Sian and Wayne came from England to marry in Puglia on 13 June 2026, at Masseria Amastuola — a fifteenth-century masseria turned wine resort, standing at 210 metres on a hill above Crispiano with the Ionian Sea somewhere out past the vineyards. Sixty guests. One estate. And an afternoon that refused to go to plan.
A morning with nobody in a car
The first thing worth saying about Amastuola is that everybody sleeps there. Sian got ready in one room with her bridesmaids, Wayne in another down the corridor with his groomsmen and their children, and nobody had to drive anywhere on the morning of their wedding. It sounds like a small thing. It is not: it removes the one variable that most reliably makes a wedding morning tense.
Her dress hung from a stone fireplace. The rooms here are white and vaulted with deep window openings, and the light comes in as one soft source, which is the kind of light you would otherwise spend an hour trying to build.
The wind, and a ceremony that moved
The forecast said nothing. By early afternoon the wind coming across the hill was strong enough that an outdoor ceremony in the olive grove had become impossible — not uncomfortable, impossible. So about an hour before it was due to start, the whole thing moved indoors, into one of the vaulted halls, with white hydrangeas either side of them.
I have watched a lot of couples absorb a change like this. Most of them lose about ten minutes to it and then decide it does not matter. Sian and Wayne decided faster than most.
The vows
This is the part of the day I keep coming back to, and it is the reason I would tell you to watch the film to the end rather than the first thirty seconds.
Sian read hers into a microphone with a folder open in front of her, and Wayne stood there and took it. Whatever performance a couple carries into a ceremony tends not to survive an hour of quiet panic about where the chairs are going — and what was left, in that hall, was two people saying accurate things to each other in front of sixty of their favourite people. There was no attempt to be moving. That is usually the condition for actually being moving.
Apulian food, a tenor, a saxophone
Afterwards the aperitivo spread outdoors across stations of Apulian food, the kind where the guests stop asking what things are and start simply eating them. The music was the surprise: a tenor, a saxophone and percussion, live, in the open air. I have filmed a lot of aperitivi in Puglia and I had not had that particular combination before. It is the sort of thing that makes fifty people stand still for four minutes in the middle of a party.
Six o’clock in the vineyard
While everyone was eating, we took twenty minutes and walked out. This is the trade I recommend to every couple marrying here: go during the aperitivo, when the guests are happy and nobody is waiting for you, rather than after dinner when the light has gone and everybody notices your absence.
It was around six in the evening. The vine rows at Amastuola are planted in waves — the design of the Spanish landscape architect Fernando Caruncho — and at that hour the sun runs along them rather than down onto them, so the whole slope acquires relief. Then into the olive grove, where the trunks are genuinely old and the trees stand far enough apart that light comes through sideways instead of breaking into dapple.
If you take one practical thing from this article: build your day around this hour. It is free, and nothing else you spend money on will improve the film as much.
Dinner, the courtyard, and a cake by the pool
Dinner was long tables under a high arched window, burgundy hydrangeas down the middle, place cards in deep red. Then out into the historic courtyard, where festoon lights are strung between the walls of the masseria and the country falls away on the fourth side.
They cut the cake after dark beside the infinity pool, which sits right on the edge of the hill facing the Gulf of Taranto. Berries, red roses, and the water lit behind them.
Thinking about Amastuola for your own wedding?
If you are planning something here, I have written a longer and more practical piece about the estate — the spaces, the hour to aim for, what the wind means, how guests get there and what a legal ceremony on site involves: Masseria Amastuola wedding videographer. You can also see the rest of my work across the region on the Puglia wedding videographer page.
The team behind the day
Venue: Masseria Amastuola
Wedding planner: @enzomelchiorre_events
Celebrant: @apulian_ceremony
Photography: @fotovision_photographers
Video: @ivancaiazzafilms
Make-up: @suzana_n_makeupartist
Hair: @wags_hair_salon
Tenor: @paonedelfo
Saxophone: Alex Montana Sax
Percussion: @santeramo_percussion
Bridal dress: Laura May Bridal