
Prince William, who have bagged
Westminster Abbey in London,
while the other Kate, á la Moss
and her fiancé Jamie Hince, have
yet to confirm their venue, which
could be anywhere from her
Cotswold country estate to
a £60,000 a week villa on the
chi-chi island of St Barthelemy.
Beloved of celebrities, this
diminutive French Caribbean
island has to be one of the
prestigious settings for an exotic
wedding. Roman Abramovich
has a €67m/US$95m estate at
Gouverneur Beach and spent
€5.7m/US$8m on a lavish New
Year’s Eve Party. Top hotels include
Eden Rock (edenrockhotel.com)
and Isle de France (isle-de-france.
com) which are ready and waiting
to organise your wedding.
If you’re looking for a guiding
hand, contact wedding planner
Melanie Smith (dms.stbarths@
wanadoo.fr). Her weddings
range from around €200,000/
US$283,000 up to €2m/
US$2.8m for up to 250 people.
Pictures: Wedding planners
will help to create the perfect
setting for your big day
Wedding celebrations tend to take
place over three days, beginning
with a cocktail party on the day
the guests arrive. The next day
is a special dinner or lunch for all
the guests, while the last day is
traditionally the ceremony, which
can be held in a church, a villa,
a hotel or even on the beach. It’s
usually followed by a cocktail party
then dinner and dancing.
“I’m very creative with my St
Barths weddings,” says Smith
April-June 2011 Upward Curve 21
Perfect Weddings
“And we can create some amazing
moods, such as a South of France
vibe, or an Old Caribbean 20s feel
with Hermes scarf colours. The
island is relaxed and you don’t
need bodyguards here.”
Of course, there are other
Caribbean islands well versed in
celebrity weddings. Javier Bardem
and Penelope Cruz secretly wed
in the Bahamas last summer. The
ceremony took place in front of a
small group of family members at
a friend’s house.
In terms of preferred wedding
planners, the high profile
One&Only Ocean Club where
Cindy Crawford tied the knot,
contracts Anne-Marie Williams
of Weddings In The Bahamas
(weddingsinthebahamas.com).
The hotel also uses Michelle White
of Floral Arts (floralartsbahamas.
com) for celebrity weddings.
One of the US weddings of
the decade, that of Jimmy Rollins
– of Phillies baseball – to Johari
Smith, was held in Grand Cayman
last January. It was created by
JoAnne Brown of Celebrations
(celebrationsltd.com).
Barbados is one of the
Caribbean’s glitziest islands to say
I do. If you want to get ahead of
the ‘in’ crowd, Jemma and Jodie
Kidd’s stunning family home,
Holder’s House (www.holders.net),
has recently become available for
weddings and is where Jemma
herself wed.
Of course many would
consider Italy to be the home of
romance. Actress Emily Blunt
wed John Krasinski in a private
ceremony at the Villa d’Este
(villadeste.it) in Como at a simple
outdoor ceremony. The newlyweds
stayed at George Clooney’s
luxurious Italian pad in the run up
to their big day. Salma Hayek and
François-Henri Pinault renewed
their vows in Venice at the Teatro
La Fenice opera house. Italy has
also witnessed Tom Cruise and
Katie Holmes’ nuptials as well as
singer Rod Stewart, and footballer
Wayne Rooney.
Weddings Made in Italy (www.
weddingsmadeinitaly.co.uk)
run by Rosa Spatola organises
celebrity style weddings in Italy
and says the secret of success is
complete privacy for the client, to
understand your client’s brief and
even though the budget is large,
to offer value for money and direct
communication at all times.
Roberta Sabatini
(robertasabatini.com) is another
specialist wedding planner for
Italy who recently organised a
wedding across the entire top floor
of the five-star Danieli Hotel
(danieli.hotelinvenice.com) near
St Mark’s Square.
Sugokuii Events (sugokuiievents.com) is a skilled wedding
planner which has singled out the
islands of Capri and St Barths as
the top places to tie the knot.
Other great Italian hotels
for weddings include The Rome
Cavalieri (www.romecavalieri.com)
with spectacular views over the
Vatican City or how about saying
‘I do’ in Venice’s Palazzo Cavalli
overlooking the Grand Canal? The
Amalfi Coast is glamour incarnate
with pretty towns like Sorrento and
the island of Capri. Tuscany has
fairytale hideaways such as Villa
San Michele (www.villasanmichele.
com). Puglia in the southwest is
becoming one of the hippest spots
in Italy with swanky masserias like
Masseria Torre Coccaro (www.
masseriatorrecoccaro.com) with
its pretty white wedding chapel. Or
be the first to tie the knot among
the olive groves at the new Borgo
Eganzia (borgoegnazia.com).
Above: Italy has proved a
popular choice with celebrities
Left: An Italian vineyard could
offer the perfect backdrop
22 Upward Curve April-June 2011