Italian Culture Inspires Classic Wedding at Pritzlaff Building

Anna and Jack’s classic love story began when the two briefly met in Lake Geneva at the National Italian Invitational Golf Tournament in which Jack was participating. After Anna’s Cinderella-esque exit, Jack finally got Anna’s information from fellow attendees. Shortly after meeting, the two met up for oysters and bubbly for their first date in downtown Milwaukee. The proposal two years later was just as classy as their first date, in a surprise visit to her parents’ house with a crackling fire in the hearth, champagne on ice and Frank Sinatra playing in the background. Their September wedding weekend included multiple nods to Anna and Jack’s Italian backgrounds, starting at the welcome party, where guests enjoyed a spread of Italian food and wine followed by a bocce ball tournament. After the traditional Catholic ceremony, guests were welcomed to the Pritzlaff Building with mini bottles of limoncello that doubled as wedding favors, made by the bride, her mother and mother-in-law. Cocktail hour in the cobblestone courtyard featured grills full of oysters, Italian sausage and vegetables, just like an Italian street festival. The bride likes to make charcuterie trays when she’s entertaining, so each table featured an antipasto spread. “I wanted guests to feel like they were invited over for a dinner party,” Anna says. The newlyweds sat in a loveseat at the head table with their siblings. “We loved that we could be close together during dinner and speeches while looking out at all our family and friends,” Jack says. In lieu of a traditional cake, guests noshed on Italian cookies made by the bride’s aunts and the groom’s godmother, served on wooden rounds from a tree in the bride’s childhood backyard.