There are many ways you can go about planning a wedding in Italy from abroad: with the help of a planner, for example, or completely by yourself.
But how about combining those two, for when you want to plan your own wedding, but want the support of an expert right beside you? Alongside their full planning services, expert Italian wedding planners Wiskow & White have just launched The Circle, a new self-planning support service that offers exactly that.
To celebrate The Circle’s launch, we asked Lucy to share her top tips for planning a wedding in Italy to perfection. She distilled her wisdom from planning hundreds of Italian weddings and years’ worth of experience into the ultimate timeline which you can find below. Plus, keep reading to the bottom for her top planning tips!
Planning a wedding in Italy: The Ultimate Guide
18 months – 24 months
Congratulations, you’re engaged! You know you want to get married in Italy but you’ve got no idea where to start…
– Chat to someone who’s done it before. Perhaps you know a friend or family member or a friend of a friend that’s got married in Italy. Ask them what it was like and see if that matches your expectations
– Set an ideal time for the wedding, considering the weather, seasonality in pricing and your guests’ likely availability
– Draft a rough guest list.
– Set a topline budget. Calculate how much you have to spend overall. You could start to consider your priorities and which elements of the wedding are more important to you which could dictate how your budget is split.
– Research planners, and speak to them. Introductory chats are a great way to get some free insight and advice that can help shape your wedding and your upcoming decisions
– Choose your bridal party
16 months – 18 months
– Book a wedding planner. They will save you countless energy, time and money and of course ensure that your dream wedding comes to life in every way.
– Book your venue. Your planner will help you to find your venue, shortlist and arrange an itinerary for your trip to pick your venue. Once chosen, you’ll sign a contract and seal the deal.
– Send save the dates! Make sure your guests have the wedding of the year firmly in their diaries and can plan annual leave and travel in advance.
– Hold or book accommodation for guests. If your venue doesn’t have accommodation for all guests you may need to hold other locations as contingency. You can recommend these to guests through your invite or wedding website.
– Choose your ceremony type: civil/legal ceremony, symbolic or religious?
– Book your photographer and videographer. Often the next priority, most sought after photographers and videographers get booked up 18-24 months in advance.
12- 16 months
– Confirm all major suppliers: catering, music, hair and make-up, florist, transport
– Decide who’s staying where. It’s likely your venue will have accommodation and you’ll need to know who you’re inviting to stay ready to…
– Start a Pinterest / moodboard.
– Send your invites or an update to guests. At this point around 12 months out flights are often released and you may want guests to get ahead on their bookings. When sending your invites you’ll need to consider an a and a b option for those invited to stay at the venue and those elsewhere
8-12 months
– Re-visit Italy: see your venue again and plan décor, have your food tasting, a final hair and make-up trial. We suggest getting your hair and make-up right in the UK before heading for your trial, to make sure you nail the exact look at that trial.
– Clothes shopping begins. Start with your dress. This also informs the styling of the day…
– Plan your wedding day styling, colours, flowers, every detail of the day.
6-8 months
– Buy your rings
– Book in your stationer. Because the lead times will be a little different and you may need to get your stationery in your suitcase, it’s best to book in and get clear on timings well in advance. There are some great stationers that work and print in Italy which can mean you can print a lot closer to your wedding date and allow for any changes close to the wedding date.
– Civil or church ceremony? Get started on the paperwork and understand the exact process ahead.
– Buy your dress box for the plane or consider how it’s getting to your destination.
3-6 months
– Finalise the ceremony order of service
– Table plan
– Create a packing list
– Final briefing with your planner who will brief your suppliers
– Finalise your music choices for important moments in the day, and any playlists for larger sections like dinner if you are responsible for these aspects
Final steps
– Fitting, make sure you consider the date you’ll fly!
– Collecting your stationery and any final décor items and gifts
– Get out any cash you might need for supplier payments
– Let go! Trust whomever you’ve delegated to whether it’s a planner, trusted friend or supplier. This is your ONE wedding day and you need to enjoy it and be in it, soaking up all the magic.
Throughout planning our key advice is:
– To make sure all contracts have some sort of covid clause to protect your investment and your wedding. Whether that’s being clear on the date by which there is ‘no turning back’ when it comes to your spend commitment, or that the supplier would move the wedding in the case of postponement, ask for what you need to see.
– Let your suppliers guide you. They’ve been there and done it all and you’re paying them for the expertise and knowledge. They will apply this to your wedding and give you all the guidance and expertise they can if you ask for it and trust them.
For more advice on planning Italian weddings follow @wiskowandwhite. Plus, on their website, Wiskow & White currently have an Italian wedding budget tracker you can download for free.
photos by Colin Ross, Benjamin Wheeler, Sam Docker, Studio Chloe David, Sasa Adamovic
