Getting Married in Italy...the Perfect Choice

Hi everyone. Today I thought I would provide you with some personal thoughts about why couples decide to get married in Italy. I'm very happy that they do, of course (!!) but making that choice can be so tricky, with the plethora of beautiful destinations worldwide to choose from. In spite of that number of alternatives, Italy has become a very popular choice with couples opting for a “Destination Wedding”, especially with British, Irish, American, Australian and Canadian brides and grooms.

So what is it that makes Italy so attractive, the choice as the perfect place to take your vows and hold the celebrations for your new life together? The first thing that comes to mind is that Italy is such a romantic place. Italian lifestyle itself, the Dolce Vita, is the perfect atmosphere for any type of celebration, and the scenery that you find almost anywhere can be the perfect setting. Just think of all that money saved on styling!! I often spend hours just gazing out of my living window, thinking about how beautiful this place is, and that’s after living here for 22 years, so the novelty has kind of worn off by now! Anyway, let’s say that the canvas is already there, all it needs is painting a little bit more with your favourite colours and style. 

The sun and light in Italy is also so special, and you get a chance to add a little colour to your skin before the big day, if you want to. Wonderful food, fantastic wines, friendly-natured people……I could go on and on, but I think Italy’s magic ingredient is just that…magic. Something that has no name, something that you can’t quite put your finger on, but you know it is all around you. One phrase that always immediately pops out of somebody’s mouth when I say that I live in Italy is “Oh! You lucky thing!!” And my answer is always “Yes, aren’t I”. And I mean it.

In spite of some negative aspects of living here all the time (is any country perfect?), Italy is a wonderful place, even more so if you plan to spend only a temporary period here.  The Latium countryside is rolling hills, lush vegetation and filled with archaeological and architectural wonders. To watch the video I put on the blog a little while ago, about this superb area of Italy, Latium, where Country Weddings Italy is based, click here.   We can also add the excellent food and wine, amazing locations, beautiful churches and town halls, unique venues with breathtaking views. Italians are certainly creative and stylish too. In fact, we dedicate a lot of time to our supplier searches,  so that the presentation of the food for your wedding breakfast, your table decorations, your wedding flowers and your photographs will be out of this world, even when planning a wedding on a smaller budget. Your wedding will be an event that stays on all your guests’ lips for weeks afterwards. You will have lifetime memories of your wedding in Italy to cherish forever.

Couples choosing to marry in Italy and invite their family and friends often turn the experience into a celebration that lasts for more than one day. The special occasion becomes an opportunity to meet relatives and friends that you may not have seen for some time, and spend some quality time with them, all staying in the same location. At Country Weddings Italy we organise pre and post-wedding events too, which can also be incorporated into your official wedding programme, and be included on your wedding invitations. We can sit down together and organise a whole progamme of events for you and your guests. For example, how about a pre-wedding barbecue by the pool of your hotel the night before the wedding? How about inviting all your guests to have a late brunch with you the day after your wedding, to look at some of the photos (the magic of digital photography is that it is immediately visible on screen) and talk about some of the most enjoyable moments of the day?  How about spending a day before your wedding in the kitchen with your friends, learning authentic Italian cooking while sipping a glass of full-bodied red wine (or two…).

 Or, to make the men (or the women, of course!) in the wedding party happy, how about learning to drive a Ferrari or a Lamborghini around an Italian racetrack for the day?

Daniela and I always make sure that we have excellent accommodation to offer you, if it is not already available at your wedding venue, and if we don’t have immediate thoughts on the matter, we will do the searching for you, until we find a place where you will be happy staying for your wedding holiday.  Some of the excellent hotels and country villas that we have visited and chosen to offer to our couples have offered to organise cookery classes, wine-tasting evenings, and even sightseeing tours around Rome.

Add your wedding ceremony in a frescoed wedding hall, a beautiful church or in a country garden, spectacular food and wine at your wedding reception and a mild climate almost all year round, and……well, maybe we’ve got the answer as to why Italy is a very popular choice for couples planning their wedding.

