Getting married in Italy

Jean05

hi
I was wondering if anyone has gotten married in Italy and what their experiences were, did they use a wedding planner and where they got married.
Seems to be a fashionable choice these days,
Cheers
Jean

elqu

Two friends of mine got married in Rome, (different couples!). They both did it themselves. They also both used the Irish College and the same hotel - Hotel Quirinale! They don't know each other, I'm the only common denominator. Both were very successful, would love to do something similar myself but family pressure is dictating a more traditional wedding *sigh*. THe best of luck with yours!

Irish Salfordia

Jean05 wrote:

hi
I was wondering if anyone has gotten married in Italy and what their experiences were, did they use a wedding planner and where they got married.
Seems to be a fashionable choice these days,
Cheers
Jean

I contributed some months ago about 'civil' weddings in Tuscany. Some gorgeous and unusual places, very reasonably priced (compared to Dublin), you can do lots of the work yourself as there are not too many legal / formal requirements, and get great pleasure from doing so. Obviously at a distance things take longer to get the legal formalities completed, but the small italian villages are very accommodating, and things like flowers and photographers/hairdressers etc seeem very easy to arrange compared to Dublin. My daughter got married last summer in Certaldo Alto and it was a superb wedding. Send me an email if ou want more info

serc16

I'm getting married in Tuscany this summer and I am using a planner, italianweddings.ie. Although the seem to be good at what they do, they don't contact you very much and we tend to have to send 3 messages before you get a reply, which isn't great. But I had heard that about them from other sources, and cause I don't have any Italian and I knew others who had weddings with them that had worked out we went ahead. I don't regret it or anything just sometimes it is frustrating!

the corpo

i'm just back from getting wed in rome, and it worked brilliantly. brief details from a post i put somewhere else. nb, the restaurant we used was called ristorante orazio, off terme di caracalla, so way away from the touristy areas (lovely and private) and on top of amazing food they were happy to let us have dancing, some very difficult to find in rome

"just back, and too tired to get into much detail, other than to say it went brilliantly and thanks to the folks here who gave advice

just for reference, the wedding planners 'just get married' were exceptional. there were some technical problems on the day with the wedding hall, and they handled the problems brilliantly, and kept us calm. very friendly, helpful and informative.

even better, the reception was incredible. we had been worried about finding a venue in rome where we could have dancing after the meal, seeing as it's really the done thing at italian weddings, but they were great about it. at first they were a little taken by surprise maybe, and stood around looking grumpy, but then i noticed the oldest waiter having a shuffle in the corner, so it was grand!

the meal actually ran to 11 courses though, and it was incredibly hard to muster any movement after it. the eating started at 6.30pm and literally didn't finish until 11. some friends weighed themselves the next day and the average increase was about 6 pounds!!!

the food itself was spectacular, i've travelled to italy many times now, and never had anything like it.

bus tour worked out brilliantly too, and the gasp of surprise when we told people about it outside the wedding hall
"hey, see that bus? get on it!",
was amazing.

we had a poor time with the airlines though, but that's a story for another day

right, if yer at all interested you can see some pics at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/petebrady/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecorpo/sets/72157600031419194/

time to get some rest!!"

Figment

My sister got married in Sorento last year and used a wedding planner in the area. Went perfect and everyone had a fantastic time. Recommended.

getcover

We are going to Italy on holiday in July, in Ceriale in Liguria.
We are hoping to get married while we are there, and are currently getting all the legal requirements sorted with the Dept of Foreign Affairs.
However, on the Italian side, things are not going so well.
We have contacted a few wedding planners, but they are all looking for between €2,500 - €3,000 grand for organising the town hall, an interpreter and the person to perform the civil ceremony.
This seems outrageous and we don't want to pay it.
All we want is a civic office, someone to perform the ceremony and the interpreter. We will have our 4 children with us, so we just want a small and quick ceremony to make us legit!
We have been on to the Italian Embassy and all they say is to contact the local commune, but we are having some difficulties with this.
Has anybody organised a wedding in Italy themselves, and not just handed it over to planners?

