Why hire a wedding coordinator in Italy?

Anyone wishing to get married in Italy either needs an amazing amount of knowledge of that country and plenty of time to spare, or needs some help in organising the event. It’s as simple as that. It is time-consuming enough trying to organise one’s own wedding in your home town, (and in fact figures show that more and more couples are resorting to engaging Wedding Planners to help them), so abroad or in another area in your country it all becomes a mammoth task. Of course, you may be lucky enough to have friends or family in Italy who are able and willing to help you find your venue and all your suppliers. Alternatively, wedding coordinators are now available all over the country to help you in your endeavours.  
Through my personal experience and research, however, I have found that destination wedding coordinators often fall into two categories. The ones belonging to the first of the two categories are located in your home country, which is advantageous in that there are no language barriers for you, they often have the same ideas and follow the same new trends as you, being of your same nationality, and you may even be able to pop in and talk to them over a cup of tea. On the downside, however, they are not in the location where you will be getting married, and therefore can only keep an eye on your wedding organisation from a distance, at least in the planning stage, and may not even know the various suppliers personally. They often also miss out on sourcing and getting to know newcomers to the wedding market sector in that particular location.
The alternative is to find a wedding coordinator in the location you have chosen to get married in, but in that case there may be a language or more markedly a culture barrier, as different nationalities really do have different ideas and customs in any circumstances, and you may have a problem explaining exactly what you are looking for, or even understanding what is available to you, right down to the tiniest detail. I often have to tell people that confetti means two completely different items in Italian and English: the word for those tiny paper petals etc thrown over the couple as they come out of church in the UK is the same word used in Italy for the sugar-coated almonds placed in wedding favours in Italy as a sign of health, wealth and fertility. This may be only a minor factor when organising your event, but it is eloquent in showing how  easily wedding customs and traditions can be misunderstood.

There are of course some excellent wedding planners out there, and we by no means profess to be better than them all. Not yet anyway!! At Country Weddings Italy, however, we believe we have done our best to overcome the problems outlined above by combining our origins, skills and cultures. I know where native English speaking people are coming from (most of the time) with their requests, and can relate those to my 21 years in Italy, immersed in Italian culture and lifestyle. I am also completely fluent in the language. Daniela is a thoroughbred Italian lady, and understands our suppliers so well at times that she doesn’t even have to talk to them!  Daniela also speaks English and has long-term experience in organising high-end events in her home town of Naples.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the services we are offering to our customers. Alongside our standard services, we will also take into consideration any special or unusual requests that couples have to make their special day a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Anyone wishing to contact us for information about organising a wedding in our area of Italy (northern Lazio) is welcome to contact us at our email address:
 countryweddingsitaly@gmail.com .

Where it's all happening

An expat friend here in Rome once told that choosing where to live in Italy had been a bit like pushing her nose up to the corner sweetshop window when she was a child, having to make that choice and knowing that however mouth-wateringly delicious the sweets you chose were going to be, you were always going to have to leave something else behind. There are just so many amazingly, stunningly beautiful places in Italy. I think I live in one of them, but I’m biased, of course!!

The choice is probably the same when couples decided to plan their destination weddings here. Just one look at the many websites offering weddings in Italy produces a myriad of images of perfect locations to suit just about everyone’s taste. When I decided to travel down the path of creating a wedding coordination and design business for overseas couples, there were a couple of tough decisions to take. How could I possibly cover all the possibilities? What to showcase and what to leave out, whether to go for the ever-so-popular locations, more likely to attract the crowds, or doing something a little different, more personal and in detail. I decided to follow my instinct. A limited area, less popular than the popular wedding destinations of Tuscany and Umbria, but, in my opinion and in that of so many of my visitors, just as, beautiful and breathtaking.

This area is wonderful, full of gorgeous scenery, history, archaeological site, interesting towns and villages to visit. I still love wandering around the streets of small towns on a Sunday morning, stopping at market stalls, and then onto the café for a cappuccino. So where is it, you ask. Stop being so vague, Nicola! The northern part of Lazio, or Latium as some call it, spreads from Rome to north of Viterbo, another splendid historical town. The whole area is filled with stunning scenery and amazing locations for a memorable holiday, or wedding. You can choose to stay in a castle or in a farmhouse, walk around olive groves or manicured gardens....

I know I’m starting to sound like an advert for the local tourist board, but I actually adore this place! I wouldn’t have stayed here for 21 years (and counting) otherwise, would I? If I were getting married, I know exactly what I’d want. To get married here, in my adopted region, with lots of shabby chic touches to the whole day. What more could a girl want??  Oh yes, Country Weddings Italy as my wedding coordinators!