Paperwork Assistance

Civil and religious paperwork is required to marry in Italy and each citizenship has a different set of requirements.

One of the key services included with Distinctive Italy is the expert assistance of your Italian wedding planner in handling the paperwork so that you don't have to worry.

Formalities differ from region to region, and city to city, and it takes a high level of experience to navigate the complexities of this aspect of Italian wedding planning. After 20 years of planning weddings in Italy we have worked with every possible citizenship and situation.

We have experience in handling legalities for weddings in Italy for couples from all over the world.

Below are links to the most requested nationalities but we handle many others:

Australian nationals marrying in Italy

While there are no residency requirements to marry in Italy, depending on your nationality there are specific steps that must be completed in order to formalize your Italian wedding and make it legally binding.

AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS WISHING TO BE MARRIED IN ITALY – DO NOT START THE LEGAL REQUIREMENT PROCESS PREVIOUS THAN 6 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING DATE

Australian citizens wishing to be married in Italy require the following documentation:

- original full birth certificate, translated into Italian and legalized (both certificate and translation) by means of an Apostille (issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

- Single Status Certificate (issued by the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages), translated into Italian and legalized (both certificate and translation) by means of an Apostille (issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

- valid passport

The abovementioned documents must be presented to the Registrar of the chosen Italian municipality within 90 days from their date of issue.

In addition, Australian citizens are required to obtain an “Atto Notorio” which is a statutory declaration that must be signed individually by each of the parties, along with 4 able witnesses, in which it is stated that, according to Australian law, there is no impediment to the marriage.

The 4 witnesses must be over the age of 18, hold a current form of photo i.d. and must not be related to the future bride or groom. In the event that you are not able to obtain this declaration before your departure, the “Atto Notorio” can be prepared in Italy via an Italian Tribunal (Tribunale). Should you wish to obtain the document locally before leaving Australia, please contact the Consulate no later than 2 months prior to departure, in order to arrange for its issue.

An appointment will be given for this purpose. In order to prepare the “Atto Notorio” the Consulate will need to receive, at least a week prior to the appointment date, all the relevant information required to draft the document, such as:

•   name, surname,
•   place and date of birth of bride and groom
•   name& surname of parents of bride & groom (mother's maiden name please)
•   passport number, date and place of issue of bride and groom
•   residential address of bride and groom
•   if one of the parties is not an Australian citizen, if either party is divorced, supply the citizenship of other party name & surname, place & date of birth of previous spouse, as well as date of divorce and name of the Court that issued the divorce decree.

On the day, you will be required to produce: birth certificate, passport, proof or residential address and, if the case may be, the decree nisi or certificate of divorce.

All four (4) witnesses will need to accompany you on the day - bride and groom may use the same witnesses if both require the issue of an “Atto Notorio”.

Along with your personal details (as above) please supply the following information regarding the witnesses:

•   name, surname, place and date of birth, residential address
•   details of their photo-id (passport or license): number, place and date of issue, expiry date (the same document will need to be presented on the day).

The cost for the issue of an “Atto Notorio” is € 30,00 (subject to change).

The “Atto Notorio" must then be presented to the Australian Diplomatic Missions in Italy (either the Australian Embassy in Rome or Consulate in Milan) in order to obtain the “NULLA OSTA” (NO IMPEDIMENT CERTIFICATE), as required by art.116 of the Italian Civil Code.

If one or both of the future spouses is divorced, the original Divorce Decree, translated into Italian and legalized (both certificate and translation) by means of an Apostille (issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) will need to be submitted to the Registrar of the chosen municipality, along with the rest of the documentation. All original documents must be translated by a professional, certified translator. The translation must then be stamped/authenticated by the Italian Consulate official.

DECLARATION of INTENT

If the wedding hall requires it, we will set an appointment with the Wedding Hall authorities, about two days before the wedding. At this time, you will make a Promessa di Matrimonio, or Declaration of Intent to Marry. Sometimes the appointment for the Declaration and Wedding may fall on the same day.

If one or more of the parties is Italian or is an Australian with Italian residency, then Banns (pubblicazione di matrimonio) must be posted for at least two weeks before the date of the marriage.

IMPORTANT!
It is extremely important that your full name is written in the same way in all the following documents, otherwise the wedding office will not accept the paperwork:

* Passports
* Atto Notorio
* Nulla Osta

Please be sure that your passport, Atto Notorio and Nulla Osta contains the bride's maiden name.
- See more at: http://www.distinctiveitalyweddings.com/paperwork-requirements-for-us-citizens.html#sthash.njVIYPQR.dpuf

* Passports
* Atto Notorio
* Nulla Osta

Please be sure that your passport, Atto Notorio and Nulla Osta contains the bride's maiden name.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY also the details on the Australian Embassy link:  http://www.italy.embassy.gov.au/rome/Marriage.html
British nationals marrying in Italy
Important new procedures for British Nationals resident in the UK wishing to get married in Italy were introduced on 1 March 2013.

Please visit this link for specific details as where you reside and the citizenship of your future spouse determine the exact process:   https://www.gov.uk/marriage-abroad

STANDARD SCENARIO

When both parties are British nationals and both are resident in the United Kingdom.

You cannot start the documentation process more than 6 months before your wedding date, or 3 months if you are resident in Scotland.

There are 4 simple steps that each British national, resident in the UK, must follow to get the right paperwork for marrying in Italy.

Step 1 – Certificate of No Impediment (CNI)

You need to obtain what’s called a Certificate of No Impediment, which is issued in the UK. Request that your CNI be valid for 6 months.

To do this you must give notice of marriage to your local registry office. After your notice has been posted for the required period you will be issued with a ‘Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage’, signed and dated by your local Registrar.

It is essential that the names you give to the Registrar, which will appear on your Certificates of No Impediment, are exactly the same as written in your passports. For example, Jim Harris on the Certificate, and James Harris-Ford on your passport might mean that the Italian authorities will reject your paperwork and refuse to allow the marriage to go ahead. Please take your passport with you to the Registry Office, just to be absolutely certain.

STEP 2 – THE STATUTORY DECLARATION
While you are waiting for your Certificate of No Impediment you should make a statutory declaration before a solicitor or public notary in the UK. Please find a bi-lingual statutory declaration form attached to this email. The declaration is required by the Italian authorities and gives additional information that is not detailed on your Certificate of No Impediment.

The solicitor or public notary will charge a fee for this service. Fees will vary so it might be worth shopping around.  Be sure the solicitor stamps your statutory declaration with their notary stamp or it will not be valid.

Step 3 – Legalising your documents for the Italian authorities

When you have your Certificate of No Impediment and you have made your Statutory Declaration, you need to send them both to the Legalisation Office for each to be legalised with a Hague Apostille. The Legalisation Office will charge for this.

Step 4 – Translation of your Certificate of No Impediment

Once both these documents have been legalised, you will then need to have the legalised Certificate of No Impediment translated. As it will become an Italian legal document it should be translated by a translator based in Italy and sworn before the Italian courts or an Italian Justice of the Peace. (Please note that Italian Town halls may also accept other types of official translation not covered in this guidance). If you’re using a wedding planner in Italy they may be able to provide this service. A fee will be charged – fees vary depending on the translator.  DIW provides the service of translation and courier service - please inquire with your planner. They will also charge a delivery fee to have the translation couriered back to you or to your wedding planner.

The Statutory Declaration does not need to be translated since it is already in both languages.

Each British national resident in the UK should have:
- a Certificate of No Impediment – issued in the UK, legalised in the UK and then translated officially in Italy
- a bilingual Statutory Declaration legalised in the UK
- passport
- any further documents specifically requested by your Comune (town hall) of marriage.
Once all of these documents have been prepared, they should be sent direct to either your wedding planner or to the town hall where you intend to get married. There is no longer any requirement for wedding documentation for British nationals resident in the UK to be sent to any British Consular Section in Italy for further processing.

It is always advisable for you, or your wedding agent, to check with the town hall where you intend to marry regarding extra documentation, for example photocopies of the passports of your witnesses, or how many days prior to the wedding you need to visit their offices.

Please note, under Italian law, a woman who has been divorced or widowed and wishes to re-marry in Italy cannot do so until 300 days have passed from the date of her divorce/death of husband.

Finally please note that your Certificate of No Impediment will be valid for six months from the date on your English, Welsh or Northern Irish CNI or three months if presenting a Scottish CNI.

For further easy-to-follow guidance have a look at these videos:

http://youtu.be/EhPz7-wjWjc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5tr_TKlCq8&sns=em
Canadian nationals marrying in Italy
CLICK ON LINKS - from the Canadian Embassy web site: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/italy-italie/consular_services_consulaires/marriage-mariage.aspx?lang=eng

You wish to get married in Italy?

Certificate of marriage celebrated in Canada

You wish to get married in Italy?

Italian law requires EACH non-Italian wishing to be married in Italy to present a "Nulla Osta" (Certificate of non-Impediment) or equivalent documentation.

The Government of Canada does not issue "Nulla Osta". However, to assist Canadians to meet the Italian requirements, the Embassy of Canada issues a declaration containing the relevant information.

Requests for the declaration can be made by mail or in person, by appointment. Our delivery service standards are 5 business days from the time we receive a complete application.

Obtaining a Declaration (Nulla Osta) from the Embassy in Rome

You must first complete and swear an affidavit to the effect that there is no impediment to the proposed marriage. You may swear the affidavit in Canada, at the Embassy in Rome or at one of our Consulates, or at another Government of Canada office abroad.

Then, the affidavit and the attached documents listed below must be sent or brought, by appointment, to the Embassy of Canada in Rome.

Each Canadian Citizen must:

complete and swear an affidavit. The affidavit may be sworn:
- in Canada before a Notary public
- in Italy at the Embassy or one of the Consulates
- abroad at any Embassy or Consulate of Canada.
submit the sworn affidavitto the Embassy of Canada in Rome, together with all of the following supporting documents, by mail or by appointment:
1. certified true copy of his/her own valid Canadian passport
2. proof of Canadian Citizenship:original or certified true copy of a marriage record search issued by the Vital Statistics office of each Canadian Province and/or Territory where he/she resided since reaching the age of 16; each search must cover the entire period during which the person has resided in that Province or Territory
  - for persons born in Canada, original or certified true copy of both sides of the long-form birth certificate, which includes information on the parents
  - for persons born outside of Canada, original or certified true copy of both sides of the Certificate of Canadian Citizenship
3. original or certified copy of the applicant’s final divorce certificate or decree (if divorced)*
4. original or certified copy of a deceased spouse’s death certificate(if widowed)*
5. certified copy of the fiancé(e)’s valid passport
6. copy of the consular processing fee payment receipt, or payment in person by MasterCard or Visa
7. mailing/pick-up instructions (mailing is done by registered post to a foreign or Italian address at no additional cost)
IMPORTANT:If you and your fiancé(e) are both Canadian citizens, you will each need to swear an affidavit, and each obtain a declaration from the Embassy of Canada. Please consider that fees will, therefore, also be doubled.

*Since the new affidavit no longer has all of the divorce data, the Italian municipalities will require that you have your divorce decree or death certificate translated by an official translator and have them authenticated (or notary stamp). These will be presented to the municipality during your declaration.

Fees

Fees are payable for each declaration and for each affidavit, if sworn at the Embassy; they are non-refundable. For more information, please see Fees and Method of Payment.

Where do I submit the application?

By mail or courier:

Embassy of Canada
Consular Affairs (LN)
Via Zara, 30
00198 Rome
Italy

In person: same address as above, by appointment, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to noon. A wedding planning agency can do this for you.

What to Do After Obtaining the Declaration

Your wedding planner will assist with these next steps:
1. Present the declaration to the competent "Prefettura - Ufficio Legalizzazioni" (provincial authority) to be formally authenticated.
2. After it has been authenticated, you must present it to the Marriage Office of the Municipality in Italy. Banns are waived if neither party is Italian nor residing in Italy.
3. The Municipal authorities will request the couple to return (usually in 2 or 3 days) with 2 witnesses PLUS an interpreter (if one or both parties are not familiar with the Italian language) to execute a declaration before the "Ufficiale dello Stato Civile" (Registrar of Vital Statistics) of the Municipality. Arrangements are then concluded and a date is scheduled for the civil marriage ceremony. Two witnesses PLUS an interpreter (if necessary) must be present at the civil marriage ceremony.
What to Do After the Marriage

Marriages that are legally performed in a foreign country are usually valid in Canada, and you do not need to register them in Canada. If you have questions about the validity of your foreign marriage, contact the Vital Statistics Office of your province or territory.

It is recommended that, before leaving Italy or with the help of the wedding planner if one is present, the newly-married couple obtain from the municipality (Comune) where the marriage was celebrated several copies of a marriage certificate in multilingual format, called Estratto dell’atto di matrimonio in formato plurilingue.

IMPORTANT!

It is extremely important that your full name is written in the same way in all the following documents, otherwise the wedding office will not accept the paperwork:

* Passports
* Nulla Osta/Affidavit

Bride: please be sure that your passport and Nulla Osta contains your maiden name.
Irish nationals marrying in Italy
Nulla Osta Procedure for Irish Citizens wishing to marry in Italy

https://www.dfa.ie/travel/our-services/marriage-and-civil-partnership-abroad/
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/getting_married/getting_married_abroad.html

1. If you are travelling on an Irish passport you must complete a:
- Statutory Declaration
- Two page questionnaire.
If your fiancé(e) is Irish he/she must also complete a full set of forms.

2. If you are divorced you must make a statutory declaration on form MP2B.

3. If either you or your prospective spouse are under 18 years of age and either of you is ordinarily resident in Ireland you must make an application to the Court for an order granting you permission to marry. You should seek legal advice prior to making the declaration.

4. The statutory declaration form in each set must be completed in the presence of and witnessed by one of the following:

1. A Notary Public 2. A Commissioner for Oaths 3.A Solicitor

It is a criminal offence punishable by a fine and or imprisonment to make a statutory declarationwhich is to your knowledge false or misleading in any material respect.

Timeline for applying for your Certificat de Coutume/Nulla Osta

5. The application forms for Certificat de Coutume/Nulla Osta/Letter of No Impediment to civil marriage cannot be completed earlier than six months before the date of the intended marriage. That is, the date the Statutory Declaration is completed in the presence of the Commissioner for Oaths, Notary Public or Solicitor, cannot be earlier than six months before the date of the intended marriage.

6. The application should be returned to the Department of Foreign Affairs or nearest Irish diplomatic mission at least 4 months before the date of the marriage.

Where to Make an Application

Irish citizens who are resident in Ireland should make their application via the Department of Foreign Affairs at the following address:

Consular Section
Department of Foreign Affairs
St. Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2
Telephone: (01) 408 2568

Or for the Munster area:

Consular Services
Department of Foreign Affairs
1A South Mall
Cork
Telephone: (021) 4944763 or (021) 4944777

Irish citizens who are resident abroad should make their application to their nearest Irish Mission. If you are resident in Italy, an application should be made to the Embassy in Rome.

Applications should be made at least four, but not more than six, months before the marriage is due to take place.

The Embassy will issue your Nulla Osta one month before the date of your wedding.

Required Documentation

7. The applicant(s) should furnish the Department of Foreign Affairs with the following documentation :
1. Original Long form of civil birth certificate
2. Court Order if you are under 18 years
3. Original Death Certificate of previous spouse if widowed
4. Original Petition and Final decree of divorce: if divorced
5. Copy of Passport
6. Fee Euro 66 currently
* Applications that are not in order will be returned immediately*

8. When returning the completed forms, ensure that all documents requested are included. All Certificates and divorce papers must be original documents. (For further information on obtaining original birth or death certificates, please visit www.groireland.ie.) A photocopy of the details page of current passport is acceptable. These will be returned after inspection.

Fees:

9. Ensure that the appropriate fee is included. If applying to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the fee for Nulla Osta for Italy is €20 per couple (regardless of whether one or both persons are Irish). Payment can be made by cheque, payable order or bank draft and should be made payable to the Secretary General, Department of Foreign Affairs.

10. If applying to the nearest Irish Diplomatic Mission, details of payment can be obtained from the relevant Mission.

11. A marriage will only be recognized in Ireland if it is civilly registered in the country in which it takes place. Therefore, it is essential that full details of venue of the marriage, the date of the marriage, the full title of the person performing the ceremony *and the title and address of the Civil Registry Office at which the marriage is to be registered, are entered at Questions 12,13 and 14 on the questionnaire. (The name of the person performing the ceremony may not be available in advance. If not, it is in order to insert ‘Registrar of the Day’ or ‘Priest of the Day’ etc.)

*With regard to marriages that take place in the Irish College in Rome, it is sufficient only to give details of the Church, as all marriages that take place in the College are civilly registered in the local Comune.
New Zealand nationals marrying in Italy
Applying for a Nulla Osta

To marry in Italy, Italian authorities require a document called a Nulla Osta issued by the New Zealand Embassy. This document is similar to a New Zealand Certificate of No Impediment to marriage.

