Today's real wedding is that of Mariah and Ajakari, who decided to elope to Italy, and the pictures are as gorgeous as you'd imagine! The couple rented a home in Cortona, Tuscany for their ceremony, before celebrating in the stunning Italian town. As couples continue to downsize their weddings to adhere to Covid restrictions, Mariah and Ajakari prove that even the smallest of weddings can be truly spectacular. Maison Pestea captured their intimate Tuscany elopement in glorious detail, and were good enough to share the results with us, so let's dive in!

Mariah and Ajakari met back in 2012 through a mutual friend, running into each other at a number of parties. Their friends are convinced they were destined to meet after somehow not doing so in their two years at the same college, and many other events they were both at. But within months of eventually meeting, the pair made it official before moving in together a few months later.

When it came to proposing, it was just like the fairytale many dream of. Ajakari planned a trip to Paris for the couple to celebrate his 30th birthday in 2019. It was the couple's first international trip together and would be their most memorable. After a few days of exploring the city, Mariah was waking up in their hotel bed when Ajakari presented her with a ring. "It was a complete surprise," Mariah said. "We enjoyed a few more days in Paris and waited to tell our family and friends about the good news until we got home."

For their wedding, the pair wanted to have a day that "felt natural, unstructured and elegant. Life is busy, unpredictable and complicated," they told us. "We wanted our wedding to feel different from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. We wanted to create a day that felt centred on celebrating our love for each other, unencumbered by the pressures to conform to tradition."

The pair wanted to elope to Italy, but, when it came to finding the right venue, wanted to choose somewhere that would make for great pictures. "We wanted a venue that felt a little secluded, so that we would have privacy and something that felt quintessential Tuscan," they said. "Having the beautiful Santa Maria Nuova in the background was amazing."

Mariah and Ajakari may have not had any guests at their wedding, but they did have a friend there. "We had one of our closest friends with us to witness the wedding and to marry us, which helped us feel like we were able to share our special day with a loved one, while still being able to feel like we were running away to elope."

"The day felt really special and personal to us because it was so intimate," Mariah said. "When we first got engaged, we started planning a wedding for 20 to 40 people. We quickly realised how much there is to consider when planning a larger wedding and how sometimes it feels that you have to make compromises because of your budget or because of tradition. We had already begun to plan a trip to Italy with one of our closest friends, and decided to use the opportunity to elope. This was the best decision we made, because we were able to have an elopement and a honeymoon all in one! Instead of creating a six-hour event for 20 to 40 people, we created a two-week experience for ourselves in Tuscany. It was a romantic and intimate adventure."

As for their advice to other couples in the planning process, they say; "Trust and listen to your instincts about what would make your perfect day. There are so many options when you are exploring how to get married and what you want your ceremony to be like. While there were times that we wanted to have a traditional, larger wedding, we realised that most of what was motivating us was us wanting to meet the expectations of others. When we thought about what we really wanted and how we really wanted to feel on our wedding day, it was clear that what was most important to us was to feel like we could just be ourselves and focus on each other. Everything easily fell into place after that."

Thanks so much to today's couple, Mariah and Ajakari, for sharing a look at their beautifully romantic elopement in Tuscany with us and to Maison Pestea for capturing the day.