O’Sarracino Events

Procida is the smallest island in the Bay of Naples, about four square kilometres with roughly ten thousand residents and a single ferry port. Leonardo Costagliola was born and raised there, waited tables in its restaurants as a boy and opened his first business, a bar, in 1997. He founded O'Sarracino as a catering company in 2000 and coordinated the first wedding under the name in 2005, in the historic centre of the island.

The firm has since counted more than three hundred weddings. It is unusual in being the caterer as well as the planner, so the largest line in an Italian wedding budget is bought from the same people who design the day. The kitchen cooks from the island's produce, with Procida lemons used throughout, artichokes and vegetables from the terraces, and fish landed at Marina Grande that afternoon.

Design follows a set order. Theme and colour come first, then a thread that runs through the day, then a graphic designer draws the scheme on paper. Technicians next build a three-dimensional model of the church, the setting, the table layout, the outdoor furniture and the lighting, and nothing is ordered until the drawing is agreed. Set designers, florists, photographers and light designers complete the team, most of them people Leonardo has worked with for two decades.

Leonardo is a certified Capobarman with the Associazione Italiana Barman and a professional sommelier with the Associazione Italiana Sommelier. He trained as a wedding planner and event creator under Cira Lombardo and later studied at the Accademia del Wedding. He rates the first meetings as the most important part of the job, because they are where he learns who the couple are and earns their trust.