Wedding Album

Wedding Album

Our wedding in Italy was quite an adventure!

It began on Monday, July 12. Sarah arrived at the airport in Rome where Andy picked her up. Because of waiting for luggage, we missed the first train, but got on another headed for Fabriano. Once there, we had some trouble finding the rental car, but managed to do so with the help of a lady at a bar. The person who worked at the car rental did not speak any English and we don't speak any Italian, but we eventually managed to get the car and be on our way to the villa. We stopped at a grocery store in San Severino for dinner supplies and made our way to the villa. It had wonderful views of the countryside and a pool to cool off from the heat. The hint of yellow are fields full of sunflowers.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent meeting Father Michael and getting things ready for the wedding. Andy did great driving the stick shift rental car on all of the winding roads and tight spaces (once he figured out how reverse worked). We found Father Michael by asking people who spoke no English and pointing to a picture of him in a book. Father Michael took us around the town to find a photographer, flowers, music, a caterer, and worked on transportation. We weren't sure what we were going to end up with for all of the wedding details since Father Michael talked to everyone in Italian and we just smiled. We knew that we were going to get a roll of film, have some flowers, a person playing an electronic keyboard, food for 14, and a wedding cake, but no precise details like we imagine weddings in the US have.

We also picked up Pete and Brian at the train station in San Severino Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday we added more people to the mix picking up Andy's dad, brother, and sister as well as Sarah's mom, stepdad, and aunt. There was some confusion about train schedules, but everyone made it back to the villa eventually.

We made several trips to the grocery store in San Severino and made food at the villa. Everyone took turns cooking, cleaning up, and doing dishes. The group played several games both in the pool and after dark. No one was really that good at the Trivial Pursuit game England's version.

Friday we played in the pool, did some laundry, and went to a travel agency to get tickets home for the bunch that was already there. With Brian's ability to speak Italian, this wasn't as hard as it could have been, but still took quite a bit of time.

The rest of the party came in late that night with Sarah's cousin, his wife, Sarah's brother, and his girlfriend all arriving on the same train from Venice.

Saturday (Wedding Day) was here! In the morning, several of us went back into San Severino to pick up some groceries for the evening's dinner and lunch, get tickets back home for those that arrived yesterday, and for us to check into the hotel. When we got back, some people swam in the pool before getting ready for the bus to pick the group up at 3 to head to the church for the wedding.

Everyone showered and got ready for the ceremony. Sarah borrowed her mom's wedding band for her something borrowed and something old, Sarah's dress was her something new, Audrey gave Sarah a blue ring to wear in her shoe for her something blue, and Tracy put a Euro penny in Sarah's shoe to finish off the saying.

The group was ready to go with a few riding in the rental car and everyone else in the bus right on time. But the bus was lost, so the car went to find them to bring them to the villa. Sarah was in the car with Andy, but her dress was in the bus, so that Andy wouldn't see her dress before walking down the aisle.

Once the bus made it to the villa, we headed for Apiro. The car made it to the church, but the bus wasn't there. Apparently, there are two churches in or near Apiro called St. Urban. We were married in the one that was not the first stop for the bus. But eventually, the bus made it to the church. Luckily, Father Michael and everyone else was not concerned about starting the wedding right at 4:00 since only Sarah (without her dress) and Dan were in the church then.

St. Urban's was beautiful. There were seven arrangements of white roses around the alter, flowers lining the aisle, and a gorgeous bouquet of white roses for Sarah to carry. The church also had red tapestries hanging that were around 300 years old.

The photographer showed up and the musician brought his wife to sing as well. Already in the church was the lady who lived down the street from Father Michael. She helped us find him the first day and wanted to come to the wedding even though she hadn't been to church in fourteen years!

After introductions were made of the entire group, we got a short history of the church from the pastor and translated into English by Father Michael. The paperwork was signed and Sarah put on her dress for the ceremony to begin.

It was amazing. Though there was some communication barriers with an Italian priest performing a wedding (his first) in English, everything was perfect. Audrey, Aaron, and Steve did the readings. We said our vows and exchanged rings. Debbie and Dan signed as the witnesses. But Sarah had to ask for the kiss at the end. In Italy, kissing at the end of a wedding only happens in the movies!

Once the ceremony finished, we just started taking pictures. The photographer also took us outside the church for some with the steeple in the background and others with a view of the countryside. There are way too many pictures to pick favorites. You can view them all here.

Once the pictures were all taken, we headed out to our nicely decorated car and others went back to the villa on the bus. The car headed to Enzo's restaurant to pick up the food for our reception at the villa. We also stopped by the bakery to pick up the wedding cake.

Back at the villa, everyone had decorated the table in the courtyard. We were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Kidwell. Steve, Kenny, Pete, and Dan even made toasts. Since we had a nice wedding cake and it was our wedding day, we even did the traditional cake smashing.

That same evening we loaded up the car with the first round going to the train station - Pete, Steve, and Crista. We headed to our hotel for the evening. The group at the train station missed their bus, but managed to find a ride to Fabriano to catch the train in the morning for their flight back to the US.

The rest of the bunch headed back to the train station either Sunday or Monday. We gave the neighbors our leftover food and even Sarah's wedding bouquet. The family was leaving for home and we were starting our honeymoon.

The honeymoon was great. We started in Venice. Then headed to Bologna, Modena, Florence, Pisa, and Rome. Only spending one day in each place, we spent quite a bit of time at the train stations, but did manage to see everything that we wanted to in each place. Sarah's favorite was Florence and Andy like Rome the best. But now we can say that we've seen all of the places.

We returned to the US on Monday and started preparing for the reception coming up that Saturday.
Everything seemed to be in place with the tent, cake, and person responsible for maintaining the food. We even made it downtown to pick up the marriage license.

Everyone pitched in to get the food purchased and prepared. Neighbors came over to help set up tables, chairs, and extra tents the night before. We also found out that the Chief would be able to come and would perform our civil ceremony - making the marriage legal in the eyes of Indiana. There were photos on the tables, on the TV, and around the house to give a view into the ceremony in Italy.

On Saturday, people started arriving for the party right at 4:00. We were ready to begin the celebration! Quite a few people were able to be present for our civil ceremony. We said our vows (again), exchanged rings (again), and signed paperwork for Indiana. People came and went, but it was nice to be able to celebrate with so many family and friends.

Once the party was over, our wedding celebration was complete.

Thank you to everyone for all that you did to help make our wedding so memorable!

This page only has a sample of all the pictures taken of the villa, Italy wedding, honeymoon, and reception. All of the pictures can be found here.

We are now Mr. and Mrs. Kidwell.

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