Thanks

barbiegirl

We got married on the borders of Tuscany and Umbria, using www.romanticitalianweddings.com. Marco own both properties he rents out and manages all the details for the wedding. He is the organiser and a uch his fees are quite reasonable. It was excellent and we had our dream wedding for 1/3 of the cost of a similar wedding in Ireland. We invited 180 people and 110 attended. Give people plenty of notice at least 10 months, pick somewhere easy to travel to with a good range of hotels and accomodation.
Contact Marco and he'll give you a password to a budget calculator so you can get an idea of costs.
My only worry if it was this year would we get similar numbers.
Best of luck and congraulaions.

getcover

Thanks barbiegirl, but we are trying to avoid a planner, we simply want a civil ceremony in the Town Hall. Anyone ever organise this themselves without the help of a planner?

Portofino WP

getcover wrote: »

We are going to Italy on holiday in July, in Ceriale in Liguria.
We are hoping to get married while we are there, and are currently getting all the legal requirements sorted with the Dept of Foreign Affairs.
However, on the Italian side, things are not going so well.
We have contacted a few wedding planners, but they are all looking for between €2,500 - €3,000 grand for organising the town hall, an interpreter and the person to perform the civil ceremony.
This seems outrageous and we don't want to pay it.
All we want is a civic office, someone to perform the ceremony and the interpreter. We will have our 4 children with us, so we just want a small and quick ceremony to make us legit!
We have been on to the Italian Embassy and all they say is to contact the local commune, but we are having some difficulties with this.
Has anybody organised a wedding in Italy themselves, and not just handed it over to planners?

Thanks

Hi,
just read your post and if all you need are those three services you have been quoted really a lot of money..
Do you want me to phone the town hall to see if I can help you with a call?
Let me know if I can be of any help, if it's just a phone call it's no big deal for me..
Ciao,
Alice

MazStar

Hi Barbiegirl

Ive looked at the website and the place you got married in Italy looks fantastic! I used the budget calc and get a reaonable price but in your experience does the actual costs differ much from this?
What did you do about booking the whole villa? Did you pay for those guests or ask them to pay you?

Would be grateful for your input.

Thanks
Maz

barbiegirl

Hi MazStar,
The actual price was identical to the budget calculator. Marco does offer you extras but is always very upfront about them. He does renegotiate with his suppliers at the begining of the season but I think this cost us an extra €500 in total.
We booked the whole of Villa Baroncino and we had a mixture for how we handled it. My OH sister and her partner had just started a business and we felt that the week in the villa for 5 (with the kids) could be a bit much for them, but we wanted them there. Therefore we paid for our families accomodation for the week, across the board. Plus I paid me bridesmaids cause one was only 16 and the other broke. We were in a good position to do so and it will probably be the only time we can give them something like this.
Then for our mates who took up the four additional rooms/apartments, we asked who wanted them, obviously in terms of our preference, told them teh cost upfront, told them we had to pay 6 weeks in advance, you only really have to pay 4 but this gave time for any delays, then we gave them my bank details and they all put the money in. Was kept quite easy.
I wholeheartedly recommend Marco and his people. We had a ball as did all our families and friends.
The area is alos great as my aunt for example hired a cabin/mobile home down by the lake in the camp site, which has pools, play areas, kids clubs etc for €600 for the entire week, sleeping 6 of them incomfort. In fact she extended her stay by another week. The *** hotels in Passignano particularly Lido was great value, clean and very central, and then for those with more cash there are many better ones again. On the train lines, 1.5 hours from Rome, everyone loved the area, the food the people. God can I go back and do it all again :-)

nodrogs11

Hi

Myself and my fiance are panning to get marreid in Tuscany, Italy in August 2010. Can anybody recommend a wedding planner ???
We have a budget of €8000 for 40 guests if that helps
any help appreciated:)

mrsberries

Hi there

Getting married in Italy myself next year but not in Tuscany.If you go to weddings online there are loads doing it in Tuscany...just go to the weddings abroad forum. You will find huge amounts of info there...can be quite overwhelming at times!!

