With less than six months to go I've been busy working on wedding details, but my goal of having the big three taken care of (venue, caterer, photographer) all went out the window this last week. We decided to change our location and the reason for that was because we weren't happy with our rental agency. We went through a company called Sorrento Dreams, but lack of communication and carelessness regarding details caused us not to trust the rental company. Thankfully because of their mistakes we were able to get back our non-refundable deposit. This works out well because my family will have only two weeks to travel in Italy and I didn't like the idea of spending half that time in just one location for their first visit.
With the seaside out, the first thing that came to mind was castles! I went through the usual channels and
came across Castello Borgia, yes, THE Borgias. Okay, I don't actually know anything about the Borgias, but Daniele filled me in. They were an important family during the Renaissance, even producing two Popes, but their notoriety comes from more salacious activities. I guess they are up there with the Habsburg when it comes to screwed up families. The castle itself is gorgeous and after a quick look at their website we found it to be in our budget. An email was sent out and our dates were confirmed to be open, but the one thing that kept us from booking was a mandatory 1,200 euro for a wedding planner that we did not need nor want. We decided on a small family wedding, twelve adults and two toddlers, so we want to keep things pretty simple and laid back, but as the planner sent us example after example of what she had in mind, we started to feel that if we had a wedding in Castello Borgia we would end up having someone else's wedding. In the end it broke my heart to have to say goodbye to Castello Borgia, but we couldn't justify having a wedding planner that wanted to plan her idea of a wedding, not our own.
The next blow came when I decided to see if my dream apartment in Venice was taken, no surprise, it was. The apartment is gorgeous and located right on the Grand Canal, but back when we found it in June we had one person too many, which has since changed. I searched and searched using Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, and a general Google search, but I kept coming up with the same places over and over again. Google was no help since the search terms I used were bought by wedding planners in Italy and those sites were all I was shown. Then Daniele decided to see what would happen if he tried to search like an Italian.
One thing I noticed about all the locations in the Amalfi Coast and with Castello Borgia is that they are all geared towards British and Americans. The grand majority of information about wedding planning seemed to be for the British and all the weddings I looked at were British or Australian with a few Americans and Chinese peppered in. I asked Daniele where Italians get married and he confirmed that Italians rarely head to the Amalfi Coast because the area has become too expensive for Italians ever since the British decided to make it one of their holiday resorts.
When Daniele decided to try and search for wedding locations thinking like an Italian, he found
gorgeous places for much lower prices.
The best part is they all do the wedding planning for us for no additional charge! This reconfirmed our uneasiness of having a wedding planner forced onto us with Castello Borgia. I've seen sample weddings at each location and they are all gorgeous and more flexible with matching what we want.
Earlier this week we were at a loss for locations, now we have the opposite problem, too many choices! We're currently narrowing down our options and I'll update when that happens. Every location offers catering, so that takes care of two of the three once we make a decision.
As for photographers, I've been noticing the same problems that I ran into with locations. Everything I searched for tends to be geared towards foreigners. I've been hearing how California photographers are some of the most expensive wedding photographers, but the prices for photographers in Italy are roughly the same, but whereas California photographers add in an engagement session and photo album for that price,
Italian ones only offer the photos on CD. Also, I'm a bit of a photography hobbyist so I've probably also been over scrutinizing photographers. I decided against the original two I was choosing between because they were a bit too stylized and relied too much on filters. I looked at flying in a photographer, but the travel cost would have blown out our photography budget.
With a change in wedding location to either Tuscany or Umbria, I changed my search tactics and was lucky to stumble upon a new photographer who was just added to the WPJA. She has a background in advertising and spent the last few years working as a newspaper photojournalist. Currently she is getting her masters with a focus on visual anthropology, photography, and journalism. She's traveled the world for assignments, but is just getting started in wedding photography with a few weddings already under her belt. From what I've seen she is technically skilled and has a very creative eye, which is a combination that I haven't been seeing in a lot of photographers based in Italy. We're still working on the details with her, but we're looking at having pre-wedding photos done in Rome and then photos for our wedding. Even if she has less experience in weddings, our wedding is small and casual enough not to feel like she might miss too many "key" moments, plus I've seen her work taking concert photos and if anyone can make photos look good in those lighting conditions can handle any indoor lighting woes.
