Property Brothers Wedding: Drew Scott and Linda Phan

Let me start this off by saying visiting Europe has been on the top of my list ever since I can remember. A few months back we got the invitation to Linda & Drew’s wedding in Italy and COULD NOT pass up the opportunity to explore that part of the world. The whole experience far exceeded my expectations. I’ll stay on the subject of the wedding to keep this brief (lol just finished writing and it's not brief). Uhm... #goals doesn’t even begin to cover it. The wedding was held in Puglia, Italy at the Borgo Egnazia hotel and let me tell you this is no “hotel”. Puglia is a pretty remote part of Italy so you have to drive other locations to really see the culture, but the Borgo was a city in and of itself.

We arrived for the welcome dinner which was the evening before the actual wedding.  When we walked into the Borgo we were greeted by white Roman esque architecture. Everything was extravagant. Everywhere we looked we saw character and attention to detail. The hotel is set up like a city as I mentioned, so every room is tucked away in its own villa that looks like a house/condo. The streets (yes there is literally an abundance of walkable stone streets) led us to the center of the hotel which was basically like your local town square if your local town square was Atlantis. Three hundred guests filled the plaza as drinks were served (your boy loaded up on Aperol Spritz cuz that’s what they do there and also it’s been my new drink of choice since I saw Teddi Mellencamp drink it on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills). Drew & Linda made a speech to everyone just before dinner was served and LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT DINNER. They had a buffet in the round. This was not your typical Golden Corral buffet this was an authentic ass Italian ass how much can my stomach lining stretch ass buffet. There was literally an Italian man HAND SPINNING mozzarella balls in front of my face like ARE YOU SERIOUS. We ate, ate some more, drank, drank some more (switched from Aperol Spritz to limoncello because apparently spritz is pre-dinner and limoncello is a post-dinner digestive). People started to shuffle out little by little. Eventually we looked around and we were the last people at dinner aside from some of our new friends and the newlyweds to be. I can’t even tell you how long we stayed because time flew by but it had to be a good 5 hours. My favorite thing about the night was meeting cool people. So much of your life is dictated by who you choose to surround yourself with and it was very apparent from the dinner that Drew & Linda surround themselves with some pretty awesome people.

The following day was the wedding ceremony. It was held in the same place as the dinner from the previous night except it had been transformed into a gorgeous floral space with seating in the round. At the center of it all was a circular platform where the ceremony would take place. It truly felt like a scene from a movie (which I guess it technically was since it was being filmed for tv lol). Watching Drew & Linda exchange vows was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve never cried at a wedding before but hearing their words of love brought me to tears. I had Cameron beside me and it just made me think about spending the rest of my life with him and gave me all the feels. The takeaway from their vows: it’s the little things that count. 

After the ceremony we were shuffled to a different part of the map (yes there was a map of the hotel grounds because it truly is a whole damn city) where we enjoyed cocktail hour while the wedding party took photos. After a few drinks we made our way to the third and final stop of the evening, the reception.

I LIVE for receptions. This one did NOT disappoint...in fact I think it took the cake (HA). There was ping pong, a gelato stand, photo booth, open bar and plenty of people to meet. Dinner came in courses but I couldn’t enjoy it because I was SO NERVOUS. You see a few months before the wedding Drew called me with an idea to surprise Linda by doing our cake dance at the reception. A few weeks before the wedding Annalee messaged me saying the bridesmaids wanted to surprise Linda by playing a video of our cake dance at the reception and dancing along with it. So Drew and the bridesmaids both had the same idea but didn’t tell each other. Once I found out the bridesmaids had already been practicing the cake dance I thought it would be perfect to include them in our performance. Once JD finished giving his speech at the reception it was time for us to go on. With adrenaline rushing through me I grabbed the mic and called Bria, Haley and the bridesmaids to the dance floor. Drew brought Linda up and the music started playing. Halfway through the dance the bridesmaids each grabbed a piece of cake and rushed towards me, literally rubbing it all over my body. Now..that was planned but also I had no idea it was going to be SO intense. Out of nowhere I saw 20+ hands silhouetted above me slowly  pushing me to the floor while slathering me in buttery cake. After that the floor was virtually un danceable I was slipping and sliding all over the place. As amazing as the dance went, it created problems for what was to follow. Drew & Linda we’re scheduled to perform their first dance, an extravagant number choreographed by Drew’s Dancing With The Stars partner, Emma Slater. The dance included flips and tricks that required Drew and Linda to have perfect balance and traction. The crew did whatever they could to clean the floor after our performance to no avail. Eventually they tried using vinegar to counter the slipperiness and it worked! The newlyweds kicked off their dance with grace and style. The evening went on until the wee hours of the morning. The dance floor was LITT. Around 3:30am Linda requested Anaconda and we all did The Fitness Marshall dance for it together. WHAT A TIME. We tapped out around 4am but rumor has it the party went until almost 6am. 

Writing about this makes me miss it so much. I honestly cannot believe I got to experience such magic. I’m honored to have been able to share that week with Drew, Linda, their friends and family. So many beautiful people celebrating such a beautiful couple. It’s an adventure I’ll never forget.

Be sure to watch my vlog about it here.

Property Brothers: Linda & Drew Say I Do premieres June 2 at 9/8c on TLC.