Send the following (by courier, post or deliver in person, faxed copies are not acceptable) to the New Zealand Embassy in Rome:
- An original Certificate of No Impediment issued by the Department of Internal Affairs.
- Certified copies of the biodata pages of the passports of the bride and groom
- A completed and signed form “Particulars for inclusion in a Nulla Osta" (contact our staff for a copy of this document)
- The fee for processing the Nulla Osta is Euro 40; payable to 'New Zealand Embassy' by bank draft (assegno circolare).
- Fee for your documents to be returned by courier is Euro 30. A single bank draft of Euro 70 is acceptable. If you lodge your application in person we can accept the cash equivalent.
- The original copy of the decree nisi or order of dissolution if either the bride or the groom is divorced. (Note If the bride is divorced, 300 days must have passed since the dissolution/decree nisi was registered).
- It usually takes a week for the Embassy to prepare a Nulla Osta once all the required correct and complete documentation and fees have been received.
- The documents can then be collected in person or couriered to you or your agent, not to the offices of the Italian authorities.
- A covering letter with your contact details, the date you intend to get married and any other information you consider useful.
Documents expire after 3 months so please do not obtain them too far in advance.
US nationals marrying in Italy
While there are no residency requirements to marry in Italy, depending on your nationality there are specific steps that must be completed in order to formalize your Italian wedding and make it legally binding.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS for AMERICANS - 3 steps

1 - ATTO NOTORIO - done in the US 3 months prior to your wedding day. Can be done in Italy with our assistance provided we have ample advanced notice - (recently this is becoming more difficult).

Before leaving the United States, you need to obtain an Atto Notorio (sworn declaration) from the Italian Embassy or Consulate in the state where you reside. You must set up an appointment with the nearest Italian Consulate to where you live and verify how many witnesses are required (it varies from location to location).

An Atto Notorio is an affidavit done before the Italian Consulate in the US (or before a magistrate in Italy). It consists of a meeting in front of the Italian Consulate with witnesses (4*) in which a declaration relative to the civil status (single, divorced etc…) of the couple is made. An official document is then drawn up for filing purposes here in Italy.

*Some Italian Consulates only require two witnesses for the Atto Notorio but the town hall in Italy may require that you have 4. Please double check prior to booking your appointment.

In order to obtain an Atto Notorio you must prepare the following documentation:
- Passport
- Birth certificate
- If previously divorced/widowed, your divorce decree or death certificate
- Translations of all of the above except your passport.
Please note that all certificates including divorce certificates or death certificates certifying termination of your previous marriage MUST be ORIGINALS. Photocopies are not accepted.

Please be sure that at the top of the page of your Atto Notorio the detail " Repubblica Italiana" and "Consolato Generale D'Italia" are specifically written, otherwise the Atto Notorio is not valid.

TRANSLATIONS of DOCUMENTS

Your Birth and or divorce/death certificates must be:
1. Translated into Italian
2. Apostilled through the Secretary of State's Notary Public of the state the document originated in. Note: if you are a naturalized US Citizen you may be required by the Italian Consulate to apostille your birth certificate through the Consulate/Embassy of the country you were born in.
3. Some town halls also require that your translations be Apostilled by the Secretary of State's Notary Public.
4. The translations of your certificates must be authenticated by the Italian Consulate (stamped with a seal).
5. Translations must be done by a certified translator - the Italian Consulate will provide a list of approved translators.
6. Some Italian Consulates require that your translations be also apostilled. So please have your translations also apostilled.
7. In addition Italian Consulates are now requesting the certificate of no appeal in case of a previous divorce.
APOSTILLE
Is obtained via mail, you do not have to go in person. You must mail your certificates to the Secretary of State's notary public office requesting an apostille. They will mail it back to you. If time is of the essence, this procedure can be expedited by pre-paying the courier service. The Secretary of State's notary public office is in the state's capitol. (ex: for Florida, it will be in Tallahassee). A standard notary public seal is NOT an apostille.

EMAIL DOCS to US
After you have completed your Atto Notorio you must email a copy to us. We will verify that everything is complete.

Bring the originals of your documents with you when you come to Italy. HAND CARRY YOUR DOCUMENTS, do not check them with your luggage.

If you cannot obtain an Atto Notorio prior to coming to Italy or you currently reside in Italy, the Atto Notorio can somtimes be arranged in Italy; there is a cost for this service if done by us.

2 - NULLA OSTA - (Done in Italy with our staff)

Once in Italy, in addition to the Atto Notorio, an American citizen intending to get married in Italy will need to make a Statutory Declaration (Nulla Osta).

This Statutory Declaration must be signed whether you are single, divorced or widowed and you will do so in the presence of an American Consular officer at the American Embassy in Rome or Consulate-General in Milan, Genova, Venice, Florence or Naples. A Nulla Osta literally states that "there are no impediments" or that one is free to marry. The Nulla Osta (Statutory Declaration) is valid for six months and as of 2011 costs $55 per person (some consulates accept credit cards, others cash only).

Ask the Consulate to state on the Nulla Osta that you are a "tourist in transit".

The Nulla Osta must then be legalised by the Uffico Legalizzazioni of the Prefettura. Nulla Osta and legalization can generally be completed in one morning and are done with our assistance.

IMPORTANT!
It is extremely important that your full name is written in the same way in all the following documents, otherwise the wedding office will not accept the paperwork:

* Passports
* Atto Notorio
* Nulla Osta

Please be sure that your passport, Atto Notorio and Nulla Osta contains the bride's maiden name.

3 - DECLARATION of INTENT

If the wedding hall requires it, we will set an appointment with the Wedding Hall authorities, about two days before the wedding. At this time, you will make a Promessa di Matrimonio, or Declaration of Intent to Marry. Sometimes the appointment for the Declaration and Wedding may fall on the same day.

If one or more of the parties is Italian or is an American with Italian residency, then Banns (pubblicazione di matrimonio) must be posted for at least two weeks before the date of the marriage.

Documents expire after 3 months so please do not obtain them too far in advance.
Catholic requirements to marry in Italy.
Parish Permission

Formal letter from your parish priest granting permission for the wedding to be performed in the church you choose.
This letter is required by the Italian Curia (Diocese) to show that you have received permission from your parish priest to have your wedding ceremony performed in Italy. It should certify that your priest knows you and allows you to get married at the Italian Church of (exact name) at the specific date. This letter needs to be written on the letterhead paper of your Parish.

The letter from the priest must also state that you have fulfilled all PRE CANA procedures, and should include the certificate showing that you attended the premarital classes.

Bishop Permission

Your priest should also secure a letter from the Bishop of the parish stating the same as above and this letter should also be written on letterhead. The Bishop's permission to the wedding is one of the most important requirements for the Italian Curia. The letter must certify that:
- You have no impediment to get married at the Italian Church of (name of the church) at the date (the date you are asking).
- This letter must be written on the letterhead paper of your Bishop's office.
- This letter shows that approval has been given by the authority over the priest who has written the letter referred in # 1.
Prenuptial Inquiry Form

The original prenuptial inquiry form has to be issued by your parish and be on formal church letterhead of your Parish. The prenuptial inquiry form is not just the certificate but rather a type of signed questionnaire with church seals/signatures. Moreover this document must be stamped or sealed by the local Bishop's office (NOT just your priest).

A Prenuptial Inquiry is issued by the archdiocese of your city/town. It is the prenuptial investigation which your priest completes together with you. Your priest completes the questionnaire stating it has been approved so you can get married, signing the document as final approval.

Then this document has to be sealed by your local Bishop, so the Italian Curia/Diocese has the proof that it has been definitely approved by a higher member of the Catholic Church in your country.

Certificates

ALL certificates of baptism, first communion and confirmation must be sent together with the Prenuptial inquiry form and letters mentioned above and must also be stamped by the local Bishop's office. All these sacraments have to be received in order to have the Catholic wedding performed. Ask your Parish who performed these sacraments to provide these certificates. If you have problems obtaining the originals, ask for copies that have to be sealed by your local bishop. The seals of the bishop, are required on these documents by the Italian Curia.

For Catholic weddings with Civil validity

Original of the civil wedding certificate, (in event the Italian priest is not performing the civil part of the marriage the civil ceremony must be performed prior to the religious ceremony and that original certificate must be presented to the Italian priest) This would apply if you are not asking to be civilly married at the same wedding ceremony in Italy or in case that the Italian priest should not be able to do the civil and religious wedding together).

Please note: a wedding license is NOT a civil marriage certificate.

Permission of mixed religions

If one of you are not Catholic you will be required to obtain another document such as "Permission of mixed religions" to testify that the wedding celebration can be performed by the Italian Church. Generally this document is issued by the local Bishop of your country. Ask this information to your Parish, so they can help you to obtain this special permission.

All the documents mentioned MUST be sealed or stamped by the Bishop's parish office. Please send your wedding planner a scanned copy of your documents once they are completed for review. Once this is done you will be asked to send all the ORIGINALS directly to the Italian Diocese, so they can proceed with the preparation of documents.

It is not possible to complete the Catholic marriage requirements without providing the originals documents.

NOTE: The Italian priest or Diocese has final say on granting official permission for the wedding to move forward after seeing the paperwork.

Keep the original documents with you, do not send these here in Italy before receiving the Italian Church approval based on the copies you send us.

Do not mail anything to Italy without first verifying the mailing address of where they should be sent.

Divorce

The above refer to a couple that has never been married previously. If you have been divorced in the Catholic church and your marriage was not officially annulled you cannot marry in the Catholic church. Please advise us if you have had your marriage annulled.

Expiration of Documents

Documents should not be done more than 6 months in advance or they expire. (Exception of the Baptism, Holy Communion and Confirmation, that are issued when you received these sacraments).

For Catholic weddings only (not including the Civil portion), a certificate of civil marriage (note that the marriage license is not enough), is also required. The civil wedding certificate never expires. The only case is that the couple has divorced and want to get married again in the Church. In this case a civil reconciliation is required.

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Josephine and Austin

Josephine & Austin

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Josephine and Austin

Wedding in Verona

Photographer: David Bastianoni

Josephine and Austin’s Verona wedding was nothing short of a fairytale, unfolding in the enchanting Verona Villa with a dazzling Great Gatsby theme. The celebration seamlessly blended nature and glamour, inviting guests to wander through the villa’s breathtaking Italian gardens.

The ceremony took place in the villa’s original green amphitheater, where guests arrived amidst towering cypress trees, setting a dreamlike tone for the day. As the festivities continued, aperitifs offered an opportunity to explore the villa’s hidden gems, from the magical grotto to secret gardens, picturesque walkways, and elegant fountains.

Dinner was an unforgettable experience, hosted along a tree-lined avenue beneath the stars. Just when guests thought the night couldn’t get any more magical, they were surprised by a spectacular Great Gatsby performance - culminating in a breathtaking finale featuring the bride and groom and of course……fireworks!

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THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! For everything you guys did to ensure we had the most amazing wedding celebration. We are so thankful and so happy to have chosen your company to make our dream come true.

Thank you Stefania for getting our garment bag back on time:) you are an angel.

Simona was so warm and wonderful, she made sure that every detail was taken care of.

The photographers were also amazing we cannot wait to see our pictures. Please let me know who will be sending the email with pictures:)

Please add us in your list of references, I already have 2 girlfriends to refer ;) I will be sending you the connections soon.

The entire experience was AMAZING.

Thank you so much:)

Yami

Melanie and Gregory

Wedding in Lake Orta

Hi Rosanna!

Yes! We just got back on the weekend and I have been meaning to respond. Everything was so magical and perfect we could not be happier. We would be happy to be a reference for DIW. We couldn't have done it without all of you. We loved our wedding day so much I want to do it all over again to relive the fantastic day...and the meal that Barbara suggested was to die for! We loved it so much we went back the next night to dine there a second time.

Working with DIW was an absolute pleasure. Your team was very prompt and took care of every detail. I am a marketing professional for a large global company and can be very particular about details and your team executed flawlessly. Everything went very smoothly and will be fondly remembered as the happiest day of our lives. The services that your team selected were tremendous. Victoria and the girls were so fun to be around and I admire Cristiano's work so much - fingers crossed we were good subjects for photos.

So again - I can't stress how amazing our day was and magical it will be remembered. I would say that was one EXTREMELY well planned event. DIW are super heroes of wedding planning.

I admire your business so much - it's a dream job.

Chat sometime soon
Melanie

Zoe and Ed

Wedding in Certaldo, Tuscany

Hi Raffaela,

Apologies for the delay in responding, we've been quite busy since we returned.

The whole experience was perfect and exactly what we were wanting. Certaldo Alto was picturesque and such an amazing place to host our special day. Bonnie was extremely helpful and made sure the day went as planned. Guisseppe took so many amazing pictures and was not intrusive at all, and pictures arrived promptly on our return! Flowers we're perfect and we were really happy with them. :)

Our reception drinks at La Cucina went beyond our expectations. It was such a lovely place and we had such a warm welcoming from Giuseppina and her son Luca. The food and wine were lovely, and the relaxed setting, with them preparing the food and drink in front of us was awesome. It rained (a short shower) just after the ceremony, and they had to move from their originally planned outside location, to indoors, which was done very smoothly - we didn't really notice! Overall we couldn't have asked for a better place than this for our reception drinks!

The restaurant for the reception was the most amazing setting. The food was impeccable - especially the Pici al ragu di cinta sense. The service was so good, they were all so friendly and lovely. We were so impressed with it, that we returned a couple of days after to have lunch, and our friends who stayed a further week with their family also returned with a table of 20 people too! You couldn't have picked a more perfect place for our reception, thank you!

Villa Issabella was beautiful and a perfect base for us during the week. The owners we're lovely and the villa was very well presented. We are already talking about taking a family holiday next year to stay at the villa again!

Overall, the whole day was such a success and exceeded our expectations. Without your support we would not have been able to arrange our day so perfectly - thank you to you and all of your team at Distinctive Italy! We would definitely recommend your services to friends and family that want to marry in Italy!

We would be more than happy to act as references. We have also attached a few pictures of the day which you are more than welcome to use for marketing and on Facebook if you wish.

All the best,
Zoë & Ed

Rebecca and Elliot

Wedding in Tuscany

Hello Raffaela!

Many thanks for your congratulations, we are only just starting to come back down to earth after our fantastic day!! It was everything we dreamed of and more and we just wanted to thank you very much for all your help in making our day what it was- we are so very grateful :D

The day pretty much went without a hitch! I cried when I saw my flowers (as you know) myself and Vykky were very worried about them being right!! But they were PERFECT and exactly what I wanted so please pass on a massive thanks to statti fiori as they really did outshine my expectation -they were amazing!

The music was also absolutely fantastic- the DJ and singer especially were amazing and really wowed our guests!!

Giacomo and all at the venue were fantastic- the table was set up beautifully, the food was so wonderful and our guests were very pleased with their accommodations! They were also their lovely warm selves and everyone raved about their hospitality.

Barbara our photographer also was amazing, very respectful of our day and very lovely to talk to I can't wait to see her photos! Thanks so much.

Warm regards

Rebecca Asprey :))

Betty and Conor

Castle Wedding in Rome

Hi Stefania,

Finally we are back in Australia and back at work. Sorry for the late reply. We have been super busy with work and family commitments.

Our wedding was truly wonderful. The Castle was beyond our dreams and the staff were wonderful. The room that we had for the 2 nights was amazing. Dinner at their restaurant was superb and we had the same waiter 2 nights in a row and he was wonderful and was great at recommending suggestions from the menu.

I would definitely recommend the Castle to anyone wanting to get married, even though we eloped and found the hotel wonderful, I believe that a small intimate wedding their would also be wonderful.

Elly, your onsite assistant was great, as soon as she walked in she just took over and made sure everything ran smoothly. I was so afraid it was going to rain as I could see clouds and hear thunder, but Elly checked the weather for me and assured me that it wouldn't pour down. Everyone that was involved in the wedding was wonderful, from the driver to the celebrant and the violinist and our photographer Alessandro was great, both Conor and I aren't good in front of the camera, but Alessandro helped to make us feel more relaxed. Alessandro also knew of all the nice spots around Rome to have photos taken at, Alessandro took us to spots that we hadn't even heard off, that were a little quieter than the usual Rome tourist spots and were just as pretty.

A special thank you to my makeup/hair artist Anne, she was totally wonderful and even though we didn't do a trial hair run, she knew exactly what I wanted when I showed her the pictures and I left the makeup choice up to her and she made me look amazing on the day. As I didn't have anyone with me on the day as it was only Conor and I eloping together Anne helped me put my dress and veil on, which was great as it was lace up and I was a little concerned as to how I was going to put it on by myself.

As for being a reference, I would definitely recommend you to anyone wanting to get married in Rome, so please definitely use me as a reference.

We'll definitely be back in Rome in the future and hopefully the Trevi Fountain will be restored by then and we'll be making our stay longer as I would have like to have seen more of Rome and Italy.

Also, could you please find out what brand of Prossecco Champagne that we had as our wedding toast was. I usually don't like Champagne or wine, but that Prosecco was wonderful and I would like to get it in Australia if I can find it.

Once I get the photos from Alessandro, I'll email some through to you.

Thankyou for all your hard work Stefania, our wedding day was truly wonderful

Best Regards,
Betty

Olivia and Paul

Catholic wedding in Rome

Hi Rosanna / Raffaela

Many Thanks for your warmest congratulations!

I would like to say a very big Thank You to all at Distinctive Italy Weddings for making our Special Day the Perfect One!

Everything turned out wonderful and Rome brought everything we imagined, it is such an amazing city, alive with activity and spirit.

The Santa Maria Basilica in Trastevere took everyones breath away, it has to be one of the most beautiful churchs I have ever seen. Fr John is lovely, he made us feel really welcome and helped ease the nerves. he was so down to earth and cracked a few jokes along the way so Thank you for arranging for him to be our celebrant. My face lit up when I saw the flowers arrangements in the church. I have to say they were the nicest flowers I have seen at any wedding and I am being honest about that. Please say a Huge Thank you to the florist, a truly amazing job, the white and red contrast was gorgeous and I loved my bouquet. It was so fresh and pretty, classy but innocent. I would highly recommend the florist. I will email some photo's when they are done.

