2020 was not an easy year for anyone. In a context characterized by uncertainty, there were many couples who would have liked to say yes but unfortunately had to cancel their wedding. What previously seemed normal - choosing each other, making an appointment at the altar, celebrating with old friends and family - seemed to have turned into an impossible undertaking.
The damage to the wedding sector has been a lot: according to Federmep - Federmatrimoni and private events - from the beginning of the pandemic to the end of 2020, about 65 thousand weddings and about 200 thousand other events canceled. The loss, probably underestimated, is about 20 billion euros and includes not only the location and the bride's dress, but dozens of workers working in the sector.
The damages do not concern, however, only the sector, but also for the couples who had already planned the event and paid the various advances and deposits.
Between one decree and the next, anxiety grew and hope collapsed. Some couples, however, did not give up. Among these there are Martina and Gabriele, of Macerata.
For Martina I created a customized version of the Noce model, following her request (she had clear ideas!). The shoe was made with two materials: delicate nude leather on the heel and heel and bright glitter fabric on the toe. A slipper with a double soul that gave light to the dress.
This is their story.
Martina and Gabriele got married on 12 September 2020, in a splendid Apulian farm.
The first meeting with Gabriele dates back to a very long time ago, when I was still a 9-year-old girl and he was a university freshman who came from a small village in Salento, who ended up going to the bar owned by my father.
My mother, an incurable romantic, says that I already had a crush on him at the time, but obviously I don't remember anything, I was only 9 years old and I didn't even know what love was.
The sequel might seem almost fairytale, but 15 years later we found ourselves thanks to a "lost" shoe. That summer I was a trainee in the press office of the opera festival in my city and a few days from the start I realized that I had forgotten the shoes to wear on elegant occasions at a friend's house. Times were very tight, the next day would be the first and she would leave for the holidays. The only way to retrieve the shoes would be to ring the silent boy downstairs where he had left the package in custody.
It so happened that that boy was Gabriele, the shy freshman with the hat met many years before.
From there was born, little by little, what five years later we sealed with a "Yes".
The choice of where to get married did not raise any doubts, we already knew where without even telling us. The Salento countryside, on the one hand olive trees intertwined with each other, on the other expanses of rows of vineyards and prickly pear blades resting on dry stone walls along the roads. Small villages, with mostly white houses, with flat roofs where you can lose your gaze on what seems to be an infinite plain. One of our common points that I love most. The places where Gabriele was born and where I spent my childhood in my grandparents' paternal home.
Of course, getting married in the year a global pandemic broke out was not part of our plans. About 9 months after the set date, the news of a virus began to circulate, which in a short time would almost completely upset our lives.
The months of waiting and uncertainty were many, the mood fluctuating.
We went from positivity and the desire to think about details and preparations, to days of crisis in which having to postpone to who knows when it seemed the only thing possible.
Basically I think that our luck has been double: not only did we manage to celebrate our wedding in such a difficult year, but we also managed not to have to postpone the chosen date by one day many months before everything started.
After a more difficult first month, in fact, we decided to make a positive use of the time at home, thus starting to design and create all the details of our wedding with our own hands.
First the theme, the common thread of the day would have been in tune with the chosen place, what could be more beautiful ?! The olive tree, with its roots, the protagonist, accompanied by the whole set of plants and trees that populate the lands of southern Puglia.
From there whole nights spent on the computer to make investments, look for the perfect bottles to fill with oil taken from a small "furese" (farmer) of the area, place cards, sugared almonds, sealing wax and seals. From that moment on, time flew by and we found ourselves like this in June when it finally seemed that the world was starting to turn again, but it was not yet clear if and how they would let the wedding be celebrated.
At that point we didn't care, we would have gone on anyway.
Another essential point in the organization of the wedding: my "shoes".
I had the pleasure of meeting Alice and the Venus Slipper a few years ago, through a dear friend of mine, Cristina.
Although she has never been a shoe enthusiast, Alice's creations have had an overwhelming effect on me. In unsuspecting times, joking with my friend, I said that on my wedding day I would have a pair of my own. And so it was!
Alice was extremely available, with video calls during the lockdown to discuss the creation of the shoe, to decide on the model, colors, materials, every detail.
The shoe of your dreams made to measure for you, practically a daydream!
My choice fell on the Noce model, which I chose to customize: I imagined them just like that, that bright detail that is then really reductive to define a detail. They are so beautiful that their destiny is absolutely not to end up forever relegated to the memory box. I look forward to the moment to be able to put them back on my feet to celebrate perhaps the special day of some other lover.
The advice I would like to give to couples who had and have planned their big day in this year still so difficult and uncertain, is not to be demoralized and not to lose the spirit that should accompany them until the day of the exchange of promises.
To feel lucky to be able to have a thought on their mind that will accompany them with a smile, imagining details, scenes and moments of that truly magical day.
Did you like the story of Martina and Gabriele?
Are you also a bride of 2020 who is still waiting to celebrate her wedding? Or have you managed not to upset your plans?
I would love to hear your story and share it here on my blog. You could be the right inspiration for a new bride! Write to alice@scarpettadivenere.it
If, on the other hand, you are looking for the shoe for your wedding, you can peek here.
