Photos courtesy of Project di Salvatore Mozzillo

The Engagement

After six years of being boyfriend and boyfriend and living together in Dublin (where they still live with their Maltichon dog Archie), it was time for product marketing manager, Liam, and sales account manager Fabrizio, to make it official. But who was going to make the first move? It turns out both gentlemen had the same idea. They had a trip booked to New York in February 2020. Both, unbeknownst to each other, purchased an engagement ring for their other half. But it was the Limerick man who got there first. On a romantic evening overlooking the Manhattan skyline on Top of the Rock, Liam asked the love of his life to be his forever soulmate. The Naples native said yes, and later produced his own bling (a Tiffany’s ring) for Liam in Central Park, sharing his own proposal plans (similar to Liam’s) with him. They were overjoyed with their future together.

The Wedding

The happy couple decided to go back to Fabrizio’s homeland to tie the knot in August 2022. They both had their sister’s, Deirdre and Francesca, stand with them on their special day. Their ceremony at Tenuta Fabiana, Caserta was “amazing.” Anna, who officiated their ceremony, “was the most amazing, genuine person that we have ever met; she put her heart and soul into making the ceremony the best that it could be. All our guests were in floods of tears throughout the whole ceremony and told us that it was one of the most beautiful that they had ever seen. The ceremony was done in a mix of Italian and English and was very personal to us,” recalls Liam. Although the Italian weather was against them, (it rained aligning nicely with the day they met in Paris), they didn’t let it bother them and they thoroughly enjoyed their indoor ceremony.

Later they were able to avail of the outdoor part of their wedding day when the skies cleared and the

Italian sun reappeared. Their wedding meal was a 7-course celebration in true Italian style, with various courses served in different parts of the venue. To compliment this style, the couple chose to have various music in each section also. “We had carefully chosen different types of live music (jazz, traditional Neapolitan, live band) to entertain our guests and afterwards everyone told us that they couldn’t wait to see what was coming next in terms of music and food.

We also did a fireworks show before we cut our cake which is pretty common at an Italian wedding, but was a lovely surprise for our guests,” shared Liam. In Italy their traditional wedding favour is called a bomboniera, given to all guests after the cutting of the wedding cake. “They typically contain sugared almonds, usually five that signify the wishes for the couple: health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and longevity. For our “bomboniera” we gave a reed diffuser painted in the colours of the Amalfi coast so that people can put this in their house and always remember the special day that we spent together.”

Liam's Advice

“An important thing to bear in mind when planning a wedding is to not think about what other people want and focus on what you want to make your day special. We were worried about the Irish cohort not enjoying an Italian wedding, and in the end, they had the best time. But it was us who wanted to have an Italian wedding and we shouldn’t have been worrying about what other people wanted. This was our biggest learning throughout the whole process.”