The two Allessandro's were great. They arrived at the Castle to take photos of the groom and his goomsmen and then of me and the brisdesmaids. We are friends on Face Book now so he has posted some samples photo's which are very professional and really capture the moment. They are so different from your normal, average photos. Can't wait to see the final album when they have them ready.

Castello was a perfect venu for the wedding reception. The welcome canapes and prosecco were tasty and plenty. I loved the Gazebo and my guests really loved the food. So thank you for that! The lunch was great and we had the use of the veranda aswell so guests could have photos outside and relax in the nice Rome 15 degree weather.

All in all we couldnt have asked for a better day. Everything went to plan and we were so Happy!!

So Thank you both for everything.

Olivia and Paul

Carrie and Thomas

Wedding in Florence

Hi Rosanna and Junko, Thank you so much for all your help for making our dream wedding come true. Initially, we were planning a rustic hamlet wedding in Tuscany but after numerous emails with Rosanna, we came across with this lovely boutique city hotel in Florence that changed everything.

We were reviewing different venues from A to Z to decide what fits our needs and dreams for a small and intimate wedding slash reunion and Rosanna was very patient and helpful during the long selection process. I am Asian and my husband is European and we are leaving in Canada. There were lots of logistics to plan and cultural aspects to consider.

It took more than a year and half to prepare our wedding via gazillions of emails with lots of "change of mind" in the middle and Junko was more than helpful and understanding. Junko went above and beyond her call of duty to ensure that our dream was fulfilled to the end. Everyone we know said it's a risky business to plan a destination wedding via emails only with strangers, especially when you didn't visit the venue, didn't taste the food nor the wedding cake. We knew about those contingencies, but we trusted Junko as we communicated with her for over a year.

Magic doesn't happen often. Few of us has ever experienced it. For us, it happened on the 3rd and 4th of June 2014. From the very first step in the Villa where the wedding took place, Junko orchestrated everything perfectly. Her knowledge and coordination skills were remarkable. Our Wedding could have taken place anywhere but the Villa was THE place and Junko put all her focus and determination onto all the little details in order to allow us to have that magic moment.

I am a very picky and particular bride who has been working in the hospitality and event industry over 10 years. As such, I know what I want and I get it. We met Junko for the first time the day before our wedding and went over all the micro-details. At that point, we knew that we didn't have to worry about anything. We had an amazing and magical wedding and it was an entire success. We have witnessed the talent of Junko, her expertise and excellent customer skills. All of our family and friends are still talking about the venue, food, flowers, dance and the marvellous cake!!!! I don't know where we got our cake from but it was the best cake ever. In fact, it seems unbelievable that without even tasting it beforehand, the cake turned out to be absolutely delicious! Everyone kept asking for more!!! Flowers were exactly what I had asked for, and they did even better job. Our DJ read our minds like a magician and did fabulous job.

Also, we want to highlight the high level of Alessandro's professionalism. He is such an amazing photographer! He listens to you and gets it! He is always being super fun and down to earth at the same time. A real professional. I changed my mind about our photographer twice but we are so glad that we worked with him.

Lastly the venue: if you are dreaming of an elegant yet modern wedding, the Villa is the place. The management is fantastic to work with as Rosanna said and banquet team is top notch!

I heard a lot of things could go wrong on a wedding day. Definitely not for us!!! We actually had great fun and enjoyed every single moment. I was the worry free bride :) because Junko orchestrated everything; the event took place smoothly until late at night with the utmost perfection and attention to detail. There is no word to describe how grateful we are to work with Junko.

If you want to get married, Italy is the right place to go and Junko is the right person to consult. We travelled all over the world and could never find the same level of excellence and authentic smile. Every one of our international guests from Asia, UK, Switzerland, Canada left with the same feedback: we give 5 stars to our Villa and and if we could add a 6th star, it would be for Junko's remarkable work.

Thank you Rosanna and Junko for making our Wedding such a successful story, to mark the first day of our married life as certainly the one that will be living in us forever.

Lucia and Ian

Wedding in Tuscany

Buongiorno Raffaela e Rosanna,

non avevo ancora avuto tempo di scirvere ma ci tenevo davvero a farlo visto il grande successo del weekend al Borgo.

Non solo gli ospiti sono rimasti senza parole, ma persino io, Ian e Carole che eravamo a conoscenza di tutto il programma nei dettagli, siamo rimasti a bocca aperta per gran parte del tempo! Allestimenti meravigliosi, organizzazione liscia e impeccabile, fornitori incredibili...e voi fantastiche.

Non so come ringraziarvi per aver contribuito a rendere questo matrimonio cosi' memorabile, divertente e veramente semplice. E' stata un'esperienza unica lavorare con voi e spero che in qualche modo le nostre strade si incrocino ancora nel futuro.

Aspetto le foto con impazienza! non vedo l'ora arrivino, cosi' riusciro' a rivivere qualche momento ancora una volta!

Un carissimo saluto e in bocca al lupo per tutto quanto.

TRANSLATED into ENGLISH....

Hello Raffaela and Rosanna, I had not yet had time to write to you, but I really wanted to do it given the great success of theweekend at the Hamlet. Not only were the guests left speechless, but even I, Ian and Carole who were aware of all the plansin detail, were left speechless most of the time!

Marvelous decor, smooth and flawless organization, amazing providers ...and you were fantastic. I do not know how to thank you for helping to make this wedding so memorable, fun and really simple. It was a unique experience to work with you and I hope that somehow our paths will cross again in the future. Looking forward to the photos! I can not wait to come, so 'able' torelive some moments once again!

A warm greetings and good luck for everything.

Lucia and Ian

From the MOTHER of the GROOM

Hi Rosanna,

We couldn’t have been more thrilled with everything. The Borgo was absolutely the perfect setting for a Tuscan wedding, the caterer was undoubtedly the best caterer I have ever used anywhere, and the flowers were truly magical. I can’t possibly imagine a more storybook wedding weekend anywhere, anytime!

I am happy to be a reference so please use my email accordingly.

Best wishes to you!

Carole

Brea and Tom

Wedding in Malcesine, Lake Garda

G'Day Stefania,

Well after a whirlwind honeymoon through Italy & Spain we are home now and the secret of our elopement in Malcesine, Lake Garda is out and we surprised everyone (except for our parents who were in on it) !

Finally, we are back home had the welcome home party and I have found the time to write you this long overdue but still important note about well everything... :)

THANK YOU SO MUCH seems to be a good start but I’m not sure it covers everything so here we go in detail ha-ha....

Stefania, I can’t thank you enough for all the work you put in over the last 11 months to put together the most magical day for us it was absolutely wonderful and totally exceeded expectations. From our first emails it was easy to see that you wanted to make this the best day of our lives.

I was pretty vague in the beginning with our only ideas that we wanted it to be on a lake. I think that is why I’m so grateful for the lists, ideas and numerous options that you provided it made it very easy for me and Tom to review and make decisions. I also want to thank you for offering up hints and tips for our trip through Italy - Verona was a fantastic place and one of our favourites so I’m really glad you told us a bit about it otherwise we may have missed it !

Other things and notes of thanks if you can pass them on...

Pre Wedding Documentation

Just wanted to let you know that Angela who we met in Milan was brilliant! She assisted us on the paperwork front which was great. She met us at the embassy and helped us very much, as there was a recent change in how things worked she was the only one who was prepared and had the right details for the security guard to let her through and for us to have the documents legalised before we headed to Malcesine. Very professional and very well prepared.

Hair & Makeup

WOW just wow and special thanks to a fantastic hairdresser and makeup artist ! I would highly recommend her to anyone. If I lived in Verona she would be my hairdresser for sure! I only had a side profile photo of the hairstyle I wanted and she was able to pull together the whole thing and it was exactly what I had imagined. The makeup was flawless Yasmin has a great eye and attention to detail. The red lips were great ! She also went above and beyond assisting me to get ready fixing up my dress & helping me with my insanely high heeled shoes to complete the look J no need for an entourage of bridesmaids as she took care of everything !

Manicure & Nails

Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the lady who did my nails the day before I should have written in down... She was brilliant she fixed up 3 of my nails which had chipped/broken and made them look brand new. It was awesome and definitely much more than what I had requested I’m so very grateful. They looked perfect for that day and also for the rest of our trip which was great as usually polish lasts only 1 to 1.5 weeks on my hands so that was really good and unexpected.

Flowers

High Five to the Florist!! The flowers were an exact replica of the picture I had sent through actually they were even better ! The roses were absolutely stunning so fresh and crisp they looked the same at the end of the day as they did at the beginning and even the next day they were still perfect and the small white rose buds had started to bloom they were exactly what I had imagined. I wanted to take them home with me but I doubt they would have made it all the way back to Australia!

Transport - Maserati

Well this was Toms choice and he chose really well the Black Maserati looked very sleek but it was also really comfortable and had space for my dress... not that it was a massive dress but it was really comfortable which was important since we had a hour long lakeside drive to the Castle. I really liked staying a bit further away from the place the ceremony is because it built anticipation etc so for me it was really good even though it meant getting up a bit earlier J

Malcesine

Malcesine is such a beautiful place to get married!! I wish we had more time there to explore the streets and town. The castle was amazing. Although I wish I did wear flat shoes (as you recommend) hahaaa getting around on the cobble stones and up the castle stairs in my super high heels was difficult but I’m glad I made it - I should have put the flat shoes in the car with me instead of in the trunk of the car:)

The staff at the town hall were great so helpful the day before arranging for a pre visit to the castle for us it was great. Also very unexpected were the gifts from the town that we were given on the day of the wedding – commemorative glass plate with the castle and our names etched in and next years calendars were a great momento of the day and fantastic as they can remind us of the place

The stunning views the castle, the lake and the mountains it is just so picture perfect, I would highly recommend this beautiful town to anyone and everyone. I had never heard of Malcesine before so thank you for putting it in the pack if had not seen it in there I would not have known about this gem of a place or met any of its wonderful people.

Videographer

So originally we were not going to have a videographer ... I have seen many friends videos which were just terrible so I was really put off by the whole thing. Stefania, I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you sent through the details of a few for me to look at. I seriously didn’t realise how fantastic a wedding video could be and I’m over the moon that we chose Denis to be our videographer. He was fantastic and from the moment we met at the hotel he put us at ease (especially Tom) he was very relaxed and gave good direction which made it really easy. As people who are not used to that type of attention it was great to have the dynamic duo of Denis and Stefano guiding us through. They were professional and listened to what we were after on our videos. We wanted a video that would transport our friends and family to the day like they were bystanders watching on as went through the day, to show the beauty of Malcesine and Sirmione and to make them see why we chose this beautiful place rather than a wedding at home in Australia (a big ask). The Second video we was to be more a fun look at our friendship and love and the day but through our eyes so we can look back at go wow how much fun was that !! We were also under time pressure to have the videos back in time for our big welcome home/surprise we are married party. I can’t really describe how amazing these videos were we just had the party on the weekend and there were people crying about how beautiful they were and how amazing the location was, I can’t tell you how many people made comments about how professional and polished the video was and a couple of friends who were photographers also commented on the detail and angles of the shots and how great they were. I’m just so happy with how they turned out and that we got to meet Denis and Stefano who made the experience fun for us. I can’t even describe it properly in this email. This was by far the best investment we made.

Photographer

Unlike the umming and arring I had over whether or not to get a videographer I knew from the start that we wanted some great pictures to capture the day. After looking at Alessandro’s pictures online I loved his work so it was an easy decision. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the experience apart from it was so easy and was much fun! Both Alessandro and his co photographer (who’s name escapes me right now.. wow I’m usually good with names... ) were great. I’m not a fan of posed stand together and look at the camera photos so it was good to go walking around the town and cruising on the Boat just having a good time. I have a I have not had the opportunity yet to see the photos them but I’m sure they will be brilliant.

Transport 2 - The Boat

The boat ride we took from Malcesine back to Sirmione was one of my favourite parts of the day! It was quite a windy day to start off with so I was a bit concerned it might be really bumpy ride but it wasn't really at all. It was fantastic to kick back with a bottle of champagne and just admire the view from the lake.

Restaurant

What a fantastic way to close out the most romantic day – seriously the setting could not have been more perfect... The sun setting over the lake giving way to a full moon which shone brightly over the lake and with the live music in the background it was just beautiful !!!

We had our own personalised menus, with the date and names which was a nice keepsake. It was also great for us as they had a special menu for each of us since Tom doesn’t eat seafood . The food was devine! The portions were generous and packed full of flavour and so perfectly presented you kind of didn’t want to eat them they looked so good. There was a basil like mouse which was toms Favourite and mine was definitely the risotto for someone who does not normally eat rice that is a big call J

The Villa Cortine Palace

What a great location and a fantastic place to stay. The staff were extremely helpful with our last minute requests the room was big and the bathroom was huge which was good since we had the hair, makeup and everything set up. One of my favourite things about this hotel was the grounds they were a great place to walk around, relax and explore. I really wish we had more time there but something tells me we will be back there at some stage...perhaps an anniversary trip. It was also interesting for Tom driving through the historical centre and past all the people on the tiny streets (that doesn’t really happen in Australia) so was entertaining. Sirmione was also very beautiful and we got some time to explore the ruins and the town over the few days we stayed there.

Overall

So I guess overall a heart felt thank you from both myself and Tom for making our Wedding day so special and most important to me hassle free. I would highly recommend you personally Stefania and the team at DIW to anyone, especially those looking to escape the drama which accompanies planning and executing perfect wedding yourself - leave it up to the professionals J. On a final note it was great to finally meet you and put a face to the emails, if you ever come back to Australia pop down to Melbourne and pay us a visit J

Eternally grateful,

Brea & Tom

Shawn and Thomas

Amalfi Coast

Today we received in the mail the certified copy of our marriage certificate, which was the last and final piece of business related to our our wedding last month. The arrival of the certificate reminded me that I had not yet properly thanked you as I should have, so I wanted to take a moment to let you know incredibly happy we are with the way everything came together for our beautiful Ravello wedding.

When we first thought about "running away" to Italy to get married, I foolishly thought I could just have the hotel concierge arrange everything for us. I soon learned it was a bit more complicated than that and then started the search for a wedding planner.

We chose Distinctive Italy Weddings based on your website and all the beautiful weddings posted there. We had no real way of knowing how legitimate you were and whether or not everything would be delivered as promised. We just closed our eyes, crossed our fingers and said "let's do this."

I am happy to report we were not disappointed. Not only were we not disappointed, we were blown away!

I am a double-checker, triple-checker by nature. I will call several times to confirm that so-and-so will be there for this or that appointment, because that's how I'm wired. I can't help myself. It makes me very good at my job, but it also drives everyone around me crazy. The problem with planning a wedding in Italy from afar is that it's hard to double-check and triple-check every detail. Torturous for me.

But little by little as we conversed via email, it became clear to me that you had things under control. I started to relax a bit and allow myself to assume that when you'd say something would be done, it would in fact be done. When we went to Rome two months prior to the wedding to obtain our Nulla Osta, you scheduled our appointment with the US Embassy there & told us your representative Edelva would meet us in front of the embassy at a certain time. And she did. I had a feeling then that everything would be alright. And it was. When you said that a driver would be here at a certain time or a representative would meet us at a certain place, it happened. When I sent you photographs of the flowers I wanted, you made sure I received that exact look on my wedding day. I never, ever assume that things will go as planned, but in this case -- they did.

And all of your representatives were fabulous! Lovely and personable. When Edelva met us at the Embassy in Rome, we immediately liked and trusted her. Not only was she there on time and on task, she was so outraged when we mentioned a bad experience with a vendor in Rome (our first ever in many years of traveling to Italy), she told us she was posting it on her personal Facebook page and would make sure everyone knew that this particular shop was not to be trusted.

Once we were in Positano and needed to travel to Ravello to file our Declaration of Intent to Marry the day before our wedding, I arrived at the Ravello Town Hall a bit nauseas from the wind-y climb up the Amalfi Coast Road. Anna took one look at me when I got out of the car and asked what was wrong. When I explained my issues with motion sickness, she immediately suggested moving everything up 15 minutes the next day. She didn't want me to arrive woozy and dizzy and have to run right out to the garden to start the ceremony. From there, she adjusted the hair & make-up people and made sure the driver knew we would be a bit earlier than originally planned so we could arrive in Ravello and have a few moments to breath. As we walked through Ravello after filing our Declaration, I mentioned how beautiful the hotel next to Giardino Principessa de Piemonte was -- and Anna immediately suggested we have a post-ceremony Champagne toast on the terrace there. She arranged it right then and there with the hotel staff - complete with a presentation of the menu so we could select the Champagne we preferred. This was not part of the "package" we contracted for, but it was a fabulous suggestion & allowed us a beautiful moment in time to relax in the shade and share a toast with our family before we began the procession through the streets to take photographs.

And speaking of photographs, we loved, loved, loved Massimo's work! Absolutely beautiful. Likewise, Dennis's video was perfect -- everything we'd hoped it would be. Our big celebration party (300 people) took place this past weekend here in Las Vegas. We had large, poster-size prints of our favorite photos placed around the room -- and we're still hearing from guests about how beautiful the pictures were. Although we wanted the party to not be too "wedding-like", we did show the 5-minute video Dennis produced & followed it up with a couple of quick toasts. The video was a huge hit! I still have people asking me to send them a link so they can view it again.

Honestly, everything was perfect. And I'm a perfectionist. When we first started looking at your website, I thought that all the weddings were too beautiful -- almost staged. I was prepared to be a bit disappointed with our final product -- setting not as nice as pictured, flowers not so great, people not as warm and friendly as advertised -- but in fact everything was absolutely, positively exactly as I'd hoped it would be.

