Grotto Falls Elopement: Kiana + Fabrizio

Fabrizio and Kiana gracefully combine their two unique heritages with a gorgeous Kite and Butterfly gown, perfect earthy peach and rust tones, and darling hand pies for a sweet treat to celebrate their union in Payson Utah’s Grotto Falls. They shared their love story with us along with the background behind their elopement decision:

I met Fabrizio at the end of Summer 2016 through a dating app. After our first date, I knew that I had found my husband, and I even called my mom to tell her as much! He was everything I had been looking for and more, smart, fun, caring, genuine…and even Italian! We started hanging out consistently from that very first week and soon we were spending every bit of free time together; We even went grocery shopping together! It only took a month before we were openly talking marriage with each other. We both realized that this was going to be a life-long relationship because of our deep friendship, honesty, and commitment.

Initially, both of us planned on a courtship of at least a year. As we began to plan and set a timeline, we realized there was a time crunch. Fabrizio had been accepted and was planning on going to dental school the following summer in July and it was already October. I would graduate the month before his move in June and naturally wanted to move across the country with him. However, both Fabrizio and I come from conservative religious families and maintain these same values, so moving in before marriage wasn’t an option for us. Therefore, it seemed most favorable to marry before July in order to have the longest possible courtship.

All too soon, the logistics of planning a wedding and throwing a full wedding during my graduating year, finding an apartment and moving in together, and then moving back out across the country all within one month seemed impossible, to say the least. In addition, Fabrizio’s family was still mostly located in Italy. Even with a date six months away, it was unlikely they could make all the travel arrangements to come without more notice. We didn’t want to have our large wedding celebrations without the groom’s entire side of the family.

Realizing that his family wouldn’t be able to come regardless of the date was actually a relief because it removed the cultural obligation of having an immediate big wedding reception and party. After many heartfelt discussions and weeks of pondering, we decided to simply elope and move forward with our marriage in November before my Christmas break. We knew we wanted to be together and it seemed a pity to waste any more time waiting simply to log in more “dating hours”.

We were glad that we could have an intimate ceremony with the focus on our love and commitment, rather than the decorations, elaborate cake, or wedding gifts. Our elopement was just about us, our love, and our decision, rather than about all the other expenses society currently requires of a wedding. We wouldn’t have done it any other way. Nearly 9 months later, we consider it the best decision of our lives!