Two Pittsburghers living in New York City celebrated their big day in Italy. Christina Bartolacci and Philip Caputo shared their joy with family and friends, and the bride’s ancestral hometown.
Love Italian Style
As Pittsburgh transplants to New York City, Phil Caputo and Cristina Bartolacci felt fairly confident they knew the majority of people from their hometown who were also living there. It wasn’t until they were set up on a blind date that they finally crossed paths.
A relationship bloomed from that first meeting at a wine bar in Tribeca. Two-and-a-half years later, Phil proposed near the apartment where Cristina lived after college while teaching English in Italy. Another surprise was just around the corner. Their parents were waiting at a nearby bar that also held special significance to Cristina from her time in Milan. “It was a real full-circle moment,” she says.
For their spectacular wedding, the couple returned to Italy. This time it was to the Abruzzo region, where Cristina’s family has deep roots. As the bride’s father, Joseph Bartolacci shared in his reception toast, it was not just a destination wedding. They were “returning home.” It isn’t customary in Italy for the bride’s father to speak, and his emotional tribute to couple both turned heads and warmed hearts.
Cristina’s mother, Linda Bartolacci, collaborated with Joy Wedding Planner and the couple to plan this very special event. They infused every detail with care and love.
In June of last year, they welcomed friends and family to Colonnella, Italy. “It’s a beach town, so people made it a vacation, which made it feel like we were all together for multiple days, rather than just one evening. We got to intimately spend a lot of time together,” says Cristina.
The festivities officially kicked off with a welcome party on the beach the night before the wedding.
The couple is the ninth generation in the bride’s family to marry at Parrocchia di San Cipriano. The ceremony blended Italian and English for their guests from near and far. Father Cristoforo Pujol, a friend of Cristina’s from grade school, officiated. Angel statues donated by her great-great-grandfather graced the altar. “There was a lot of history. So many generations before us had gotten married there, so it was really special,” she says.
“In Italy, the tradition when you leave the church is for everyone to throw rice at you to wish you good luck. That was collectively one of our favorite moments. It’s also one of our favorite pictures from the entire day,” Cristina says. Residents also cheered their nuptials from surrounding the piazza and the balconies above.
Afterwards, 160 guests gathered in the garden at Relais Villa Corallo, a recently restored 19th century villa situated between the ocean and the Italian countryside. It’s easy to see why Cristina instantly knew this was her dream location when first touring the property.
The garden’s inherent beauty set the tone for stunning celebration. A roaming saxophonist added jazz inflections to the evening’s music in a very Italian mix of jazz and pop. Long tables adorned with glittering chandeliers and pastel petals arranged by Faieta Fiori Lab welcomed everyone to the garden, along with a color-coordinated prosecco bar offering glasses of bubbles for a “first cin cin!”
Everything on the menu was locally sourced and highlighted traditional Abruzzese dishes. “A big cornerstone to our love story is food. Phil couldn’t do a lot of the translating and the planning, but it was really fun to see him pick all of the food,” says Cristina.
There was spaghetti alla chittarra, thin egg noodles with tiny meatballs and red sauce (which the bride ate very carefully in her Ines de Santo wedding gown from Bridal Beginnings in Pittsburgh!) and late-night eats of arrosticini, a regional specialty of small lamb skewers. “We had about 20 of those each at 2 a.m.!” the bride recalls with a laugh. Their dreamy mille-feuille wedding cake featured cream custard and candied strawberries. Sumptuous pyramids of local figs completed the dessert offering.
After the sun had set, Deb Jones Live Music brought the party to the outdoor dance floor. While a joyful dance party is a nearly universal part of American weddings, it’s a novelty in Italy. So much so that local media showed up the next morning to interview guests about the mix of Italians and Italian-Americans that had descended upon San Benedetto del Tronto.
As for the bomboniere, or party favors, guests were gifted hand-painted thimbles featuring sunflowers (the bride’s favorite), made in nearby Castelli. They were thoughtfully chosen to honor the long history of master tailors and seamstresses both in the region and in their lineage, in particular, Cristina’s grandmother and grandfather. Bonus: the gifts easily fit in guests’ suitcases.
More than anything, the celebration “was so joyful,” says Linda. “You could feel Phil and Cristina’s love. That’s what made it so magical.”
Story by Nicole Barley
Photography by Krup Studio/Giacomo Vesprini and Marco Romandini
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