This weekend, the writer’s cousin, Maggie De Simone, and her now-husband, Riccardo Fabiano, celebrated their beautiful wedding in Naples, Italy, surrounded by loved ones. 

Their weekend started off on Saturday at sunset, when the couple’s family and all their friends, from elementary school friends to university roommates, gathered at an outdoor restaurant in the city’s mounts to celebrate the start of their wedding weekend.

After some introductions and greetings, everyone sat down at the table to talk about the weekend’s many adventures and the stunning view. Interrupting our conversations was the smell of the delicious appetizers, which began to arrive and included cold cuts, mozzarella cheese, pizza bread and much more.

Already filled with appetizers, the guests struggled to continue with the main dish, but eventually finished it thoroughly because, as the bride’s mom said, “ The greatness of the food drew [her] in more than [her] hunger itself,” which was long fulfilled by the previous dish.

In between dishes, Maggie and Riccardo escaped from their seats to talk to everyone and capture the moment with their Polaroid camera when the sound of fireworks shook everyone out of their chairs. After the magnificent show, everybody continued their conversations while eating their third dish of the night, until another surprise came from the groom.

With flashlights surrounding him on the dark street and a romantic atmosphere surrounding them, Riccardo started serenading the bride-to-be from the restaurant’s balcony to a famous love song.

Continuing the night after an unexpected surprise, were the rich desserts and yet another surprise, but to Maggie’s brother, since it was his birthday. At the end of the surprise-filled and toast-filled night, the couple went their separate ways to prepare for the big day, followed by the tired guests.

On the morning of the big day, the beautiful bride-to-be started her morning at her house by getting her hair and makeup done by the professional wedding team, while the groom was getting ready with his groomsmen at his place.

After long hours of getting ready while listening to iconic Italian songs and eating desserts from the night before, the guests started to arrive for the pre-wedding buffet at Maggie’s childhood house. During the buffet, the guests enjoyed the delicious food while continuing to talk more and more about their lives.

At exactly 3:30, the punctual future wife came down the stairs, accompanied by her father, in her beautiful gown, greeted by tears of joy. She looked perfect with her majestic dress, which her aunt said, “You could see it was hers.” They then drove away in a white convertible car, with the wind causing her veil to flutter magically behind her. 

Then, many more people met at the church to officially celebrate Maggie and Riccardo’s wedding. With music being played by friends, the groom walked down the aisle with his mother, waiting for his bride to arrive. Suddenly, the music changed, and then everybody

knew to stand up to greet Maggie’s entrance. She looked so pretty, looking at Riccardo happily, who was waiting for her at the altar, both contagiously smiling and making everybody smile around them.

Continuing the ceremony were the couple’s funny anecdotes to the priest’s questions about their story. And after the long mass, the couple finally said their yeses and wore their rings, brought by the groom’s brothers, to celebrate their marriage officially! 

With rice being thrown at them, as an Italian tradition, the couple happily walked out of the church. They then spent a couple of minutes talking to everybody and getting their pictures taken with their guests, to then meet up later at the venue.

Later, before they arrived at the venue, the couple escaped for some time to take their wedding pictures alone, with a mesmerizing view behind them. 

Everybody finally met up at the venue, with their empty stomachs to prepare for what was going to be a long night of eating. The outdoor venue was wonderfully decorated, like a fairy tale, with stations of games and food all around.

Starting at the buffet, the servers offered many options of appetizers to welcome their guests, but as more was being offered at the pre-dinner tables, everybody walked down to fill the tables, accompanied by the elegant atmosphere created by the music that was being played by the saxophonist.

After half an hour, everybody finally sat at the other assigned dinner tables, waiting for the newlyweds. To welcome Maggie and Riccardo to the tables, everybody spun their tablecloth, with some accidentally hitting their neighbors in the face.

The dinner then continued, but was later interrupted after the second meal, when the venue organizers started calling everybody out on the bright colored dancefloor. Dancing and jumping made everybody hungry again, so as soon as the music was over, everybody went back to their table to enjoy the third meal, followed by the fourth.

When another surprise came for the guests, the bridesmaids and groomsmen had called everybody out of their seats to give their speeches. While some speeches were emotional, others made everybody laugh and made them enjoy their dinner break even more, before going back to eat. 

Eventually, everybody was called over to the cutting of the cake, and later dessert, which, of course, included the cake.

After a great weekend full of fun, many guests left the wedding party, but most of the couple’s friends stayed for great fun at the after-party that continued until early in the morning.

Overall, this was an amazing wedding, and as the bride’s cousin, I am so happy that Maggie and Riccardo found each other. 

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Image courtesy of the Graziuso Family.