We are delighted to offer our clients a wedding coordinating service. We offer a highly personal one to one service for our clients.
Erica Bellini is a personal wedding coordinator. She was born in Tuscany and is bi-lingual having spent her life between Italy and Great Britain. Erica is on site most of the year and will be happy to take you round to view the properties at any time!
She will help you to plan your wedding every step of the way as well as being there on the wedding day to make sure everything goes according to plan.
We do not provide off the shelf packages. We commit to offering a customised service to fit your needs.
Erica personally selects the wedding venues and has established strong ties with the exceptional professionals we work with for catering, music, photography, etc… will make the whole wedding a day that you will not forget.

Italy is a treasure trove of historic sites, magnificent churches, breathtaking countryside, incredible architecture, making it the perfect location for your wedding. We have selected excellent properties as wedding locations and successfully organised several weddings there. They are in perfect settings and offer a very high level of service. We are delighted to offer this hand picked selection of wedding venues that are ideal to hold the reception as well as accommodate your guests.

Civil Ceremony

Civil weddings are legally recognised marriages and must take place in town halls (‘Comune') approved by the local authorities. Italian authorities do not recognize marriages in private villas or castles. The wedding halls are historical renaissance Palazzos with beautiful frescoed walls and not cold government halls! The Mayor or Vice-Mayor performs the ceremony. The closest wedding halls in the vicinity of the two properties we offer are: San Gimignano, Certaldo, Siena and Florence.

Regarding legal & paperwork assistance in organising your civil wedding, we work with a very professional and well-established legal agency in Florence that can easily guide you through the process. We can help you to:

• Book a wedding hall in Italy
• Obtain the Nulla Osta (a document required to be married in Italy) at your consulate.
• Register the Nulla Osta and other marriage documents with the Italian court of law.
• File all paperwork at the Town Hall/Comune
• Have an official interpreter/wedding coordinator at the marriage ceremony
• Register the wedding and insure that the wedding certificate is legalised after marriage ceremony

Religious Ceremony

Religious Blessings  are not legally are not legally binding and can take place anywhere you like - there are no restrictions and no paperwork is required. The ceremony or blessing can also be performed by you own pastor/friend in the villa.

Catholic ceremonies have to be performed in a Catholic Church. At least one person in the couple has to be Catholic. You will have to show certificates of baptism, confirmation and first communion. Catholic weddings are performed by an English-speaking priest. The closest beautiful churches to the properties that we offer are in San Gimignano or in Monteriggioni. The Catholic wedding will be the most lengthy and difficult to organise since requirements change from parish to parish.

Protestant weddings : In Florence there are two churches of note (American Church and Church of England). The pastor (American or English) can also perform a wedding blessing in a private villa or garden. Church of England Father McLean from Florence can come to the villa for blessing.

Jewish weddings : As the Italian Jewish Community is 100% Orthodox, the synagogues in most cases only marry Orthodox couples who have fulfilled all the religious requirements. If you do wish to hold a Jewish ceremony in a villa or castle of your own choice, we recommend flying over with your own Rabbi.

For the religious ceremonies above by Italian law you must first be married civilly before the pastor/priest can perform the religious ceremony. However, the exception to the rule are Catholic weddings. Many Catholic churches/priests do perform a civil and catholic wedding together. In any case a civil and religious wedding in one will involve a rather large amount of paperwork. We usually recommend either one or the other.

Symbolic ceremony

Symbolic ceremonies are not legally binding and can take place anywhere you like - there are no restrictions and no paperwork is required. The ceremony or blessing can also be performed by you own pastor/friend.

Excellent food is a major part of the Italian lifestyle and also a very good reason to get married in this beautiful part of the world. Whether you prefer a sit-down meal or a more informal buffet style reception, we can assure you that the quality and freshness of the ingredients will be of the highest standard. This, coupled with outstanding local wines, we feel will ensure a successful wedding party! Under the guidance of our chef, we will work together to help you create a personalised menu that suites the style of your reception.

Giuseppe is our professional wedding photographer. He has many years of experience with wedding and specialises in contemporary wedding photography. We have the pleasure of offering you either a traditional or digital photo service (both can be printed on paper ). The digital photo service in the form of a DVD or Cd-rom can be ready in the matter of hours. The photos will all be in high resolution with personalised CD cover. Or if you prefer, you can have a selected number of prints beautifully presented in a handy-craft leather album together with the CD/DVD. We also offer a 33 minute edited video with either traditional Italian music or the music of your choice. Ask us for details of photography packages.

No party would be complete without music.
You can choose to have a live band or a DJ. Music can be played during the actual ceremony, be it in a town hall, church or at the villa, during the aperitif, dinner or for the whole duration.
Music on offer is also extremely various, from old disco favourites to classical formations, from pop music to operatic.
Popular choices are:
- a violin and cello duo for the ceremony
- a jazz duo of sax and keyboards for the aperitif
- pop/funk trio with singer to dance to or a DJ.

Whatever your choice we can organise it all!

Transport
Arrive in style! We can arrange for transportation by horse and carriage or special cars, such as a classic convertible white beetle or a Bentley, to take you to the church/town hall and back to the wedding reception. We can also help in finding mini-buses for guests as well. Quote on request.

 

Flowers
Your wedding flowers can be organised according to your wishes. Be it a bouquet for the bride, arrangements around your wedding reception area or plants in the marquee. You just have to let us know if you have any special wishes and we will be happy to offer suggestions. Quote on request.

 

Hair & Beauty
We can arrange for a professional hairdresser and beautician to come to the property and help you with preparation. Quote on request depending on the number of guests who require this service.

Claire and Glyn from Scotland, Castagno, July 2004
To Erica Thank you for Everything The organising The professionalism The input and Your calming effect! You made our Big Day a Perfect One With Love Claire and Glyn

 

Rosie and Alan from England, Castagno, May 2004
Erica Well....it was perfect. Thank you sooooooooooooooo much for all your efforts. The flowers - beautiful. Perfect. The hairdressers - brilliant, we had such fun and the results were miraculous! The food - gorgeous. Everybody has said so. The music - stunning. I have never seen so many people cry! The photographer - I cant wait to see the results! The venue - perfect. Desy and Valentina were fantastic - we couldn't have wanted more. The weather - well it was beautiful on the Monday!!! That's all that counts. You did an excellent job - we can't thank you enough. Speak to you soon I hope.