The day of the wedding, Sunday June 9th 2019, had arrived. In a blur it was over.
In between are a collection of wonderful events, each savoured for the moment. Some are able to shared here, others can only be in our memories.
It was day to be proud of. Not only for Jacob and Nicole for the meticulous and thoughtful organisation of every detail, but for us as parents too. Many people gathered at the bride’s home in the morning. Some where neighbours, some had been collected by a mini bus from Vicenza some half an hour away. They’d come from San Francisco, Shanghai, Barcelona, London, Amiens, Perth and Melbourne: it was indeed an international event.
A huge spread of brunch food and drinks meant to keep us filled in time to get us through to what was going to be a late lunch indeed did achieve that. It was also the first glimpse of the bride and groom together. Gasps were heard.
The lunch at Ristorante LaVecchia Latteria was terrific. A bus had been hired to take us into the pre Alps about 45 mins away so the views were lovely as was the location. Many courses – six I believe. Antipasta, two entrees, two mains, and a dessert of Thousand layer cake. It finished at 6:00pm. We woz full. Full and very happy.
At 6:30pm the evening guests arrived and more food was served in a less formal setting. We didn’t have any! Although a choice of three gelato to finish off the evening just couldn’t be ignored.
Visitors arrived who’d known the couple from Amiens and from local areas. The garden setting was well utilised for photo’s chatting and by the time the bus was ready to take the old people home, a couple of entertaining impromptu speeches by the Best Man -Thomas in English and Bridesmaid – Alessia in Italian. Having known Thomas for as long as Jacob – Day One, Year One – we were just as proud of his lovely speech as we were of the things he was saying about Jacob!
Once the old people left, other things happened. But I can’t write about that because, well, I was on that bus too.
The next day, Monday, was to be a tour of the region and lunch, and indeed it was. A larger bus picked us up and we toured an old castle in Marostica, rather famous because they got a bit sick of continual battles over land, so instead they played chess to choose the winners of land allocations. Hills were climbed, old things inspected, people continued conversations from the day before.
Back on the bus to a Monastery and a view over an old city and very old bridge. The bus driver, a cousin of Angelo, Nicole’s father. There were plenty of laughs at his stories, some of which Nicole translated.
Lunch was at a large local cafe in the hills. Plenty of locals around, it was, as was a great deal of this week, a great time experiencing the non touristy areas of Italy and mixing with plenty of regular locals – with all the richness of experience that language barriers bring.
The gang 
The bus dropped us at the brides home around 9:00pm and we carried on eating up the leftovers from the wedding day – a job that had to be done, until getting back to Fattoria Grimana, about 500m away about 11:00pm to crash into bed after an enormous couple of days.
Sounds amazing and the kinda day that everyone wished for and more xxxx
Fantastic Tim
Sounds like a great time was had by all
A beautiful, unique & very happy occasion. How wonderful for you & your family
A beautiful, unique & very happy occasion. What a wonderful experience for you & your family. Best wishes to the happy couple.
Beautifully written Tim. You described the few days and especially jacob and Nicole’s wedding perfectly. Both Ty and I feel privileged to have been able to join you all. It was amazing.