In the end it's not the cost of everything that had been bothering me, even when we planned on a Positano wedding our wedding budget was still below what we'd spend on a comparable wedding in California, and that is including flights for five to Italy. But I guess the traveler in me just refuses to pay foreigner prices, especially for a wedding. Currently with flights we're looking at $15,000 for our wedding. Originally at Positano it was over $20,000. We're completely splurging on food since we both come from families that love food, we budgeted 140 euro per person, but we're actually finding it hard to spend that much with the highest quotes around 90 euro per person!
I know not everyone can have a destination wedding, but I really want to point out if cost is the only reason holding someone back, then it's worth doing a little research to get some actual figures. We are lucky because half of our guests will already be in Europe so for us it's only five flights that add to our total cost. And instead of having a huge wedding, with what we saved in getting married in Italy we're planning on using that savings to splurge on little extras to give our families a relaxing time. I don't know about everyone else, but that's what a wedding is about to me and Daniele. To celebrate our marriage while giving back to our families. Maybe after living in Shanghai a bit of that old fashion Chinese tradition to give back to those who raised you stuck with me.
With the seaside out, the first thing that came to mind was castles! I went through the usual channels and
 |
| Castello Borgia |
 |
| Dream Apartment in Venice |
 |
| View of the Grand Canal |
When Daniele decided to try and search for wedding locations thinking like an Italian, he found
 |
| Convento San Bartolomeo, One of the Top Contenders |
The best part is they all do the wedding planning for us for no additional charge! This reconfirmed our uneasiness of having a wedding planner forced onto us with Castello Borgia. I've seen sample weddings at each location and they are all gorgeous and more flexible with matching what we want.
Earlier this week we were at a loss for locations, now we have the opposite problem, too many choices! We're currently narrowing down our options and I'll update when that happens. Every location offers catering, so that takes care of two of the three once we make a decision.
As for photographers, I've been noticing the same problems that I ran into with locations. Everything I searched for tends to be geared towards foreigners. I've been hearing how California photographers are some of the most expensive wedding photographers, but the prices for photographers in Italy are roughly the same, but whereas California photographers add in an engagement session and photo album for that price,
With a change in wedding location to either Tuscany or Umbria, I changed my search tactics and was lucky to stumble upon a new photographer who was just added to the WPJA. She has a background in advertising and spent the last few years working as a newspaper photojournalist. Currently she is getting her masters with a focus on visual anthropology, photography, and journalism. She's traveled the world for assignments, but is just getting started in wedding photography with a few weddings already under her belt. From what I've seen she is technically skilled and has a very creative eye, which is a combination that I haven't been seeing in a lot of photographers based in Italy. We're still working on the details with her, but we're looking at having pre-wedding photos done in Rome and then photos for our wedding. Even if she has less experience in weddings, our wedding is small and casual enough not to feel like she might miss too many "key" moments, plus I've seen her work taking concert photos and if anyone can make photos look good in those lighting conditions can handle any indoor lighting woes.
I know not everyone can have a destination wedding, but I really want to point out if cost is the only reason holding someone back, then it's worth doing a little research to get some actual figures. We are lucky because half of our guests will already be in Europe so for us it's only five flights that add to our total cost. And instead of having a huge wedding, with what we saved in getting married in Italy we're planning on using that savings to splurge on little extras to give our families a relaxing time. I don't know about everyone else, but that's what a wedding is about to me and Daniele. To celebrate our marriage while giving back to our families. Maybe after living in Shanghai a bit of that old fashion Chinese tradition to give back to those who raised you stuck with me.
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