A few months before the wedding, Bella tragically passed away. It was incredibly important to the couple to have her at the wedding, so Light tied her dog tag to her bouquet. “We without a doubt felt her spirit as the forecast said rain every single day, and we believe she brought us sunshine,” the bride says. “Her energy was radiating throughout the weekend.”
The wedding took place at the end of June at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, England. “Since 2016, my mom and I have been doing an annual mother-daughter trip to the Farm,” Light says. “Upon our first arrival, it was immediately the most magical place we’d ever been. I’m sure a big part of that had to do with the fact that I was there with my mom, but there is also just something incredibly special in the air. It is stunningly beautiful, you are surrounded by animals, there are endless activities, and it feels like an adult summer camp. It became my dream wedding venue and I hoped one day I’d get married there.”
After Light and Bongiovi got engaged, she took him to the Farmhouse for the first time. “He immediately looked at me and said ‘I get it. This place is perfect.’ The idea of having all of our favorite people together for three days on the most gorgeous property was a dream we were so lucky to make a reality. Our guests were able to walk, stumble, or bike home from the parties, and during the day, they could play tennis, horseback ride, mini golf, skeet shoot, lounge by the pool, and everything in between—nothing could’ve been better. We even had guests feeding the goats in the early hours of the morning after partying a little too hard—it got a little crazy and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Soho Farmhouse was everything and more.”
The couple worked with Alison Events to plan everything and Aesme Floral on all of the flowers. The weekend started with a family dinner on Wednesday night, followed by a summer solstice welcome party on Thursday, the rehearsal dinner on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and a goodbye brunch on Sunday. “The planning process was wild, fun, and nerve-wracking,” Light admits. “There’s a lot of noise on social media, tons and tons of opinions. Planning the ‘perfect wedding’ is very intimidating. However, I tried my best to drown out all the noise and create the wedding of my dreams. I didn’t want to go with the trends, but instead, create a never-ending, multi-day party that felt authentically us. We instead tried to add in little details of our love story throughout the weekend. Whether it be the famous Surf Lodge chicken tender tower at our after-party or plain pasta with butter and parmesan at the wedding dinner—our personal fav!—or a legit reality TV confessional—green screen and all—we just wanted everything to be distinctly us.”
