San Domenico Palace Wedding, Taormina, Sicily – Ekaterina + Marc

So just over a week ago I had the immense pleasure of spending a few days in Sicily for the wedding of Ekaterina and Marc at San Domenico Palace. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect! I was staying outside of Taormina (note to self, don’t do this next time!!), I won’t say where, but I can only describe it as the Barnsley of Sicily, sorry if you live in Barnsley!!!! So yeah, it wasn’t great, but on the plus side, I did have a view of Mount Etna from my balcony, Barnsley doesn’t have that trump card! That aside, when you start the drive up the winding roads to San Domenico, you know you’re on the way to somewhere pretty damn special, and my word, is it special!! It’s only really been over the past 2 years I’ve discovered Italy as an international wedding photographer, and Sicily (especially Taormina) is now well and truly on the list of locations to re-visit. I can already see a road trip developing in my mind; taking the family in a big camper from Tuscany to the Amalfi coast, all the way down to Sicily, maybe even start in Southern France, yep, definitely start in France!

Back to Ekaterina and Marc, oh man, I don’t even know if I can find the words. I’m just going to start by saying they’re one of the warmest and kindest couples you could ever wish to meet, like another level of kindness, constantly smiling and an absolute pleasure to be in the company of. It was very clear just how important it was to have their friends and family with them in Sicily, and how much they appreciated everyones efforts, nothing was ever taken for granted. Myself and Paul (the video guy!!!) met up with them both on the Friday to have a little walk around San Domenico Palace, both of us dragging our jaws along the floor as we entered new rooms or took in new vistas!! Then it was off to a local restaurant for a pre-wedding gathering and a couple of glasses of red with the guests;

Then it was wedding day; action packed from start to finish, so much so the first dance didn’t kick off until 11:30!!! The ceremony took place overlooking the Mediterranean sea in glorious sunshine, as ceremony views go, they don’t get much better than this. The rest of the day was then occupied with plenty of laughter, drinking, eating, and continual outbursts of dancing! Here goes;

Closing out the weekend with breakfast on the terrace of San Domenico, there are definitely worse locations to recover from a hard days drinking and dancing;