I’m so excited to finally be writing this post! And I’m going to start by disclosing that the wedding wasn’t exactly in Rome, Italy… but actually in Frascati, Italy — which is about 30 minutes outside of Rome. BUT! We were so close that we had our bachelorette/bachelor parties in Rome, and went there to take some fun wedding photos the morning of our wedding. This is a summary of how we planned a destination wedding in Rome Italy.
So first off: why did we decide to get married in Italy?
This question is asked so frequently, and for most of the time Matt and I just look at each other and shrug. We don’t have any familial connection to Italy, nor any connections in the wedding industry… we just liked the country when we visited.
Honestly, the hunt for a wedding destination started because after searching in the southeast for weeks, looking at venues that cost $3k-$10k just to reserve the dang place, I couldn’t but help think that the whole idea of spending an arm and a leg on a wedding to start off your marriage, seemed… crazy. So, I brought up an idea to Matt: Since most of our family and friend’s are in the Northeast and would have to travel here, why don’t we look all over for a place to have it?
We decided to start looking for venues in different places than just your typical hotel, castle, ballroom types. Thus begun step 1:
1. Searching HomeAway and Airbnb for rental places that allowed events!
If we are going to shell out a couple grand for a venue, why not get a place we can at least sleep at? And possibly have some of our family sleep at? Seems more reasonable to spend that kind of money over the course of a weekend than just 4 hours. Enter HomeAway and Airbnb.
We found a villa in Frascati, Italy (not the first one we contacted either), that had American owners called Casale Sonnino! A brother who took care of it in Italy, and a sister on Long Island who helped manage bookings. This was a saving grace, because as I’ll get to later, language barrier is something to consider when booking international destination weddings.
Situated on a beautiful olive vineyard, Casale Sonnino is a true representation of the Rome countryside. AND it had enough room to host us, along with some of our family for half of a week! Claire — the owner living in New York — was so helpful with all of the planning stages. There was an additional event charge, so make sure you ask the homes that allow events and such. This could add up! But the overall lesson for #1 is: HomeAway and Airbnb (and other vacation rental sites) are a GREAT option for finding a way to host a more affordable and unique wedding.
2. Find a caterer
Enter, the language barrier. We started contacting multiple restaurants, catering companies, and on and on to find one that we felt would give the best bang for our buck, but also the best looking menu (if you are going to get married in Italy, you better make the meal worth it!). After a bit of searching, we found Maan Catering. Marco tailored the menu in any which way we asked. We got the four course meal, wedding cake, unlimited wine, open bar, all of the tables, chairs, linens, plates, silverware, brewery lights to hang from the trees and centerpieces through this company. They were so open to helping out with anything they could, and we worked together to understand each other.
Oh and they were so affordable, even in going from USD to Euro. The whole set up of the wedding day (we hosted outside) was more beautiful than I could have imagined. And the food was AMAZING.
3. Find a DJ
We wanted to have the wedding outside at the villa, with the option for people being able to go inside to rest and relax, or up on the terrace where there are views of Rome. We found an affordable DJ who set up his whole system outside and stayed from 4pm to past midnight. There was a little language barrier, but all vendors were super kind to work through it. It was never a problem. We provided a Spotify list of songs we liked (because we didn’t know what was popular in Italy!) and he took it and had every one dancing all through the night. He also took any requests and was a great MC.
4. All the little things
Maan Catering took care of the centerpieces (they were an additional cost). We ordered fake flowers from amazon, which my amazing Godfather turned into bouquets and boutonnieres. Transportation that we contacted was a little flaky, so we decided to ask our groomsmen to help pick up our guests, and have them take taxis home. As for favors… well if we are going to host a wedding on an olive vineyard, obviously we have to give authentic olive oil made in Italy as a favor. Our host, George provided the bottles filled with Casale Sonnino Extra Virgin Olive Oil and we affixed our own personal labels and ribbons when we arrived.Our home-made bottles came out so cute!
5. Photographer/Videographer
This was probably the most important things to us (besides maybeeeee the meal). If we were to go all out on this destination wedding, we wanted to have some beautiful memories of it. I contacted a photographer/videographer I followed on Instagram… get this: from HAWAII! And we ended up working out a deal for them to do our wedding. They even came with us at 5am, the day of, to capture some wedding photos in Rome!
It was everything I wished for and more!