I can't thank you and your team enough. From start to finish, everything was perfect!

While we were Italy, my daughter's long-time boyfriend proposed to her. I am crossing my fingers that they choose to get married in Italy so I can do this all over again. It was that great.

Thank you, thank you for making us feel like the only couple in the world on our special day.

xoxo

Shawn & Tom

Mariya and David

Villa Balbianello Wedding in Lake Como

Part I

It was amazing, thank you so much!!! It truly exceeded our expectations; I'm just waiting til we get a computer keyboard to write a proper email (right now I only have iphone)

The hairdresser, make up, flowers, musicians, boat, food, everything was SO good!!!!!

We would love to act as reference.

I will write a longer recommendation when I get a keyboardJ

Thank you, thank you!!!!

Part II

Dear Rosanna, Victoria and Distinctive Italy,

I am so impressed with our wedding day and your organisation, it really blew us away. I wish we could do it all again!!

All our friends were also really impressed and people seeing the photos we've put up are blown away by the event.

I especially want to personally thank you Rosanna and Victoria, as well as the musicians; we were really really blown away by their skills! Such artists! And the flowers were completely what I always dreamed of! I took so many photos of the table arrangements.

The boat was brilliant and we were REALLY lucky with the weather!!

I can't really think of anything to comment on, …. everyone was so lovely!! It was perfect!

The food was INCREDIBLE, everyone kept talking about it afterwards, and what a wedding cake!! Everyone should pick the Italian option, it is FAR superior to the American style ;)

The celebrant was also perfect, great style and really made us feel comfortable.

You made us so happy, thank you for making the most important day of our lives feel unforgettably special!! I definitely recommend Distinctively Italy to anyone who wants to get married in Italy!

Thank you for accommodating us even though we are on the other side of the world, often on very busy and uncertain schedules, everyone worked out better than I could have ever imagined!! Italy will always have a very special place in my heart!

Grazie mille!!

--Mariya

Yvonne and John

Wedding in Tuscany

Dear Rosanna and Raffaela,

Thanks very much for your email. We got back from Italy a week ago after a lovely honeymoon in the Italian countryside - what a wonderful country you live in! Thank you, Raffaela, for all of your hard work over the past year leading up to our wedding. The day went so smoothly and we had such a wonderful day with our friends and family.

The villa was even more beautiful than the many photos we'd seen. The suite we had was wonderful and large enough to accommodate the bridesmaids and bride as we got ready. All of the outdoor areas for the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing were beautiful with great views. We had a moment when we thought it would rain, but it passed and the dinner went off without a hitch. The staff at the Villa are very talented and certainly helped make the day a success.

The flowers were absolutely gorgeous. They were exactly what we were looking for - bright, colourful and natural. We particularly liked that the florist brought a couple of extra bouquets, because it allowed us to choose from two different sizes for the bridal bouquet. The music was even better; the guitar and violin duo played perfectly and the deejay did a great job mixing the dance music.

The food was delicious with the perfect number of courses. Having the desserts buffet-style during dancing was a great idea and allowed people to enjoy the wedding cake even more (which by the way was fantastic). We had a bit of a delay between the courses, but it worked out nicely because it gave people the opportunity to watch the sunset during dinner and mingle with other guests.

...the wedding went really well and we very much appreciate all of the time and effort that you, Raffaela, went to to make our day so wonderful.

We are happy to be a reference for future clients.

Kind regards, Yvonne & John

Barbara and Iain

Sorrento Wedding

Ciao Rosanna,

Firstly thank you! Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, had a busy last few days in Italy.....

We had an amazing day, and couldn't have asked for much more. Our guests all enjoyed the day from start to finish, and loved the settings we had chosen in terms of the Cloisters, and especially the Villa for the reception. That really wowed them, especially as the weather was stunning all day, and the sunset was spectacular. We were lucky, as the following days after our wedding it did rain each day and was cloudy as well.

We are yet to receive the photos through from David, but he was absolutely fantastic and we were very impressed with his approach and creativity. We saw plenty of the photos he was taken on the day on his camera, and cannot wait to see them on a big screens they looked spectacular...! Definitely glad we asked for him to be there early and start capturing Barbara and the bridesmaids getting ready as some of those photos are wonderful.

The bouquets form the florist were beautiful, and although we did toy with the idea of not having to keep costs down we are glad we did.

Hair stylist and make up were great as well, B was really happy with them...

We would both like to thank you for your input, patience and for pulling everything together for us, we genuinely cannot think of a way our day could have been any better, everything came together perfectly. We would be more than happy to be a reference for future couples,

Once again, grazie Rosanna,

Iain and Barbara

Ursula and Philip

Wedding in Chianti

Dear Rosanna,

Philip and I cannot thank you enough at DIW for helping to make our special day so perfect. It most certainly exceeded all our expectations.

Our Chianti Farmhouse became a busy little hub on the morning of our wedding but each person that arrived from make up to photographer seemed to immediately blend in and carry out their tasks seamlessly.

The girls were all thrilled with their hair and make up services. We cannot speak highly enough of Samantha and her team. Their personalities along with their amazing skills and talents were impressive.

The flowers were amazing and EXACTLY what we asked for. Nadia was fabulous and Stefania and her both carried out a very last minute request of providing flowers for the bride and bridesmaid's hair. Nadia provided extra flowers for hair and for Philip so he could choose between a white or pink boutonniere! Amazing! We were very sad to leave all our flowers behind!!

The guys we rented the car from were FABULOUS! Such great personalities with a great service! The car was stunning! The guys came then the following day and picked the car up so that was lovely to not have to worry about such things the morning after the wedding. They even gave us a leather bound booklet about road driving in Tuscany. Such a lovely touch!

Our farmhouse was a dream. Francesco and his family are such wonderful people and their chef Maria is fantastic. I do not have all the words to say what a perfect place the Chianti Farmhouse was and the morning of our wedding, Francesco, the owner, was there always in the background. Maria prepared brunch that morning which was delicious. Francesco was there to meet anybody who arrived that morning and what I thought was so very special was that Francesco came to our wedding mass. It was such a nice thing to do and meant so much to Philip & I. The Farmhouse for the entire week was a dream. All of my family adored the place. Our aperitifs in the garden the morning of the wedding, was a magical setting and our table for our wedding meal was again exactly as I had pictured! It was beautiful. The meal was delicious. Maria, the chef , baked Florentine cake for desert and the detail and decoration on it was just perfect. There were many little touches that we might not have asked for but were carried out anyway and they were just perfect and added to the specialness of the day.

The church which Stefania helped us to find was very very special indeed. When we arrived at the Farmhouse at the beginning of the week we decided, as a family, that it would be nice to go to the church for Easter Sunday mass. This would give us the opportunity to meet Don Alessandro and see the church. It was one of the nicest days of our trip. The village and it's church were so beautiful. The local people were so friendly and it was so nice to meet Don Aleasandro before our wedding day.

Our wedding ceremony was lovely. We choose to have it in Italian which was very nice as it felt more right as we were Italy anyway! When in Rome...!!! Don Alessandro was such a nice man and we were very happy to have him marry us.

We were both majorly impressed with Alessandro the photogapher and his coworker Camille. They were over and above fantastic. We joked a lot saying that they were never going to go home! We have only seen two photographs that they have taken but even still to work with them alone was an experience. They were so full of life and so much fun and clearly both so passionate about their jobs. Their cameras did not stop clicking! The two photographs were amazing by the way!!

Last but not least: Stefania, our wedding coordinator! She was fabulous. It was lovely to finally meet the person behind all those emails! We really cannot speak highly enough of Stefania. Again she breezed in so quietly, in the background, yet always there if needed on the day. She even carried out translations at the church when caught by surprise. On the wedding day she was just fabulous. We were only sorry we didn't get to chat with her a little more. We were just blown away by how all those images we had projected via email, back in November / December 2013, had come to life exactly and even more so than we had imagined. It really was amazing. There were things before my eyes that I'd forgotten Id even asked for and it was so lovely to see how they were made to become real. I've never had the experience where I could trust someone so much to almost see my vision and carry it out flawlessly! Incredible. Stefania was amazing!

So thank you Rosanna and all your wonderful team at DIW. Aren't we the lucky ones that stumbled across your website that day in November! Philip & I were always cautious of putting too much emphasis on one day in our lives and a little afraid of making too much out of it!!! But thanks to all of you, our day is a day that will never be far from ours or our families minds. It was AMAZING and so so special. Exactly like a fairy tale wedding that I would chose to write about! I cannot thank you all enough. Thank you for your kind wishes and we would both be delighted to act as possible references!

Kindest Regards,

Ursula Claire & Philip

Shirin and Kerry

Wedding in Venice

Stefania-

Wow! Wow! Wow! Words cannot express the overwhelming sense of joy and satisfaction we experienced on our wedding day.

Planning the day that you have waited for all your life is challenging enough without having to figure the legalities and logistics of coordinating it out of the country. We were drowning in details and once we found Rosanna all the pieces began to fall into place. However, thats not to say my husband wasn't reluctant to hire a wedding coordinator to plan a wedding party for two.

Soon we found that we had no choice and the burden became too much we made a decision to to hire Distinctive Italy Wedding's to plan our day in Venice Italy.

The Crypt at San Marco Cathedral was beyond Anything we could put into words. It was absolutely magically! The ancient architecture was historically Devine. The presence of the Holy Spirit filled the Chapel throughout our ceremony while our violin player played all the gentle classic melodies of a wedding day.

Tamara our on site coordinator arrived at our hotel early, wedding bouquet and boutonnière in hand, and immediately took lead and organized our day. Stefania's thoughtful attention to detail was amazing she had it all planned and organized prior to our arrival. Soon followed our photographer, Francesco and his lovely assistant, Valentina. Our day began to come alive, filled with the magic of love and the excitement of our wedding day.

We were so nervous about running off and eloping without our friends and family but the day couldn't have been any better if one could have dreamed it. The gondola ride down the canal was pretty spectacular as well. The city of Venice celebrated with us as we were navigated down the canals with cheers of Auguri by the crowds. This setting made for spectacular wedding photos.

Our photographer was so outstanding to work with and our photos are truly breath taking. He captured the moment, the love, the spark in both of our hearts.

We had so much hesitation about hiring a wedding coordinator in a foreign county over the internet and we can't say enough good things about the day that was planned for us. The selections made by Rosanna and Distinctive Italy Wedding from beginning to end were truly top notch.

All we did was show up and walk into a story book fairytale wedding. Thank you for planning a wedding of a life time for the two of us and making certain it was the Best Day of our lives.

Thank you for everything!

Shirin & Kerry

Fiona and Ronan

Snow Wedding in the Italian Alps

Rosanna & Raffaela,

All of our dreams came through at our Winter Wedding in Courmayeur, Italy on January 11, 2014 and we cannot thank you both enough for your help, support, advise and impeccable planning!

We had talked about having a snow wedding for a few years but did not think it was truly possible until we contacted you. At first we were very cautious about using a wedding planner, and we had a million questions - all of which were answered to our satisfaction.

Rosanna and Raffaela helped us with every detail and even searched the country for the perfect location that would allow easy transport from Ireland for our 65 guests but which would also provide stunning scenery, a ski resort and a truly Italian feel.

We relied on Raffaela's suggestions and advise when selecting venues and service providers, we knew we could trust her and she really did pick the best around.

Courmayeur is the prettiest place we know, a beautiful village in the shadows of Mont Bianco/ Blanc with great ski slopes, delicious food and the most amazing atmosphere. Our guests were blown away! Even the weather was perfect.

Our Catholic Wedding Mass in the angelic Church celebrated by Fr John and Fr Dan and the church choir brought a tear to most of our guests.

The videographers and the photographers were incredible. They really did go above and beyond the standard service and they made us feel like celebrities.The photos and the video is like something out of Hollywood, we are so delighted with them. We didn't think we wanted a video, but thanks to Raffaela we did get them and we are so happy we did - thank you!

The flower arrangements were perfect and my hair and make up along with my mother and bridesmaid's were so good, Monica was so kind to us all and made us look and feel like a million dollars!

We can not comprehend the unbelievable welcome we were given by the venue and service providers.

We had our aperitifs in the cute and traditional mountain refuge, they were so nice they put on loads of food and even arranged music for us. The location above the clouds was breath taking, "close to heaven" our guests described it.

The Hotel was really the perfect location, the owner and staff were great and so helpful and friendly. The food was delicious and our guests are still talking about the 'Best Wedding Cake Ever.' Our DJ kept everyone on the dance floor all night.

Raffaela also helped us with transporting our guests on the day which was a big task.

I cannot recommend DIW enough, we had no stress or concern, it was great to be able to spend our Wedding Day as a couple with our guests and not have to worry about anything, only enjoying ourselves.

Raffaela was almost my personal assistant and counsellor, she always answered my emails and questions promptly and explained each detail carefully.

We both want to thank you so much for organising the happiest days of our life so far. We hope more couples opt for a magical snow wedding and that they choose DIW to plan the day.

Lots of love,

Fiona & Ronan

Amy and Paul

Wedding in Veneto Castle

Hi Rosanna and Raffaela,

Thanks for your patience! We arrived home on Saturday after a wonderful honeymoon in South Africa where we enjoyed hot sunshine and going on safari - quite a contrast to being knee deep in snow in La Villa!!! It is rather depressing to be back to work now after having the time of our lives over the last few weeks :(

We hope you are both keeping well.

In terms of feedback on the wedding, we both absolutely had the best day of our lives, and all of our friends and family who attended were very impressed with the venue and we are still now 3 weeks later getting calls and messages from people to say how wonderful it was and how they wish we could do it all again! The rain certainly didn't put a dampener on our wedding!

The castle is just such an amazing place, in fact many of our friends have said they would love to return there for a holiday some time in the future because they loved it so much. Despite the weather, the views from the castle are beautiful and it felt so magical to be there again but this time with our friends and family to share the experience. The fact that we were able to hold the ceremony, reception and party all within the walls of the castle worked so well and made the day just flow really nicely - and of course provided a stunning setting for every moment without the need to arrange transportation for our guests from one place to another. It also meant those with children had the flexibility to go up to the room whenever the kids needed a rest without having to leave the venue, this was invaluable. It really was like a fairy tale wedding! I certainly felt like a princess! The Royal Suite was just perfect for the morning of the wedding, they set the table up for the breakfast for the bridesmaids, my Mum and I, so that we could sit and start the day together in the beautiful room and they served us a selection of pastries, fruit and drinks etc, it was just lovely.

All of the food was fantastic, from the pizza's at the welcome meal to the canapés after the ceremony - everything was delicious and very much enjoyed by our guests. The actual wedding breakfast was exceptional - every single course was amazing and so well presented, particularly the fillet steak - we are sure it is the best steak we have ever tasted and many of our guests said the same!

The staff were all fantastic, from the bartenders and waiters to the reception staff and managers, all very polite and worked hard to help us with whatever we needed, they set up the reception room as per the table plan, just as we wanted and the same for the cellar bar for the evening - I know this was not easy for them because of the language barrier but they did themselves proud.

We are so happy we were able to use the cellar bar, we had a fantastic party! It had such a good atmosphere. The sound system worked really well. The bar staff were great and even stayed on a little later than we originally agreed which was appreciated by those few who were the last standing on the dance floor until the early hours of the morning! They allowed us access to it the day before so we could put out our own decorations and test the sound system. They were so accommodating to our requests.

The hairdressers were fantastic; the bridesmaids, my Mum and I were really pleased with what they did - and again, despite the language barrier we got on really well and enjoyed having them around, they stayed until I was ready to walk to the chapel so that they could position the veil in my hair for me because I was worried about doing it myself, that was so kind of them and very patient - please can you pass on my thanks and say that I hope they enjoyed doing our hair for us! It was so beneficial that they could come and do a trial the day before because it made me feel so much more at ease to know I was happy with what they were going to do.

The flowers were beautiful and exactly what we wanted, please do pass on our thanks to the florist. Seeing them in the church and on the tables was such a joy as they really did look fantastic. When I first saw a picture of all the bridesmaids together holding their bouquets it moved me to tears as it looked so beautiful! The heart wreath was used on the church door, then on our head table and then in the bar afterwards so we certainly got our money's worth from it!

It was a shame that it rained so much, but we didn't let it ruin our day! There are some great pictures of us and our guests huddling around umbrella's which actually make really good shots

The transfer company were really good, they were on time and got everyone to the castle as agreed. Also we had to take a very long detour to get to the mountains the day after the wedding because there was so much snow! But they advised us of this and the extra cost and it didn't seem to be a problem, we were very pleased to get there safely!

We have tried to cover as much as we can think of for you in this email, hopefully you will find this useful....we had a fantastic time and only wish we old do it all over again! Thank you so much for sourcing such a perfect venue for us and great suppliers to make it so special. We are over the moon that we were able to have our wedding in such an amazing place and will never forget it! We are both just so overwhelmed at how wonderful the whole event was, it exceeded our expectations in so many ways.

Thank you for all of your recommendations and advice which helped us to make the decision to have our wedding in Italy at the castle, and we would highly recommend it to anyone considering it - please do put us down as references.

Please let us know if there is anything we have missed that you would like info/feedback on.

Many Thanks

Amy and Paul

Jasheen and Neil

Indian Wedding at Il Borro, Tuscany

Dear Rosanna

We owe you a huge thank you for all your hard work, dedication, attention to detail and patience in planning the wedding. The timeline, number of events and logistical challenges made this a very complex wedding to plan and we couldn't have done any of it without you - I sincerely thank you for everything.

