A Taste Of Beauty - Weddings in Italy

When my partner and I decided to have our dream wedding in Bologna, Italy we begun by trying to find out the type of ceremony we could have as Church of England Christians (Christened but not religious) As Italy is run by the Catholic Church this was harder than we thought. We then tried to find a venue we could be married at, again not so easy, we could only legally marry in Bologna’s beautiful Town-hall or a venue in another town by the Major. After much research we felt we needed some help and guidance. We spoke with five wedding planners in total, Carolina was the last and only choice for us. She explained all the legalities so clearly and had a wonderful range of venues to choose (legal and symbolic) Her percentage fee worked for us and her services were worth every penny. Most importantly, we simply wouldn’t have had the wedding of our dreams without her. Carolina had advised us to visit Bologna before we picked a venue. Stupidly we didn’t and paid a deposit for a beautiful venue we had seen in photos. When on a rainy day in November we finally visited the venue we didn’t feel it was where we had imagined the wedding. On a Saturday morning I messaged Carolina with my concerns and within two hours she had organised for us to visit another venue the following day!! This was incredibly stressful day but Carolina sorted it out efficiently and calmly which is exactly what you need when planning a wedding! Venue of dreams sorted, she then gave us three quotation for catering, this was an easy choice because all the menus sounded delicious. We went with the mid range costing menu, since the wedding the food and venue are the highlights with our guests constantly going on about how the food was so delicious! Carolina works with a spectacular florist, again good value and most importantly we were delighted with the flower arrangements especially my bouquet. Like the catering we were given three quotations for the photographer. All similar prices so it was a case of picking our favourite style. Really happy with the outcome, they captured the day beautifully. A couple of months before the wedding we decided to get a videographer and again Carolina sorted this our immaculately. We had some special requests: Parmesan wheel, craft beers, extra material to decorate marquee, lighting, dance floor and an opera singer that Carolina arranged wonderfully. On the day Carolina was there to orchestrate all the moving parts which meant my husband and I could enjoy the day without any worries. The only glitch we had was the very lengthy speeches (not in Carolina's control) which could of ruined the food but somehow this was completely unaffected by her amazing organisational skills. Only negative which is also a positive we wished the wedding could have been longer as everyone was having such a fabulous time. Best wedding EVER and we couldn’t have done it with Carolina, she is a super star wedding planner!!!

Carolina was just fabulous - from the first day we met with her draft budget spread sheets all the way through to when we sat in the car at the end of the wedding. Our friends and family marveled at the 'story that unfolded' in our magical venue - and we could not have done it without her. Carolina won us over from the start - she was professional, organised, thoughtful and experienced. She guided us through all our decision making, providing us all the relevant information to enable us to make our own choices, accommodating any of our specific requirements and guiding us gently where we really didn't have a view! She helped us with venues, suppliers (from music to lights to flowers to everything you never knew was involved in a wedding!), colour palettes, hand holding, and so much more. Her Italian saved us many a time and did her negotiation skills. The outcome? Our special day was stress free, absolutely gorgeous, and so much fun - in large part thanks to Carolina. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Carolina helped us organising our perfect wedding! She understood us and was very professional, I would recommend working with her to anyone looking for a perfect Italian wedding!

From our first meeting she immediately understood the type of day we wanted and quickly gathered a selection of suppliers for each aspect of the day from caterers, florists, musicians and transport for us to choose from. She comprised schedules for payments and what needed to be completed when so we always knew where we were with every aspect throughout the planning. We travelled out to Lake Garda a few months before the wedding and Carolina organised for us to be shown around Isola de Garda and even arranged a taster event with our caterers to help choose our menu choices. On the day everything was in hand with high precision and execution (apart from a couple of pick up location errors on our part!). All our guests were absolutely blown away when their boat arrived at the island with plentiful prosecco and canapés by the dock side to meet them. By the time I arrived in my beautiful vintage speedboat all the guests were waiting in the magnificent Loggia for the ceremony. Our ceremony was exactly what we hoped for, intimate and heartfelt. And was followed by pre dinner drinks and antipasti in the beautiful Italian gardens with breath-taking views across the lake in the evening sun with atmospheric laid back jazz music being played by the band. When it was time to move back up to the Loggia for dinner, we were blown away with how beautiful the tables were set out. Carolina got our vision to the T! The flowers, the pretty tea lights and scatters petals were perfect, we were so impressed. When the food was served it was absolutely second to none and plentiful, even offering seconds for everyone after each course. The waiters and waitresses were extremely attentive with serving and keeping the wine glasses topped up. Even our wedding cake was a huge spectacular. All three chefs came out carrying it, the band burst into tune and everyone cheered! We will never forget it! After dinner we all made our way back towards the dock where a marque was set up with twinkly lights and candles, which looked absolutely beautiful amongst the trees, water and nights sky. Outdoor sofas were dotted around for guests to relax with a drink, while inside the band were blasting out upbeat jazz and had everyone dancing. The caterers had arranged a delicious spread of sweet treats along with espressos, after dinner spirits and of course more prosecco! We really couldn’t believe our eyes. Each part of the day was astonishing with high attention to detail and exceptional execution. Carolina was there to oversee the whole day and made everything flow seamlessly. We cannot thank her enough for all the hard work she put in to making our dreams come true!

When we decided to get married in Italy we knew we'd need some help. Unlike in the UK, we didn't know any suppliers, any venues and to our shame, our Italian really wasn't very good. Finding Carolina was the best thing we could have done and we knew as soon as we met her in Bologna that she was the perfect planner, coordinator and friend to hold our hands throughout planning our special day. Her organisation skills are second to none and she truly kept us on track throughout. The paperwork is a lot to get your head around, so many venues, so much booking and timelines to stick to...but her sense of humour kept our spirits lifted and that is so important when you're surrounded by a whirlwind of plans. We were quite specific about our day - we wanted to create a Roman Holiday-esque feel, as if we'd all stepped into a vintage film and we just knew that Carolina understood this. All of her suggestions were perfect, from the venue to the transport all the way to styling. We were probably quite tricky clients as neither of us wanted a big, traditional wedding but instead an intimate and very relaxed party for our very nearest and dearest, so we had our quirks and resistance to what is 'normally' expected of a wedding. But this was no problem, indeed I think Carolina delighted in it. We put all of our faith in Carolina from the start to the very end and she surpassed all expectations. Our friends and family all said that they felt they were in a romantic film for the day and that it was the best wedding they had ever been to. It really was. Thank you Carolina, you fantastic and talented lady. And now our friend.