“Call it love at first sight if you will,” Ella Grace Kennedy says of first meeting fellow screenwriter Matthew Orton at a company Christmas party. “I couldn’t stop thinking about him. And, it turned out, he couldn’t stop thinking about me either! “We’re both screenwriters, so of course the pair of us are hopeless romantics.”
Two years later, Matthew dropped to one knee in the cocktail bar where the couple shared their first date. Following the proposal, Champagne flowed and close friends of the couple—opera singers by profession—serenaded them in their home, before nearly 70 loved ones surprised the bride-to-be. “Just less a year later, with an almost equally elaborate plan, I proposed back to Matthew,” Ella says. “We had always agreed that both partners deserve the big romantic gesture, so I made sure to design an engagement ring for him and get down on one knee myself.”
On their first vacation together, Ella and Matthew traveled through Florence and down the Amalfi Coast before ultimately stopping at Conti di San Bonifacio, a vineyard in Tuscany. It was there they agreed that if a wedding was in their future, this most certainly, was the place.
“From my days of playing dress up as a little girl, I always knew that I wanted a big regal wedding dress, with a wedding aesthetic to match,” she says. “This was the one day I could live out my Princess Diaries dreams, so boy was I going to run with it!” The La Foce wedding, set for August 19, 2023, adhered to a Tuscan theme, all of which was brought to life by Laura Bravi of Bravi Events and lensed by Flora & Grace.
“I always had a clear vision of what my dream bridal wardrobe would look like,” Ella notes. “I knew my dress would feature a dramatic skirt with a very long train and lace and would be off the shoulder.” With such a vivid idea in mind, Ella ultimately decided to go the bespoke route and enlisted Emma Beaumont to design the ceremony and after-party looks.
“I couldn’t have asked for two pieces that represented me more perfectly, and I am so incredibly grateful to Emma and her team for creating them,” Ella shares. The ceremony style, expertly detailed in silk blend mikado, corded Italian lace, and silk chiffon paired beautifully with the natural bridal glam applied by Bezal Makeup.
The ceremony took place in the lower gardens of La Foce. Flowers Living added color to the ceremony space by way of subtle pastels. Friends of the bride and groom sang Beautiful Chorus’s “Faith’s Hymn” hummed as Ella made her way down the aisle. “This was probably one of the best moments of our lives,” she recalls. “Having the involvement of friends and family was crucial to us as we wanted to make the weekend feel as personal as possible, but hearing our friends sing this song, at this moment, felt like something not even two screenwriters could have written up.”
The service was lighthearted and sentimental, the couple exchanged personal vows, and after the I dos, Ella and Matthew headed to cocktail hour amidst cheers and tossed confetti—“the happiest we’d ever been,” she remembers.
In the lemon garden, Aaron of Event Illustrator captured each moment in portrait illustrations as a vintage camera made its way around to the guests. “Matthew and I knew we wanted to gift something sentimental to each of our loved ones, for being such essential parts of our lives, so instead of traditional nameplates on the dinner tables, we decided to write all 140 guests a personal, handwritten letter,” the bride explains. Guests found their notes atop a pastel tablescape, inside sat inside stationed envelopes by Alice And Letters.
Everyone noshed on Galateo Ricevimenti’s Italian fare, as Matthew and Ella closed out the speeches. The newlyweds danced to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” before the liveliest of surprises, courtesy of the groom.
“By a long way, my favorite part of the reception was Matthew’s surprise Magic Mike dance,” Ella laughs. Following his heartwarming speech, Matthew asked Ella to join him on stage. “However, before I could fully bask in this moment, a single chair was placed in front of me. That’s when I knew what he was about to do. A long-running joke between Matthew and me is that the best night of my life was the evening I got taken up on stage at the Magic Mike Live show in London. In order to make sure our wedding day wasn’t just another second best for me, Matthew gathered a team of his best pals and made it his mission to learn the dance to Ginuwine’s ‘Pony.’” Guests were in stitches as the performance kicked off the revelry and set the tone for the rest of the night. “Of course, Matthew secured the top spot of ‘best night of my life’ with flying colors.”
As a final surprise, a tattoo artist set up beside the dance floor. “Matthew and I had just made a lifelong commitment in front of our friends and family, so we thought it was only appropriate for them to make one back. We knew this idea was a little mad, and that a few of our friends were mad enough to participate, but we didn’t prepare for just how many people would want to get inked!” To end it all, everyone jumped in the pool—new ink and all. “ Under the stars, we wrapped up the best day of our lives, shivering in the cold water together. It was a dream come true.”