Each event went off fantastically well - all providers were able to re-create what we had planned with incredible success and professionalism. I thank them for their efforts and it's a credit to you for helping us to select providers that were able to execute to this level of success.

Galateo did a fantastic job. The service was excellent and their staff were very knowledgeable about all the details - including the items on the Indian menu.

The flowers were perfect - the mandap and the Saturday archway in particular were just spectacular.

The guests thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks - they were excellent and timed perfectly.

Alma was very professional and their lighting on Friday in the amphitheater was excellent. All the booked entertainment was very enjoyable.

Although we missed having you here, I cannot fault your team - Sonia, Raffaela and Laura. From the moment they arrived on Thursday, they took over all the preparations and Neil and I could enjoy all the events knowing that everything was being handled seamlessly in the background.

We of course would be more than happy to offer a testimonial to any of your future potential clients. Do not hesitate in contacting me anytime.

Wish you and the DIW team continued success in all your events and should any of our guests want to get married in Italy (I think after this weekend there may be many interested), it will be my pleasure to recommend your services.

Grazie Mille Rosanna!!

Jasheen & Neil

Rachel and Omar

Wedding in Lake Como

Thank you Rosanna and thanks to Victoria and Barbara for making our wedding day so special. We had an amazing day and loved every minute.

The setting was beautiful and we thought the Villa was perfect with the views during the ceremony and the gardens to walk through and for pictures afterwards. Having the ceremony in the shade was also perfect particularly as we had such amazing weather. The staff at the Villa were all lovely too and lots of visitors stopped us for pictures and to wish us good luck!

Remembering about the lift to get up to the Villa also important especially if there's heavy lifting - my bridesmaids were very out of breath after carrying the baby and the buggy up the steps!

The flowers were beautiful as well.

Both the photographers were very nice...The Grand Hotel was perfect. The food was gorgeous, the room was beautiful and the staff were amazing - we couldn't have wished for anything more.

Everything ran very smoothly on the day and we didn't have any worries or concerns throughout the day. Victoria and Barbara were also very helpful when we accidentally left a case at the airport!

We'd be happy to act as a reference or respond to questions future couples might have.

Many thanks again for helping to make our day so special.

Best wishes

Rachel and Omar

Kind Words Older 04

More kind words about us...

Rebecca and Gavin

Sarah,

We had the most wonderful wedding anyone could ever ask for. It was a dream come true. Thanks so much for making it possible - we were very happy with everything, in particular the attention to detail in planning by DIW. We would of course be happy to recommend you to other prospective clients. You may use our email address and happy to be a reference.

On a scale of 1 to 5:

Quality of Service - 5
Responsiveness - 5
Professionalism - 5
Value - 5
Flexibility - 5

Thanks again to Sarah for especially being attentive and quick to respond. It was a real pleasure to work with you.

Best regards, Rebecca.

Rhiannon and Iain

It was amazing and I will respond to this in detail when I'm home.

Bonnie and Rita were AMAZING! Every time I needed something they just knew and were magically there! You guys rock seriously! Rita was brilliant during the ceremony she even handed me a tissue at one point!

You are wonderful and I can't thank you enough.

Giorgio the photographer was absolutely hilarious I loved him so much!

All of this was amazing. The music was perfect, the string arrangements of our rather obscure choices was perfect. The music was not the usual thing and it worked better than I could have ever imagined. The circus blew my mind they were fantastic. The fireworks as well were brilliant so spectacular! The cake moment was brilliant so not what I was expecting it was so dramatic and brilliant and for the lights to go down and the music start before the fireworks literally brought me to tears it was stunning. I am stage manager and cue shows for a living and that was perfectly timed.

I would really like it if you could let the florist know that the flowers were the most stunning I have ever seen. They were so beautiful the aisle and the arch let alone the bouquets and buttons they were gorgeous please tell her thank you thank you thank you.

The food was amazing! The cake blew me away I did not expect it to be that big it looked fantastic better than I could ever have imagined! One of my favourite moments it also tasted amazing!

Thank you again you were amazing and the wedding was amazing!

Much love and thanks.

Leslie and John

Thank you Rosanna and Stefania and Simona,

We could not have done it without all of you. Everything was so perfect and nothing went wrong.

I appreciate all the professionalism and care you put into our wedding.

We are so happy to have had you organize it.

Thanks again!

Lesly and John.

Janelle and Chris

Villa Cimbrone wedding in Ravello

Hi Stefania

Wow wow wow. What an incredible wedding. Thank you so much for all of your help and patience the past year to pull of a magical event. It was truly spectacular.

Everything was perfect and we couldn't have done it without you.

We will complete that survey email this weekend but I wanted to personally reach out to say what a night!!! What a great couple of nights even the welcome drinks were superb.

The staff at Cimbrone were amazing. We will be back for sure.

Home in london and it's really a struggle to get back into the groove after such a massive high with family and friends for 2 weeks. I think I have post wedding and holiday blues ha.

Thank you again for all of your support. You're incredible.

Love Janelle xx

Louisa and Steven

Jewish Wedding in Rome

Hi Rosanna!

Sorry for the slow response, we turned emails off the second we got to Tuscany. We’ve just got home though and heading back to reality on Monday… L

Thank you for your kind words, we loved working with you too! It really was such a seamless and stress-free process and we couldn’t have done it without you. You have been an absolute star!

The wedding was beyond our wildest expectations. It’s hard to properly articulate our thoughts but what we will say is that it was genuinely a perfect day (the skies even cleared for photos!)

Food and flowers were impeccable and the photography / videography were fantastic too. We were thrilled and can’t wait to see the results.

We would absolutely endorse DIW and would be very happy to act as future referees.

All the best,

Louisa & Steven

And from the Mother of the Bride:

Dear Rosanna and your wonderful team,

I just want to thank you all for helping to make the wedding the most memorable day. Everything went according to plan and could not have wished for a better day.

Thank you for making the planning stages, along with Louisa and Steven, as stress free as was possible, I know they enjoyed working closely with you.

I wish you all well and every success in your future events.

With all best wishes

Carol

Parneet and Ajay

3 day Indian wedding in Tuscany

Dearest Raffaela, Stefania and Rosanna,

Thank you “Team DIW” for helping us arrange our dream wedding in Tuscany! You made our special day sooo perfect, even better than we could have imagined! Thank you for making the task go as smooth as possible, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Best wises from Mr and Mrs. Sud

Carmen and Steve

Wedding in Tuscany

Thank you Rosanna & Raffaela,
Sorry it took a while for my reply - we stayed in Sardegna for a couple days after the wedding and I am only now starting to get back into the regular schedule (replying to emails etc..)!
We had such an amazing time - the many months of planning and organizing showed for our result! Steve and I couldn't have asked for a better outcome, especially given the weather, which none of us could control!

I know we made the right choice with DIW, as well as the venue of Gargonza. I never thought we would be stuck with everything as the "Plan B" but it still turned out so well. It's funny, because people always tell you through the planning process that "no matter how well you plan something will go wrong, so try your best not to worry about all the little details." This is great advice and I definitely worked to be carefree (as much as possible!), but other than the weather, absolutely nothing went wrong. Which is incredible in itself - I even got the most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen

Highlights:
> the flowers were beyond what I'd imagined - Nadia did such beautiful arrangements, they were absolutely perfect. Comments on my bouquet included "the most beautiful bouquet I've ever seen" and many compliments from ladies with experience in floral arranging (my advice to others in the future [and my past self] would be to select your colours, maybe your preferred flower types - but the florist is the professional, they'll make it great without needing to be micro-managed!)
> the cake and cake cutting - the cake was exceptionally beautiful. I had not worried about this too much, though was interested in something that was at least consistent with the atmosphere and our style, but overall was blown away by the end result. The last-minute decisions for the cake cutting also turned out so well, the lighting was beautiful and even the moon shone through - perfection!
> the food and service at the restaurant was fantastic.
Everyone at Gargonza was amazing, the service was excellent, everyone liked their rooms (cleanliness), the food was great, and the venue in good order.
I have to thank Raffaela so much for all her work [and patience through mini freak-outs] with me; and Antonella and Giada for everything they assisted with onsite; the last minute advice and suggestions were all exactly what needed to be done and they made sure it all happened without a hitch. Despite absolutely terrible weather, it was perfect!
I would be happy to provide a reference for DIW in the future; you made the whole process seamless (which was the point after all!) and took a huge complicated thing and turned it into many small decisions, made over time that were manageable and simplified - thank you!
Thank you so much again! I can't express how grateful we are for everything that the entire DIW crew did for us.

Sincerely,
Carmen & Steve

Sara and Manaf

Wedding in Lake Como

Hi Rosanna,

Thank you so much!!! Sara and I couldn't be happier with the way the wedding turned out - EVERYTHING was exactly as we had hoped/wished for it to be, and you guys are the reason why, so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you :)

There really wasn't a single thing we would have done differently. Here's our feedback on each of the points you mentioned:

The villa was as beautiful as we'd planned for it to be (flower set up, table/chair set up, light set up, etc). The one thing people kept saying was "your wedding was the most beautiful one we've ever been to. It was a fairy tale wedding". I can't tell you how many great photos and videos people took!
The DJ did a fantastic job with the music. We were running at least 45 min - 1 hour behind schedule, which means he couldn't play more than 50% of what we sent. But what he ended up selecting for the English music was just perfect. He played the crowd so well and for that reason all of the guests really enjoyed what they heard. He was also a really nice guy so that was an added bonus :)
The food was as delicious, if not more, than it was on the day we went for the tasting. People couldn't stop talking about how good ALL OF IT was. Especially the cake! You were 100% correct in saying that the risotto was killer. Two weeks after the wedding people are still talking about it!
The wait staff were awesome and remained professional all throughout the event.
The photographers and videographer were an absolute pleasure to work with. We spent so much time with them on the wedding day that by the end of it it felt as though we were saying goodbye to new good friends. They will definitely be missed.
Sara and the rest of the ladies had great feedback on Margaret (the makeup artist). Even though she couldn't speak much English she still managed to prep people in a way that made everyone look beautiful.
The hair stylist (Pamela) did a good job with fixing up the ladies' hair…..

HATS OFF TO EVERYONE! We're gona miss planning our wedding with you guys and every other person involved in the planning process.

Best regards,

Manaf and Sara

Genane and Ziad

Ravello wedding at Villa Cimbrone

Not sure if my review would do any justice to DIW…but I will try...

It all started 8 months prior to the wedding day where we contacted DIW and fell in like with Bonnie and Luca while meeting them in magical Ravello during a windy day in March.

I confess that I was not the easiest to deal with during the months that preceded the wedding. Those who know me well know my keen eye to details and my desire for perfectionism. Thankfully Bonnie was very patient with me and proved to be the most amazing planner a bride can have.

During our three-day wedding – the DIW team went above and beyond with their attentiveness, with their excellent service and most importantly with their genuine love.

Everything turned out exactly like how we brainstormed it with DIW during the 8 months period preceding the wedding. Starting with our well-organized civil ceremony in the Belvedere Principessa di Piemonte to the charming welcoming aperitivo in Ravello’s square, to the pious church ceremony in St. Francis, to our stunning wedding celebrations in Villa Cimbrone and lastly to our farewell brunch in Cimbrone.

Everything in our opinion was flawless and magical. It surely would not have been the case if Bonnie and Lucca were not accompanying us every minute of the day during the wedding weekend.

I remember walking down the isle and looking at all the flower arrangements around the benches while listening to the violinist in the background and thinking how amazing are our planners turned out to be.

Ziad and I are thankful that we decided to go with DIW. The team is amazingly professional, prompt, assuring, friendly and most importantly loving. We highly recommend DIW to work with.

Lots of love,
Genane & Ziad

Angela and Bryan

Venice wedding

Distinctive Italy Weddings was the best choice we made for our wedding day. I will start from the beginning; my now husband and I did a lot of “homework” before deciding on a company to use for one of the most important days of our lives. We talked to several companies and no company compared to DIW. Rosanna and Stefania were amazing to work with, very quick to respond (considering the time change) and always happy to help. We had the most incredible day because of them.

The planning was very easy and once we got to Venice and the big day arrived, everything was perfect and smooth. Stefania was early and ready to help us in whatever way possible. DIW’s recommendations for vendors were also outstanding. Yasmin did my hair and makeup (with no trial run) better than I could have ever imagined and her attention to detail is incredible. We are a very “cheesy couple” and they both helped us stay separate (in the same suite) without seeing one another before the ceremony. Stefania exchanged our letters and Luca, our amazing photographer, made sure to capture each special moment of us getting ready, reading our letters and making sure that every special detail was on film.

Of course when you get married in Venice, you have to head to San Marco square for photos and a gondola ride and DIW made that happen without a single flaw. Everything about our day was perfect. Everyone we worked with was remarkable and we highly would recommend all of them to anyone who ever wanted to get married in Italy.

We would love to answer any questions that anyone has about our experience with DIW about our wedding planning and experience.

thanks!!!!!!

Angela & Bryan

Photo by Luca Rajna - http://www.progettifotografici.com/

Justine and Simon

Wedding in Florence

Rosanna,

Today is the first day back in the office, so apologies for the delay in responding to this email.

Simon & I can’t thank you & Bonnie enough for the most magical wedding weekend ever! From start to finish, we loved every moment.

Without question we would rate you as a 5 for each of the below. If I could choose 6 I would!

•   Quality of Service
•   Responsiveness
•   Professionalism
•   Value
•   Flexibility

The reason we didn’t want to marry in the UK, was because I didn’t want to feel like a manufactured ‘sausage’ , and that is how the UK wedding venues made me feel! From start to finish, it has been such a pleasure working with you both.
It had always been my dream to marry in Italy, and thank you for making dreams come true!

I know the Villa caters for many weddings, however all the staff made us feel special for the entire weekend. As you know our decision to marry in Florence was decided by the beautiful synagogue. Rabbi Levi, exceeded our expectations on the day, and he arrived with a big smile & sense of humour! The service was beautiful and our guests totally blown away with the synagogue. The service was for me the most important part, and I feel honoured and blessed to have been married in such a special place.

The flowers exceeded expectation on every level, truly beautiful.

I am so grateful to Bonnie & Luca and I will miss the daily emails & planning. The entire weekend ran to perfection, with their true professionalism and expertise. Nothing was ever a problem, and I never wanted to be a Bridezilla!!!
We feel very lucky to have worked with Bonnie, she was amazing!

Our Villa exceeded expectation on every level. The food & wine was outstanding, something which was so important to me.

Everything was truly perfect!

Without hesitation we would act as a possible reference for couples considering your services.

With Kind Regards
& Truly heartfelt Thank You’s

Justine and Simon

Victoria and Josh

Wedding in Tuscany

Hi Raffaela,

Thank you so much and thanks to Antonella too - she was amazing! Victoria is so grateful for all her help, she was so kind, generous and helpful! We are very grateful to have Distinctive Italy plan our wedding for us. It really would have been impossible to have done it ourselves. Also the Relais is AMAZING!!!!! We are planning on going back there next year for our anniversary.

Thank you for the picture it is beautiful - INCREDIBLE!!

Rating
·         Quality of Service - 5
·         Responsiveness - 5
·         Professionalism - 5
·         Value - 5
·         Flexibility - 5

We would love to be a reference couple for Distinctive Italy. Also if you are wanting to use our wedding pictures on your blog we would love that.

Thank you so so much again!!!

Victoria and Josh

Natalie and Barry

Wedding in Tuscany

Trying to organise a wedding abroad when you don’t speak the language and can be extremely daunting. From the moment that we contacted Distinctive Italy we felt reassured by their professionalism. They have a large list of reputable suppliers that they work with and at no stage did we feel that we were being pressured into employing any particular supplier. Our wedding planner, Raffaela, kept in frequent contact with us throughout the 12 months that we were planning the wedding with rarely a week passing without some contact. Having chosen for Catholic service, Raffaela, liaised with the local priest and provided us with all of the paperwork and information that we needed to get legally married in Italy. This was a massive relief as it is a legal and administrative minefield to navigate.

Initially Distinctive Italy arranged a shortlist of several venues, all of which were beautiful locations. We choose Casa Country House which greatly exceeded our expectations. On the wedding day a representative from Distinctive Italy, Antonella, spent the full day and night with us and everything went so smoothly with her coordination.

The suppliers that Distinctive Italy sourced for us were all genuinely amazing. The band, the DJ, the guitarist, the florist, hairdresser, the church and the venue were all flawless. Our guests were all really impressed with every part of the day and we couldn’t have been happier. Our impression is that Distinctive Italy would not work with suppliers that are not of a high standard.

Throughout the planning, we were kept fully informed of the costs and at no stage did we feel that we weren’t in control or being pressured into buying services that we did not want or were above and beyond our budget. Distinctive Italy offered practical support in a very clear concise way.

We are so grateful to Raffaela, Antonella and Rosanna at Distinction Italy for all their hard work and guidance. They really took the stress away from us and made our wedding day the best day of our lives. They are professional, very well organised and personable. We highly recommend services. Natalie and Barry

Carla and Daniel

Castle Wedding in the Alps

Buongiorno Stefania!

I apologize this email comes so late! We are back from our honeymoon, and now all caught up on laundry and sleep!

Yes, we are happy to be a reference for other couples, so please feel free to share my email. Planning a wedding this way was a scary thing since everything was so far away and we had very little control. I’m happy to share our experience with DIW and the care you took every step of the way to make sure we knew things were going according to plan.

