When you decide to utter the fateful phrase, “Yes, I do!” it becomes absolutely necessary that this unique and special moment in your life and love story has a special place as its setting, a civil wedding location that matches your dreams.
In my experience as a celebrant, I have had the joy of uniting in marriage couples from all over the world, who chose Italy as their dream location for their wedding and celebration. To my surprise, thanks to their choices I have discovered true corners of paradise in our country that I did not known about: by the sea, in cities of art, in small ancient villages, in the hills or most imposing mountains. I realized, also through their eyes, how rich Italy is in terms of dream locations for celebrating weddings.
With such an abundance of wonderful places in which to hold and experience your special day, it isn’t easy to choose a location that best suits your needs and desires. If you decide to organize everything on your own, you will have to devote a lot of attention to the choice of the civil wedding venue, but even if you rely on the help and expertise of a wedding planner agency, it might be best to pay attention to some basic characteristics that a civil wedding venue must have, in order to be the perfect setting for your memorable wedding.
Of all the aspects that require the utmost care, I would like to point out three in particular that are, in my opinion, the fundamental ones that we should never lose sight of.
I am referring, in particular, to those ceremonies (whether symbolic or a civil rite) that take place in the same place chosen for the celebration, lunch or dinner, which will follow the celebration.
Here they are. First of all:
– Plan A and Plan B, for where the ceremony will take place in case of bad weather; often the warmer months of the year are chosen to get married in, and civil wedding locations offer a dedicated outdoor space where the ceremony can take place.
Plan A, outdoor ceremony: make sure that this space offers proper brightness, but at the same time provides shelter from the sun for you and also for your guests (with tree elements or strategically placed umbrellas and gazebos), so that you do not have to stand in the sun and force yourself and the people attending to experience an unwanted sauna. Be careful not to have the sun in your face at the appointed time for the ceremony, so that you do not get blinded and make unpleasant and not-so-photogenic grimaces of discomfort. The discomfort of having the sun on your face will be short-lived, but the photos and your indelible memories will be marred forever.
Plan B: Indoor ceremony in case of bad weather. Agree with the civil wedding venue on an alternative solution in case of bad weather. And this should not be a second-best solution that you are not 100% satisfied with, even if you think that “it certainly won’t rain in Puglia on a July day.” Summer rain and thunderstorms do exist and must be taken into account. Plan B must also be a place that you totally love in terms of beauty, style and even accessibility for those guests who may have some mobility issues.
– Civil wedding venue exclusivity: the day you are about to celebrate is a unique and precious moment in your life. You have thought long and hard about it, planned every detail and chosen all the most serious and reliable suppliers in the sector. In short, you have organized everything down to the last detail; so would you want to risk ruining everything with noisy neighbors, interference from unwanted music, and a service that is not totally devoted to you and your guests? My suggestion is to choose a civil wedding venue that will guarantee you the exclusivity of the service and the certainty that you, and only you, will be the only guests at the venue, with no restrictions on access to all the rooms at the venue and no worries about the timing of the celebration.
– Beware of the civil wedding venue cancellation policy in case some guests cancel last minute. It can always happen (and in these pandemic years we have seen this several times) that some guests do not show up for the wedding, giving last-minute notice. In this case, my suggestion is to choose a civil wedding venue that is flexible in this regard and offers you the possibility of getting, if not a full refund of the absentees’ fee, at least a significant discount on the total cost of the expense.
At this point, I would like to tell you more about the wonderful civil wedding locations where I have been fortunate enough to celebrate and unite in marriage my newlyweds – and I will certainly do that. Follow me in this blog of mine. We will travel together to places and locations that amaze and fulfill dreams, and we can start to daydream by planning the ceremony for your special day. Stay tuned.