Wedding Favours, a Worldwide Italian Tradition

The tradition of giving small gifts, or "favours" to guests at weddings dates back 300 or 400 years. It seems that the European aristocracy gave away the first wedding favours, known as a ‘bonboniere’- a small trinket box made of porcelain or crystal, often decorated with precious stones and usually containing sugar which was an extremely expensive delicacy at that time and was also thought to have medicinal properties.

The sugar inside the boxes was soon replaced by sugar-coated almonds in Italy, and the world-renowned “confetti” or  Jordan almonds were born, as they are still known today. 5 of these confetti were given to guests at weddings, to represent 5 good wishes for the newly-married couple: Health, Wealth, Happiness, Fertility and Long Life.

Not much has changed today, in Italy. Five (on occasion only 1 or 3, but always an odd number) sugar-coated almonds are still handed out at weddings and other celebrations too, but in recent years, the bomboniere or wedding favours, as they are known in English, have become popular worldwide. 

However, as times have progressed in Italy, an amazing number of new flavours of confetti have been developed, all absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious: chocolate, strawberry, orange, coconut, peach, pineapple, pistachio, limoncello, coffee, truffle.... the choice is endless. The dessert table, so popular at the moment at British weddings, is often replaced by the “Confettata” at Italian weddings, a beautifully decorated table full of glass or silver bowls, or fabric bags containing several different flavours of confetti. Whenever I’m attending an Italian wedding, I can usually be found near the Confettata table, just checking (honest!) that they “taste right”... if anybody comments about me lurking in that area of the room, I like to explain that I’m carrying out “quality control”!!! 

Confetti are also given to guests to take home, in wedding favours, which come in so many shapes and forms: beautiful little boxes, organza, silk or linen bags, arranged inside special confetti holding “petals” made from tulle, artfully arranged into little bouquets , or simply wrapped in tulle and tied with a silk ribbon. There are special shops in Italy dedicated purely to creating, making and selling wedding favours, but in the land where confetti were first made, it is maybe no wonder.

Confettiflowers.com

Wedding favours with almonds, chocolates or other confectionery are a lovely, thoughtful idea at any wedding, but in Italy, home to the original Confetti, they are a total MUST!! Anybody coming to Italy to get married can ask Country Weddings Italy for advice on choosing their wedding favours for their guests. I'll even offer to carry out a little "quality control" on the confetti too, if you insist ;-).

inventeventi.com

Martha Stewart Weddings

mezzalunabomboniere

Handpainted (edible!) confetti

Just "L.O.V.E" these Crystal Bouquets!!

A beautiful, sunny January morning to you! Yes, the sun is shining here in the north of Latium and that always puts me in a good mood. What better way to start the day than with beautiful photographs?

I came across these beautiful crystal bouquets while I was looking around on the internet for ideas and items for Country Weddings Italy to promote. We only like to promote things that we truly believe are beautiful, and which we would recommend to our brides and grooms. I must admit, though, having lived in Italy for many years, that the trend of crystal bouquets had not yet registered with me, as I had never seen one here in Italy.

The lovely ladies behind these creations are a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law team from Bury in the Northwest of the UK, Sheila and Natalie. The idea for their hugely successful business came from Natalie’s own wedding, when she decided to make her own bouquet. The business literally took over like a rocket and they now have a full diary for 12 months at a time. The bouquets that L.O.V.E bouquets now make for the business are created in constant close consultation with their brides, and the brooches, crystals and jewellery incorporated into these works of art are all sourced by the owners during their regular treasure-hunt outings in the local area.

Looking at their Facebook page, I noticed how “in touch” they are with their customers, constantly talking to each other and even altering bouquets  to suit changes in preferences when they are already in the process of being made.

It is also possible to purchase bouquets for bridesmaids and flower girls (some lovely ideas here, including a crystal wand for a little girl), buttonholes for the groom and other members of the male wedding party, and corsages for the ladies.

Flower girl's wand with butterfly embellishment

Blue buttonhole for a handsome groom!

3 matching bridesmaids' bouquets

Any bride travelling to Italy for their wedding could decide to have a gorgeous crystal bouquet made to bring with her for her special day and then keep it to display at home. Just take a look at these pictures and notice the handiwork!

