Thanks to one nun and her collection of divine wedding dresses, an Italian monastery is now a place of pilgrimage for style - and budget - conscious brides-to-be
The seamstress gently fastened the ivory-coloured silk-covered buttons of the lace corset. She took out the embroidered veil and laid it over the bride-to-be's long black hair. Girl friends and family members watched in silence, their eyes glistening.
"If you have a dream and we can make it come true, we'll do our best," said Sister Maria Laura, a cloistered
Augustinian nun and one-time seamstress.
Photo: Nadia Shira Cohen
But as Italy continues to suffer from the fallout of a prolonged recession, what was begun as an act of charity for a few young women in need has become a fashionable choice for growing numbers of brides who want to keep their wedding costs down. The atelier was revamped in October to keep pace with the increasing demand. In the process, running it has become a full-time job for Sister Maria Laura, who oversees an expanding collection of donated wedding gowns - now numbering in the hundreds - in various sizes, train lengths and styles (though white and its pale variations still dominate the colour scheme).
The monastery - once home to St Rita, an abused bride and a widow before she became a nun about 600 years ago - has long been a pilgrimage site for Italian women, who come to pray to the saint to protect their marriages. The collection, as it were, began when some women brought their wedding dresses as an offering of thanks. Brides-to-be arrive every week, often accompanied by their mothers and sisters, as if they were visiting a wedding showroom.
"If I can't find it here, I simply can't afford to buy one," Chiara Cariolato, 21, who comes from a family of six, said anxiously on a rainy Sunday morning, as she walked through the monastery's garden of roses, the flower traditionally associated with St Rita.
Many brides simply make donations as a token of their gratitude. Some have left up to £700, Sister Maria Laura said, others nothing at all.
Photo: Nadia Shira Cohen
Sister Maria Laura sees brides only by appointment. Cariolato, her sisters and friends left home in northern Italy at 3am to reach the monastery in time. Although Cariolato had never been in a bridal dress shop, she envisaged herself walking down the aisle in a flowing gown and a white bodice decorated with pearls.
"I think I look like Jane Austen," Cariolato said to her sisters, who seemed unconvinced, before glancing at her reflection in the mirror. She wore a tight top with puffed sleeves and an ochre gown with a long train.
Sister Maria Laura smiled, then swiftly began picking out alternative dresses. "I know which one she will take. You can tell from their faces," she whispered conspiratorially.
Photo: Nadia Shira Cohen
Sister Maria Laura is a gift to the brides-to-be. Before she entered monastic life at the age of 28, 20 years ago, she was a designer and seamstress in her family's tailoring shop in Lucca. She can tell immediately whether it is possible to alter a bridal dress, and she knows exactly how much work the tailor will need to do. She is also quite straightforward. "No need to tighten it - you don't want to look like a sausage on your wedding day," she might say. "This is just ugly," she bluntly told two blushing brides.
But Sister Maria Laura says she manages to find the right gown for almost every bride. It's the rush of emotion that comes with the right match that she loves most about her work.
Photo: Nadia Shira Cohen
Throughout the years Sister Maria Laura has dressed many different brides - pregnant girls, blind women, even those who opted for a civil, not a church, wedding - and she is very aware of the importance of such choices.
"Ooh, I feel like
Princess Sissi in this one," Irene Berardi, a 25-year-old bride, shrieked, twirling in a white tulle gown and embroidered corset, with white silken gloves up to her elbows. The reference was to a popular 1950s film version of the life of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria. "We'd need a castle for the reception, but we're actually thinking about a farm."
Photo: Nadia Shira Cohen
Berardi and her boyfriend never dreamt of a lavish wedding, she said. That felt to them like a slap in the face of the many people in the world who are starving and suffering. So when one of her girlfriends enthusiastically told her of her visit to Sister Maria Laura, Berardi decided to email the monastery and request an appointment.
Photo: Nadia Shira Cohen
It took a few hours of laughter and giggling to find the dress of her dreams, and she warmly hugged Sister Maria Laura at the end, slipping her an envelope with her donation. But choosing her dress at the St Rita monastery was not merely an economic transaction, Berardi explained. "I've felt at home here from the very first minute," she said. "After all, nuns have a calling. Love is a calling, too."
