Our vision was to have a wedding that didn’t require a huge amount of work to set up or decorate, we wanted a venue that had a stunning setting and would give our kiwi / overseas guests a true taste of the incredible Tuscan dream.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
We are Nicholas and Megan, better known by our friends as Pinny and Cha. We live together in Amsterdam and have been there for the last 5 ½ years working and enjoying the European lifestyle, friends and travel when possible.
Nicholas works at Deloitte as a Consultant and I work at The Social Hub as Head of CRM. We love to adventure in the outdoors.. hiking, road biking, tennis, skiing, and travelling to new places frequently are on the agenda. Pinny loves a good game of golf. I love a good glass of bubbles! Together we get energy from our vibrant friends and a good party.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
We met in Dunedin during our first year of studying at the University of Otago. We were both living in the same student accommodation, Cumberland College (Cumby) and started dating towards the end of the year after getting together at the infamous student bar, The Cook.
Cha – My first impression was who is that overly confident guy who is always marching around the hallways with his wingman Sam Cashmore – who turned out to be Pinny’s best man!
Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
We were on holiday in Spain in the Costa Brava and Pinny booked us a night in a small fishing village called Sa Riera. We were staying in a gorgeous little boutique hotel that has been converted from a monastery. The proposal was rather casual, Pinny took us on a walk along the beach, and out to the point to have a beer and watch the sunset, he proposed while we were watching the sunset and we went to a small restaurant nearby for dinner and plenty of bubbles! The celebrations continued in the south of France as we traveled the next day to celebrate with good friends, plenty of wine, cheese and good times.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
We fell in love with Tuscany as soon as we landed! The friendly people, delicious food, gorgeous old villas, picturesque rolling hills with olive groves, Cyprus trees and grapevines, and warm weather tick all the boxes for a great holiday. We had previously spent 6 weeks driving around Italy prior to arriving in Amsterdam 5 years earlier and the area around Lucca was by far our favorite – we love the laidback Italian attitude and no-frills way of living – just really good food and friendly people.
After getting engaged in the middle of Covid, we didn’t make any moves to plan a wedding but
had a good feeling that an Italian wedding would be pretty special. Our vision was to have a wedding that didn’t require a huge amount of work to set up or decorate, we wanted a venue that had a stunning setting and would give our kiwi / overseas guests a true taste of the incredible Tuscan dream. Given it was going to be a summer wedding, a pool was a must – and of course a day after pool party! Casale De Pasquinelli instantly ticked all of the boxes, such a stunning venue with incredible views, gardens, pools, pizza oven, chill-out spaces etc.. and the cherry on top is we instantly fell in love with the Hosts, Gabriele and Mini.
Given we have less than 6 months to plan the wedding, we did our best to take the simple approach and not go too overboard with the details.. the beauty of a Tuscan wedding is the surroundings, food and people – we knew we had all of those! We wanted to have a separate aperitivo time in a garden setting with Aperol and Hugo Spritz to cool everyone down, followed by a seated dinner – Nicholas has always loved a formal setting (since he was a small child he would wear a tie to his friends birthday parties), so a formal dress and sit down dinner was a must. For me, I just wanted a fun mood with everyone swinging their napkins for our arrival!
Another must for us was being able to dance until the early hours, our hosts were so kind and arranged to clear out the wine cellar area so we could set up a DJ indoors from 1-4am without getting any noise complaints – I spent every minute on the dancefloor, I don’t think I have ever been sweatier!
Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
Not really! Anything that did go slightly wrong was just a laugh at the time. For example, the groomsmen did a hilarious speech that went for over 40 minutes which meant that we couldn’t serve dessert at the tables. But the speech was so brilliant and well delivered that we didn’t care whatsoever, the dessert was served at a dessert station that people could help themselves to and it all worked out just fine.
In hindsight I would probably change my wedding dress once on the dancefloor as by the end of the night it was so dirty – I’m not even sure how! When I took it to the dry cleaner, they asked if I got married in a pig pen. Even 5 dry cleans have not managed to get the dirt out of it!!
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
Cha – I was incredibly spoilt by my amazing friends in Amsterdam – Taylor, Lucy and Kate – they decided we were off to Paris for a girl’s weekend to find a wedding dress and we just had the best time trying on dresses and touring the city. They helped me to find the perfect dress at Pandore which is a stunning little French store looking out over Canal Saint-Martin and promptly celebrated with bubbles, Moulin Rouge and a silly night out – you couldn’t script a better girls weekend!
Pinny had arranged for his groomsmen to have black tuxedos from Barkers, a New Zealand menswear store. Being from New Zealand and living abroad, Pinny wanted to have a New Zealand brand. With half the wedding party located in New Zealand, this was a relatively easy option, although made complicated by his brother leaving 3 suits at LAX airport on his way over. Fortunately, some kind soul contacted Barkers who were able to trace the suits back to Nicholas and have them returned.
Ceremony + Reception location: Casale De Pasquinelli, @casaledepasquinelli / Photographer: Arianna & Donatello, @ariannaedonatello / Videographer: Ash from Florence & Friends, @florenceandfriends.films / Celebrant: Henry LeGrice (Close friend) / Entertainment: DJ – Audio Dress / Styling, Flora, Stationery, Catering & Beverages: Wedding & Co / Planner: Venue hosts from Casale De Pasquinelli, @casaledepasquinelli / Makeup + Hair: Karina and team at Karina Beauty, @karinamakeupcreative / Megan’s Dress: Pandore Paris, @pando.re / Nicholas’ Tuxedo: Barkers Clothing, @barkersclothing / Ring/s: James Allen, @jamesallenrings / Megan’s Shoes: Loeffler Randall, @loefflerrandall / Fragrance: Perfume gifted by my gorgeous bridal party, chosen as it has the scents of Tuscany – Basilico & Fellini by Vilhelm Parfumerie / Bridesmaids’ Attire: Selection of the bridesmaid collection in forest green as the girls chose the style they preferred at Blak, @blakthelabel / Groomsman’s Attire: Barkers Clothing, @barkersclothing
