Villa Medicea di Lilliano Bridal Inspiration with Matoli Keely – Tuscany

Editorial, Italy

Last July I had the distinct pleasure of working alongside incredible San Diego based editorial and wedding photographer Matoli Keely on a editorial photoshoot. We shot in Tuscany at the Villa Medicea di Lilliano, which was once a simple farm home as far back as 1600, but has since been transformed into a lavish, breathtaking country home. Over the centuries guests such as King Frederick IV of Denmark way back in 1709, have graced frescoed corridors.

Today, the Villa Medicea Di Lilliano is the perfect escape, a wine estate and hotel run by Diletta Malenchini, whose family has owned and run this stunning home for more than two hundred years. The family cherishes their past history and admires progress and fashion, which led to the wonderful opportunity for our photoshoot at this location. Working on this bridal portrait and wedding inspiration editorial in such a romantic and historic venue was truly inspiring and I feel the images we were able to capture really convey that blending of history and romance.

The first part of the shoot was the bridal portrait photoshoot. Our aim was to create a stunning editorial, reminiscent of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. We had an incredible hair and makeup team on board, Frank Giacone out of Rome and Kamila Markindorf out of Venice, to create the vision we had for this couture bridal portrait session. To establish that high fashion look, our bride wore an haute couture, blush pink tulle dress from Mae Paris Official, her makeup was extremely fashion forward with bright pink, winged liner and shadow with her hair pulled back tightly in a wet, glossy look.

Accessories by Neo Milano popped with a modern floral design. We played on colour and steered away from simple whites and married pink, greens, tans and creams. We shot first in the villa’s main hall and moved into the amazing Chinese salon that’s part of the family’s private home we were given permission capture, blending the old world fresco and decor with new world, fashion forward style. We really wanted to highlight that marriage of two different worlds for an editorial that felt completely couture.

As seen on Wedding Sparrow.