My favourite, there are butterfly brooches in this one!

Photo by Jon Lyons

A Medieval Castle Wedding with Country Weddings Italy.

I was recently very lucky to spend 3 days in a gorgeous 15^th century lakeside castle in my much-loved area of Italy. I was there on a course (I’ve now got my Advanced Wedding Planner certificate under my belt!) but given the nature of what we were studying, we were allowed to enter the magical world of weddings in a fairytale castle, because this place is a wedding venue open to all!! What girl wouldn’t love to get married in a  real Medieval castle?! Better than anything I ever dreamed up with my Barbie dolls when I was a youngster!

Do the names Tom Cruise and Petra Ecclestone ring bells for anyone? This is the place they chose to get married! The celebrity list is a long one: in fact, before spending time at the castle, I thought it would be well out of most people’s price range, but I now know that the castle caters to many pockets. It truly is possible to plan a multi million-dollar wedding there, but it is also possible to spend amounts that are within many people’s wedding budget. Prices depend on the various areas of the castle hired for the wedding and getting married here during the week is less expensive that choosing a day at the weekend.

The setting is superb and the staff in charge of weddings, headed by the amazing Sanda Pandza, are all warmhearted and wonderfully efficient.  I learned so much during my stay at the castle and know for sure that any Country Weddings Italy couple who should decide to get married here will enjoy the experience of a lifetime.  The castle still belongs to the aristocratic family that purchased the castle at the end of the 17^th century, when the original owners found themselves in financial difficulties and had to sell off many of their assets. The current owner of the castle, (a real princess!) still has private apartments in the castle, although the castle is also open to visitors each day, for guided tours.

Symbolic wedding and commitment ceremonies can be organised within the castle grounds, indoors or outdoors, or a civil or religious wedding can be held just outside the castle walls, at the local cathedral or town hall. Moving on to the post-ceremony celebrations,  aperitifs are often served in the Secret Garden, while the wedding breakfast is normally served indoors, in one of the castle’s majestic halls off the main courtyard, or even in the castle’s traditional kitchens, with their huge fireplaces. Dancing and entertainment can continue  in the courtyard after the celebratory meal, and at night the castle can be lit up with candles and torches, and even fireworks so that it is seen for miles around. There is no end of possibilities to planning a wedding here!

As I’ve often said in the past, a country wedding doesn’t necessarily mean not holding an elegant celebration. This is an absolutely perfect setting for any lady who wants to be a true princess on her wedding day. If you would like more information about holding your wedding here, together with all the other services Country Weddings Italy can provide to make your wedding in Italy just perfect, then write to us at: countryweddingsitaly@gmail.com

Credits: We would like to thank Castello Odescalchi for all the photos.

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!

A Romantic Hillside Monastery, the Perfect Country Wedding Venue

As mentioned a few days ago in my Antique Rose Wedding Inspirations post, this is another of the chosen locations that we will be offering to Country Weddings Italy couples as a wedding venue. You cannot help but fall in love with this place, its surroundings and its atmosphere. The buildings were constructed in the early 16^th century as a monastery for Franciscan monks and have been lovingly restored to their current state as a venue for weddings, birthday parties and company events. The estate still has its own church, which can be used for Catholic wedding ceremonies, although couples can also choose to hold civil ceremonies in the grounds.

The monastery stands on a hill, with 10 hectares of lush vegetation and woodland. The views are spectacular, with the sea of unspoilt green countryside stretching to the very edge of one’s vision. It is a perfect setting for your wedding photographs.

The monastery management team welcomed Daniela and I and dedicated a whole morning to showing us around explaining every detail of how wedding ceremonies and receptions can be organised at their venue.

Aside from the breathtaking scenery, the historical prestige of the venue and the professional approach to organising each couple’s special day, we were also delighted to find such a friendly atmosphere and willingness to work to make each wedding unique. Just look at the photos, and picture yourselves enjoying your wedding day in the this very spot!

If you would like any further information about holding your Italian wedding at this venue, just contact us at: countryweddingsitaly@gmail.com