To be honest with you, when everything was all said and done, it was so much more than we could have ever imagined or expected. The Castle was something out of a dream - and all of our guests continue to tell us that often as we look through photos. We would rate the venue, including all of the staff, 5s across the board. The owner, Ruth, made us feel so welcome, and told us often how happy they were to have us there. She was outgoing and friendly to all of our guests all 4 days of our stay. The reception staff were extraordinary - not only did they take care of odds and ends quickly and with a smile (i.e. setting up cab rides for our guests to get into Bolzano, quickly pressing everyone's shirts and things for the wedding, and assisting 3 of our guests with tracking down and receiving their luggage which had gotten lot along the way). All of us appreciated that any question we proposed was met with “Of course, that is no problem". The bar and kitchen staff, especially Imre, deserve our utmost thanks. From the moment we arrived they accommodated our large group for meals, again, with a smile, and kept everyone happy and laughing in the lounge and at the bar until the last person retired to bed. They never made us feel unwelcome and were just truly kind people.

The day of the wedding was no exception - staff were helpful and kind. What we will remember most is the food! From the wine and appetizers during the aperitif to the truly incredible 6-course meal, every detail was perfect. We were very excited about the wedding menu, and it did not disappoint. The caliber of the food, and the creativity of the presentation, are things we will never forget.

No words could really describe how we felt about the Castle - just know we appreciated their hospitality and professionalism and will be back again as soon as we can!

Regarding the florist - I did not personally them, but Dan did. They were very nice and very positive about the weather going our way :) For not having a clear idea myself of what I wanted the bouquets to look like, they were spot on and fit our motif perfectly. The arch was stunning and was all that was needed on the terrace to make the ceremony simple yet classy, which is what we were hoping for. Not too showy, but beautiful with a rustic feel as we overlooked vineyards and orchards.

Alessandro and his assistant were energetic and fun!! They kept everyone smiling for sure. We have not yet received any photos but know they will be stunning just based on where we were, and the creative shots Alesssandro set up. We anxiously await a sneak peek, but want him to take his time of course. He was professional and from the work I have seen on his website, worth every penny!

The women who came to do our hair and makeup were kind, and really did a great job following the photos we showed them.

Last, but certainly not least, we would rate the quality of service received from you all at DIW a 5 for sure. Like I said, it was difficult to trust that things were going according to plan since we were so far away from everything. We really put our trust in you, Stefania, and every step of the way you responded to our (many) questions patiently and with understanding. You were flexible in making time to Skype with us over the long year of planning, which we appreciate given the 6 hour time difference. There were some times that it took longer to receive responses, either because you had to communicate with the venue or vendors before getting back to us. but any anxiety that caused was quickly squashed when we would see that we had an email from you.

The day of the wedding you were so relaxed, and calm it made me feel like I had nothing at all to worry about - I even give you the credit for making the sun come out :) You had everything under control down to the music, which we appreciate you taking charge of. Overall, we could not have been happier. The pictures our guests have shared only tell part of the story, but the stories that we will share for the rest of our lives will keep those memories alive for us forever.

I apologize if this sounds cliché, but thank you for helping make our wedding everything we could have imagined and more. Really :)

Best,
Carla

Megan and Neil

Castle wedding in Rome

Hello! We cannot thank you enough for all the services and advice you and Bonnie provided us. It was sincerely the best day of our lives, and could not have gone better. Neil and I cannot stop talking about how great everything was, and how blessed we are! Most people cannot say their wedding day went off without a hitch, but we truly can. The church, castle, flowers, photographers, everything was amazing. Our friends and family are also very pleased and are raving about how great the weekend was.

I will try to make this short since I have not a single bad thing to say:

Quality of service- 5.
The castle was simply stunning, and always made sure we had what we needed. The flowers, centerpieces, candles, food was all very impressive and exactly what I dreamed of. The photographers and videographer were courteous and attentive, so I know our pictures and video will be amazing! Can't wait to see them.

Responsiveness- 5.
Bonnie was always very responsive in not only returning my emails, but in making sure my voice was heard. When the castle ran out of vodka, she made sure they got more. When I was unhappy with some changes they were making to the reception, she worked to arrange a reception I would be pleased with. I chose to go with a planning service so that I didn't have to be bogged down with the little details and I am so happy that I never had to worry about anything because I knew she was taking care of it.

Professionalism- 5.
Absolutely everyone we encountered during our wedding weekend treated us with the upmost respect.

Value- 5.
It's tough to compare since we don't know anyone that's ever gotten married like we did! I do know that if I had chosen to get married back in the states it would have cost my father a small fortune, and not even have come close to as beautiful as our wedding in Rome was.

Flexibility- 5.
I don't think there was ever a time where I didn't feel as if you all were being flexible with me. I felt like I received everything I dreamed of and more. You can absolutely use our emails for references! We'd love to tell people how special our day was and the exemplary level of service you provided.

We are nearing the end of our honeymoon and leaving beautiful Positano for Paris, but cannot wait to get back home to start our lives together. If the rest of our lives are as great as our wedding we are in for an amazing ride! Thank you for everything!

Best,
Megan and Neil

Deborah and Rafael

Wedding in Tuscany

We are so happy that we chose to go with Distinctive Italy Weddings! When we first became engaged, we did a quick Google search for 'Weddings in Tuscany.' It was our lucky day that your blog about Ivy & Dmitry's wedding popped up first! Their Tuscan wedding at the historical Borgo captured everything I dreamed of and more...I knew I had found my wedding planners!

We were very impressed with your responsiveness and professionalism. Planning with Raffaela was a pleasure - she was patient, organized, and simpatica! It is obvious that she truly cares about her couples and will do anything to make sure they are happy! I am a very detail oriented person and had many personal touches that I wanted to incorporate in our wedding.

Raffaela was able to execute every last detail to perfection! Every guest was blown away with the beauty and overwhelming feeling of love and warmth at our Welcome Dinner and Wedding Day. We have had so many friends and family tell us that it was the wedding of the century, and that they have never and will never again attend such an amazing wedding celebration. We only wish we could have stopped time to soak it all in...the Borgo with the 360 degree views of Val d'Orcia, the delicious food, exquisite floral decorations, and regal table arrangements! Not to mention David Righeschi, the tenor who sang throughout the evening and gave goosebumps to everyone. It was truly magical! Thank you so much for making our dream wedding a reality! We will never forget it!

Please feel free to use any part of this email on your website, or with other clients. Thank you again for everything!!!

All the best,
Deborah & Rafael

Krystel and Hany

luxury wedding in Lake Como

Hello Rosanna,

How are you? We are on our honeymoon right now in Greece, Santorini.

We are so happy with our wonderful wedding. Everybody is saying it is the best they have never been to.. And that we made a wonderful job of organisation.

Without your help nothing could it be possible and you made our dream come true with no mistakes.

Hairdresser : Even if i had only one trial and that until the day of the wedding i didn't really know what i wanted to do, she understood directly what i didn't like in a chignon and made it perfectly.

Make up : She made something soft and classy and it's totally my style.

Photographer : I LOVE him , he is so nice and professionnal, he showed me sometimes his shots and WOW they are amazing , i can't wait to see all the pictures. ( He told me if i want some sneak peek i can write him , i would like some if he can for the 8th of August, we have a reception in Montreal for those who didn't come).

Boat : Extra service, we loved it.

Aperitivo : I didn't eat at the aperitivo i was talking to the guests but everyone said it was the best food they have ever had. (italians knows better than anybody else about food)

Dinner : Excellent, food amazing, marquee amazing and finally spacious not feeling crowded!

Band : They are the best band i have ever heard, Hany loved them more than any other band in Canada, they put so much energy that everybody was in a mood to dance all the time. She has such a nice voice!

Cake : wow i didn't know it would be that big and we were really happy!! We had the firefountains and the week before the wedding we saw fireworks in Cernobbio we prayed to have them on Saturday and it works :):)

Open Bar : We started the open later than 22h because of the delay of the other services but it was perfect, good service .

Discotheque : it was a good idea to do a discotheque, the older guests started to go and the youngest had so much fun there with a really good DJ!

And FINALLY your wedding planners are amazing, they are my best support and it was a pleasure to meet them. Raffaella always asked if i was ok and helped me with everything from the beginning to the end. Same for Rita , she talks with the guests and make them confortable. Anna Maria is kind and always behind us if we need something as water or help. Also Anna Maria from catering, i like her a lot.

THANK you Again Rosanna for everything , i'm sad that it's ending that why i'm crying almost everyday because it was a big project and i want to continue this project with you.

We'll talk soon

Krystel

Elise and Lars

luxury wedding in Lake Como

Hello dear Rosanna!

There are so many things we want to thank you for. For the kind words below, for your ultra quick responsiveness from day one, for working hard to understand our sometimes vague wishes and explanations. And last but not least; thanks for planning the wedding that turned out to out rule all of our expectations and dreams!

·         Quality of Service 5
·         Responsiveness 5
·         Professionalism 5
·         Value 5
·         Flexibility 5

Sorry I can't give you more constructive criticism, but we can't put out finger on anything that could be done better from your side.

Same goes for all of the providers. Blunotte - fantastic performance of the ceremonial songs! Same goes for the DJ and sax - WOW! Everyone was dancing their socks off and commented of how great it all was. Didn't get to hear the pianist unfortunately, but my mother said it was wonderful.

GHT has been a pleasure staying at as always, and very accommodating to our big Scandinavian crowd - even if some of our guests tried to break into the pool for a night swim..:) Amazing experience!

Barbara was great to have around - could see at once that she knew what she was doing. Looking forward to seeing the photos ALOT!

Rita, and the lovely helper I can't remember the name of, NO WORDS. Made my day stress-free.

And yes, of course you can use my email as a reference. Would be happy to strongly recommend you for anyone who wants their dream wedding come true.

Let me know if there is any thing else we can help with.

Best wishes,
Elise and Lars

Abby and Adam

Wedding in Florence, Tuscany

Ciao Raffaela!

Hope you are well. Thank you again for all of your help with our wedding.

Below are our impressions of DIW and our wedding:

Planning a wedding is hard work, and planning a destination wedding is even harder! The same amount of work is involved in planning a wedding, whether it is for 10 guests or 200 guests. Thanks to your help, Junko's help, and the rest of the DIW staff, Adam and I had a very beautiful and successful wedding!

It took a lot of trust on our part to have you plan our Florence wedding while we are in California. We were not in Florence, nor could we travel there, to see the church or reception venue options. We only saw pictures of the places.

We particularly like the Villa Hotel because it had a villa-like atmosphere yet still within the city. The hotel had a wonderful view of Florence. The food was delicious! Alina and the staff at the Villa were accommodating and a great pleasure to work with. She gave us a tour of the hotel and walked us through the plans for the reception, including a back up plan in case it rained.

Our hair and makeup stylists were also great! Our hair stylist knew what hair style looked best and our make up stylist made us look beautiful without overdoing the make up. Our flowers and decorations were gorgeous. We enjoyed the harpist, but honestly, I cannot really remember the music during the ceremony because a lot was happening and it was a very emotional time. Our photographer, Alessandro and his assistant Laura, were fantastic and creative! We can't wait to see all of the pictures.

Overall, Adam and I are very happy with DIW's services. All of the vendors were easy to work with and they exceeded our expectations. We are happy to be a reference for future couples planning a wedding with DIW.

Grazie mille and warmest regards,

Abby and Adam

Pippa and Josh

Wedding in Tuscany

Dear Raffaela and Rosanna,

Thank you for all your assistance in planning our wedding. It is definitely a challenge to plan a wedding in a different country, especially when you don't speak the language, and we couldn't have pulled off such an amazing day without DIW! We wish you all the best for the future, and many more successful weddings!

Overall
We couldn't have been happier with our wedding – it was a spectacular day and everything went off without a hitch. Everyone had a great time and some of our guests even said it was 'the best wedding they have ever been to' which we were absolutely thrilled about!

The wedding was a success because of the huge amount of planning that went in and the support of talented and professional vendors, both in Italy and in the lead up to the wedding in the UK. Our Italian vendors, suggested and coordinated by DIW, exceeded our expectations through their professionalism, punctuality, quality of service/product and accommodation of our requests. We would recommend all of them to other couples getting married in Italy, and note that time invested communicating with vendors will pay dividends on your big day and in the memories captured.

Venue
We fell in love with our venue on our first visit and are thrilled to have been able to have our wedding here. We were proud to share this venue with our guests and we are pleased to say everyone loved it! The venue looked amazing in both our wedding photos and video, and it was great to be able to use different areas of the property for parts of the day. Giacomo and Barbara were amazing hosts and a big part of the reason we selected it for our wedding. They did a fantastic job on our wedding day, which they managed to perfection and they were always keen to offer help or advice without any fuss. We just could not have picked a more perfect location for a truly perfect day!

Photography
We could not have made a better choice than Claudia and Luca for our wedding. Firstly, our photos are absolutely stunning: they truly captured the essence of our amazing day. Their fine art photography/editing give our wedding photos an x-factor; the images are interesting, vibrant, candid, capturing everything from the wider landscape to the finer detail, and it's obvious a lot of care has been taken in their production. It was also great to have two photographers on the day to capture it from different angles/ perspectives.
It put our mind at ease being able to meet Claudia and Luca the night before the wedding, and we were thrilled that they stayed for an extra hour at the end of the night to make sure they captured the cake cutting, our first dance and the start of the party. They conducted themselves extremely professionally, but had a lovely relaxed and unobtrusive attitude and style.
Prior to the wedding, we spent quite a bit of time thinking about what we wanted them to capture on the day, including some group photos, and they managed to do it all plus so much more. They are lovely people to work with and we would 100% recommend them to anyone getting married in Italy.

Videographer – Denis
When we started to plan our wedding, we weren't 100% certain if we were going to have a videographer. We are really pleased Raffaela encouraged us to do this, and also for her personal recommendation of Denis. We were a bit apprehensive because the example video's we saw from Denis weren't in the style of wedding video we were looking for. However, Raffaela assured us that Denis was happy to accommodate our requests and adapt his style. So we invested lots of time in defining the style of video we wanted – what we did and didn't like – finding music – and finding examples of other videos to share with Denis. This approach was 100% successful, as the short trailer video we have just received is exactly what we wanted and more! We are so excited to see the longer version!

We really appreciated meeting with Denis and the second videographer the night before the wedding, and were really impressed to later learn he also visited our ceremony venue to ensure he was prepared for our wedding day. Denis also arrived on the wedding day 2 hours early, so he could get all the shots he wanted and not to have to rush or clash with the photographers! He also stayed an extra hour in the evening to ensure he captured cutting the cake, first dance and start of the party without any bother.

Overall, we found Denis's approach to be very professional; we were very impressed with his preparation and organisation, his accommodation of our requests and the high quality of the video. It is clear that he is a brilliant videographer and he is a lovely person to work with. Additionally having two videographers really helped capture all of the special moments throughout the day and they did a great job of capturing a combination of the beautiful buildings, landscapes special moments throughout the day and all of our guests.

Flowers
The flowers provided by Stiatti Fiori were beautiful and it's clear they are very professional and talented florists. The bride and bridesmaid bouquets were absolutely beautiful and the flowers for the tables were very pretty. We added the glass hanging tea light holders to our order late, which were hung from the trees in front of the marquee, and really finished off the dinner and dancing area perfectly. Our parents' buttonholes and corsages were also really nice.

DJ
The DJ was great and we cannot believe he stayed until 4am – it was fantastic!! We provided a list of music and he did an awesome job of playing it – everyone was up on their feet dancing the whole night! We really appreciated he was happy to play our choice of music and had that he kept the party going until the early hours.
It would have been great to know he was happy to stay later as we could have arranged and paid for this up front.

Hair & makeup – Samantha & team
Samantha and her team did a great job of the hair and makeup; the bride, bridesmaids and mothers of the bride and groom all looked beautiful. They were all very professional, punctual and we appreciated that the team included an English speaker to translate! They also took the time before setting up to work out the room with the best light, which was important for the photographers and videographers as well.

I did a hair and makeup trial with Samantha 6 months before the wedding and her and her team were really sweet and accommodating. After the trial I was slightly nervous about my makeup, but I LOVED it on the day.

Distinctive Italy Weddings
We are happy we choose DIW to help us organise our wedding and appreciate the genuine efforts made to make our day the best it could be. We enjoyed working with Raffaela – who is lovely, professional, organised and patient in replying to our endless emails of questions! We were very happy to have Raffaela was present on our wedding day; in particular it was really special to have her involved in our ceremony as the translator. She also has a great relationship with the vendors and ensured everything ran smoothly and to time.

Overall the vendors were fantastic: high quality, professional and good value for money. We were also impressed that they were so flexible and accommodating of our requests, such as the DJ playing exclusively from our music list, and the videographer adapting his production style. It was reassuring to know that all the vendors were recommended by DIW and their services were being coordinated by Raffaela. The smooth running of the day is testament to the professional planning and organisation of DIW and communication with us and the other vendors.

Pippa and Josh

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Ana and Justin

Wedding in Tuscany

Choosing a planner for one of the most important days of your lives isn’t easy, but Distinctive Italy Weddings did not disappoint!

From the very first day, Rosanna was incredibly understanding of our needs, especially considering our somewhat short timeline for the wedding we wanted. She immediately connected us with Stefania who helped us quickly find a wedding venue that was available and that held over 120 guests for the wedding reception and all accommodations. Castello di Gargonza was a dream location for us and all our guests and we couldn’t thank Stefania and the Distinctive Italy Wedding team for helping us find it!

When it came to planning, Stefania was knowledgeable, attentive to details and extremely responsive. She always had a solution for our sometimes-outlandish requests and handled any roadblocks we came across with extreme professionalism and grace. For example, we were originally bringing a florist over to Italy from New York to handle all of the event design/florals. A few weeks before the wedding, our florist fell through. Within a few days, Stefania had a backup plan in place and our florals ended up being some of the most beautiful arrangements we have ever seen! We continue to get compliments about them to this day. I’ve always been told that planning a wedding isn’t easy, but Stefania ensured we were at ease throughout the entire process.

