Last October I got to travel to the tuscan countryside to film Hannah and Marco get married. It was epic to say the least.
About 50 friends and family gathered in Castelfiorentino at II Grande Prato for a weekend celebrating these two angels. It was intimate, and personal, and honestly a fucking blast.
These people know how to have a good time (peep the dancing footage hahah!) but they also now how to be kind and intentional and thoughtful, which is super evident in their film. I have never seen more people cry (sob even) than at this wedding, they love hard and its so special to witness.
Hannah’s dad Alden created a slideshow for Hannah and Marco highlighting their lives up until this point, separately and then together, once they met each-other in high school.
The night before their wedding, during their rehearsal dinner, everyone gathered around and watched this video, lots of laughs and tears as we all got to reminisce on the time leading up to this moment. This was a moment that really stuck out to me, and I knew it deserved screen time in their film.
The morning of the wedding rolled around and we were all crossing our fingers for no rain.
Hannah got ready with her close friends and family, everyone helped each-other with their makeup and had some champagne to ease the nerves. A lot of small special moments, Malia, the maid of honor, confirming historical details, with Hannah, for her speech as Hannah had her hair done, or Tatum, Hannahs sister, practicing her speech criss cross apple sauce for their sister in law, Kaelynn, or our mutual fascination with a lizard “modern dinosaur” climbing on the roof outside the window.
Meanwhile the boys were getting ready and blasting techno music on the other side of the property. We began by popping some champagne. Some of the men weren’t ready yet but joined with shaving cream on their face, and were only wearing towels lmao, we got a laugh out of this. We then let the boys do their thing as they got dressed. Marco explained to us the significance of the watch he was wearing, which was the perfect intro into their film.
Hannah and Marco decided to get married in Italy in honor of Marco’s late grandfather, who lived in Italy and was Italian, and this was his watch that was stuck on “his time” which I really really loved.
After the boys were dressed we decided to have more champagne, which naturally turned into everyone taking turns and telling Marco their advice/feelings/love for him etc. We all were crying very hard.
We headed back over to Hannah to get her dressed and ready to go. We then got Alden ready to do a first look with his daughter. We chatted about Hokas as we waited for Hannah to come out. Once she did, these two had a sweet moment together.
Guests started arriving, most stayed at the property, and made the walk over to the ceremony site which overlooked the tuscan countryside (could it be any fucking better??) The ceremony was thoughtful and profound, there wasn’t a single dry eye when Hannah walked down the aisle with her dad. The sobbing never really ended because Hannah and Marco’s vows were also massive tear jerkers. Hannah writes for a living so we had expectations, but they were blown out of the water. They both wrote beautiful, articulate, and intimate vows that I would listen to over and over.
We then began cocktail hour, which was such a natural hangout, people chilling on the lawn near the ceremony site. I specifically remember Hannah and Marco just taking a sit and chatting with some friends before we took some portraits of them.
Their entrance was one of my faves ever, They entered to “Dancing in the moonlight” their guests sang along and clapped. So deeply and clearly in love with each-other
We ate and drank and then people gave speeches.
I think the speeches almost lasted 2 hours, everyone prepared intentional and thoughtful words to say to the couple and again we all fucking cried.
Then we did the first dances and I thought the tears were over, but I was wrong. Hannah and Marco’s first dance was sang by a few friends and family, while Marcos brother played the guitar. All of the guests helped out by clapping and singing too. It was so special and I wanted to use every second of footage I filmed. Marco and his mother danced and it was so sweet and gentle, then Hannah and her father surprised everyone with a dance montage, and the crowd went wild AND THEN
we partied…
and it was fucking wild
im serious
the video speaks for itself.
And then 13 hours after I started I went to my room and fell asleep
The End!
xoxo Em