Getting married in Italy..

Just wanted to share my experience of getting married in Italy. I got married in Sept 2008, and it was the most amazing day of my life. My husband and I love Italy and when we first started looking for venues, what, where, when etc.. this forum was a life saver for information. We first had to decide where in Italy, and soon found that if you get married by the coast, it does hike prices up, so we opted for Tuscany in Italy as we were going to end up by the coast for our honeymoon. It was a good decision, not only is it inexpensive, its also absolutely stunning. We then started to look into where to get married, castle, hotel, villa, historic, modern, country house, etc.. and also a budget, and had millions of questions, such as do we need a planner etc.. I hate wasting any money, so spent about 2 months researching everything online.. and eventually decided that on advice a wedding planner was invaluable, so we opted to go for Pia and Michele, from Invitoscana info@invitoscana.it I have to say it was the best decision i've ever made. There are so many planners out there, but a lot of them are ridiculous prices and not worth the money. Plus one word of warning, Italians are not like English people, they like to be quite laid back, they don't often get back to you via email straight away and its a relaxed way of life and planning. Pia from Invitoscana is infact scandinavian and Michele is Italian, and so its the perfect mix, as they are organised, and honest and explain everything in detail as to what to expect, and how people work. Plus with us not speaking italian they were invaluable. We booked to go on a trip to Florence about a year before our wedding to look at venues, and again without their assistance, we wouldnt have even found some of their hidden gems! We were taken to see caterers, florists, venues, photographers etc, and they not only drove us around, but acted as interpreters, so in just a few packed days, we had costs, an idea of what was available to us, and had a much clearer idea of what we wanted. We took tons of photos so we could remember each place and i'd also taken photos with me of flowers etc that I liked. The trip was brilliant and we were pretty much organised with the main things and felt settled. We then wanted to work out, how to get married, ie, do we go out there, then have a reception back in the UK aswell? After looking into costs in the UK it was working out like a cost of 2 weddings as even a reception in the UK is very costly the minute you mention wedding!!! Incredible, so we made the best decision ever, we decided to put all our money into the Italian wedding, send out invites a year in advance and because of this more people came to the actual wedding as they booked their holiday's around it, and also the minute easyjet flights etc became available then they booked up cheaply in advance and most flew into Pisa (easy to get to florence from), so far so good! Once back in the UK we set up a website and then I started to email Pia and Michele to book up other things, we had musicians (brilliant) a DJ, (fantastic) an amazing florist, fabulous caterers, transport, and best of all, although it looked like a wedding out of Hello magazine, it was all so cheap in comparison to a UK wedding. We also got married in a stunning 10th century castle outside in the sunshine, so it was stunning. In the UK many places charge you corkage on drink which ups the prices, in Italy, you can get caterers to bring in the alcohol, or you can sometimes buy it yourself (If you can be bothered, or have time) but there is no charge for corkage and we had lovely prosecco, etc all evening.. We also set up a website so that people could get ideas of where to book and stay etc.. and it also broke down the wedding details for them, it turned out to be a three day party and was without doubt the best decision we ever made. Friends of ours in normal weddings in the UK paid out much more. Ladies another suggestion too.... when I took my wedding dress and veil over, I folded it into a tiny box, (emptybox company) and then when I arrived, Pia took me to a wedding shop, where it was professionally ironed out and delivered back to me (or you could pick it up), so it looked stunning for the big day all for a matter of a few euros, much better than lugging a big heavy dress and trying to keep it crease free on the way there. As we also went on to honeymoon after the day, we organised for our guests to take back some of the wedding stuff, suits etc back to the UK. The day was overseen by the planners, and everything exceeded my expectations, (quite difficult for me as im really fussy and a born organiser) so I was pleasantly surprised by every detail. So if you are thinking about getting married in Italy, I can only say do it, it was really easy, stress free, and the results were far superior to what i've ever had at a wedding in the UK. Good luck and happy planning. x

Hi Rainbowgold
it is really nice to hear you had the time of your life in Italy... I also married in Italy last September.
I was wondering, how much did you pay for the wedding planners?
I paid myself 300 euro for the day co-ordination but did all the planning/hotels/restaurants myself.
It would be nice to hear from other brides how much the cost of the planners is...wanna share?

I got married in Sept 2008, and to be honest the price totally depends on what you want them to do for you? I do know that when we went over to look at venues etc.. their daily rate cost less than if we'd hired a car per day, which was great, as 1. we would never have found our way around to all the different suppliers addresses and venue addresses, and 2., they were our translators for the day. As for the actual planning and day, again costs will have probably changed, I suggest you contact them to get a quote as mine would be out of date but I do know in relation to other people's planners, they were one of the cheapest, and went out of their way to ensure I was happy in every single way. As I hate spending money too, I did (sneakily) try contacting some of the restaurants etc direct myself to see if their costs were the same or cheaper, but in actual fact it ended up cheaper for us to book through the planners, as the suppliers give them discounts or charge exactly the same, so I didnt lose money in any way. Plus with them having good relationships with them, we often got extras added or set plans changed to accommodate our requirements. Its a bit like going on holiday no one knows all the good hidden gems just by searching and trawling the internet, but if you speak to someone who lives there, they can tell you good/bad/ugly and amazing on all different places/hotels/restaurants etc..

I am getting married in Italy in 22 days... I am so glad to know that it is al Italians that are so laid back. I am doing it without a wedding planner because there are none were I am getting married (Livigno ski resort). I think it may all go a bit tits up but really nice to hear that you guys had good experiences. It defo seems we are going to get way more for our money out there even with a fairly poor euro rate xxx

Hello there girls,

I am getting married in Italy - Lake como next year in September 2011, I cant wait I havent been to Italy before now but we are going in September to look around - it looks just beautiful. ~We are using wedding planners and they are great - they are doing all the booknigs etc for us its great. Its a shame the euro is as bad as it is at the moment but I am sure we will haeva fantastic time, When you were getting married in Italy what did you do about ordering flowers etc... is it easy to do? Is it quite costly? Also we still havent chosen anything for our recetion yet so any help on this or any of the above would be great help!

thanks everyone! xxxx