Lucy & Gabriele - A Dolce Vita Wedding
Italy, June 2025
The Brief
When Lucy came to me, she didn't hand me a list of requirements. She shared a feeling. She and Gabriele were getting married in Italy — a sun-drenched, candlelit, music-filled celebration of two people and two cultures coming together — and she wanted every piece of stationery to carry that spirit. Dolce vita. The joy of being alive, of extraordinary food, of beautiful places, of the people you love most gathered around a long table in the summer evening light.
That was enough to begin.
The Process
What followed was one of the most rewarding creative collaborations of my life — and one of the most meticulous. Lucy and I worked together for close to a year, from the earliest stages of her wedding planning through to the final printed pieces arriving in time for the day itself.
We began with a shared Pinterest board, building a visual language together before a single brushstroke was made. From there I immersed myself in research — visiting each venue in my mind through every photograph and detail Lucy could share, learning the architecture, the landscape, the atmosphere of each space, so that when I painted it, I was painting somewhere real and specific, not an idea of Italy.
Food was central to everything. Lucy and Gabriele are both deeply passionate about the food experience — it is one of the great joys they share — and with Gabriele being Italian, the table was never simply a backdrop to the celebration. It was the heart of it. That had to be reflected in every brushstroke.
At every stage I checked in with Lucy — sharing sketches, refining details, making sure that what I was creating matched not just what she had described but what she had truly imagined. That kind of close, iterative collaboration is at the heart of how I work. A commission like this isn't something I produce and deliver. It's something we build together.
The Wedding Invitation
The front of the concertina fold invitation was devoted to the reception venue which I recreated in meticulous watercolour detail. Every architectural element, the gardens, the warmth of the building itself. I wanted guests to open the invitation and feel the place before they had ever set foot there.
Inside, the central panel told the story of the wedding ceremony. The Basilica painted in careful detail, the flowers Lucy had chosen for her bridal bouquet, her engagement ring worked quietly into the illustration, and the vintage Fiat 500 that belonged to Gabriele's parents — the car they would drive away in together after the ceremony, ribbons flying, heading to the reception at the villa. Every one of those details was researched, discussed, and painted with intention. Each one meant something.
The reception panel celebrated the garden party spirit of the Villa — the Italian summer atmosphere, the food, the surroundings, the sense of a celebration that would go on well into the night.
The reverse panels were painted in a looser, more expressive hand. Full blown peonies, lavender, golden poppies, langoustines, rendered with a freedom that made each piece feel like a piece of art.
The Rehearsal Dinner
The wedding weekend began with a rehearsal dinner at a seafood restaurant nestled in the Liguria mountains — and the stationery reflected every detail of that setting. I painted the food menus and table numbers around the specific dishes being served that evening: the seafood, the typical Italian plates, the spirit of a long, generous, unhurried dinner with the people closest to the couple. Nothing was generic. Everything was theirs.
The Place Cards
The place cards were something Lucy felt particularly excited about — she wanted each guest's name accompanied by a pair of kissing goldfish, a motif I had discovered through my research into the local area. The kissing fish are a traditional symbol of the region where Lucy and Gabriele married — a detail that rooted the stationery in the specific place and culture of their wedding, and gave every guest's place card a meaning that went far deeper than decoration. Small enough to sit beside a wine glass, personal enough to be slipped into a pocket and kept long after the plates were cleared.
On the Day
Watching the stationery exist in the world of the wedding itself was everything. The order of service resting on the carved wooden pew of the basilica before the ceremony — the very building I had painted from photographs now real and towering above it.
The illustrated menu cards nestled among the peonies and dahlias at the candlelit reception table, I had painted into the breakfast wedding menu months before now blooming in front of me in real life. A year of work, of careful research and patient collaboration, distilled into something small enough to hold in your hands on the day it was made for.
A word from Lucy and Gabriele
"Bozena designed our entire suite of wedding stationery, and we truly couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out! From the very beginning, she guided us so thoughtfully through the whole process, from early ideas and inspiration sketches, colour palettes, typography and calligraphy, right through to printing techniques and sourcing the perfect paper. Every detail felt so carefully considered. Our guests are still talking about how beautiful everything was, especially the fold out invitations and the bespoke wax stamps used to seal each envelope, which added such a special touch! What meant the most to us was Bozena's incredible attention to detail and her ability to make everything feel so personal. She even hand-painted an illustration of the vintage Fiat 500 we were planning to drive away from the church in, capturing it perfectly, right down to the exact licence plate. We feel so lucky to have worked with her and honestly couldn't recommend her more. We're already looking forward to finding another excuse to work with her again!"
Begin Your Own Commission
A bespoke wedding stationery suite from Bozena Allison Studio is a collaboration from the very beginning. We start with your story — your venues, your aesthetic, the food you love, the details that make your celebration uniquely yours — and build from there. Every illustrated element is researched and hand-painted in watercolour before it becomes print, which means that what your guests hold on the day is a direct descendant of an original artwork made specifically for you and no one else.
Wedding suites typically begin twelve months before the day. If you are in the early stages of planning, the best time to reach out is now.
I would love to hear about your celebration — you can contact me directly at bozena@bozenaallisonstudio.com or through the contact form on the studio website. I reply to every enquiry personally.