Victoria + Fantin by Julia Allio - Together Journal

We wanted something simple and nature-inspired.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

We live in Switzerland. Victoria has lived most of her life in the USA (between Michigan, California, and Texas), and Fantin has lived all his life in Switzerland. Victoria is 28 and Fantin is 31 (30 at the time of the wedding). We both have corporate jobs and have built our lives together in a region we particularly love, thanks to its proximity to the mountains, tranquillity, and a lake. Over the years, we’ve expanded our family by adding two dogs (at the time of the wedding, we only had one, a German shorthaired pointer, Tex). Our life is built around outdoor activities.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We first met back in 2011 when we were both just teens: Immature and unpredictable. Fantin was giving snowboarding lessons during the winter to Victoria’s brother. One evening after a day snowboarding in the mountains, Victoria was accompanying her mom to pick up her brother, and that’s when Fantin first saw her.

We started hanging out after that. For Fantin, it was clear that he wanted more. But Victoria, on the other hand, was not really convinced. After a few dates that went nowhere, Fantin decided to call it quits. And we stopped seeing each other on a regular basis.

Over the years, we saw each other every now and then on Victoria’s birthday, until we didn’t anymore…

In April 2018, Fantin posted a picture on social media of his teacup, and Victoria made fun of it. “Looks like you’re alive!” – The discussion started, and we quickly scheduled dinner. From that day forward, we never left each other’s side.

But what Victoria doesn’t know is that Fantin saw her on New Year’s Eve in 2017 and kept her in mind since then.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

Victoria: It’s not something you can point to a certain moment in our relationship, but it’s a feeling that grows over time. It becomes obvious, but you don’t know why. When we got together in 2018, it felt like our souls knew each other. Almost 7 years later, getting married was the easiest decision I had to make.

Fantin: It never came to me suddenly like in the movies, either during our relationship or at first sight. It’s something that’s built up over time, by the force of things, eﬀorts, the way we built our relationship together and the common forces we put into it. After 7 years together, we finally got married. I say “finally”, but it’s not something we absolutely “had” to do. We were never pressed for time or desire. We always communicated a lot and moved forward in our relationship in a natural way as time went by, letting each other guide us. So I never suddenly realised it, but I felt at some point that it was the best thing to do to continue our story.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour paleIes etc.).

We wanted something simple and nature-inspired. As we were getting married in the mountains during fall, we wanted our surrounding environment to be the focus, especially since we were near peak-end season for the Aspens. For the colour palette, we wanted colours that would fit well with fall, the mountains, and the lodge, so we went with maroons and orange, fall colours, greens and eucalyptus.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

We decided to opt for an outdoor ceremony on the ski run to have the mountains as a backdrop. There were still some aspens that were orange, and the weather was a bit moody. The aisle was lined with greenery, and we had some beautiful altar pieces with candles and a cowhide rug. The wedding venue was a lodge, and the reception area had a big fireplace. It felt very cosy and our florist made it even more cosy by adding lots of candles. This natural environment was self-suﬃcient and we didn’t want to overload it with elements. To make it look like us, we needed something simple.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

What we enjoyed most was that the venue we chose took care of everything and gave us so many great vendor recommendations. This made the planning of a destination wedding so much easier and took a lot of the stress away. We also had an amazing florist that took care of not only florals, but all the decorations – limiting the number of vendors made coordinating a lot easier.

Our tip is around the budget. Once you start planning, it is easy to get carried away, and you should expect to spend at least 10% over budget as things add up very quickly.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

The groom’s outfit was 100% custom-made. He was able to add so many personal details, such as embroidery inside the collar of his jacket and choosing the motifs for the lining inside. The uniqueness was in the details, as we have a dog (German Shorthaired Pointer) that we wanted to incorporate into our wedding, but were unable to take him with us on our journey. So we included Tex with cuﬄinks, on the bride’s necklace, and also as coasters and swirls for guests.

What was one, or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

Since we never considered taking on a DJ for the end of the evening (we worked with a simple Spotify playlist, which was enough for us), we had neglected the question of music for a long time. The question then arose as to what we wanted, and we finally opted for two musicians (guitar and violin) to accompany the arrival of the guests to the ceremony and the toast. In retrospect, this extra element was a must-have!

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

We were certainly very lucky, as we didn’t have any negative stressful moments during the day. But for the funny anecdote: Before the ceremony, the bride and groom were isolated from each other in diﬀerent lodges. The bride was with her girlfriends, and the groom with his buddies for the preparations. True to stereotype, the women got ready in all seriousness, and the cabin was transformed into an organised, supervised anthill. Themen, on the other hand, were more in the mood for a good laugh and a cold beer. Since we were running out of drinks, my brother-in-law hurried to the store a few yards up the road to buy more. After finding something to satisfy us, he hurried back. As we opened them all together to toast, they ALL exploded, allowing our photographer to immortalise this unique, refreshing, and very friendly moment (if Coors is reading this, we can discuss a marketing partnership on the photo 😉 ).