They didn't come for a weekend. They came for a week.

Alaina and Mike, from Aspen, Colorado, turned their wedding into something closer to a residency. Every morning, breakfast arrived from a local bakery. The week had its own rhythm — unhurried, intentional, each day with its own event and its own feeling.

The pizza party was held at Casa Apollonia, a small Tuscan-style villa in the mountains above Cingoli — a medieval hilltop town that this year was named the most beautiful village in Italy. A folk trio from Tuscany played guitar, accordion and violin in the middle of the guests. Nobody sat still for long.

The wedding day was built around a chuppah — designed and constructed by hand with the head gardener of Casa Olivi.

The fabric canopy was a hundred years old, brought from the United States, used at every wedding in their family. It was the oldest thing at the wedding and the most important.

The ceremony in the garden was accompanied by a string duo. The antipasti by the same duo, then a jazz band from Tuscany took over — Italian and international songs reworked in ways that kept the evening moving. After the cake, a concert. After the concert, a DJ and saxophone player closed the night. Fireworks at the cake cutting. Lorenzo Castricini behind the bar all day with two separate cocktail lists, wines selected from a local fine wine shop, blown glass stemware on the tables.

The morning after, a pool party. The day after that, a hot air balloon — one of the largest in Italy, brought from Florence, twenty-four passengers. They flew over the hills around Cingoli. The right way to say goodbye.