What is a stellar wedding planner and designer to do when it’s finally their turn to get married? For Gionata, the answer was to go to Puglia, Italy, and join with the love of his life, Stefano, on historic castle grounds highlighted by designs so beautifully out-of-the-ordinary you can’t help but be mesmerized and inspired.

Gionata and Stefano met on Facebook in September 2015. At the time, Gionata was living in central Italy, while Stefano resided near Lake Como. 

“The day after a small corporate event I had organized for Mercedes-Benz in Milan, Stefano surprised me by showing up there,” Gionata tells us. “We spent some time together, talking and getting to know each other, and ended up sharing our first kiss at the entrance of Porta Venezia metro station, an iconic LGBTQAI+ district in Milan.”

After dating for a year, the couple moved to Lake Como together and Gionata’s wedding planning agency began to take off. A few years down the road, they got engaged in Los Angeles in an adorable photoshoot-turned-proposal on Rodeo Drive.

Turning to wedding planning, a destination event was a bit of a given. “[It] was the most natural choice because our love story has always been connected to meaningful places and travel,” Gionata says. The couple’s desire from the start was to immerse their guests in a “proper destination wedding experience surrounded by beauty, joy, and connection.” Of course, Italy could deliver on this dream in spades.

“Although Lake Como is where we built our life together, and where Stefano was born, we ended up with Puglia,” Gionata says. “I was born there and we wanted something warmer, more intimate, and slightly unexpected.”

The mother of one of Gionata’s previous clients gifted him a dinner tasting at Vinilia Wine Resort, where she had stayed during her daughter’s wedding. When the couple cashed in the tasting one evening, they immediately fell in love. 

“It felt like stepping into a princely atmosphere, a historic country residence surrounded by vineyards and open landscapes with an incredible balance between old-world charm and modern sophistication,” the groom says. “Inside, the combination of contemporary design and historic architecture was stunning: designer furniture next to antique details, modern comfort blended with traditional Puglian ‘star ceilings.’”

Struck by the serene grounds, the elements that had the couple promptly signing on the dotted line were the ability to privatize the property and the out-of-this-world culinary offerings.

For someone who designs destination weddings professionally, Gionata brought an exacting eye to his own celebration. This made the process, by his own admission, “both exciting and incredibly challenging.” Working alongside designer Thomas Bui, the couple grounded every detail in the region’s landscape and culture.

The through-line was a rooster, the iconic emblem of the region. Custom ceramic chargers were produced with a local artisan, each one centered on the bird. The motif carried throughout the day: printed on traditional Puglian tambourines handed to guests during the ceremony exit, rendered in plexiglass on the seating chart with each guest’s name, and contextualized on a dedicated installation panel explaining the symbol’s history. 

Beyond the wedding day itself, Gionata and Stefano gave out monogrammed welcome bags with each guest’s initials. The bags held Tarallini from a small local bakery, a bottle of traditional olive leaf liqueur called “Pugliarello,” and a custom postcard gifted by a graphic designer who works with Stefano. (The postcard shared the story of a nearby shelter for disabled cats, to which the couple had donated in honor of their wedding.)

“For us, personalization was never about excess, but about storytelling,” Gionata says. “Every detail had to carry emotion, memory, and a sense of belonging.”

When the day of the wedding came, Gionata and Stefano opted to walk down the aisle with both of their parents, setting the emotional register for everything that followed. With the Vinilia tower behind them and their closest friends and family surrounding them, the moment felt profound. “It represented not only love, but acceptance, family, and the journey it took to arrive there,” Gionata says. Stefano admittedly cried from start to finish, and Gionata spent most of the ceremony trying (and largely failing) to hold it together.

After the ceremony, guests moved poolside for cocktails as the evening light softened, the stone castle’s towers reflecting in the still water below. As partygoers transitioned to the reception space defined by masterfully decorated winding tables, the couple changed out of their black Louis Gabriel Nouchi suits into flowy white tops and dark pants before entering the party for the first dance and all that followed.

The cake cutting was a show-stopping moment with fireworks bursting in the night sky as the tiered white confection decorated with large painted discs in deep red, orange, and violet sat beneath a luminarie (a traditional Puglian light installation built from intricately carved white wood and strung with hundreds of warm bulbs). A fixture of Salento festivity, and as deeply local as anything else about the evening, it closed out a night that had, in every sense, belonged perfectly to the couple and the surrounding region.

Despite being a wedding planner by trade, Gionata is quick to point out that his expertise didn’t make his own wedding easier, but the element of trust did. Trust in the venue, the team, and the shared vision. “Planning from afar becomes much easier when you stop trying to control every detail and instead work with professionals who understand your vision and genuinely care about it,” he says.

His larger takeaway goes beyond logistics. “The true luxury of a wedding is not perfection. It is presence.” His advice: choose a place that holds meaning, follow your instincts, and invest in the team, not just the aesthetic. For LGBTQAI+ couples considering a destination wedding, he adds an important note. “This becomes even more important when planning an LGBTQAI+ wedding, where sensitivity, awareness, and attention to every detail at every level are essential. Feeling truly seen, respected, and supported throughout the process makes all the difference.”

Vendors: Photography: Jessica Mangia; Venue: Vinilia Wine Resort; Design: Gionata Russo Weddings; Design Production: Thomas Bui Lifestyle; Planning: Violata Tarantine Events & Bufano Dream Planners; Videography: Vivenzio Films; Florals: Chiara Sperti Floral Events; Suits: Louis Gabriel Nouchi; Hair & Makeup: Nico Foggetti; Stationery: IuMi; Officiant: Giulia Zanca; Chef: Pietro Penna; Entertainment: Marino Rana; Sound and Lighting Design: Sona Service; Furniture: Tableset Luxury Rentals & Studio GMC; Content Creator: Valentina Arba; Cake: Matteo Summa; Mixology: Joebar; Apulian Lights: Paulicelli; Bridal Party Gifts: Nea Milano