We're so excited to get to share this whopper of a destination wedding with you today! With Covid-19 forcing so many couples to move their destination wedding closer to home, we were beside ourselves with excitement when we came across Katie & Dane’s beautiful Sri Lankan-Irish fusion wedding in Italy. This lovely couple tied the knot in vibrant ceremonies at the Borgo di Tragliata in Italy last Spring, among close family and friends. Bride Katie wore the most incredible bridalwear on all occasions and was complimented ever so stylishly by her dapper groom, Dane. There to capture all the love, colour and fun was Peggy Picot of Maison Pestea and we're delighted to be sharing their beautiful wedding images with you today. It's a treat from beginning to end!

Bride Katie is from Kenmare in Co. Kerry and groom Dane is from London, but the pair are currently based in the UK. Katie fills us in on how their love story began, "We met when we were both working in York Hospital in England, in 2012. Dane first caught my eye, when he complained that I was watching Downton Abbey in the Doctor’s room and the usual channel showing Friends and Scrubs re-runs had been changed. My initial plan to move to England for two years then turned into an indefinite stay."

According to Katie, Dane’s proposal was a winner! "Dane had a romantic trip to Lisbon planned for the proposal, but after a fantastic weekend spent at a friend’s wedding in Wexford the weekend before, he couldn’t wait any longer! Straight from the train from the airport, he took me on a riverside walk in York to our favourite bridge and proposed. He clearly took me by surprise, otherwise I would have been more prepared and not have spent the journey picking off my lovely shellac from the wedding! He proposed on my father Gerry’s birthday."

The couple settled on the beautiful and elegant venue of Borgo di Tragliata for their epic celebrations and were thrilled that the venue was able to accommodate all their requests. "It was my bridesmaid Evanna who told us about Borgo di Tragliata, and from the first time we visited it, we knew it was just what we had been looking for. I had my heart set on a destination wedding, and had fallen in love with Rome when Dane and I went on our first holiday together back in 2013. It was the most idyllic venue we could have imagined for our wedding and we loved that the guests all stayed in the venue or closeby, so it felt like we were all on holiday together."

She continues, "Borgo di Tragliata has a really relaxed atmosphere, with the most beautiful surrounding farmland. One of the features that makes this place so special, is that within the venue there are so many areas to use for the various celebrations, so no one got bored! The guests from our wedding are still talking about how fantastic the food was throughout the three days of parties. Then to add to all of this, there are Cristina, Silvia and their team at Borgo, who, from the beginning right through to when the last guest departed, ensured that every little detail was perfect."

Although it looks picture perfect, Katie tells us planning a Tamil Hindu ceremony in Italy had its challenges! "Firstly, we could not find priests locally who could conduct the ceremony and so chose to fly two priests from London to Rome, along with bags and bags of everything they needed for the ceremony, if you look at the photos of the ceremony stage, you can imagine just how many bags! As we wanted to keep with tradition for the ceremony flowers, Dane’s parents arranged for the flower garlands for the bride and groom and the fresh jasmine hair garlands for the bride, bridesmaids and guests to also be flown from London, with ice packs helping to keep them fresh for the big day."

Despite the challenges though, the couple are full of praise for their family and friends, as well as their suppliers, who helped make their day extra special. Katie tells us, "Our task of planning a Tamil Hindu –Irish ‘fusion’ wedding in Italy was a great one but thanks to all our parents, family, bridal party and friends, Irish, Sri Lankan and English, it was a great success. We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of them. All of our suppliers were amazing, nothing was too much to ask and though some didn’t have any experience of a wedding like this before, they were there from morning to night, for the ‘longest wedding day they had ever encountered’!"

Katie and her bridesmaids' beautiful sarees were sourced from Chennai in India and paired with blouses from London to which she added a little nod to home, "Though we were having a traditional Hindu ceremony, I really wanted to have something that reminded me of my family and home too, which is why on my saree blouse, I had little shamrock beading embroidered into the design."

The couple also added another nod to Katie's Irish heritage with traditional Irish music by Italian Cèili band The Shire! "We had the best three days of celebrations we could have ever imagined. It started with a ceili party, with The Shires who were so talented, some of our Irish guests even thought we had flown over from Ireland (they’re local to Rome). This was a new experience for some of Dane’s Sri Lankan family, but by the end of the night everyone knew the dances, thanks to our fantastic caller Shona."

We think Katie brought another touch of home to Italy with her - the Irish weather! "Everyone always says you can never control the weather and this proved true on the most planned out day of our lives, when mid-outdoor ceremony, there was a huge thunderstorm!" Katie says. "Nothing could have made a bride’s entrance more dramatic than the largest clap of thunder we heard overhead as I arrived! Fortunately, Cristina and her amazing team at Borgo had it covered and while I left to get changed into my wedding saree, as is tradition in a Tamil Hindu ceremony, all the guests dashed into the beautifully set up barn, just in time before the heavens opened. It was so slick, some of the Irish guests, who hadn’t attended a Hindu ceremony before, thought this change of location was part of the ceremony. Cristina saved the day!"

All the heart eyes for this dreamy setting!

Honouring both Irish and Sri Lankan traditions, Katie and her bridesmaids changed into gowns for the evening reception. Her gorgeous wedding dress is the Noya by Riki Dalal and her bridesmaids rocked embellished dresses by Lace & Beads. The Groom and his men looked rather dapper too, in suits from ASOS!

Katie and Dane's wedding day started early as there were lots of traditions to follow, "Despite the thunderstorm, our celebrations started early and continued well into the small hours," Katie says. "One of the highlights, was when our very lively band The Gloves, arrived into a room of sleepy guests, after their numerous courses of delicious food, with their trumpets and made everyone get up and form a conga line taking everyone into the party ‘barn’ next door!"

For a little taste of Sri Lanka, Dane’s Mum lovingly made 150 pieces of traditional Sri Lankan Richcake as wedding favours for their guests.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Katie and Dane had an absolute blast at their wedding! Their advice for fellow couples planning a destination wedding in Italy is to, "sit back, let the Borgo team take over, and enjoy every minute, they will ensure it is the best party of your lives. If we had a chance to do it all again, the only thing we would do differently is, as well as providing fans for the heat, we would have given all the guests umbrellas!"

Thank you Katie and Dane for sharing the details of your beautiful and enchanting Sri Lankan-Irish fusion wedding with us, and to Peggy from Maison Pestea for sending the beautiful pictures our way. There were literally too many gorgeous details in this wedding to fit in a single feature, so we've included the full set of images in the gallery below.