Francesca + Thomas by Stephan & Nakita - Together Journal

Thom’s first impression of me was that he loved my red dress. He placed a small ruby on the inside of my wedding ring as a symbol of the night we met.

Francesca ——We’re from New Zealand, but we live in Amsterdam, which we absolutely love. It has the perfect balance of feeling cosy but also vast, and there’s always something to do or explore. I’m a naturopath and medical herbalist and Thom is a cost manager and also an art curator and collector. We’re also both yoga teachers.

We met in 2013 at a mutual friend’s party. Neither of us had wanted to go out that night. We were both broken-hearted from previous relationships and keen to stay home. But our respective friends dragged us out. We ended up locking eyes, and within 15 minutes we were holding hands, which we now laugh about. Thom’s first impression of me was that he loved my red dress. He placed a small ruby on the inside of my wedding ring as a symbol of the night we met.

Neither of us had a set idea about what we wanted our wedding to look like. We trusted our planner Lucy with every detail, and she blew our minds. She found the most amazing villa in Italy, where the surroundings were amazing. All we wanted was for it to feel family-style, grounded, authentic and for everyone to eat loads of pizza and dance all night. Really just a big celebration of love.

As most of our guests were coming from overseas, we stayed at the villa for seven nights and invited people to come for as long as they wished. It meant that the whole thing felt like a big vacation with all our favourite people. It also made the wedding day so relaxed, everyone had met and was already having a great time. We’re also both huge foodies and nothing beats Italian food and cake!

We were married by Lilly, who has been my friend since I was five years old. People commented that we were not at all stressed, and we really weren’t. I think it was because we had no strong expectations of the day. We were just happy to be there with everyone.

When I went to put the ring on Thom’s finger, it wouldn’t fit, so he had to force it on himself, which made everyone laugh.

I always knew that I would have a hard time finding a dress as I fell in love with so many styles. But when I tried on a dress at Kenny & Harlow, I felt so comfortable (which was key) and like I still looked like me. I had quite natural make-up on the day, too, as I think it is really nice to look and feel like yourself on your wedding day. Thom wanted a classic look for the day and he’d worn Crane Brothers previously and knew it fitted him super well, so it was a no-brainer for him to work with Murray to get a suit made. I also fell in love with my veil. The embroidered flowers felt so special, as I work with natural medicine for a living and it was like a little nod to nature.