Best of luck

Mar1

Hi barbiegirl, i've been in touch with Marco and find him very helpful & very quick response didn't leave me waiting at all.
We are looking to get married in 2010, i done the budget on the calculator great idea but still coming in expensive esp since i didn't put in anything for the wine, but this could be cause i put in for 100 people. We were hoping to budget for €10,000.
Also we are looking into going over this year for a holiday and view the place. if we have guest staying are the hotels fair away?, also are there resturants around to eat or do we eat at the villa . I'm liken the idea of a BBQ maybe day after wedding. would you be able to give me some ideas of what you done here for your guests. you can pm if you like.
it looks like a really nice place. and i read alot of good things about Maria & Marco.
Thanks a mill

barbiegirl wrote: »

Hi MazStar,
The actual price was identical to the budget calculator. Marco does offer you extras but is always very upfront about them. He does renegotiate with his suppliers at the begining of the season but I think this cost us an extra €500 in total.
We booked the whole of Villa Baroncino and we had a mixture for how we handled it. My OH sister and her partner had just started a business and we felt that the week in the villa for 5 (with the kids) could be a bit much for them, but we wanted them there. Therefore we paid for our families accomodation for the week, across the board. Plus I paid me bridesmaids cause one was only 16 and the other broke. We were in a good position to do so and it will probably be the only time we can give them something like this.
Then for our mates who took up the four additional rooms/apartments, we asked who wanted them, obviously in terms of our preference, told them teh cost upfront, told them we had to pay 6 weeks in advance, you only really have to pay 4 but this gave time for any delays, then we gave them my bank details and they all put the money in. Was kept quite easy.
I wholeheartedly recommend Marco and his people. We had a ball as did all our families and friends.
The area is alos great as my aunt for example hired a cabin/mobile home down by the lake in the camp site, which has pools, play areas, kids clubs etc for €600 for the entire week, sleeping 6 of them incomfort. In fact she extended her stay by another week. The *** hotels in Passignano particularly Lido was great value, clean and very central, and then for those with more cash there are many better ones again. On the train lines, 1.5 hours from Rome, everyone loved the area, the food the people. God can I go back and do it all again :-)

barbiegirl

Hi Mar1
On the wine alcohol thing, we had free bar for 110 people, with Prosecco on arrival, red and white wine, all the shorts, beer, and minerals, the gang (about 20) continued to drink from the store for the next 2 days (which we were fine with) and the total bill came to €2,200.00. He can and will run a cash bar too, so don't worry too much. Also he only charges for what was actually drank, so if you order too much it's fine cause you won't pay for it.
The hotels are mainly in Passignano which is an 8 minute drive away and has some gorgeous restaurants. It's a beautiful little town. The camp site (which Marco also owns) is just outside Tuoro and has a restaurant, kids clubs, pools etc so great for families.
We ate both in the Villa and in restaurants. Every apartment in the main house has it's own kitchen and everyone took care of themselves. Those of us in the annex, shared one big kitchen. Marco also does deliveries from the restaurant, both food and drink.
As to the barbeque, there are barbeque areas, and as I said a big kitchen. What we did the following day was make up big bowls of salad, but on some pizzas and relaxed by the pool with everyone coming and going. In fairness I was wrecked :-) That evening we all ordered up from Marco's. A dinner of steak, salad and chips was like €8.
I'd talk to Marco, give him the budget and he will work something out, in terms of menu, wines etc. By the way when you're picking your menu it's not a choice you are picking so say steak or fish, it's both, there are 7 small courses, and the cake, was absolutely perfect for dessert and everyone loved it!!
We had a celieoc (I know spelt wrong) at our wedding and the caterers dealt with it on the night quickly, effectiently and she said she couldn't remember the last time she had such a nice dinner.

Bawn4

Figment wrote: »

My sister got married in Sorento last year and used a wedding planner in the area. Went perfect and everyone had a fantastic time. Recommended.