When we arrived in Italy for our wedding weekend, we knew we were in good hands with Stefania which allowed us to relax and enjoy the time with our family and friends instead of worrying about the details. Even when it poured on our wedding day, Stefania calmly walked us through all of our options and ensured a seamless event for us and all of our guests!

We can’t thank her and the DIW team for all their hard work in making our big day a true success!

Thank you for making our dreams come true!

Ana and Justin

Victoria and Guido

Wedding in Florence, Tuscany

We really enjoyed working with DIW and Raffaela was a great fit for us; being very organized and experienced. She was not daunted by the type of event we wanted to hold and the quality of the vendors we were introduced to was, in every instance, 5*.

Raffaela was very available to us in the weeks and days leading up to the wedding and answered all of my small (but important to me!), queries without hesitation and with a lot of patience - thank you Raffaela!

We would recommend DIW and Raffaela in particular to anyone planning an Italian wedding and in fact, we already have done!

Raffaela was particularly good at being realistic with us - if something was a possibility she would let us know and if not, she would tell us straight away so we didn't waste time and energy thinking about it - I valued this highly! Similarly, I really appreciated being able to speak to Rosanna directly when Raffaela was away, regarding Delizia to get her genuine opinion, straight talking is very important!

The team on the day were also excellent - Antonella and Raffaela in particular did a fantastic job making sure everything was running smoothly and I really felt that they both genuinely cared about the success of our event. Guido thanked Raffaela in his speech and that was truly meant. We also loved your contributions to our guest book and through the photo booth, we are so glad you enjoyed it too!!

Villa Corsini
We absolutely adored Villa Corsini and I genuinely can't think of a more beautiful setting for our wedding ceremony, reception, dinner and party - it was absolutely first class and I know that our guests were wowed. We also found the owners and their staff really friendly when we visited and appreciated being able to deliver our champagne a few days before the event.

Florals
I do not have enough good words for Fiore all'occhiello. They are absolute artists and made my floral dreams come true! They went above and beyond on the day, and in realising our vision (lots of flowers everywhere!) beforehand and I just can't thank them enough - true genius, everything was beyond perfect!

Catering
On the day, La Delizia were absolutely fabulous. I cannot tell you how many wonderful compliments we had about all the food and drink. Everything was delicious, elegant and authentically Italian. Rosanna was absolutely right that there was absolutely nothing to lose in choosing them as our caterer!

Particular highlights included the smoking Aperol spritzes and deluxe bar in general (we were so impressed by what was on offer), the mozzarella bar and cold cuts station, the seated meal and especially the primi and the millefoglie - a true highlight of the day for us. The gelato cart was also such a huge hit with our guests (just as Raffaela had said it would be!)

We also had such fun when we visited their studio, a real treat and we were really pleased that the food on the day was just as good as what we had tasted in much smaller portions many months before. The catering staff were also incredibly professional and the maitre'd was second to none - we will thank them personally when we receive our thank your cards as their hard work made our day.

Alma
What can we say, we LOVED Alma and Alberto in particular! We trusted him and he did not disappoint us. He was very helpful and we really appreciated him skypeing with Guido after we had met with him at the villa, not to mention the suggestions he made (all of which were fabulous) and his flexibility on pricing for the piano shell and the saxophonist - special touches that helped make the day even better. We really cannot recommend Alma enough. Again, we had so many compliments about the music and the band in particular, everything Alberto did was just wonderful!

Hair & Make Up
I just wanted to say that Adrienne is very very talented. As you know, my hair trial did not exactly go according to plan and so the style I ended up with was done from scratch based on a recommendation from one of Adrienne's team. It was beautiful and I loved it as well as the hair (and make up) for my bridesmaids. 5* and worth every penny!

Photo & Video
We really enjoyed working with the photographers and videographers on the day - they put us both at ease and we genuinely forgot they were there after the formal shots were done which is exactly what we wanted. We can't wait to see the final versions of the photos and video - we know how talented Andrea and Denis are and that we will love their work.

Kathryn and Richard

Wedding at Villa La Vedetta, Florence

To Stefania and all the team,

Where do we start? Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for organising the most perfect day- I still don’t think our feet have touched the ground!!

The venue, Villa le Vedetta, was amazing and gave us the most perfect backdrop you could wish for- we can’t wait to see the pictures!! A beautiful hotel where nothing was too much trouble- hopefully we will return one day!

Our wedding day was fabulous- I can’t believe you managed to organise everything just as I wanted. It was so romantic. We had a wonderful, relaxing day and were looked after from start to finish. Junko was great- there when you needed her and took all the pressure off us- we were able to sit back and enjoy the day- thank you so much x

Everybody had a fabulous day- the food was excellent; the ravioli received lots of compliments, and the wedding cake was out of this world.

The Photographers, Rossini, were lovely and made us feel at ease throughout the day. They clicked away from the moment they arrived - so excited to see the final photos!

Hair and makeup was great, listened to what we wanted, there in plenty of time so no big rush getting ready.

The String quartet were great- very talented and played throughout the cocktail hour- created a great atmosphere for everyone x

Thank you again to everyone at Distinctive Italy Weddings for the most amazing day, your patience with all of my questions, requests, last minute changes etc.. you really have been great and we appreciate everything you have done for us. We can’t thank you enough.

Mr and Mrs Cook

Sarah and Greg

Wedding at Castello di Vicchiomaggio

Sarah,

I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful everything was. It went beyond our and our guests expectations...everyone continues to rave about it. We would be happy to be a reference any time.

We can’t tell you how much we are still basking in how perfect it all was (and how sad we are that it’s over!).

I am going to miss the planning! If you ever need an American on staff keep me in mind. ;) Our dream is to move to Italy.

Thanks again! Sending our best! Sarah & Greg

From the groom.

I am expressing Sarah’s thoughts as well. Sarah you and your team were absolutely fantastic! Be so happy to let any prospective clients a full run down to how amazing you and your team are!

Best,

Greg

Ailsa and Neil

Wedding at Villa Le Piazzole

Hi Sarah,

Thank you again! We got back home over the weekend after an amazing few weeks away and the best wedding day spent with all our closest friends and family - thank you for helping us plan the perfect day!

The day was everything we hoped, and much much more! We can’t believe it’s now all over but haven’t been able to stop talking about it since. We’re already looking forward to seeing the photos once they are ready - so fingers crossed we don’t have to wait too long.

We were both extremely happy with all the services you/DIW provided; from Andrea to the DJ, as well as your help with general recommendations, to getting the documents translated.

The location, you already know our feelings about, but as soon as we first went to the Castle, we both knew that was where we wanted to spend our wedding day. When we went back in April, we knew September would be perfect and all our guests would love the venue as much as we do. We’ll most definitely be going back when possible. All the staff at the castle were brilliant and couldn’t have asked for more from them.

We’d both be happy to be a reference for other couples wanting to get married abroad or use your services, so please let us know if you need any at all.

As we’ve never planned another wedding we can’t say anything about planning one in England on our own, but it was a huge weight off our minds having you there to support us with decision making or queries we had. So I guess you could say it was much less stressful with your help ?

Thanks so much Sarah, it was a pleasure having you there with us on the day.

Many Thanks,

Ailsa & Neil

Natasa and Christopher

Wedding in Amalfi Coast

Dear Junko,

We can’t thank you enough, our wedding day was perfect, we couldn't have asked for anything more!

From the beginning you made everything so easy for us and answered all our questions so promptly, I couldn’t believe it!

Paola, our wedding coordinator, was fantastic! She was so kind and helpful, we were able to not stress about anything on our wedding. We couldn’t thank her enough either!

I didn't know what to expect from my hair and make-up since I didn’t do a trial run but both were such professionals it was exactly what I was hoping for. I can’t tell you how many compliments I got on my hair and makeup! I really did feel beautiful!

The flowers... Wow, wow,wow! When I saw my bouquet I fell in love with it! It was so beautiful I couldn’t stop staring at it! The boutonnière was made to match my bouquet and was perefect.

We ordered a flower arch and matching rose petals for the aisle. The arch exceeded my expectations and was Gorgeous! The florists did such an amazing job, I was trying to figure out a way to take it all back home with me! Lol

The venue at the Giardini Principessa in Ravello was perfect for the two of us. What a spectacular view! The view from the garden was breathtaking. The town itself is very quaint and romantic I’m so happy with our decision to get married there.

We chose a classical Guitarist to play at the ceremony and requested if he could play a special song for us. He did a perfect job! It gave me goosebumps walking down to meet my future husband while he played our special song for us!

Our photographer rocked! We felt so lucky to have gotten Domenico for our photographer. He made us so comfortable and captured exactly the artistic photos we were looking for. We can’t wait to see the them all!

After the ceremony we had our dinner together at the Belmond Caruso Restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious and the service was impeccable. We had the restaurant make us a small wedding cake. It was a white fondant cake with layers of pastry filled with cream and strawberries. Beautiful and delicious!

We had such a great wedding day and want to say thank you for everything! We left Italy with huge smiles on our faces and are still smiling!

Libby and Tim

Wedding in Umbria

FROM the BRIDE
Tim just wrote a review- but I just wanted to echo his sentiments. You guys, and DIW generally were absolutely INCREDIBLE. You both went above and beyond to help make our wedding truly unforgettable. I have been a bridesmaid for 10+ friends, and have seen their planning process in the States first hand and I have to say- you've blown everything I've seen/heard away. I have friends who have paid 10, 15, even 25K for wedding planners who have not held a candle to the quality of service you provide. Truly. There is no doubt in my mind that Americans would pay at least double (honestly probably triple) for your services.

If there is anyway we can be of assistance to you all (acting as references etc), please dont hesitate to reach out.

Thank you again!!!! Wish you both nothing but the best!

FROM THE GROOM

Hi Rosanna - thank you so much, it was truly incredible. I would rate DIW a 5 in all categories, you and Raffaela were fantastic, and everything went so smoothly. We thought the food, staff, scenery and florals at the Castle were all spectacular. Alma was really amazing.

I would be more than happy to be a reference for you. Grazie Mille!

Ciao,

Tim

Pooja and Justin

Indian wedding at Villa Oliviero, Positano

Raffaela and Rosanna - From the bottom of our hearts, please accept our sincerest thanks! You exceeded our expectations and made the process so smooth and stress free.

We were watching the flower arrangements being put together and the tea lights being hung with care as wood logs passed by for the altar. It was like this beautifully organized and choreographed dance that we watched unfold with awe.

Everyone we know has said it was the most beautiful wedding they have ever been to, and that’s a phenomenal compliment considering some of these guests are in their 60’s. You have set the bar so high for any wedding we attend that I can only imagine my beautiful wife and I whispering into each other’s ears saying “well it sure doesn’t top our wedding”! (And I’m sooo fine with that :)).

From the sitar and tabla players setting the stage during our Hindu ceremony, to the jazz band serenading us with the Girl from Ipanema during ravioli appetizers, we continued to float through each night like our feet never touched the surface. Your vendors, such as the photographer and videographer had such personalities that they made us shine in moments of embarrassment or anxiety. They were patient with us and asked us what we wanted, but directed us when we needed structure. We could not have asked for more in Villa Oliviero. It’s quintessential backdrop of Positano and our colorful procession up its steep stairs; we have too many sensational moments to memorialize.

We wanted to make sure that we do whatever you might need of us. Can we offer a review of your services, or something that you could request in return for all your hard work and coordination? We would be honored to give back in a way that might benefit Distinctive Italy Weddings if it means writing a testimonial or offering up photos of the event.

Please do suggest what works and we will absolutely consider it. We are indebted to you for making our most special day more than we could have ever imagined.

With so much love,

Pooja and Justin

Caitriona and Patrick

Wedding in Florence

Hi Rosanna and Raffaela,

Hope you're both well, very busy with wedding season I assume.

Thanks for the kind words in your email, it was easy to be relaxed when we had you guys in charge, organising our day.

Your handling of the time change issue was amazing, you guys ensured that everything went off without a hitch and that we felt the minimal amount of stress. It definitely worked out for the best in the end as we got to spend more time with our guests in our amazing venue.

We have received nothing but compliments on every aspect of the day from our guests, the beautiful church and venue, the amazing floral arrangements, the food, the lighting, the cake, the fireworks were a huge hit and the entertainment/ music was the highlight!

The band were amazing, better than we could have imagined and they were so friendly. They learned and played some songs from my Spotify "favourites" playlist for the aperitif hour which we thought was a really cool thing for them to do. They were an amazing wedding band and we would recommend them highly to anyone.

A special thanks to Raffaela for encouraging us to go with a saxophone player alongside the DJ. He completely stole the show and kept everyone up dancing all night. I think we might be seeing more sax players at Irish weddings in the future after this.

Galateo were amazing. They are such a professional set up and their attention to even the smallest of details was obvious on the day. The courtyard for dinner looked stunning, the table design/layout and the lighting was so eye catching and beautiful. The food was even more delicious than we had remembered from the tasting and all the staff were so friendly and helpful. All the little extras went down a treat, the gin bar proved to be very popular during the aperitif hour and it was exactly how we wanted it. I unfortunately didn't get to taste anything from the crepe and gelato stands, (too busy dancing) but heard plenty of reports that they were really good. The bar was also really well stocked so there was no chance of our guests going thirsty or hungry at all throughout the night :)

Everyone commented on how beautiful the wedding cake was and they all really enjoyed watching it being made. We would definitely recommend your future clients choose this over a standard tiered wedding cake.

Galateo's service was definitely a 10/10 for us.

The flowers were unbelievably beautiful. The florist was so generous, I wasn't expecting the arrangements to be so large. The church looked so elegant, we really couldn't have imagined it any better. I took my bouquet on honeymoon with me as it was just too beautiful to leave behind. I can't remember the florists name but he was really sweet on the day and even fixed Paudie a new boutonniere before dinner as his had been a little squashed from hugs :) 10/10

Alma Project also did an amazing job with the lighting and music. The dinner reception lighting was gorgeous and like i said earlier, the music was a total highlight. 10/10.

Did Alma also organise the fireworks? These were so much better than we had ever thought they could be. The show was amazing and I can't stop looking at my friends videos of it.

I think all these things were made so amazing because of the beautiful venue. Castello di Vincigliata has a special place in our hearts now. It was so stunning on the day, luckily the weather held off so we got to enjoy it to full effect.

None of this would have been possible without all of you lovely ladies at Distinctive Italy Weddings, everyone we met or spoke to on this journey was so kind, friendly and helpful.

You took all our thoughts, ideas and dreams for this day and made them an amazing reality. Everything on the day far exceeded any expectations we had. We literally had the best day of our lives.

A special thank you has to go to Raffaela. You gave honest opinions and amazing advice. Your hard work and the stress you were put under to rearrange everything when the time was changed at such short notice was very much appreciated. You also had great patience when we took a little longer than we should have to respond to emails so thanks for that :) The fact that myself and Paudie felt little or no stress throughout the whole planning process is a sign of how amazing you all are at doing this job.

We would highly rate and recommend Distinctive Italy Weddings to any couple considering planning a wedding in Italy. You're highly professional and you appear to have great working relationships with vendors who are also of the highest standard. You were always available with experienced advice, easy to talk to and above all, everyone we dealt with in DIW was so friendly and kind. We would be more than willing to act as a reference for other couples if you need it.

Thank you both so much for helping to make our dream day a reality.

Lots of love,

Mr & Mrs O'Reilly ;)

xxx

Sarah and Simon

Wedding in Tuscany

Hi Sarah,

Thank you so much! We had a wonderful time at the cooking class and we had an amazing wedding weekend thanks to you ? everything was perfect! Thank you for making our weekend so special. We are now relaxing on our honeymoon in Sicily ??❤️

We give you abs your agency a 5 for each category! And yes, feel free to post our email for references. We are happy to make the recommendation for DIW!

Thank you again for making our day special. We are forever grateful for all you hard work and efforts. It was a truly unforgettable experience!!!

Xoxoxoxo
Elina and Simon

Caitrona and Jamie

Wedding in Tuscany

So finally getting to put this down!

The things we loved the most:

The venue

We couldn't recommend it more. It was simply stunning and really captured the essence of Tuscany. We loved the versatility, with lots of different areas for different parts of the weekend and having everyone staying onsite was incredible.

I would have expected to rent buses to bring our guests to different areas but Montegufoni had so much in it, that no-one got bored and everyone really loved discovering new places in it. Everyone loved their rooms and the pool area made for a great common area. The owner was wonderful, to the point that we thought he was the hotel manager until we asked him; he checked in every day to make sure everything was ok and he and his staff were super attentive and fun (the chef partied with us on the dancefloor first night!). The food was flawless and the wedding cake was many guests' 'favourite dessert ever'. We'll definitely be returning to Montegufoni.

The celebrant

We had so many comments from people to say that it was the most romantic ceremony that they'd ever been to, and that was all down to Andrea. I've never seen my friends cry so much before! We loved the rituals he suggested to us and he managed to keep the ceremony really personal. He brought so much love to the day, that I'm just sorry we didn't get to thank him properly on the day.

Music, lights & flowers

The Ale Fusco band were fantastic and they did a great job opening up the dancefloor on the first night - we loved them. The sax player did a great job and lots of people said their highlight was dancing to song he played as we entered in for dinner. The mixtape were one of my highlights for sure, so I'm glad we took the risk (though I probably wouldn't recommend others do!) and Guty e Simone were great on the Sunday too. The lighting worked really well on the day, especially in the courtyard for dinner. The flowers were beautiful and I was so happy they were able to make an archway for the ceremony in the end.

