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| My Community Bio | ||
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| Knot Name: positanobride | ||
| Wedding Date: October 03, 2003 | ||
| Location: Live in Chicago area, wedding in Positano, Italy | ||
| About our wedding: I changed my knot name. I used to be qgirl! My bio takes a few minutes to upload, sorry for the delay.... WE''RE MARRIED!!! The wedding in a word was PERFECT. Our wedding was held in Positano, Italy! What a fairy tale city... carved into a spectacular cliff, sweeping down into a pretty pebbled bay. If anyone needs info on having a wedding in Positano or Italy, feel free to email me quyen_carson@yahoo.com. Click this link to see snapshots of our wedding and reception, given to us by friends and family, and also photos taken with the cameras left on the tables at the reception. You will have to register or sign-in with Snapfish.com to see the photos. Click this link to see photos of our honeymoon to Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa and also photos of Positano, Amalfi Coast, Capri and Naples!. Here is a peek...  At the dock of the main beach/port of Positano.  In front of the local church, Chiesa Flavio Gioia.  My sister, Emma, was my MOH, and my bridesmaids were my dear friends, Nicole and Liz. They wore their own black dresses and I bought them wine color wraps from www.cashmerepashminagroup.com/.  Joe''s brothers Jim and Jeff were his best men. They wore matching wine colored ties from Burberry.  Civil ceremony on the terrace overlooking the sea. Our planner was Sandra with The Book of Dreams, based in Italy. www.thebookofdreams.net.   Leaving the Town Hall in Positano. My dress was designed by Beverly Siri. The single red rose in my bouquet is to honor the memory of my brother.  We had 27 friends and family attend our wedding (travelling to Italy from as far away as Australia!) it wouldn''t have been as special without them!  Wedding reception at Covo dei Saraceni overlooking Positano beach. Absolutely IMPECCABLE service. Via Regina Giovanna, 5, Positano 84017 Tel. +39 089 87 54 00 Fax +39 089 87 58 78 www.covodeisaraceni.it  Our wedding cake was huge, I let the restaurant pick the cake style for me. I told them that I wanted the "flavor of Southern Italy" and they made it lemon flavor, really yummy! With cream puffs and fresh wild strawberries and roses.  We were having fun singing classic Italian songs.  The centerpieces with flowers, grapes, pomegranates.   Engaged! Joe with short hair.  Our Save The Date postcards. We made them on www.amazingmail.com   Our invitations. We had the front of the invitation written in Italian and the back in English. We were very happy with them. Our insert had travel into broken down into "Planes, Trains Automobiles" because it took literally planes, trains and automobiles to get to Positano!  Our Thank You cards I made on www.snapfish.com  Our wedding reception menus. Printed in Italy!   Response from the White House.  My "Will you be my bridesmaid" cards. I am surprised my BM''s agreed to being in my wedding after getting these cards - so ugly!! I had fun doing them though! LOL.  Click here for photos from our couples bridal shower, thrown by Joe''s family. Here are other gorgeous photos of Positano.   Our villa, Villa Fiorentino, apartment Conchiglia, in Positano. Book with Alessandra at www.villeinitalia.com.    Thank you for checking out our bio!  Here is some information from our trip to Italy. It was our first trip to Italy, so we played "tourist" and didn''t do too many cities "off the beaten path". Here is our itinerary. Hope it is of some help to you! Day 1 - arrive into Rome, had lunch in front of the Pantheon and then immediately take a train to Naples. Day 2&3 - Naples. You could do Naples in a day, but we had paperwork to do at the American Consulate for our wedding, so we stayed 2 days. If we didn''t have paperwork to do in Naples, I would have skipped this city. Although it does have the most incredible pizza, Naples manic pace isn''t for the faint hearted! Day 4 - Boat from Naples to Positano, stayed in a beautiful villa in Positano, took day trips to Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri Day 11 - Boat back to Naples, then a train to Rome and train to Venice, arriving into Venice very late! Day 12&13 - Stayed in Venice, took a day trip to Murano Island (glass factories) Day 14-16 Train to Florence. Stayed in