A magical day in the rolling hills of Tuscany.
"I never dreamt that I’d have a destination wedding. I always pictured a warm and simple traditional ceremony shared with close friends and family.
But after our engagement in Paris a little over a year ago, it became clear that our wedding would be anything but ordinary. I am Swiss American and my now husband is French-Italian. We had several options for weddings and knew that regardless of where we had it, it could get a little complicated so why not make it something fun? Immediately we thought…Tuscany ! Why not make it an occasion for everyone to take a holiday and spend several days together in a beautiful place?
After doing some research, we decided since we were living in the south of France, and with my husband’s mom living in Paris, and my family in California, we would need some help. My mother-in-law immediately found our wedding planner, Barbara Cal�, and we set up a weekend to meet her and visit possible wedding sites. When we stepped off the plane she picked us up at the airport and we were off to see several different reception sites.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
"On our drive the next morning through Tuscany, I remember thinking I had never seen anything so gorgeous. The endless vineyards, rolling hills lined with tall cypress trees, and hidden farmhouses. At one point, I saw off in the distance a large yellow villa surrounded by anther brick colored villa and a striking parasol pine tree. It seemed almost surreal. A tiny one lane road lead right up to our next visit. After taking a tour and meeting with the lovely owner, we knew. I could picture us getting married there, I could picture our reception, I could picture spending several days up on that hill enjoying the view, the pool, having drinks and dinner with friends and family. This was exactly the picturesque setting that everyone has when they think of Tuscany: Villa Bucciano."
Bella Toscana
"One of the great things about planning a wedding in Tuscany is getting to go to visit…Tuscany ! Over a span of a year, we got to do all of the fun wedding planning activities: collaborationg with florists, menu and wine tastings, visiting cake shops in Florence, deciding on table decorations, doing dress alterations, shoe shopping, etc. And every time we went back we would stay for at least a week, enjoying the lovely scenery and dreaming about what our big day would finally be like.
I do have to admit, there were many stress-filled moments where I thought Why in the world did we ever decide to have our wedding in Tuscany? Why couldn’t we have had it close to home? Or in Paris where we have family? But we had already decided and there was nothing left to do but just go with the flow. And really having a wedding in Tuscany isn’t the worst thing that could have happened to us! Barbara’s help proved to be invaluable."
.jpg)
A weeklong celebration
"My family and friends arrived from California and Giuliano’s family arrived from Paris a week before the wedding. We rented the appartments in the villa right next to our reception site. Since we were all together that entire week we organized dinners, BBQs, drinks and appetizers on the terrasse, late night pool parties, met for coffee and breakfast in the morning and planned outings to visit Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Cinque Terre and Siena all of which were within an hour of our spot. It was so pleasant and relaxing and everyone had the wonderful feeling that comes along with being on holiday! Every night that week we toasted "to being in Tuscany and the soon to be newlyweds!"
We were so grateful for everyone who came to Tuscany and made a holiday out of it! Out of the 130 people we invited, 115 came! And most of them stayed for at least a week to explore Italy. This was the special part of a destination wedding, that everyone really got to enjoy themselves. It wasn’t as if they worked all week and had a wedding to go to on Sunday, we planned it so that Thursday was French holiday so many people could leave Wednesday night or Thursday morning, go to the wedding on Friday then relax and enjoy the brunch and pool with us on Saturday and Sunday. It was perfect!"
My advice to other brides…
"Have a destination wedding! The guests who attend will be so happy to take a vacation and enjoy the area. Spend time organizing events, dinners and trips with your guests before the wedding. Everyone will get to know eachother before hand and the ambiance will be so comfortable and light. I’m already trying to convince my husband’s brother to organize a destination wedding.If you decide to make Tuscany the destination of your wedding call Barbara Cal�. I was pleasantly surprised by her sincerity and professionalism. One might think that language barriers may have been an issue while planning a wedding. However the quality of her staff and service and ability to communicate with us and different vendors was never an issue. She was always available, always responded to our emails and questions, and always gave us the most accurate and thoughtful answers. She was there to aleviate the stress. If there was ever anything that we needed help with, we knew Barbara could do the job.
Also, take your time and enjoy your day. It will go by so quickly, try always to be present. In the end, you will only remember the good times you had."
My favorite moment of the wedding…
"When the church doors opened for me, I thought � finally, this is it ! � I had been so nervous that whole day but when I saw Giuliano, I knew everything would be ok. This was exactly where I was meant to be.
And of course the first kiss…
And first sip of champagne…
And the cocktail before dinner, the wine, the wonderful food, all local, the chocolate cake, the dancing till 4 am…"
Final thoughts…
"It truly was pure SUCCESS! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding! After a year of stressing with the paperwork, decisions and more decisions, we did it! Our friends and family keep telling us it was one of the best weddings "ever", and "a fairy tale". Our friends who will soon be married have said it’ll be hard to top!
Many thanks to Barbara. Our wedding would not have been what it was without her."
INFO
Wedding Planner: Barbara Cal� of Infinity Weddings and Events�
Reception Venue:Villa Bucciano - Tuscany
Caterer service: Infinity Ricevimenti™
Photographer: Domenico Costabile
Related Content
Like this?
Comments
Have something to say about this article? Leave a comment!
Submitted by Laura on Tuesday 20 September 2022