Virginia di Carpegna, the customer experience manager for the Italian and Greek branch of Hermès, and Paolo di San Germano invited one another to their 18th birthday parties because their aunts are close and thought it would be a nice gesture, as Virginia’s and Paolo’s birthdays are only five days apart. A couple years later, they grew close over a one-month trip to Thailand with friends, and after seven years, he proposed at their home in Italy.
When planning their September wedding, it was natural for her to choose her grandparents’ countryside home as the venue. “I’ve always dreamed about a day wedding, and I wanted everything to be very natural and chic, coherent with the style of the house,” Virginia says. “I wanted flower decorations, as if we’d picked them in our garden. The dominant colors were sage green, which is one of my favorite shades, and royal blue.” As Virginia has held the title of event specialist before, she decided to plan the wedding herself with help from her mother, her mother’s close friend, Emanuela, and her future mother-in-law.
Another natural decision was to have Pupi Solari, the “most elegant and chicest woman” Virginia has ever known, to design her wedding dress. “We opted for silk with lace inserts that she personally picked from an artisan, and we added a touch of color by choosing a velvet sage green belt,” the bride explains. The veil was made out of ancient lace from Virginia’s grandfather’s family, and on the day-of, she got ready with beauty specialist Madame Miranda.
Paolo wore a morning suit with a royal blue tie adorned with small bunnies. “We own a rabbit, which I’ve adopted, and I’m a crazy bunny lady!” Virginia reveals. Groomsmen received the same ties, and flower girls wore sage green Liberty dresses with green “friulane”—typical Venetian slippers.
On September 14, 2019, Virginia and Paolo wed in a church five minutes from her grandparents’ house. The bride was fashionably 10-minutes late and met her flower girls outside the church, decorated with wildflowers by Claudio Brovelli.
Once announced as husband and wife, a historic group of flag wavers, with Paolo’s family’s traditional coat of arms, and musicians were waiting for the couple outside of the church. The whole village came out to applaud and wave at the newlyweds.
Back at the house, the new Mr. and Mrs. and their 400 guests started with an Aperitivo in the garden, while Four on Six Band played jazz and swing music. “Unfortunately, we didn’t enjoy the amazing food we chose, as we were too busy saying hi to all our guests,” Virginia admits. Then lunch was served in the house and another area of the garden, with each table named after an aromatic herb. After the meal of paccheri with tomatoes, asparagus, guanciale, and burrata, beef filet with cognac jus and black pepper, and mulberry sorbet from La Fenice, the couple cut their raspberry and cream crostata.
Virginia and Paolo had their first dance to “How Long Will I Love You” from the About Time soundtrack. And at the end of the night, guests took home white ceramic pine cones with the couple’s new initials and their wedding date. Virginia explains, “In Italy, pine cones are an auspicious symbol. I love seeing them in our friends’ houses when I visit them.”
“Of course, all [the] adults left around 6:00 p.m. after the cake, but all our friends stayed until midnight with DJ Apple Jacks,” the bride says. After spending the night in the countryside, they left for four days in the Dolomites, followed by two weeks in the Philippines.