Do you have the name of the wedding planner in Sorrento? This is one of my choices of where to get married, so I would like to get as much info as possible before we make the final decisions.

Many Thanks!

Elton2

Hi Barbiegirl

Have been following your thread on Marco's villas. I am hoping to get married in Italy next year and just at the early stages of research....

One big deal breaker for me so far, is that many places in Italy do not permit live music after 12pm. As the majority of my party- 90 people are party mad, I would hate to think the party would end abruptly. What did you do once the meal was over. Was it a late night, would Marco be strict about this.

Thanks a mill

easter

barbiegirl wrote: »

We got married on the borders of Tuscany and Umbria, using www.romanticitalianweddings.com. Marco own both properties he rents out and manages all the details for the wedding. He is the organiser and a uch his fees are quite reasonable. It was excellent and we had our dream wedding for 1/3 of the cost of a similar wedding in Ireland. We invited 180 people and 110 attended. Give people plenty of notice at least 10 months, pick somewhere easy to travel to with a good range of hotels and accomodation.
Contact Marco and he'll give you a password to a budget calculator so you can get an idea of costs.
My only worry if it was this year would we get similar numbers.
Best of luck and congraulaions.

Hi How much would a wedding in italy ~50 guests cost

globo

Figment wrote: »

My sister got married in Sorento last year and used a wedding planner in the area. Went perfect and everyone had a fantastic time. Recommended.

Hi, we are planning on getting married in Sorrento hopefully this September, civil ceremony! We are from Canada and are trying to get paperwork in order ahead of time to do so. Any ideas or suggestions? So far we have been quoted 700.00 euros for help with paperwork and planning for Town Hall. Would you recommend trying to do it on our own? We are only there for 7 days, so I'm abit afraid to leave things to chance. Any response would be very much appreciated!

maryk2121

Hello,

I am wondering how things went for people who tried organizing things themselves? I am interested in getting married in Rome, just my fiance & I. I do not wnat to pay a lot of $$ to wedding planners. Any suggestions?

THANKS.

Hippymichelle

Hi We have just organised ours for this October - just ourselves and our son! We are using heffernan travel agent in cork who also plan wedding you should get everything for about €3,500 - flights, hotel, wedding planned,p hotograper, hair makeup, guidance around paperwork, transport on wedding day.

Noisin

Hi
Im getting married in June 2014. It will be ust the two of us. I had a meeting with our travel agent Curragh Agent in Newbridge. Very happy with the advice and budget guidelines we were given. Did anyone use Curragh Travel recently?
We are thinking of getting married in the San Silvistra Church (excuse my spelling) and we are thinking of staying in the Hotel Quirinale or the 4 Hotel Savoy! Did anyone stay here recently? Did anyone get married in that church or stay in that hotel? Could any one recommend a restaurant that the used that would suit just the 2 of us.
I would be interested to hear where Hippymichele had their meal after the wedding? Was it nice? would you recommend it? Also were you happy with your photographer, flowers, make up, hairdresser etc.
Hippmichele were you happy with Heffernan Travel, I did make contact with them and sent emails back and forth and a phone call, but they didn't respond to me confirm a date when I emailed and asked for an appointment with specific dates in mind so I then persued Cuuragh travel.
Also how maryk2121 got on with planning the wedding? Where the stayed? If they used a wedding planner? What church yee went with? What priest married you? If they travelled around Italy after the wedding? We are thinking of doing a 7 day cruise after the wedding. Did anyone do this?
Sorry for all the questions.
Any help or advice regards how you got on would be greatly appreciated! Any recommendations of what to do who to get would be appreciated.

sc76

Hi, i know this is an old thread but, just wondering how @Noisin and @Marky how did you get on?
myself and my fiance are going to italy in september, we are going on a cruise on the second week of september and we would love to get married when we are there, we have the cruise booked but nothing else

is it hassle to do it yourself ? its just the 2 of us and we dont want to pay mad money to a planner