Florence and took day trip to Pisa. We wanted to go to Siena, but got lazy! Day 17-19 - Train to Rome, stayed in Rome took day trip to Vatican City Day 20 - Travel back to Chicago Airfare: We bought tickets to Rome on www.airfare.com they had great deals, check the site daily! Trains: Unless you are traveling during super peak season, I would suggest purchasing the Eurostar train (or any trains!) tickets on the day you need them. It worked out better for us, since Italy is plagued by strikes at any given moment, you never know when the train are going to run. Buying ahead would have been too complicated and not much of a cost savings. Boats & Ferries: From Naples we took a Metro Del Mare boat (8 euro per person) to Positano. The boat leaves twice daily during the summer months. I would recommend checking the times of departure like a day before you need to go, or early morning on the day you travel. POSITANO Check out www.positanoonline.com for tons of info on Positano. Positano is like heaven on earth. SERIOUSLY. In Positano we rented a villa for a week through www.villeinitalia.com. The hotels there are very expensive, so it was a better value for us to rent a villa. We rented Villa Fiorentino, (known as Villa Reale on the website) and had apartment #13 which had GORGEOUS views of Positano and the coastline (see the link to photos at the beginning in my bio). We could have rented a smaller villa for less money, but we had some family with us. Hotels that we liked in Positano are Covo Dei Saraceni (we had our wedding reception here, the service was impeccable). Email the hotel concierge Gino Amatruda at info@covodeisaraceni.it for rates and information, give him my regards! The hotel''s website is http://www.covodeisaraceni.it/servizi_eng.html This hotel is located right on the main beach, so it is very convenient to the boutiques, restaurants etc. But because it is at sea level, you don''t get the best views of Positano or the coast. Other great hotels are Le Sirenuse, Palazzo Murat, Hotel Poseidon and many others (check out the links in www.positanoonline for hotel info and photos)! You want to choose a hotel that is as close to the main beach as possible, but high enough on the mountain to see the wonderful views of Amalfi. Positano has MANY steps and is an almost impossible city to walk. ALso, if you are going in the summer make sure to get accommodations with air conditioning! There is an inter-Positano bus that will take you around the city every 30 minutes for 1 euro per 90 min -this bus was well used by us! Our villa was literally 500 steps to the beach and although we took the steps down everyday, getting back up was challenging! Also for Positano, make sure to have lots of travelers checks, the ATM''s were always out of money - by 10am everyday! SORRENTO We only spent one day in Sorrento, and unfortunately it was the day of the blackout in Italy and it was also raining that day, so I can''t really remember much about Sorrento except that there wasn''t a cappuccino to be had ANYWHERE due to the electricity being out! LOL. My friends always stay at the Hilton in Sorrento and they have only good things to say about it. AMALFI We took a SITA (blue) bus to Amalfi and I got severe motion sickness. The cliffs, twists & turns of the roads are brutal! I highly recommend using the Metro Del Mare boats, whenever possible. The boat is very affordable and convenient to Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi, Pompeii and other cities along the coast. We didn''t stay in Amalfi, but spent a lovely day shopping and sight seeing. CAPRI We loved Ana Capri! Capri was too touristy and commercial for us. We took a tour boat for 40 euro per person out to the island, but you can charter a more private boat for about 80-euro roundtrip. Once in Capri, we negotiated with a taxi driver, who had a convertible car, to take us on a tour of the island. It cost us about $100 including tip to see Ana Capri, The Blue Grotto (A MUST DO!), a few famous natural sights and also a tour of celebrity villas. We had lunch and did some shopping in Ana Capri and then took the funicular down to Capri and back to the boat. Rome: We stayed at Hotel Cortina www.hotelcortina.com. The hotel was a clean, nice bathroom, rooms small, central location. The service was very formal and old fashioned. The concierge was not especially warm. The majority of the guest were 45+ years old so I think that we were too "young" for them. (we are in our mid 30''s). Rome is such a wonderful city, I hope you like it as much as we did. Florence: Although we had an amazing view of the Medicee Chapel, we didn't really like our hotel in Florence, called Hotel Central http://www.hotelcentralefirenze.it. It was recommended by Rick Steves but we would not recommended ourselves, unless you are looking for accommodations that are one step up from a youth hostel. They did have a great breakfast that is included in the room rate and if you tell them that you are on your honeymoon, they will have a nice Tuscan wine waiting for you upon your arrival! If you are interested here is my must do list for Florence (maybe you''ve already heard of many of these). Here is the list... 1. Uffizi: (museum-considered one of the best collections in the world- a must!) the Boticelli''s are here and totally worth the look. Make sure to get your concierge to make an appointment for any of the museums, so that you can avoid the ridiculously long lines. 2. Michelangelo’s "David": (this is in the "Academia”. be sure not to think that the fake one out in one of the famous plazas is the real one...it''s not...go see the actual original in the museum...it''s wonderful! 3.The Duomo (cathedral): this is the center of Florence (over 800 years old) and you won''t miss it, it''s so massive and beautiful. You can climb the 473 steps to the top and see an amazing view of Florence and Tuscany. Bring a bagged lunch and really savor the view. 4.The "Ponte Vecchio": this is a bridge that crosses the Arno River (nobody misses walking across this). Many jewelry shops and places to buy souvenirs. Great place to buy really really cheap silver frames and jewelry. I regret not buying more here! 5.San Lorenzo Church: this is where Donatello and Michelangelo studied. 6.Piazza de Michelangelo: I think this is the name of the plaza. It is on a hilltop, great view of Florence from here. There is a restaurant up there that has great food, called La Loggia. 7."Vivoli": this is a gelato place that is considered the best in Florence (it has the best "Rice" gelato) "Gelateria de Neri": (on Via de Neri street) this is the second most famous gelato place 8. A club that was good back then, named Andromeda, about 5 minute walk from the Duomo. 9. most importantly, I HIGHLY recommend eatting at Trattoria Antellesi at Via Faenza, 9 rosso, viciino alle CAPPELLE MEDICEE reservations preferred 055/216990. The food was AMAZING, we heard people making reservations for the next evening as they were leaving. Joe and I ate for about 40 euro. One of the best meals I''ve ever had and I have lived all over the world, and worked in the restaurant business many years. Venice: We stayed at two hotels in Venice. The first was the WORST (I can''t even remember the name, but it was also in Rick Steves). The hotel we liked in Venice is called Ca Arco Antico, they have a website, www.arcoanticovenice.com The rooms are small, but so clean and the bathrooms modern. The service was very good also, the owners are very warm and go out of their way to accommodate you. The hotel is about 50 meters from the Grand Canal and close to the Rialto Bridge (although trick to locate at first). They have a free boat to the Murano glass factories. We ended up buying a beautiful glass sculpture there. There are 2000 glass blowers in Venice, but only 6 masters, so if you go to Murano make sure to ask to see a master glass blower at work - it was so cool. Some friendly tips.... 1. invest in backpack luggage. Italy is not suitcase friendly, there are no ramps, the overhead compartments on the trains are very small and limited. and rarely do the hotels have elevators, so you will be lugging your luggage up the stairs. and there seem to be so many stairs! 2. pack light. seriously. 3. invest in a fanny pack. and definitely conceal it when you can. 4. don''t tip, unless you want to. every restaurant we went to had the gratuity already added. and in Rome they charge for bread - whether you eat it or not! 5. definitely book 3 stars hotels (or higher). A 3 star in Europe is equivalent to a Holiday Inn or similar here in the US. If you have any questions, please don''t hesitate to email me! Here is our fur baby, Charlie-Girl. She is the puppy in the front,closest to the camera, with the "black eye". She is a border collie/pointer mix.  Here she is with Santa!  
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