Help want to get married in italy in Florence/Siena

[chel180]

Hi,
I''m trying to arrange a wedding in either Florence or Siena, has anyone else?

I after any recommendations or horror stories that might help me pick somewhere suitable to hold a reception/dinner and accommodation for guests.

I want to have a civil ceremony in one of those halls (I''ve fallen in love with photos), but I''m having trouble finding somewhere thats right for the rest.

We''re looking at just 20-30 guests, we''d like something special but not necessarily traditional and are hoping to get good value for money. Also flowers, cakes, photographers, cars etc etc....

Any suggestions very much welcomed!

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

As I don't know where you are I connot comment specifically on the legalities, but if you are from the US or canada it is more or less immpossible to have the covol ceremony in Italy. I think it is slightly easier if you are from another EU country, but if you want the wedding to be official you should do it in your home country before you go.
As for lodging, when I was in florance we stayed here: http://en.venere.com/hotels_florence/duomo/hotel_bavaria.html and it was nice for the price. If budget is a bit of an issue I strongly reccomend looking for hostels to dtay in for everyone. They are much nicer than in the US and my FI an I liked them better than most of the hotels we stayed at.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 1/8/2008 8:09:41 PM
Author: brazen_irish_hussy

As I don''t know where you are I connot comment specifically on the legalities, but if you are from the US or canada it is more or less immpossible to have the covol ceremony in Italy.

I don''t think chel was asking about the legalities. She may have them all sewn up. We have had other threads on marriage in Italy. I will see what I can dig up in the archives in case legalities are an issue. Chel, do you have that covered? It seemed to me that you only needed a venue.

Deborah

 

[AGBF]

This appears to be a thread about a wedding in Italy, in fact in Florence:

mela lu

Deborah

 

[AGBF]

Here is another thread on weddings in Italy:

Thread on Planning Weddings in Italy

Deborah

 

[chel180]

Hi,

thanks I''ve had a nosey through at other threads and have found some suggestions but was hoping for even more.

I will have some paperwork issues but we''ve our heart set on italy so they can''t be helped. Also after some of the missing document stories I''ve found on here we are going to pay someone to sort that bit out for us. It shouldn''t be as bad for us as we have EU passports.

 

[firebirdgold]

My sister got married in Italy in a small village. The big surprise was that the paperwork had to be delivered to the regional? provence? capital, which was Arezzo.

 

[Independent Gal]

That''s not so bad, Indie! As far as I''m concerned any excuse to go to Arezzo is a good excuse! I love that town.

The key thing is to call your embassy in Rome. They will be able to give you all of the details on what you will need and what will have to be done. Do this early so you have time to gather all the documentation.

 

[espressa]

I''m getting married in Italy this October. We went through Wedding Italy I Do (http://www.weddingitalyido.com/) and everything has gone fine so far. The ceremony will be taking place in the Cortona town hall, and the reception will be at the Il Borgia castle (http://www.il-borgia.it/en/), which we are renting for the week.

Our wedding planner Julie has been fantastic so far, although we haven''t totally set all of the details. Julie''s family actually owns the castle that we are staying in, so that was a big plus to us.

We have our photographer booked through them as well. The photographer''s name is Alex Gritti (http://www.alexgritti.com). He was one of the two photographers suggested for us, and we chose him because we liked his style better. His photos seemed more artistic and "in the moment" than the other one.

We haven''t chosen the style of our wedding cake yet, but the cost of the wedding cake is included with the cost of the dinner (right now looking to be about 100 euro per person). We are planning to have about 50 people total, and so the wedding is shaping up to be about $30,000... (so much for my idea of a cheaper destination wedding! lol). We fell in love with the castle, though, and his parents are paying for about $20,000 of that, with my mother covering about half of the remaining amount and my FI and I paying for the rest. That budget includes our estimates for the honeymoon, plane tickets, rings, dress, tux, hair and makeup on the day of the wedding, castle for one week for 14 people, dinner for 50, legal services, wedding planner, etc.

You could do it for much cheaper, but we''re splurging on a lot of things (like the dinner, and the castle...) since his parents are paying for those things and they have explicitly told us not to worry about the cost and to get whatever we want.

It doesn''t look like Wedding Italy I Do does weddings in Florence or Sienna, but you could check with them, or maybe see about getting married in Rome or Tuscany if you aren''t totally set on the city already.

I would definitely recommend hiring a wedding planner, whatever you do. Planning the wedding so far has been very easy because of Julie, and I can''t imagine what it would be like to do it without someone in Italy able to plan the whole thing.

If you have any other questions, let me know!

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 1/9/2008 8:48:03 AM
Author: Independent Gal
That''s not so bad, Indie! As far as I''m concerned any excuse to go to Arezzo is a good excuse! I love that town.

The key thing is to call your embassy in Rome. They will be able to give you all of the details on what you will need and what will have to be done. Do this early so you have time to gather all the documentation.

Lol, I lived there for 6 years - I had a teeny tiny apartment in Piazza Grande!

Beautiful place - but VERY provincial, I nearly went stark raving bonkers.

Arezzo is not a bad place to get married in either and there are some gorgeous places to stay round there. I can look some out for you if you are interested.

If you are after either Florence or Siena - I would go for Siena everytime. The Comune is beautiful and perfect size for 30-40 people. I was at a wedding there last May. They hired out an entire Villa for the weekend about 20 minutes drive away and we all stayed there.

Here''s the link - you can hire just bits of the place and it is incredible - and pretty reasonable.