This Bride Wore a Hand Painted Floral Dress for Her Amalfi Coast Wedding

Go ahead and bookmark our guide to planning a destination wedding right now, because Cristina + Petar’s magnificent Italian “I do’s” will definitely have you wanting to take your own wedding planning journey international.

“Our wedding was set in the beautiful sunny town of Positano on the Amalfi Coast, Italy,” the Australian couple shares of their picturesque Italian port city nuptials at Hotel Marincanto. Planning the whole thing from the other side of the globe with the help of the team at Serena Annunziata, Cristina + Petar created a floral fantasia of a wedding. The color world? Pastel perfection.

“Family and friends arrived via boat to the port of Positano,” the couple remembers. And get this: the lodgings for the intimate 45-person guest list while they were in Italy was Villa Scarpariello, “a medieval castle further down the coast in Marmorata.”

The unofficial star of the show was Cristina’s hand painted floral wedding dress. Cristina used her own bridal expertise (she’s a bridal designer who owns her own boutique in Adelaide, AU) to create a wedding day look that took customization + creativity to a whole new level. We are so madly in love with the look and the story of how it came to be.

There were boat rides and twilight vow exchanges and beautiful, unexpected rainstorms. And Dean Snushall was there capturing it all. 

 So andiamo, baby! Let’s take a look!

If you’re going to travel all the way to Positano to get married, you might as well do a bridal party plunge into the waters of the Amalfi Coast!

The Wedding Day

Our hearts skipped a beat seeing these crystal-studded pink floral wedding shoes from Dolce & Gabbana.

Cristina + her besties lounged in adorable bridesmaid pjs from Piyama while they got ready. The bridal party rocked stripes in the Abigail Sleep Set and Cristina went botanical with Maggie Pajama Set.

Introducing: The Dress

“Being a bridal designer myself (owner and designer, couture+love+madness) in Adelaide, South Australia, made it very hard for me to pick what style of dress I wanted to create and wear,” Cristina shares.

“My dress was painstakingly hand painted in lashings of pastel watercolours by local South Australian artist Tiziana Rinna who is renowned for her colourful works.”

“The dress took almost 3 months to complete, with the painting done prior to the sewing of the gown and additions made along the way.”

“The names of my grandparents are delicately painted around a sort of ‘crest’ that highlight’s both mine and my husband Petar’s name, surrounded by an organic blue painted bow.”

“We estimate the dress took over 250 hours of sewing, 1000s of beads, and 25 metres of fabric to complete.”

“All of our staff worked on my dress,” Cristina adds, “including my nonna who is almost 90 years old!”

“The dress was adorned with symbols, from dahlias I picked with my great grandmother Marta as a child, to the symbol of the Trident (a symbol of my last name), the ‘fichid’india’ (prickly pears that grew on my nonni’s backyard with the bright fuchsia flesh), the fish that are reminiscent of the fishing town where my grandfather Felice was from in Italy and the olive branches that adorn the rural property in South Australia where Petar’s grandfather makes olive oil for the family.”

Hurry over to our collection of beautiful floral wedding dresses to start brainstorming your own botanical bridal look 💐

And check out this bold + eclectic Big Sur wedding to see another example of a bride who had her dress hand painted!

Before “I Do”

Loving the subtle sparkle of these sequin bridesmaid dresses (from couture+love+madness of course!).

“We knew it was going to be warm,” Cristina remembers, “so we opted for linen suits for Petar and the boys (and white sneakers as we knew there was a bit of a walk up from the Port of Positano to the ceremony).” The breezy pastel linen groomsmen suits came from a combination of YD, Beg Your Pardon, and Marks + Spencer. Loving the open collar vibe.

Heart-melting groom smiles like this one are one of our FAVE reasons we adore a first look.

Petar’s light neutral wedding suit from Beg Your Pardon was the perfect counterpoint to Cristina’s colorful look.

Powder pink best bridal sunglasses: perfect for a sunny Positano wedding afternoon. Shop the Ceres Sunglasses by AIRE to copy Cristina’s iconic look!

A sleek high ponytail and low-key glam bridal makeup by Crystal Terreu gave Cristina’s whimsical look its elegantly modern vibes.

Our Favorite Memory
It was just so beautiful being on the other side of the world with some of our closest family and friends! It did pour with rain on the day which was definitely one of the most memorable moments! We all got soaked- absolutely soaked! There's some cute clips of the bridesmaids with towels on their heads trying to keep everyone's spirits up! We actually had to wait a few hours for the rain to clear before they could sweep the water off the balcony and set up for our ceremony and also the reception.

Another favourite moment was taking photos in front of the iconic fruit cart on the road leading out of Positano. We just had such a good laugh, bought some grapes and walked along the road overlooking the Amalfi Coast.

A Cloudy Sunset Ceremony

“The ceremony took place on the rooftop of the Marincanto Hotel, overlooking the Port of Positano,” the couple recalls.

Out of nowhere, an unseasonably stormy evening stopped the wedding day timeline in its tracks for a few hours. But WOW, Positano’s pretty in the rain.

Our guide to handling rainy wedding days is helpful to have on hand if you’re worried about the best way to keep things rolling in the event of some sudden showers.

The pastel arrangements by Starace Florist looked like they were plucked straight from Cristina’s dress.

Once the skies cleared, the ceremony was back in action!

Cristina + Petar exchanged wedding rings from Ezara Jewellery during the dreamy outdoor “I do’s.”

OMG the twilight sky! The twinkly hillside! The unexpected rain delay really did make for absolutely magical timing.

A Romantic Reception

“Since the sunset alfresco wedding quickly turned into a dusk wedding because of the unusual downpour in the middle of summer, that meant that the reception became a candlelit affair,” say Cristina + Petar.

Paper goods from The Ivory Scribe added to the day’s cohesively floral flair.

“The hand-painted napkins (used as place settings) each had a symbol painted that were paired to the individual person,” say Cristina + Petar of their GENIUS custom wedding favors.

Our Advice
As cliché as it sounds- just be true to yourself! I think being in the bridal industry myself- we see so many brides 'follow the trends' or they listen to everyone else for their wedding day...it's got to be about you and your partner. At the end of the day, everyone at your wedding is there for you both so make sure you include things that make you both happy!

Planning an overseas wedding can also be a bit of a challenge- the best bit of advice I have is to engage a wedding planner and be very specific with some of the key features you want included on the day!

We’ll be dreaming about this jaw dropping millefoglie cake by Sal de Riso for a while.

Our Musical Choices
Processional
Live rendition of 'Until I Found You' (Stephen Sanchez) by local artist Lucy Kiely
Recessional
Background music while we enjoyed an intimate 4 course dinner on the terrace at the Hotel Marincanto
First Dance
Live rendition of 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' (Frankie Valli) by local artist Lucy Kiely

So obsessed with Cristina’s positively dreamy powder blue reception dress!

Look through our favorite blue wedding dresses and our collection of super cute short wedding dresses if you’re loving this look as much as we are.

One last thought from the bride on wedding day adaptability: “I think the best advice is to just go with the flow, things may not turn out exactly the way you planned it on the day but just enjoy yourselves and go for the ride!

Congrats, Cristina + Petar! Your intimate Amalfi Coast wedding day was a destination DREAM. The rain only made it more romantic! All the very best from GWS 💚