Director Sofia Coppola weds in southern Italy

ROME (AP) -- Filmmaker Sofia Coppola went back to her roots for her wedding Saturday, marrying rocker Thomas Mars in the remote, southern Italian town where her great-grandfather was born.

Coppola's famous filmmaker father, Francis Ford Coppola, escorted the 40-year-old Sofia down the aisle to a waiting Mars, lead singer of the French band Phoenix and the father of their two young daughters.

The early evening ceremony took place in the garden of the palazzo that the elder Coppola renovated in the historic center of Bernalda, a city near the Gulf of Taranto in Italy's Basilicata region, according to Mayor Leonardo Chiruzzi who performed the ceremony.

"Everything went well," Chiruzzi told The Associated Press afterwards. "It was simple, calm, in the garden."

RELATED: Kate Moss' Wedding Pics in Vogue

The bride wore a sheer, lavender tulle dress and Mars a gray suit with a flower in the lapel. The bride and her father were preceded down the aisle by the couple's older daughter and other children. After Coppola and Mars said their "si" in the civil service, she tossed her bouquet and a friend caught it, Chiruzzi said.

The newlyweds and the father of the bride, wearing a white linen suit and pink shirt, then popped out of the palazzo briefly to greet onlookers. She was holding a glass of bubbly.

It's her second marriage; she divorced fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze in 2003.

Bernalda, near the UNESCO-recognized troglodyte settlement of Matera to the north, was home to Francis Ford Coppola's grandfather, Agostino, before he emigrated to the United States at the turn of the last century.

Chiruzzi said the wedding was simple by design.

RELATED: Imagined Celebrity Wedding Vows

"If they wanted to do a Hollywood wedding, they wouldn't have done it here," Chiruzzi said by phone on the eve of the nuptials. "(They) chose to do it here because it's here — it's here that is beautiful."

He stressed the low-key nature of the event. The ANSA news agency said guests included Johnny Depp and Talia Shire, the bride's aunt, who is best known for her roles in her brother's "The Godfather" films and as Sylvester Stallone's girlfriend Adrian in "Rocky."

A dinner was planned to be followed by cake, made to serve about 100 people. It was a simple vanilla cake with chantilly cream, decorated with white flowers and prepared by the chef at the Magna Grecia hotel in Bernalda, said Biagio Loiudice, who runs the hotel.