Venue Hunting in Italy for our Destination Wedding

We did extensive research when we were looking at venues in Italy and considering a destination wedding. We narrowed down our focus to Tuscany, as we loved the region from our prior visit. There are TONS of wedding venues and villas in Tuscany, so I recommend listing your minimum requirements and deal breakers before you start your research, otherwise it will become overwhelming. I’m sharing below the major factors we mapped out for any venue we considered. It’s also good to note before I dive in, we did not visit our venue before signing our contract, and we will not have seen it in person before we arrive for our wedding. Logistics didn’t work out for us to make a trip. Our venue had a comprehensive 360 virtual tour on their website, and we felt confident about the details without seeing it. 

We started our venue search ourselves, and had a spreadsheet where we tracked the details for each. Most venues promptly responded via email, I saved an email template I created, which enabled me to reach out quickly. We ultimately decided to get a wedding planner, and she helped us with further research and booking the final venue we went with (Villa La Palagina). 

Last thing to note is we’re having a small wedding, so going into research we knew we’d have around 35 guests and need approximately 22 rooms. 

Location in Italy + Distance from Airport ~ This was a large factor for us. Guests were already traveling far (some coming from California), so we didn’t want them to have to find a car service and have to do an hour+ drive to our venue from a major city. As we had decided on Tuscany, we focused our search on venues that were under an hour drive from Florence. This would give guests the option to fly into Milan and Rome and get to Florence via train (or fly directly into Florence, that airport just isn’t as big as the other two). 

I suggest first picking the region in Italy, and then begin the rest of the venue search. Italy is large and each region is unique. Lake Como for example is waterfront and is going to be much more expensive than the Tuscan countryside. As you’re considering different regions, map them to the major airports to see what the travel logistics would entail for you and your guests. 

Dates ~ We started venue research in August 2022, and were reaching out about dates in May 2023 onward. April – September is the high season in Italy for travel, so expect the pricing to reflect that. I was also told it was “last minute”, even though we were 11 months out, for some dates we were asking about. One option you can consider is a weekday wedding vs weekend, which will cost less. We did not start our venue research with a specific date we were set on, instead we would reach out to venues listing multiple different weeks & months between April – September. There were some venues already fully booked, or that had very limited options left. So do begin planning as early as possible.  

Rooms ~ We wanted all our guests to stay in the same place, with us. We were looking for a Villa with a certain minimum number of rooms. I recommend getting clear with the venue on rooms vs beds, don’t take the listed “capacity” at face value. On many of the websites or info sheets they would have “capacity” listed – that number was much higher than the actual number of individual rooms. It often assumes you’re putting multiple people in one room, with roll out beds. This is something you should get specific about, especially if a venue is right on the cusp of the minimum # of rooms you need. We mapped out the exact number of rooms we would need, based on the guest list. We also noted where there could be flexibility if needed, eg putting my mom and sister in the same room. Having two girlfriends stay in the same room vs each having their own room. 

Amenities ~ There are tons of villas you can rent Airbnb style in Tuscany as your venue, however they have no amenities. Meaning there is no staff like at a hotel, no restaurant, and you have to bring *everything* in. We did not want this. We wanted a villa that was essentially a hotel operation. 

Our guests are staying for 3 nights, and while we’re hosting dinner for the 3 nights, they needed food for breakfast and lunch, so we knew we needed a restaurant. Another factor with this is they will cater our wedding dinner, and the other two dinner’s we are hosting. Without the restaurant onsite, you would need to bring in external caterers for each meal. We also thought about if guests are lounging by the pool and want a drink or snacks, you need to have a restaurant onsite to serve them. 

Some people go into planning a wedding in Italy thinking that getting a complete DIY/BYOB Villa will be cheaper, but when you start working through all the vendors you’ll need to utilize (flowers, lights, chairs, tables, tableware, etc) it isn’t going to save you much. Even if you decide to BYOB once you arrive, I would think carefully about the logistics of all the travel you’re doing and how you would shop and easily get it to the venue. 

We also wanted our guests to have activity options. Our venue is connected to a winery, so we’re hosting a wine and olive oil tasting. There are two pools, hiking trails, and the hotel has bikes you can take out. They will also help organize activities like horseback riding, if our guests want to during ‘down time’. It just depends on how many nights you’re there, and the activities you already have planned to host for your guests. 

Lastly, we wanted staff onsite to help guests and take care of any issues that could come up. AC breaks, request for more towels, calling a taxi, etc. Without this we feared things could go wrong, and we’re the ones people would look to for answers and help. None of this stress was worth it to us, we wanted it to feel luxurious, and that to us is having full service. 

AC ~ Our wedding is in early September and it’s still going to be very warm. If you aren’t familiar, do not take for granted AC in Italy. We specifically looked for this at any venue we considered, some looked good and checked other boxed, but then we saw in the details there was no AC in the rooms, and it was a deal breaker. I like to sleep in a cold room and am very sensitive to the temperature. I’m also someone who will spiral if I sleep poorly, so this was something we weren’t going to budge on. 

Cost ~ This is obviously going to be a large consideration depending on your budget. In the US, you’re going to pay a venue fee just for using the space, nothing else included with it except for the venue room itself. The advantage to destination weddings and booking a villa, is the room bookings are the venue fee. This can be hosted by the couple, which we opted for – or have your guests individually pay for their rooms. 

A few other things to consider when looking for a wedding venue in Italy: 

~ Onsite planner, many of the venues also have their own onsite event planner. We opted to also book a wedding planner, but some may have this included. 

~ Confirm if the venue has specific vendors you must work with. You don’t want any surprises if they have a list of premium suppliers that you’re forced to use. We were considering on venue and our planner advised us that many of the preferred vendors they had on their list, we’re considered ‘premium’ ones. 

~ Minimum # of nights -There were a few venues that required a minimum 3 night stay. This wasn’t an issue for us given that was our plan, but I would be aware and ask if you are only considering doing 1 or 2 nights. 

~ Minimum guest count – We also found places that had a minimum guest count. So even if you only have 75 guests, they will make you pay for 100 for the meals. 

Final thoughts…

We probably had close to 30 venues on our sheet with columns listing the details around these different factors. Then we narrowed it down to our top 3 and really drilled into the details. That was things like what did the open bar include, for hosted dinners (welcome party, rehearsal dinner) what would those costs be, what did the menus look like. We also spent more time reading reviews and looking at photos and their “nice to have” offerings. 

We tried not to invest too much time in the initial info gathering stage, just quickly wrote out the details about the main minimum requirements we had. This way you’re not spending an hour looking at reviews and pictures of one venue, when they don’t have the minimum rooms you needed anyway. By narrowing it down to the top three we liked and that met our minimum requirements, it was easier to make the decision. 

It can be time consuming, but by the end we felt very confident and comfortable with the venue we landed on because we had done our research.