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| Palazzo di Piero Garden |
So we decided to stay with Villa Vistarenni, don't get me wrong, that wasn't a bad thing at all since Villa Vistarenni is absolutely beautiful, but while searching for a different catering option ( we didn't love the options from the chef we had been working with), I found the actual name of a castle Daniele and I loved since the beginning of our search back in June. In June we gave up the idea because we decided on an Amalfi Coast wedding, then when we started up our search again recently, we only found a rental agency and couldn't find the castle's real name. The rental agency was difficult to work with and never responded to our additional questions about the property, so we gave up on it and continued searching. Let that be a further lesson to avoid rental agencies. Now that we found the real name and the contact for the owners, we've had such a good experience so far working with them. I listened to the conversation last night between Daniele and the wife of the owner and even though I had no idea what she was saying, I liked her immediately.
In the course of seven months we have inquired about this property with three different contacts. The first time the price for three nights was the same as the price for seven nights with Villa Silvia in the Amalfi Coast, the second contact gave us a price well within our budget, making it equal to the cost of our higher cost options. This third time, finally not with a rental agency and with the owner direct, we are booking the property for 1,000 euro less than the cost we were willing to book at!
Our wedding will now be held in Castello di Magrano aka Castello Ducala aka Castello Gubbio aka Castello Bonaparte!!! I'm super excited about the way things have turned out.
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Some things I love about Castello di Magrano:
- It's rich in history. Built in the Middle Ages(1200 A.C.) it was Gubbio's main defense against Perugia. Since then it was the hunting residence of the Dukes of Montefeltro and finally became home to Princess Giulia Bonaparte, niece of Napolean Bonaparte. Her descendants are the current owners.
- The castle is in the middle of 1500 acres of forest where you can still find wild game.
- It is tastefully furnished with all the modern conveniences while still maintaining its historical structure.
- Though it is very secluded, it is only a two minute drive to the nearest village and 20, 30, 40 minutes to Gubbio, Assisi, and Perugia respectively (yes, we've moved from Tuscany to Umbria).
- The owner's wife and daughter have been so responsive and helpful. They make it so we want to work with them, which gives me a feeling of relief when it comes to wedding planning.
- They provide everything we need for the reception (tables, dinnerware, chairs) and even decorations, we just need to provide anything extra in terms of decorations to personalize it a bit more.
- There is a small chapel on the property which we can use for free to hold a ceremony if we decide to use it.
- They've only started to hold weddings on the property within the last year or two, which explains why I only found one or two sites with wedding photos. This makes me glad since this means they aren't really focused on becoming a wedding factory.
- We have the option to use their catering, which is a flat rate of 120 euro for cooking and service plus the cost of food. This is great considering everywhere else wants to charge per person, which I know is the standard, but this option gives us a lot more room to do everything we want in terms of food.
- In the end Castello di Magrano just feels right.
Now that we have our location finalized, time to focus on the more fun details. We're working out what we want for the menu and how we want to decorate, but I'm doing what I can to avoid wedding dresses for a little while longer. I'll never understand why we hold onto a fashion style made popular in the Victorian era, but I'm not a fan and because of that I'm having the hardest time figuring out what to wear. Leave it to a queen to decide she wants to wear white for her wedding only to change the color from one of mourning to one for brides.
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