After great anticipation on Lola’s part, her and Neve’s moment as flower girls finally arrived. Saturday was a hot day, but not blistering, and with the frequent but unrequited threat of rain. Preparations went pretty smoothly. Isa was, as ever, stuck doing everyone’s hair throughout the day and we (Lola, Neve, Dedi, Nonna and I) left her doing Giada’s hair when we set off for pre-wedding refreshments at Bruna’s house.
Isa turned up in time to join in for a while before we had to head off to the church for 5pm. We should really have left five minutes earlier because Selena, not one for adopting the role of fashionably late bride, beat us there and was waiting, chomping at the bit, outside the church while we struggled to get the kids unbelted and into position.
We all had no doubt the priest was right when he later said Selena was the most punctual bride he’d ever had. We managed to get the girls in front of the bride and her father just in time and Lola did a great job of walking the rings down to the altar. Neve, who is terribly timid these days, broke ranks and walked down the side with Isa, joining again at the end.
The service was an odd mix of formal liturgy and personal musings from the priest who revealed the reactionary nature of the Church when he spoke of Alvise’s needing sometimes to recognise his wife’s tiredness and offering to wash the dishes occasionally. And of how he had to make sure he showed his wedding ring to any pretty females he encountered so that they would be put off and, presumably, save him from his own temptation. All a bit wince-worthy. By the time they got to the mass, Lola had her arms folded and was staring heavenwards with a look that might have caused any deity to waive the rest of the show.
It wound up pretty quickly after that, though, and the bride and groom retired into whatever the area behing the altar is called to have some pics taken. Lola was a bit put out that she wasn’t invited up there with them but we managed to get their attention and they were very happy to pose for a couple of pics with Lola and Neve. Lola was very chuffed.
So then it was time to line up outside the church and throw rice at the bride and groom — another moment of great excitement for the kids who, not happy with the brevity of it all, spent the next 15 minutes collecting fallen rice and re-throwing it Isa and me.
After the picture-taking, we all drove off to the reception which was in a restaurant about 30 minutes drive away called “I Sette Nani” (“The Seven Dwarves” — don’t ask me why, the staff looked pretty normal to me). 
We started outside with prosecco and sangria and pre-antipasti food: the sliced-to-order carpaccio of swordfish was my favourite, I think. But there were all sorts of things from battered whitebait and fishy pastries to fruit skewers. Once the bride and groom arrived, and a little more milling had been done, we all retired inside for the start of the meal proper.
Nine or so courses later we were all done. Amazingly, the girls managed to keep going to the end. Lola had a bit of a crisis around course six, but got a second wind and was dancing and playing chase at midnight. 
We left “early” — just as the coffee was being served at around 1am. The girls were asleep before we left the car park. Dedi didn’t know the way back and her own in-car navigator didn’t know the way home, so I fired up Google’s navigator app and that took us home without problem.