How to not get your wedding venue wrong and be sure you don’t have to compromise on important aspects of your wedding
I always say that in Italy there is a huge choice of wedding venues for all budgets to satisfy any type of request. More modern or more classic venues, with or without accommodation, with various types of views, of large or small sizes… you are spoiled for choice. And this can be great for many couples who come from abroad to get married in Italy. And it’s great for us wedding planners because it allows us to work in different places, all wonderful, and travel around Italy instead of always remaining tied to those 2-3 most renowned places. On the other side of the coin, we must consider that given this great variety and the fact that these venues are not all the same (fortunately), it is essential to pay attention to crucial aspects for an Indian wedding and not to rely only on the aesthetic aspect of the villa.
Don’t get fooled by tons of beautiful pictures
In Italy it is very easy to find beautiful villas. You just open Instagram and you will find so many, with beautiful photos and captivating setups. They immediately make you fall in love with the places and make you imagine what your wedding would be like there. Then you save the photo, write down the name, see their website and send a request. And the Instagram algorithm also helps you in your research, and therefore every day you see more and more beautiful venues for wedding in Italy. It becomes an infinite loop, and you end up with a list of 50-60 villas all seemingly beautiful and all in the same style.
I spoke recently to a couple who did just that and sent me a list of about 40 villas located between Tuscany and Umbria. They were looking for a typical Tuscan style place, with stonewalls, olive groves and vineyards, swimming pool and a beautiful view. I just took a look at their list to immediately realize that the only common factor of these villas was their location in the countryside. Therefore, I asked the couple what their search criterion was to understand why they had chosen such different villas. And the answer was “aesthetics”. And this is exactly the main trap couples are likely to fall into.
So, let’s see together what the 4 main criteria are in finding the right villa. And I advise you, Indian couples, to write them down before selecting the possible venues for your wedding in Italy. That will definitely help you shorten the list of venues you have seen on Instagram.
1.Accommodation on site: Yes or No
The first decisive aspect is to understand if you want on-site accommodation or not. This means that if the villa has accommodation, you can all stay there and hold all the events in the same place. If instead it is without it means that for your days of celebrations, you must have separate venues with one or two hotels nearby where you can all stay and then move around by organizing transfers for the various events.
Both solutions are fine, and in our experience, we have had weddings with both options. It is up to you to decide which option you prefer. But be careful, because in the case of an option without accommodation on site you absolutely have to check first if there are nearby hotels for all your guests or if perhaps (for example in the countryside) there are only apartments or typical farmhouses with a maximum of 10 rooms. Because in the latter case there is the risk of having your guests scattered across 10-15 different facilities and far from you. Also bearing in mind that – if we talk about the countryside – it is not as easy to find taxis as in the city and therefore perhaps you force your guests to rent a car or spend a lot on transfers.
2.Secure a Backup Plan
The second important aspect is backup plan. Always take into consideration which events you have and whether they require a food function to follow. Then highlight how many internal spaces and what capacity you need and check if the venue has them and if you like those spaces. Because the venue can have a breathtaking view, but if it doesn’t have the right indoor spaces for your capacity, or the number of interior spaces you need for your events, or if you don’t like them, you’ll end up spending the planning time hoping it won’t rain. Then maybe you’re in a bad luck and it rains. And you’re desperate because you can’t do the same set up inside that what you wanted to do outside. Unless you have a big budget that allows you to rent a marquis. So, plan B is absolutely a decisive aspect in choosing the venue.
3.Indian or Italian food?
The third crucial aspect is the type of food you decide to have at your wedding. Since many villas in Italy have their own internal food provider, should you decide to have full-Indian meals in this type of villa it may not be feasible as they will hardly accept an external catering company. Sometimes they accept the collaboration of their internal brigade with external Indian chefs.Tthis means that the food can be an Italian/Indian mix and not full-Indian. So, depending on your food preferences, always check in advance if the villa has an internal food provider or not, if you can bring external chefs, or if the villa itself can provide Indian food (which obviously you will have to taste to understand if it is to your liking).
4.Beware of the costs
The fourth and last important aspect – and often also the decisive one – is the price. Villas that may seem similar at first glance may have completely different prices. This also depends on one’s conception of “luxury venue” because this term is often associated with gold / crystal decorations, huge spaces, Jacuzzis in the room… While in the Tuscan countryside the term “luxury” is associated with the use of fine local materials all hand-made by craftsmen, with the high-level restaurant service that often may have Michelin stars, with the service offered to guests, with the value of the building itself which often dates back to the Medici era, and many other aspects that affect the price.
It happens quite often that couples fall in love with the villa and then receive a quote that is out of budget for them because the villa is one of the high-end ones. Maybe in the list of villas in Italy that you have saved there could be some facilities that at first glance may seem simple and with a particular design, though they have a fee of 60-70k per night for exclusive use; and other wedding venues that are similar to the first that instead quote you 5k of exclusivity. Therefore, it is pivotal to check the level of price of each specific venue before putting it on your list of venues to visit.
In conclusion…
Obviously these 4 are the criteria that are crucial for us at Best Indian Weddings Italy. However there are many others that we check before including a villa in the list of proposals that we send to a specific couple during our Venues Scouting service. And if you organize your wedding in Italy yourself, you must always keep at least these 4 aspects in mind and check them as soon as you see venues you like. So go to their website, see if they already provide this information, and then submit your request. Only then can you decide whether that villa can be an option for your wedding or whether it is already to be discarded.
If, on the other hand, you are afraid that the choice of the wedding villa is too big a responsibility to face alone as you don’t want to risk compromising the success of your event, then you can contact us to ask for details on our Venues Scouting service in Italy. To find out more, visit the dedicated page>>>
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