Top 5 Tips for Planning Your Destination Wedding
Tuscany is known for its beautiful landscapes, rich artistic legacy and vast influence on high culture. It is widely regarded as the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and is the perfect backdrop to spend the first moments celebrating your life together on your wedding day. There are tons of questions that couples coming from abroad might have so here are the top 5 tips TCF Tuscan Weddings, a Tuscan wedding planner to help ease destination wedding planning.
- The Ceremony When getting married in a different country, there are many things that need to be considered. One of the most important is the in Tuscany or you can legally get married in your own country and have a symbolic ceremony in Tuscany. There are only two ways to have a legally binding ceremony in Italy, you must either get married in a civil ceremony in the Town Hall or you can get married in a Catholic Church. This may sound easy enough, but it is not as simple as it appears. The Italians are very strict about religion aligning with their catholic church before allowing you to be married there, and the town hall can fill up rather quickly ceremony. For your wedding in Italy, there are two basic ceremony options. You can either have a legally binding ceremony
For couples that decide to have a legally binding ceremony in their home country and simply celebrate their marriage with a symbolic ceremony have much more flexibility when it comes to choosing a venue and other details of the wedding. This allows the bride and groom to have an endless list of venues that are outdoor, indoor, historic and more. Most villas have a beautiful garden where a ceremony can take place, but they also have the space to host a gorgeous reception whether that be on a terrace overlooking the sites, or an indoor space adorned with beautiful Tuscan art and history.
- Pick a Wedding Date This is a very important decision that must also be well informed. The seasons and prime weddings dates can be very different in Tuscany than they might be in the U.S. or any other part of the world. Typically the best months to get married in Tuscany start in mid May through the end September not including August. August is a very hot month in Italy and most businesses and establishments tend to close during this time to take a holiday. With that being said, you may be able to find availability at a venue in August, but we do not recommend this, as it will be difficult to do anything else during that time. May – September is the best time frame for a few reasons; one being that it gives you the longest daylight. We all know that the main reason for getting married in Italy is the outdoor venues and you want to make sure that you have plenty of time to make the most of it. Since the window of opportunity to get married during “wedding season” is so short, it is important to choose your date at least 10 months in advanced to ensure availability on your venue, décor, entertainment, celebrant and anything else you may need to bring in. This also allows you to get your save the dates out with enough time for your guests to make arrangements to travel to this superior destination wedding location.
- The Reception Having a clear and concise seating chart is one of the most important pieces of a successful reception. First, it stops guests from scrambling to find a “good seat”, helps to not leave guests feeling left out and ensures your guests are seated with friends, or family members that they get a long with, guaranteeing every guest has a wonderful time! Of course, as every other aspect of your wedding, there is a precise etiquette of where each guest, the bride, groom, parents, wedding party, etc should sit. In Italy, it is tradition to seat your guests at a long family style table for dinner at the reception. Forthis, a whole other set of rules comes into play. For couples, it is proper to seat a couple across the table from each other, not next to each other, to promote conversation and interaction across the table. But if couples are sitting across from each other, then how do you choose who sits next to whom? The first rule to that is always alternate boy, girl all the way down each side of the table. For the traditional Italian family style table, the bride and groom must sit together at the head of the table. As far as immediate family, we suggest that the bride and groom do what makes them happy, but to be proper, the first two seats go to the brides mother and father, than grooms mother and father, maid of honor and best man, and so on, maintaining the altered boy, girl on each side of course.
- Reserving a Wedding Venue There are endless possibilities on where you can get married in Italy as each and every location has something incredible to offer. Options range from Town Hall or a Catholic Church, to beautiful Villas and outdoor venues to take in all that Tuscany has to offer.
When choosing a venue there are many things to keep in mind, here are a few of the most important. Budget – Make sure your wedding venue falls within your budget. It may seem like a good idea to splurge on your “dream location” but those costs will catch up with you and possibly prevent you from spending money on other important parts of your wedding later on. Space – Be sure that your venue will hold the amount of guests and décor pieces you would like to have at your wedding comfortably.
- Location– Choose a location that is convenient for guests to enjoy your wedding, the scenery, and also a centralized location where guests can go off on their own to explore this gorgeous city.
- Also remember to keep seasons in mind. An outdoor venue is good for those prime “wedding months” in Tuscany, but certain months might warrant an indoor wedding, just something to keep in mind.
- Hire a Wedding Planner TCF Tuscan Weddings can help you with all of the above details and so much more! Owned and operated in the United States, TCF Tuscan Weddings has developed strong partnerships with Italy based vendors, sharing the same vision, standard, and quality of work. Having a U.S. based wedding planner to work side by side with Tuscany’s finest wedding professionals will eliminate the language barrier, time difference, and overall better assist with the communication and execution of your dream Tuscan wedding. We do not offer packages, as no two weddings are ever alike. They are unique pieces of art, created specifically for each couple and coordinated with the highest level of professionalism and personalized service. It is our job to make your special day effortless and perfect down to every last detail for you and your guests to enjoy. Tuscan wedding planning is our area of expertise.