Leagh and Andrew's Beautiful Villa Wedding in Sicily by Dazzled

To get you in the mood for holiday season I have this gorgeous destination wedding to share with you today. Leagh and Andrew were married in April last year in a beautiful villa in Sicily. The whole day from start to finish is absolutely gorgeous. The Villa itself is just stunning, the old style brick work gives it a rustic authenticity. The planners Dazzled have worked with this in mind when it comes to the decor, mixing in classic greenery with the natural elements of the lemons to add subtle accents of yellow to the detailing. The wedding is classic, elegant but with a modern twist. if you are planning a destination wedding, then let this be your inspiration.

Our wedding day was perfect and we feel so lucky every time we get to talk about it! Our favourite people, altogether, on holiday, in a wonderful setting with great food, great wine, love and laughter.

Leagh and Andrew were married on 2nd April 2023 at Villa Carcara in Ragusa, Sicily. ‘We decided to get married in Sicily as we loved the idea of getting married abroad and wanted it to be in Spring. We read that Sicily was beautiful at this time of year and after chatting with our lovely wedding planners (Emily and Adriana) and seeing the different options, we just knew we had to go with the rustic feel of Carcara villa. We had 48 guests and it took approximately one year to plan.’

How they met
We met in Abu Dhabi as new teachers at the same school and we became friends. Things progressed as time moved on and we got together in April 2019. We’ve been together for 5 years now and married for 1 year.

The proposal
The proposal was not as planned. Andrew bought the engagement ring in the December 2019 hoping to propose in April 2020. He left the ring in the UK as he knew he would ruin the surprise if it was in the apartment. Andrew’s parents were supposed to fly out in April 2020 but were unable to because of COVID. Leagh’s parents met with Andrew’s in a carpark on the Scotland England border in the winter of 2020 to exchange the ring before flying out to meet Leagh and Andrew in Dubai. Eventually, unable to wait any longer, and after the stressful delay…Andrew proposed to Leagh in their apartment on Christmas day 2020…not on a private beach with Leagh’s family as originally intended.

How did you allocate your budget?
Carefully. We were very fortunate that we had clear guidance from Emily & Adriana and everything was very clear in terms of cost. The most important thing for us was the villa and location so we knew that would be the biggest outlay. We were very aware that we were asking a lot of our guests and wanted to make sure once they were there they didn’t have to pay for anything else such as drinks so covering that was also important. It would have been much more difficult to do without the support of Emily & Adriana.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
The main area we saved, I suppose, was by having quite a small amount of guests. This was not intentionally done to save money but because we only wanted our really close family and friends there…this meant we could splurge and be generous with food and drink as there was generally just smaller numbers. As mentioned above, it was important for us to give as much as we could because we knew we were asking a lot from people to travel to Sicily.

How did you choose your photographer?
Emily and Adriana sent us some options and we went with Avenir – we loved how professional their videography was.

The dress
Leagh’s dress was bought in Scotland at Madison Rose Bridal and was designed by Morilee.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suit was from Moss Bros – Andrew wanted something classic looking but with a slight twist opting for a matching, dark green, 3 piece suit with black bow tie and shoes. The shoes, shirt and tie were from Boggi Milano.
We chose not to have bridesmaids as it was too hard to pick between Leagh’s amazing friends. We only invited Leagh’s closest friends to the wedding and having each of them there was so, so important to her. She couldn’t have chosen between them.

Theme or colour scheme
We chose a very rustic theme with lots of green and snippets of lemon (the fruit and the colour) woven in. It looked very natural, especially in the beautiful setting.

Flowers
We just gave the colour scheme and our mood board to the flower designer and together with the wedding planners they elaborated the design and the choice of the flowers matching the lemons and olive branches.

Decoration
we didn´t have any other decor more than the ceremony arch and flowers on the tables & and some string lights for extra light in the evening for the pizza serving. The location speaks for it self so no need to use too much of decor.

Food
Leagh was so busy mingling, she didn’t eat much…Andrew ate everything. We had an amazing catering company and they did a great job. The main meal we served was a seafood pasta and an italian barbeque. We also had a mountain of antipasti which was delicious and beautifully presented.
We also had a pizza van on the evening – Andrew’s main contribution to the planning. The pizza was incredible and was a welcome addition even though everyone was very full by this point.

Wedding cake
The cake was sponge with lemon cream. It was unreal. Andrew’s Mum who makes wedding cakes was blown away.

Entertainment
During our ceremony, we had some stunning strings music being played for the guests. For entertainment we had a saxophonist during the day whilst we had drinks after the ceremony and before the main meal. In the evening we had a DJ who was very flexible with song choices and even allowed some karaoke.

Who supplied the stationery?
Leagh’s very talented and creative best friend Taylor made all the stationery and we loved it!

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We were lucky enough to spend two weeks in total, travelling around Sicily. After the wedding, we spent almost a week in Taormina and fell in love with the place! We also treated ourselves to a week in Mauritius in December which served as a more relaxing honeymoon.

Personal touches
Leagh wore her great grandmother’s engagement ring and this was so special. We also opted to write our own ceremony – taking some inspiration from Humanist ceremonies and deciding to celebrate what we already loved about our relationship instead of what marriage would change. Our favourite personal touch was having a little poem about each of our guests as their table place. Everyone loved how personal they were and it was a great way to break the ice for those that hadn’t met before!

Special moments
There were so many special moments! Our beautiful niece was a flower girl and she did a great job! We each had some friends do some readings – a highlight being “Carrie’s Poem” from Sex in the City. Seeing our loved ones have an amazing time was a huge part of what made it so special for us.

Advice for other couples
Take some time to spend together even if it is just for a minute or two! Living abroad, we got so wrapped up in the excitement of being with all our favourite people and having them all together, we didn’t take stock of the how perfect the day was as much as we should have. Reflecting on it all, we feel so lucky and had the best day – but it would have been nice to have been more present and share more reflective moments like this together at various points.

Biggest surprise
Andrew surprised Leagh with fireworks at the end of the first dance. It was a shame that the little bit of rain we experienced meant we didn’t get to see them outside but it was a lovely thought and they were so beautiful!