What a joy filled privilege it was to travel back to Italy and photograph this fabulous wedding in Assisi! These two magnanimous people have such passionate hearts that seek excellence in all they do. As they entered into their forever commitment with each other, I saw how they yearned for it to be all it was created to be in Christ.

 

The work I do aims at sharing the beautiful and enabling others to have a true encounter with our Creator. Wedding days are usually towards the top of the list of what is beauty. What can me more beautiful then the sacrament of marriage? Yet, what does that look like? So I asked my Italian bride and groom to share just a taste of their raw real experiance of beauty in this moment of their lives.

 

“The image that each of us can have about love and marriage is usually unreliable to what it actually is. Often, the world of today makes us call “love” a feeling, and “beauty” simply the exterior. Yet, what we have experienced with our own lives is that Beauty is God!

 

During the preparation period, we spent a great deal of time stressing and worrying. We were very focused on organizing everything and making sure that the ceremony and the party were as good as possible. In the morning of the wedding the circumstances led me to be very scared, and I felt that the weight of my choice depended only on my strength and my responsibility. It’s strange, all I worked for leading up to the big day I could not live fully because of this stressful blur.

 

The time came for us to vow to each other in front of our dear friends and family, and I was upset. Looking into his eyes, I was scared that it was a commitment to life, a commitment that , as a person, I was not able to maintain. But there was one thing that gave me strength as I spoke my commitment: “I, Margherita, I welcome you Stefano as my husband, with the Grace of Christ I promise to be always faithful to you in joy and sorrow, in health and in sickness, and to love and honor you all the days of my life.”

 

I would not be alone, and it would not be my credit. There was Jesus! The same God who gave me life, gave me Stefano. Tears filled my eyes during this moment as I recognize the very real reality of being unity with Christ. Love is not how the world expresses it to be, it is a gift. I am a gift to him and he is a gift to me, in the love that only God alone can share. God was and is in our midst, and in the center of our lives. No, there was no emotion to push me, I could not trust my emotions, they are very variable and limited… But there was Faith.

 
Though I could not see the fullness of beauty that surrounded us that day, it was the witness of all our brothers and sisters who attended this great sacrament that opened my eyes: each of them were touched, even people who were not believers. The thing that struck me most on our wedding day was the fact that everyone saw it as a testimony, and as a proclamation of true love.  Christ’s grace has not only fallen on us as a married couple, but on each one of us.

 

Now, after a month as a married couple, I reflect back on that day and thank God for allowing us to know more about true love and ourselves. We thank God, because in the Sacrament He has given us, His strength and His presence are the wings of our lives together.”

Margherita & Stefano

 

for future photos and further inquiries : kcapato@visualgrace.org