3 Ways to Ensure Your Italian Destination Wedding Stands Out From the Masses: Pro Tips for an Endlessly Authentic Affair
When it comes to planning and designing Italian destination weddings, I always like to offer clients guidance for ensuring their wedding is far from cookie-cutter. After all, you’re traveling overseas with your closest friends and family to tie the knot—you might as well go the extra mile to ensure the event experience you create is as bespoke as it is beautiful.
Today, then, I’m offering three simple ways to ensure your Italian destination wedding stands out from the masses. Read on for all you need to know to plan an overseas soirée that’s anything but ordinary.
1. Hire or consult with a local wedding planner.
The easiest way to ensure your Italian destination wedding stands out from the masses? Hire a local wedding planner. While destination wedding planners at home where you reside are great resources, nothing can beat an on-the-ground pro who knows Italy, its vendors, and all of its unique quirks inside and out. Even if you’ve already hired a wedding planner who’s based where you live to help plan your Italian destination wedding, I still recommend consulting with a local Italian wedding planner as part of the process in order to ensure you have access to one-of-a-kind decor items, locally sourced flowers, and the area’s best vendors.
One of my most popular services is destination wedding consulting for foreign wedding planners—this allows you to have a wedding planner who’s near you and with whom you can meet regularly, while still getting guidance and resources from an Italy-based pro who can make sure you’re securing the most trusted vendors (and who can also help bridge the gap that often happens as a result of time-zone differences, language barriers, and cultural misunderstandings).
PRO TIP: If you’re getting married in Venice, I especially recommend consulting with a local wedding pro, as it can be a fairly complicated city to navigate when it comes to planning an Italian destination wedding. I was born on Venice island, Lido, lived in Venice for 20 years, and I love sharing my local knowledge and connections to help overseas brides and grooms plan a seamless, stress-free soirée.
2. Opt for an aesthetic that speaks to the local landscape.
When it comes to designing your Italian destination wedding, I always like to tell clients to keep an open mind. You may have your heart set on something you saw on Pinterest years ago (and that’s totally fine!) but, as you learn more about the locale where you’re tying the knot, you might find that a different design aesthetic will tie in more seamlessly with the local landscape.
Think: a stunning lemon-inspired aesthetic for a Southern Italy destination wedding or a mountain-and-lake-inspired aesthetic for a Northern Italy destination wedding. Whether it’s incorporating local flowers into your bouquet or letting the backdrop for your ceremony simply be the landscape itself, I always encourage clients to look for ways their event design can complete—and not compete with—the natural surrounding landscape.
3. Incorporate local traditions, cuisine, and culture.
Rather than opting for white roses and blush linens simply because it’s something pretty you saw on Instagram, I love the idea of letting local traditions, culture, and cuisine inform the event experience and overall aesthetic you offer guests.
Think: using local handmade ceramics on your tablescape, gifting small bottles of local olive oil as wedding favors, or serving coffee and biscotti from a local shop after dinner in place of a traditional wedding cake. I even love the idea of having a local band, harpist, or guitarist play during your ceremony or reception in place of a wedding DJ.
Or, instead of traditional passed appetizers at your cocktail hour, maybe you plan for a build-your-own Caprese salad bar or a stunning antipasto spread incorporating ingredients sourced from local shops. When you work with my team to design your affair, we always strive to incorporate a mix of both traditional elements and fine Italian design to achieve a balance that’s both aesthetically stunning and authentic to the area.
Overall, the key to making sure your Italian destination wedding is one-of-a-kind is to take inspiration from all-things local—both from local pros and from local traditions and landscapes, rather than solely getting your inspiration from social media.
Ready to start planning your Italian destination wedding?
I’d love to learn about your love story and chat about how we can bring your dream destination wedding to life together!
