Heike and Adriaan: an heartfelt family gathering in July
I’m so glad to share the beautiful photos of Sofia Balli, but even more I’m touched to share the letter that accompanied them, written by the lovely Heike and Adriaan!
Enjoy their journey that bought them to celebrate their wedding in our home, in Tuscany!
Words from the couple
Where to begin… I remember reaching out to you during the end of November last year. To be honest, our original plan was to marry in Umbria, close to Assisi.
Our story goes back to the summer of 2010 when Adriaan and myself both subscribed ourselves to do a 3 week backpack trip by foot with several young adults to Assisi.
That is how we met each other and that is also the reason why Italy holds a special place in our hearts.
I remember that our search for the ideal venue soon left us both disappointed by the artificial side of the wedding industry. A lot of our guests asked us how we found Il Rigo. Well I believe it was by luck and destiny😉. I remember googling the words ‘small intimate home made wedding Agriturismo’. With these magic words, I ended up on your website.
Although the region was a bit further than our original scope, the website and philosophy of Il Rigo immediately resonated with us!
The photos of dining outside under the light bulbs, the amazing view on the hills and the cypress lane were just as I imagined the location of my ideal wedding.Also the blog posts speak volumes about they way Il Rigo hosts weddings. We really felt with every fiber of our beings that Il Rigo was our place. In the aftermath of Corona, we were very lucky as there was only one spot left , just within our preferred period.
Besides that, what I am really grateful about is that you are open to host weddings for smaller groups. Our group was a little bit smaller than the normal capacity of Il Rigo, but we were never pressured to enlarge our group.
The only thing which I was a bit afraid of was planning our wedding in a country for which we both did not speak the language. Luckily with the help of the amazing booklet of suppliers, we found in no time the ideal photographer and musicians.
If you would write a blog post about our wedding, please give a big shutout to Anthony Lynch and Luigi Carlucci 😉.
The music that they played and prepared for our ceremony, aperitivo and our live opening dance was amazing. I cannot describe by words how much energy, joy and emotion they bring to the room!
As Adriaan is a musician himself, he always stresses how important live music is.
It goes without saying that their music gave our 26th of July that idyllic touch!
The planning process went really smoothly, big part thanks to your help! During the beginning of March we had the chance to meet you in person and see Il Rigo in real live. Every supplier which we addressed, stated that Il Rigo was such a beautiful place. Honestly, I thought it was merely flattery to compliment our choice. But boy, was I wrong.
“Both Adriaan and myself were blown away by the spectacular panorama and the beauty of your home. ”
And then the 3-day wedding week arrived…
I am grateful that we decided to carve out an extra day . In this crazy world where we barely have time to keep up with everything, it is sometimes a struggle to find time for each other.
We have the illusion that we have plenty of time ahead and that we can delay our plans to ‘later’. I learned last year by the hard way that unfortunately that is an illusion.
My father had a severe stroke last year which paralyzed the right side of his body. Our upcoming wedding was really a motivation during his challenging rehabilitation. I cannot express how proud he was to be there and how much he enjoyed the stay at your place.
Please pass my thanks to Lorenza, Matthias and your team. Everything was perfectly arranged. And the flower arrangements were incredible as you will see in the pictures! Our guests really felt at home, I received a lot of comments that people loved the atmosphere: nothing was forced, everything was so relaxed!Looking back 4 months later, I realize it was a unique and rare moment to have all our loved ones together at Il Rigo. It was a welcome pause to slow down and really take time to celebrate love and friendship, to relax and catch up with our loved ones.
Heike and Adriaan
I hope you enjoyed this post and hope to have inspired you to go for a relaxed, down to earth, and meaningful party in this paradise we call home, Val d’Orcia!
venue, catering, Flowers: Agriturismo il rigo
photography: Sofia balli
date: july 26th 2022
number of guests: 24
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