Dimitri Chandris proposed to Lydia Forte in the most festive of ways. “It was very cozy,” she says. “We were at home on Boxing Day, and it was totally out of the blue. We were opening a couple of remaining Christmas presents, and he said, ‘There’s one more for you under the tree.’ It was a ring!”
The two met through mutual friends at Oxford University—“I started the year after he finished,” explains Lydia—and had been dating for eight years when the proposal happened. Both are now involved in their respective family businesses: Dimitri works for his family’s shipping company, while Lydia looks after the food and beverage division of Rocco Forte Hotels.
Elegant Long Light Blue Grey Tailor Made Evening Prom Dress (LFNAI0029)
After they became engaged, they set a date of September 2, 2016. “It’s such a nice time of year in Tuscany,” says Lydia. “Not too hot, and you’re not interrupting anyone’s summer plans. We thought we could have it be the last hurrah of the season for everyone!”
There was never any question of where the wedding would be. “My family is Italian, and my grandparents have a beautiful old castle in Tuscany called Castello di Segalari,” says Lydia. “They bought it as ruins and painstakingly restored it to its former 12th-century glory over several years. We spent all of our summers there as children—it’s such a special place for me, with wonderful memories.” The couple opted to have their ceremony in a cathedral in the nearby town of Massa Marittima. “Instead of busing people the one hour between the cathedral and our house for dinner, we did the wedding on the Friday evening in Massa Marittima, followed by a dinner in a medieval cloisters,” explains Lydia. “Then we had a party at my grandparents’ house on Saturday night. The aesthetic was dictated by the locations: medieval Tuscan fairy tale!”
The bride’s mother, Aliai Forte, designed all of the clothes, from the flower girls and pageboys to the bridesmaids’ red prom dresses uk and her daughter’s wedding gown. “She’s very talented and has a shop in our resort in Sicily—Verdura Resort—where she sells all of her clothes. They’re actually handmade on site,” says Lydia.
For both nights, Lydia and her mother wanted to create looks consistent with the locations. “For the ceremony, we needed something grand enough to hold its own in the cathedral, but not to fussy or over the top,” explains Lydia. “It had to fit the countryside and Tuscan town setting as well. Then there was also my great-great-grandmother’s lace veil that I obviously had to wear, too!” They ultimately went with a demure off-white dress with a simple cut so that it wouldn’t compete with the veil. They added beautiful embroidery to the dress that matched what was on the veil, as well as a train to give the look a bit of grandeur.
On Saturday night, Lydia’s dress was lower cut and a little less understated. “It was for partying,” she says. “But it still fit with the country location.” The dress has light blue flowers on it, “a nod to the Greek flag and the country where Dimitri is from,” Lydia explains. The train from the first night was reattached to the dress on the second night as well.
The couple had both a Catholic and Greek Orthodox ceremony, one right after the other, in Cattedrale di San Cerbone. “Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor is an old friend of my father’s and kindly presided over the most beautiful Catholic ceremony for us,” says Lydia. “Then there are these lovely rituals of the Orthodox ceremony—the crowns (stefana) that the best man (koumbaro) places over our heads, the exchanging of the rings three times, then walking around the altar three times and the kissing of the icon. It is full of so much symbolism and meaning. Unfortunately for our guests, it was a bit long, though, at one and a half hours!”
Friday night kicked off with drinks in the square of Massa Marittima, outside of the cathedral, with typical Tuscan aperitivo, while guests chatted and watched the local Tuscan flag bearers perform, followed by Greek dancers. They then walked through the medieval town to the sound of the flag bearers’ drums while torches lined the path to the cloisters. There, Michelin-star chef Fulvio Pierangelini, who is the creative director of food at Rocco Forte Hotels, had prepared a fish dinner, an Italian-Catholic tradition. At the end of the meal, silver platters of fruit were placed on the tables and wedding cake was served.
On Saturday, Pierangelini and his team prepared a meal of pumpkin ravioli, Chianina veal (a Tuscan specialty), olive oil mashed potatoes, and porcini mushrooms. After Lydia and Dimitri gave speeches thanking their guests, everyone moved to the other side of the house. There, they gathered around an 8th-century tower in the garden and enjoyed a buffet dessert and danced beneath light from the torches on all of the crenelated wall tops. At 3:00 a.m., Pierangelini served another round of pasta and souvlaki—a marriage of Lydia’s and Dimitri’s Italian and Greek heritage in one late-night meal. The night culminated with a surprise courtesy of the mother of the bride. “She had arranged for fireworks by an Italian artist who has a company called Vaccalluzzo Events,” remembers Lydia. “I had never seen anything like them; they were in time to the music and so creative. He does all the fireworks for Italy’s festivals and public events. It was a magical end to a fairy-tale night.”
READ MORE:red cocktail dress