White and Yellow Daisy Wedding Inspirations

Daisy wedding dress by Philippa Lepley,  daisy wedding band by Gerard McCabe, stationery by Debbie Jenkins,
 wedding cake by daisie fantasie, bridesmaids' dresses seen on weddingdressonline.org

It has suddenly turned rather cold here in the northern part of Latium. Lots of frost on my lawn this morning. The sun is shining however, just the right weather for a brisk walk in the open air in the countryside.
 However much I love winter weather like this, thinking forward to Spring makes me joyful. It makes me think of weddings, flowers and light,warm country air. Here is a little bit of true springtime wedding day inspiration for all you future brides who are maybe suffering from worse winter weather than we are fortunate to have here at Country Weddings Italy. This Daisy inspiration theme has just the right "rustic chic" touch that could be used at a country wedding venue.

Country Weddings Italy...a taste of what you could enjoy!

I wonder how many happy women are sitting with their laptop right now, browsing wedding blogs for the first time, because they found an extra special present under the Christmas tree yesterday?! Congratulations to all newly-engaged couples! I find Christmastime proposals sooooo romantic. It is in fact a very popular time for our "other halves" to pop the question, along with New Year and Valentine's Day.
It must be wonderful to start dreaming and planning your special day, a completely blank piece of paper to fill with all the best ideas you find along the journey, or even an opportunity for some to finally make the wedding you've planned and dreamed of ever since you were a child finally come true.
Whatever your intentions, below are just a few photos to show you some of the wedding venues and details that Country Weddings Italy have put together to help you experience your unique, romantic wedding day in Italy. More ideas and glimpses in the next few days!

Powder Blue Wedding Inspirations

Favour bags by fabulousfavours.co.uk, blue bridesmaid dress by Carla Massara boutique,
necklace by Bilibi, powder blue wedding dress by CentroSposiParadiso

This blog is dedicated to my Country Weddings Italy business partner and dear friend, Daniela. We have been having long discussions about the colour "powder blue" and its relevant gradient of grey as opposed to pale blue. It's been hard work (we even got the Sanderson's paint colour chart out at one point!) but we finally got there. Why all this preoccupation with a colour, you may ask. Because it's the colour we have chosen for our website background (nearly there now) and we have literally driven our website designer crazy asking him to find the exact colour we were looking for!

However, all this talk got me thinking about what an elegant colour powder blue is indeed, and just perfect for incorporating into a wedding theme, winter or summer, country or even for a beach wedding, so here are a few things I found on the web that can give you some inspiration.

Country Charm for an Italian Country Wedding

Today it's time to showcase another venue that we at Country Weddings Italy have been lucky enough to find, visit and get to know. This country hotel resort lies in the hills of northern Latium, just a few miles from one of the region's largest lakes, Bracciano, and close to local sites with Etruscan and Roman ruins.
Antonello and Marina, the couple who own and run the resort are two of the most helpful people we have met while searching for our quality suppliers and vendors. They really like to take care of their guests, no request seems to be too much trouble, and they call their work their favourite hobby!

The venue itself is top quality, with beautiful, natural grounds, a large open-air swimming pool, a top-quality restaurant,a large terrace for "al fresco" meals, a wine bar and lots of space for sun-bathing, taking a stroll, or just generally relaxing. The owners supply guests with bicycles for exploring the local area and offer cookery courses to their guests on request.
Guests can stay in double bedrooms, studio apartments or cottages, choosing self-catering, half board or full board, all at extremely reasonable prices. Weddings held here receive the owners' utmost attention. Antonello is also the resort's chef, having finally managed to turn a lifetime's passion into a full-time job after leaving his executive management position in a multinational company some years ago. Couples can choose to have their wedding reception meal indoors or outdoors around the beautiful swimming pool,  while dancing and music can continue until late at night in the winebar. Antonello has also been know to lend his vintage sports car to the bride and groom to travel to the local wedding hall!

This definitely a venue which has an excellent price/quality ratio, with guaranteed full attention from your hosts and the beauty of the surrounding scenery.

Latium, the land of Princes, Popes, Farmers and Craftsmen

Many people reading this blog have asked me to tell them a little more about Latium, the region where Country Weddings Italy is based and will concentrate most of its wedding venues. Although I obviously speak from a personal point of view, I truly think that this part of Italy is beautiful, and the beauty of it is that it's not crawling with tourists for most of the year, apart from the capital city, of course. 

So many parts of Italy are popular with overseas tourists. Tuscany is most certainly at the forefront in everyone’s mind when they think of Italy. The region’s tourist board has certainly had some very efficient marketing experts working for them in recent years, and they have the "material" to warrant that, without a doubt. The Amalfi coast is also very popular with Brits and Americans with its unique coastal scenery, and Lake Garda and the northern lakes in general have gained popularity thanks to the likes of George Clooney buying property in the area. Italy’s most beautiful cities, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples are also known names in everybody’s vocabulary.

Latium (known as Lazio in Italian) is, in fact, the Italian region that is home to one of those names: Rome, the Eternal City, Italy’s capital, which gets its fair share of publicity worldwide and which everyone dreams of visiting at least once in their lifetime. It really is worth a visit and that could easily be incorporated into your stay here, as the city is never more than an hour's journey from wherever you stay in the region.  However, apart from Rome, we are somewhat spoilt for choice in this area of Ancient Roman, Etruscan and Renaissance history. There are architectural wonders to look at wherever you go.  There are Roman ruins, Etruscan tombs, medieval castles, spectacular countryside, rugged coastlines with its long, wide beaches, mountains for skiing, thermal spa towns and lakes for lazing by. A perfect, mini paradise!

We have already shown you a few venues and locations for celebrating your wedding in Latium in this blog. In coming weeks I will most definitely showcase some more. I could go on for hours and hours about the majestic beauty of the medieval town of Viterbo, Montefiascone, the village that produces the excellent Est! Est! Est! wine by the side of Lake Bolsena, the the Monti Sabini hills in the northeast corner of the region, with its olive groves that produces the most divine olive oil and superb country farmhouse hotels ...... but I often think that the power of words is sometimes just simply overcome by the power of pictures, and so I thought I would show you this short video of just some of the highlights of the Latium area. Feast your eyes on this!

Work in Progress

It's been an even busier couple of weeks here at Country Weddings Italy. I spent the last two weekends finishing my Advanced Wedding Planner course (I now have a nice "shiny" certificate to display on my wall that says I passed!) at the gorgeous Odescalchi Castle and this weekend I sat and finally put together all our information and ideas to write the website text. Not an easy task, I must say, as deciding what is too much and what is too little for the averagely interested reader is no simple decision. I'm now proofreading, with the help of a few friends, and this morning we are off to consult with the web designer and lay all our ideas at his door. Daniela even got out the Pantone colour chart to decide on the EXACT shade of pale teal we are looking for. We may be dropping on our feet but it's all so exciting! Watch this space for a sneak preview as soon as it's ready.....