Helen and Russell

On a perfect day with the perfect team, Helen and Russell were married at the picture-perfect Villa Il Santo. With every little detail thought of, guests were treated to a spectacular day under the trees, overlooking some of Tuscany’s finest chianti vines. Helen and Russell wanted romantic, classic, and timeless details for their big day. Long tables are great for family style catering – and these beauties were set to impress. Each guest had a typical tuscan favour, olive oil! The white on white palette was fresh and clean in a space so naturally green. The beautiful florals gave the tables extra depth and texture along side the elegant taper candles, creating a romantic, yet intimate space. Each of our clients has left a blessing in our lives , and we thank you all for the opportunity of being part of their wedding day! Knowing that what we do make those couples and their families happy , is at the end of the day what matters! Each of our clients has left a blessing in our lives , and we thank you all for the opportunity of being part of their wedding day! Please read their comments…

Magical Tuscan Wedding

Firstly, a huge thank you to Chiara & Elena for the most memorable week of our life. Russell & I and all our family and friends had the most magical time, everyone is still talking about how fabulous it was to this day. Words cannot possibly describe how exquisite it was, from staying at the superb Villa il Santo overlooking the Semi Fonte valley to the fairytale town of San Gimignano, the wine farm Dolce Vita welcome Lunch, to the stunning venue for the wedding ceremony at the magical medieval hill top village of Certaldo Alto, we could not have asked for a more perfect week. We decided on Italy as our wedding location as we had family and friends coming from all corners of the world and it seemed like the most central romantic location. Also, I have had a love affair with Italy ever since I visited as a student in 1990. Organising a wedding in a foreign country is complicated, we both work full-time in Dubai and needed help with all aspects of the wedding week planning, from the venues / décor / catering / hair & makeup / transport and legal side, hence we did extensive research to find an appropriate Italian wedding planner who had great experience, knew the area and spoke the language. We contacted Chiara and after our first Skype conversation knew she was the one to do this for us. We immediately organised a trip to Italy to meet with her to go through all the details. Our brief was simple, we wanted a relaxed, rustic Tuscan style wedding in a local medieval Town Hall with the reception dinner in the garden at the villa we were staying at which could cater for around 70 guests.

Itinerary:

• 29th May 2018 – Dolce Vita Style Welcome Lunch at Local Wine Farm
• 31st May 2018 – Wedding Ceremony at Certaldo Alto Town Hall
• 31st May 2018 – Wedding Reception Dinner at Villa il Santo
• 1st June 2018 – Farewell Braai (South African Style)

We required a traditional farm house style 8 bedroom villa for the wedding party for the week, plus nearby accommodation for all our guests – Chiara arranged a number of villas for us to look at, all of which were stunning, plus she recommended a variety of local villas and hotels for our guests from low to high end to suit each of our guests budgets. We eventually went for Villa il Santo near Barberino Val d’Elsa; – I highly recommend this villa, the owners Annagloria and Enzo are so welcoming and wonderful. Once we were in Italy for our initial meeting, Chiara organised meetings with 2 different caterers, where we had the most exquisite food and wine tasting, we went through all the table settings and met with the florist to brief the wedding flowers and bridal party bouquets. We even requested a Scottish Piper which she found for us too, living in Italy believe it or not. The most stressful time we had was sorting out the legal paper work. Russell being South African and myself British, both resident in Dubai, getting legally married in Italy was not an easy task, but Elena was a super star, she definitely had her work cut out, but it all ran smoothly in the end. We decided to have the actual wedding ceremony in Certaldo Alto Town Hall, which is the most magical and historic venue, following the Scottish Piper up the medieval narrow streets with my Scottish father to the town hall was an emotional and surreal experience I will never forget. The streets were lined with tourist and locals clapping it was really something else. Words cannot possibly describe how wonderful our wedding week in Tuscany was, we highly recommend Chiara and Elena to anyone wanting to have the most exquisite wedding experience and take the stress out of the organisation. Our only small complaint was that the caterers took away our wedding cake so there were no left overs the next day – I didn’t even try any of it the previous night as the food was so delicious I was full by the time the cake arrived. Not really an issue though 😊 Lots of Love & Gratitude Russell & Helen