WEDDING PLANNER

Oscar Wilde in 1985 wrote a widely successful comedy entitled “ the importance of being Ernest” I think it might be nice to steal this idea and personalise it to “ the importance of having a wedding planner” to make people understand that thanks to this role the bride and groom can arrive on their wedding day with a normal level of stress!
This is because working closely with a Wedding Planner allows the couple to focus only on the fun aspects of planning all the services, which aim to make any wedding your wedding. As I always say, ours is a team effort, a sharing of ideas, dreams and desires that will lead to the creating of something unique.

With Max D'Alessandro, great friend and my historical photographer

Even in Italy now the use of a Wedding Planner is growing; but there are different opinions about it. Many people do not consider the Wedding Planner as necessary figure while others understand its importance and usefulness and decide to rely on a professional, also to understand well how to invest the budget for the various aspects of the wedding and optimise it to the best with intelligence and originality. No, don’t be afraid to get to your big day thinking you haven’t done anything: it won’t be like this. My couples know this, and you can ask them if you want (several ask me to be able to speak with other couple in order to have a sincere testimony about my work) I do not organise anything without your approval. I can’t, it’s not my mission, it’s not what I want because the wedding is yours and my role is to help you make it happen.

With Ben at Villa Le Piazzole
With Gemma at Tragliata
With Luca at Casina Poggio della Rota
With Giulia at San Pietro in Valle
With Rugile at Mirabelle
With Su at Villa Cora

The most important thing for me is to get to know my couples well and to understand what they desire and it’s for this when they do not provide me with enough detail of what they are looking for , I ask them lots of questions, not necessarily in this order:

  • When do you want to get married?
  • Is there a date or month you have in mind?
  • Do you prefer a civil ceremony, religious or symbolic?
  • Do you need help with all the documentation?
  • How many guests are you looking to have?
  • How do you imagine your reception to be?
  • Do you have a particular style in mind?
  • What are the main services you want to invest in?
  • Do you have a budget in mind?
  • Is it flexible?
  • What does it include?
  • Do you have any ideas for the floral arrangements you want to share?
  • Have you thought about photographers, videographers, transfer, music…?
  • What venue style are you looking for?
  • What is the feel are you looking for the wedding?
  • Do you have Pinterest to capture photos and ideas?
  • Do you want to use Whatsapp for quicker communication?
Always laughing
With Daniele Fiorucci, friend and owner of Villa dei Quintili
With my web designer

There are couples who as soon as they write, tell me all about themselves, starting from when they got engaged to the wedding favours they would like after the wedding breakfast. Others are more reserved, but slowly they let me enter their world and then never let me go. The beauty of this job is to get in touch with people from all over the world, learn about new customs, traditions...for example, for the people of South America there are rituals during the celebration in church that we Italians do not have, and so on with so many different other details. I am very happy to work with couples that come from all over the world so that they can get married here in our beautiful country… each time they make me grow and their testimonials are concrete proof of this.

With Michaela and Ben in Campidoglio
In family
With Rosanna at Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria in Rome
With Lieke at Istituto degli Studi Romani
With Emiliano and Ana at Sant'Andrea al Celio

Obviously even the couples themselves have a series of questions that they ask before choosing a Wedding Planner to place their trust in, its an important decision and unfortunately there are people who improvise and pretend to be a professional wedding organiser. So be careful and choose well. Here are some suggestions on what might be useful to ask:

  • How many years have you been working as a Wedding Planner?
  • Can I see photographs from weddings you have already helped with?
  • What are the services you offer?
  • Is it possible to get help with only some of the services?
  • There are pre-packaged offers, is there any flexibility with these?
  • Is there a one-off cost or does every service you provide have its own cost?
  • Is there a contract that formalises are working conditions?
  • Is there a minimum budget that you work with as Wedding Planner?
  • How high is your fee?
  • How will we stay in contact?
  • Is there a sort of agenda we can draw up to remember what to do and when?
  • Is there a timing for payment deadlines of the services requested?
  • Is it possible to write to your previous couples to ask about their experience?
  • Who are the suppliers you work with?
  • Can I use my own suppliers?
  • Will you be present on the wedding day?
  • Will there be a team working with you?

As you can see, there are many questions to ask each other!
This allows us to know each other better and to work in a more profitable way, without misunderstandings and wasting time, yours and mine. Come on then, start as you mean to go on…isn’t that what they say?
Also, because while for some services we can postpone decisions, others are fundamental and need to be booked by a certain time: the church for example and the venue for the reception. If, on the other hand you want to get married in the town hall, times change according to the location you have chosen to become husband and wife. Even the photographer and videographer always suggest choosing them well in advance, this is because the best always go fast. Obviously it also depends on the period in which you plan to get married, whether in high or low seasons, if during the week or on the weekend…there is also to consider whether you want to hire a venue entirely so it is solely for your use, or if you think you want to organise a “wedding holiday” by hiring a villa in Umbria for the whole weekend, or in Tuscany or in the Lazio countryside. In Italy we are really spoilt for choice.

Thanks for choosing me