Photo/videographer/make-up

They were all great on the day (though we started the make-up an hour later than planned) and we're looking forward to seeing the results!

We were really grateful to be in such good hands with you all through the planning process, through to making decorations the day before the wedding, and all through the day itself. You made sure everything ran smoothly and we and our guests simply couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, more fun weekend. We really are still buzzing from the whole thing and I think my Dad is still in shock from all the love and beauty! Thanks for tending to our every task and allowing us to fuss over small details! You helped us smile and laugh all weekend and we genuinely have no regrets at all.

I hope that helps - let us know if we can clarify anything at all.

My best friend just got engaged so I'm trying to convince her to go back to Italy! I'll let you know if I can persuade her ;)

Caitriona

Gabriella and Paolo

Wedding in Chianti

Dear Raffaela,

We had the most amazing weekend, our wedding was simply magical!! It's hard to explain the nerves and the constant wonder of how the day will come together when you hand the most important day of our lives to someone else. All we can say is that we had no reason to stress you were fantastic and we could not have been in better hands.

Everything turned out better than we could of have hoped for and it was like being in a fairytale. Throughout the weekend we were asked how we found this hidden gem and heard people saying it was like something from a magazine. They were blown away by the beauty of the venue.

The food was delicious, the cake was incredible and the saxophonist was truly wonderful!!

We often told you how much the music meant to us and worried about the dj - there was no need as the party was great and our friends and family danced all night. The next day we all sat together laughing about each other's dance moves. My father said that he didn't want the night to end - which is a rare thing!! I do not think there are words to express how truly grateful we are for having you as our wedding planner, choosing distinctive italy weddings was the first step towards our incredible day!! A massive thank you to your team and all who helped on the day including your assistant, who was also complimented by many.

We would not hesitate to recommend you all.

A great big hug and lots of love from Gabriella and Paolo xx

Marcella and Thiago

From Brazil to Tuscany!

Dear Sarah and Rosanna,

Firstly and foremost we would like to thank you for the wonderful and spotless service throughout all of these months. Our wedding was way better than we could have ever dreamed and none of it would have been possible without your expert advice and endless efforts (and patience ?).

Venue: L'Andana was denifitely the best place in the entire world we could possible have our wedding. It was even prettier than the pictures you showed. Those landscapes and hills and olive groves and vineyards... during our morning jogs around the property we would wonder how fortunate we were to have ended up there. Because none of it was in the pictures. The property is absolutely gorgeous, rooms are dreamy, towels, beds, pillows and bathrobes are so fluffy... their spa is amazing and we loved how all of our days were concentrated around the pool. Our families and guests gathered there and we truly felt at home. So thank you for understanding the spirit of where we would like to celebrate our weekend and for being able to convert it into the perfect venue.
Service: we are still in complete awe with the L'Andana staff. They were always present, no matter how late we went to sleep and how early we woke up, always super kind and thoughtful, happy and perky. We were treated like royalty and are very thankful for their kindness. And of course your wedding planning services were just as spotless and remarkable - you were tireless and definitely the perfect planner for us. Always so kind and understanding with our crazy schedule and senseles requests, going out of your way so many times to make us happy. We appreciate so much all you've done for us!
Food: oh my god, the food! Everything was perfect and delicious, even for me as a celiac! So thanks once again for making sure even my part of the meals was taken care of, this means a lot to me. But speaking generally, everything was really stuff of the dreams. From breakfast everyday that had all delicious options possible, to the canapés in the cocktail and the pizza which was the most delicious crust everyone has ever had, to the gala dinner that was absolutely amazing (by the way I've never had ravioli - seriously, nobody was ever able to make me gluten free ravioli. this was unbelievable!!). All our guests and family are still complimenting every single detail of the food until today.
Wine: I particularly LOVED their vermentino. Can't get over it. I really didn't expect much of it, so it exceeded all expectations by far!
Band: this was such a HUGE success! It is actually hard to point out one single aspect of the weekend that was the biggest success, but the band was definitely among it. So thank you so much for your efforts on sourcing it! Their playlist was perfect, and I could tell they worked hard to play most of the songs we requested, even if they didn't know them (we saw them reading the lyrics while they sang, that was too cute!!).
Decor: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! it was a dream to see everything as we walked by. all sights were simply perfect. it's too bad that things go by so fast. i wish those days could go by in slow motion so i could enjoy how pretty and perfect everything was. i can't wait to see the pictures!!

Yes, do list our emails as references. We will be happy to help.

In sum, everything was absolutely perfect. We can't thank you enough!

Oh and you have my mother's total approval as a wedding planner and mother of the bride. She loved everything and said she wouldn't have done a better job herself!

Once again, grazie mille!

Marcella and Thiago

Bhavna and Marco

Indian Wedding in Tuscany

Dear Raffaela,

Thank you so much for the sweet wishes and of course, thanks a million for being our wedding planner and planning our wedding to perfection. I really like working with you because you are efficient, you pay attention to details and you have a real gift of knowing what I wanted before even I did. Raffaela and Rosanna, it was an amazing wedding... it has been over a week and we wish we could go back and repeat it all over again so it was in one word: fantastic!

I wanted to give a speech but I was a little too emotional at the reception so I let Marco do it, but I really wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time and care to plan this very extensive 3 day wedding for us.

I know it wasn't easy, it required a lot of time, a lot of attention to detail, and you and your team managed to pull it off seamlessly!

We were very happy to work with Distinctive Italy and we would definitely recommend it to future couples in a heartbeat so you can definitely use our e-mails as reference!

I have family and friends who tell me that this is the best wedding they have been to and this makes us so happy and it is something you should be proud of, because all the hard work, the long e-mails, the phone calls, chasing the florists... :) It all paid off and it was magnificent and we really hope that you got to enjoy it alongside us!

Regarding the vendors (Florist, DJ and Dhol player)

We were very happy with the way Alessandro worked. As a bride, I noticed the extra's he added and it was very much appreciated. He did a great job!

As for the DJ and Dhol player, I have family and friends telling me they have never enjoyed a wedding this much in their entire lives. The dhol player was excellent.. and DJ Lorenzo is a great guy who worked very well with me. People didn't want to stop dancing so mission accomplished!

Catering

La Delizia impressed us in a very special way and we would definitely recommend them to future couples!

…..we are so happy we found DIW, so happy we found YOU and we couldn't be happier to be married and to have you be a part of this special moment....

I must admit a big part of me still misses e-mailing you late at night about the wedding, so I think I really like planning weddings....! Maybe I'll join your team one day who knows! hahah

With that said, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the amazing experience and memories you have given us.

Lots of love,

Bhavna & Marco

Kristin and Quinn

Wedding in Lake Como

Sarah,

Thank you so much. I would rate the service as a 5+ in all regards. I was truly impressed by the responsiveness, and we could not have done it without the help of you, Rosanna, and Angela. You can absolutely include us as a reference any time. I even told the Italian consulate in Atlanta how great the service had been. We're back in Como now, and it has been a wonderful trip. Sad to head back to the US on Monday, but we are having an incredible time.

Grazie mille,
Quinn

Morgan and Kevin

Wedding in Lake Como

Hi Stefania and Rosanna,

Sorry for the delay in getting back with you.

I can’t thank you enough for making our day so perfect. From your dedication and efforts to the heart you put into our day to make it special..we truly appreciate all you did for us. I will search back in my emails to where I can leave you feedback. Thank you!!!

Regards,
Morgan and Kevin

Jamie and Matthias

Wedding in Lake Como

First off thank you for your patience with us on getting back to you with feedback. It’s funny how quickly life can get in the way. We want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being such wonderful planners throughout this entire process.

Raffaela, you were truly wonderful to work with on a daily basis for the 14-15 months. We planned 3 wonderful events for us and our guests and we were wow'd each day. The wedding day was absolutely spectacular and with the weather on our side you couldn't have found a happier bride and groom!

Alessandro and his team really make fairytales come alive and I was totally blown away with his floral transformation of each space. It was beyond what I imagine and created with your help and guidance. One of my clearest memories was when Raffaela took me alone into our marquis before we let guests come in. I was filled with so much emotion I couldn't hold the tears back. The entire room was filled with the smell of fresh roses, hydrangeas and orchids. It was truly a dream come true!

Welcome dinner:
This was absolutely the right choice to host our welcome event. I am so glad we cancelled with Loft and moved it here. The food was phenomenal. Everyone loved the risotto and pasta. Open bar service was excellent as well. It was a perfect layout for our families to meet, catch up and get to know one another. The space was also perfect for 80-100 people. They laid out the seating and tables very well. Being able to see outside was also lovely on a rainy evening.

Villa Geno:
We are very happy with our venue choice and the decor and over all service was very good! Everyone catered to our guests and were very friendly and polite. Please extend our thanks for Alice, Giorgio, and Yuri (I think that was the Manager's name that night). We did not get a chance to thank our officiant in person after the wedding ceremony, if you speak to him again please pass along our gratitude!
• Aperitivo & buffet: I only saw photos of the buffet a month later, but let me say they were fantastic! Every single guest told me over and over how amazing the set up was and abundant the food was. They had 3rds if not 4ths! I love the bar set up and seating area! The high bistro tables were a perfect addition too. We did need them, I saw they were all used! In the beginning there was no white wine being served but Matthias and Raffaela sorted it out so quickly it was great!

Florals:
Alessandro and his team created stunning settings and were on point with our vision. I was so pleased and didn't imagine the floral design would be so lush and spectacular. Alessandro and his team were so lovely to work with and meet. It's a huge part of the wedding budget but I do see this value and he blew us away.

How was the day after at Lido di Bellagio?
Lido di Bellagio was a great spot to host the welcome brunch. We just wish we could have picked it up and moved it to Como. lol. It is quite a distance to get to (especially hung over by car!) But it was a great venue. The GM and the staff were very kind and assisted us with whatever we needed.

We feel that Rosanna & Raffaela definitely provided the best suggestions, feedback and knowledge to assist us with making any decisions we weren't 100% decided on. Our wedding day was above and beyond expectation and we were so grateful for everyone's help on the day of. Rita was also perfect for me to have before the ceremony. She was perfect to ensure all the girls were ready to go and kept me calm!
Yes, would absolutely be happy to be a reference! Please use my contact and not Matthias'
I've already had ladies in the USA reach out to me asking me how the service was. I gave great info and feedback!

I hope this feedback is useful!! Thank you again soo much for making one of the most memorable days in our lives the happiest! ❤

Jamie and Matthias

Lisa and Charlie

Hi Stefania,

We're back in California and finally settling in after our lovely trip. Thank you again for everything you did for our wedding. As I said to Rosanna, I'm happy to be a reference for DIW and I'll also write a great review on Wedding Wire.

Regarding the questions you sent me for DIW:

Quality of Service - 5 all around

Responsiveness - Stefania always got back to me within a day of me emailing her with questions. She always had answers to my questions and was very patient with providing me with multiple options. I found her emails very helpful and clear and looked forward to waking up to an email from her nearly every morning :-). Once we were in Italy she always answered my phone calls right away. Also, Rosanna was very helpful in responding quickly when I was having issues with the Italian consulate in LA. I'm very grateful for the help I received with regard to the documents needed for the civil ceremony.
Professionalism - As I said, Stefania was excellent. Always very professional and kind and I could tell she was very patient with all of my requests and questions. The day of the wedding she was very professional and helpful and attended to every detail I asked her to with great care. She helped ensure that everything was perfect at both the civil ceremony and the symbolic ceremony.
Value - Given the amazing wedding that we had and the fact that everything went smoothly with our paperwork for the civil ceremony, this was a great value. I would pay that again without hesitation.
Flexibility - I felt that every suggestion or desire I had was accepted and Stefania did her best to make everything exactly as I wished it to be. She was really wonderful!!

Casa Degli Spiriti - of course, outstanding! We were absolutely in love with the restaurant. The view was magnificent. Everyone was so impressed with the food. The duck in particular had people swooning. Many of our guests said that the wedding cake was the best cake they've ever had! I for one loved the dessert buffet. Sara was fantastic and I could tell she was happy to accommodate all of our requests. I would recommend the venue to anybody without any hesitation - it was truly fantastic. I'm SO happy that we chose Casa Degli Spiriti.

Yasmin was wonderful! She was so patient and sweet and carefully listened to exactly how I wanted my hair and makeup done. She even bought me the lipstick and lip pencil she used so I could refresh it during the reception. I love how she did my makeup and my mother and sister looked gorgeous as well.

Flowers were amazing! Everyone complimented the flower arch and the bouquets and button holes were exactly as I had pictured.

Harpist - the music was lovely and everyone was gushing about how nice the harp music was in the setting.

Piano, sax and violin -all were very lovely.

Thank you for making the wedding of my dreams a reality!

Lisa

Victoria and Brett

Hi Junko,

I have to say it's been one of the best days of my life, I would love to be a reference for you.

Thank you so so much for everything that you have done for us!

Thank you, Victoria and Brett

Helen and Darren

Hi Junko,

Thank you for the congratulations, and a huge thank you for all your hard work as our wedding planner. You were excellent throughout!

Our wedding day was so special and beautiful - we enjoyed every minute of it, as did all the guests, who were very complementary about many aspects. Many said it was the best wedding that they had been to (and some have been to some very high-profile weddings).

Here are some thoughts and impressions:

Pre-Wedding Party

This went really well – everyone really enjoyed the food and the wines. It was a great way to break the ice and get different groups mingling.

Joost and his team were excellent. He even laid on some mini deserts which were also delicious, especially the crème brulee!

We would definitely come back here for other parties or even as a smaller group, or just the two of us.

Varenna

Such a beautiful place – such spectacular views and idyllic setting, with beautiful architecture and gardens. It has a lovely, relaxing feel to it.

Small enough to allow lots of impromptu meet-ups in the many cafes and bars on the waterfront – it was great fun being there for an extended stay with our wedding guests.

Great range of accommodation for guests – a lot of our guests rented apartments/houses which worked out well for them as they were staying in family/friendship groups.

The Hotel du Lac is fantastic – we loved staying there. It’s so quiet and relaxing with great views. The staff are so friendly as well. We had a great suite/room with a large terrace. My parents and my brother and his family also stayed here, they also throught it was fabulous.

Villa Cipressi

Excellent – from the staff to the food to the back-drop – we cannot fault this venue.

David the manager was very friendly and easy to work with, also very calm and collected.

The food – everyone loved the food, it was delicious – an excellent and plentiful aperitivo buffet, and then the multi-course dinner which was fantastic.

The wine – this was also very high quality, and everyone enjoyed it a lot. We did have some reservations at the menu tasting in April, but I think it was because we had the tasting at midday, and had not eaten anything before-hand. It might be better to start the wine tasting after some of the food?

We loved the ceremony location, in a very nice shaded area right by the lake.

All the staff were lovely – very professional yet friendly – they got the balance just right.

The Wedding

Beautiful - The mayor was very good, he struck the right level of seriousness. We really appreciated the book and the scroll that he presented to us as a memento of the ceremony.

On-Site Co-ordinator - Angela was super – very calm and collected, as well as being friendly. Angela did a great job at translating during the ceremony and injected a sense of light-heartedness to the proceedings which we really appreciated. Everything ran very smoothly. She even popped into a shop on the way to the boat to buy some water for the kids who were getting really thirsty as it was such a warm day.

Suppliers:

Hair – Pamela was great, very patient and excellent at up-dos. She was very accommodating when I changed my mind (this was completely my fault as she gave me plenty of opportunity to say so at the time!). On the day she was very calm, professional and friendly – I was very pleased with my hair.

Makeup – Again, Veronica was great – I loved my wedding makeup, it was exactly what I had asked for, classic and natural yet still polished. She was also really friendly and even put a bit of lip gloss on my little bridesmaids.

Flowers – Beautiful flowers – I loved my bouquet, which also had a wonderful scent from the freesias. It was a bit of a shame that none of the agapanthus had opened before the wedding, but it didn’t detract from the overall look. The table flowers and other arrangements were also beautiful. However, the flowers were delivered pretty late, as we understand they missed their boat, so this a bit rushed.

Musicians – Wow – excellent – they really enhanced the overall feel and emotion of the wedding.

Photographer – Dani and Stefano were both first-class – very good at knowing where the best spots to take photos were, also very calm and friendly. We have seen a few of the photos which Dani has posted on Facebook, which we love. We are looking very much forward to seeing the rest! Do you know when we can expect to receive these? Dani offered download or memory-stick, and I chose memory stick, so she will need our address - I think she was going to get this from you.

Boat Ride – This was great fun, everyone really enjoyed the boat ride.

Favours – Looked great and were delicious, although the ribbons weren’t silver as requested, but were gold/champagne.

Lavandaria Silver – Thank you for recommending them – they did a great job with my dress, and were very flexible, which I greatly appreciated.

We would rate DIW very highly:

Quality of Service: 5
Responsiveness: 5
Professionalism: 5
Value: 5
Flexibility: 5

Very best wishes, Helen and Darren.

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Paperwork Assistance

Paperwork Assistance

Paperwork Assistance

Australian nationals marrying in Italy

British nationals marrying in Italy

Important new procedures for British Nationals resident in the UK wishing to get married in Italy were introduced on 1 March 2013.

Canadian nationals marrying in Italy

Irish nationals marrying in Italy

New Zealand nationals marrying in Italy

US nationals marrying in Italy

Catholic requirements to marry in Italy.

Josephine and Austin

Josephine & Austin

Josephine and Austin

Wedding in Verona

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