Sun-Soaked Destination Wedding in Italy with Beautiful Decor

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We’re easing into the long weekend nicely, with today’s beautiful real wedding, with the kind of style and decor that makes us swoon.

Katie & Kit are a UK-based couple, who got married with the most wonderful three-day celebration in Tuscany. They and their guests soaked up the sun, wine, and fabulous food of the region, against the stunning backdrop of Conti di san Bonifacio.

With Stefano Santucci on photography, and Sara from Chic Weddings in Italy looking after the planning, this was always going to be a pretty gorgeous occasion. But add in some spectacular florals, reams of string lights and lanterns, elegant attire, and the most beautiful tablescaping, and I need to use Katie’s words to sum it up best… It gives you goosebumps.

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Our Wedding

The wedding itself was a dream, it sounds like the cliché but it really was the best day of my life. We started with a humanist ceremony on the hillside overlooking the incredible views, followed by canapés and prosecco around the pool.

We had our photos taken in the olive grove which worked really well.

Dinner was set up in the same location as where the ceremony had been.

Walking through the house out to the dinner was just amazing, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it now. The incredible table-setting, lights hanging from the trees, overlooking the most incredible views.

The Venue

We wanted a relatively small wedding with only close family and friends, so were looking for a beautiful venue that could hold 60 people.

We both had the same vision of a wedding in Italy on a vineyard with delicious but simple Italian food and wine. I had seen Bonifacio a couple of years before we were engaged and had it pegged as a potential wedding venue (little did Kit know!).

Shortly after Kit proposed we flew out to see the venue and from the moment we drove in through the entrance gates we knew it was the place for us.

Relaxed, beautiful, traditional but with a contemporary feel, we fell in love!

It felt like your own private estate with your own amazing team of people looking after your every need, nothing was too much trouble. I cried saying goodbye to them all!

To hire the venue you needed to take it for three nights, so we organized a relaxed dinner for the bridal party the night before the wedding and a chilled BBQ the day after the wedding.

Our family and the bridesmaids stayed at the venue, we then found local hotels and apartments to house the rest of the guests. We provided transport to and from the wedding venue so all of our guests could enjoy themselves.

The Photography & Planning

I just loved Stefano Santucci’s style, they seem to capture the moment without too many posed images. On the day they were just fab, they made us feel totally at ease.

My best advice would be to hire an amazing wedding planner – Sara from Chic Weddings was incredible!

From a styling point of view she took it to the next level! Then the organisation, in particular organising accommodation and transport for guests over the three days was a lot of work and finally the day itself.

Having Sara and her team there meant I didn’t need to worry about anything on the day, I just knew she was in control!

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The Decor & Details

The colours were pale pink, pale green, and gold. The decor included many flowers, pink roses and peonies, they really made a difference, plus lots of gorgeous lanterns in the evening.

Our first dance was ‘You’re All I Need’ by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

For our honeymoon, we went to Hotel Splendido in Portofino…..it was incredible, however, I wish we had hired a villa for a week just to chill out and absorb the wedding before going there. It was a bit full on going straight there, but I would highly recommend it, its very romantic.

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The Refreshments

Aperol spritz and G&Ts, antipasti buffet with Proscecco, I think we may have gone a bit overboard on dinner, after the substantial canapés and antipasti, we opted for two small homemade pasta dishes and then wild board from the estate, all served with wine from the estate.

I wanted a traditional Italian wedding cake that is built live by the chef whilst everyone watched, this worked really well.

Everyone moved to the dance floor to watch this and then we did the first dance.