venice wedding help!!!!1

We married in Venice in 2008, I can totally recommend it! We chose to get married at the Town Hall or Pallazzo Cavalli, which is right on the Grand Canal. The ceremony is on the third floor and has a balcony you can go on afterwards for some photos. It is a beautiful building and feels very special. I don't know if there are any other civil venues or about getting married in church.

This is the page you need regarding the Town Hall http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/954 The cheapest is around 600 Euros during the working day (Mon to Sat 8.45am to 1pm). It is really expensive outside working hours! You have to have an Italian Interpreter at around 260 Euros.

The paperwork is a bit of a nightmare. We employed Anna Bozza of The Venice Wedding Planner http://www.theveniceweddingplanner.com/ and she told me exactly what we needed to do and when. If you don't have someone to do it for you, I think you need to be in Venice around 5 days before the ceremony.

We chose to have the latest ceremony we could within working hours (12.30pm) and then we all went for Pizza and Prosecco. We then went off with our photographer for a few hours while our guests went back to the hotel/sightseeing and then we had a fairly informal meal in the evening at La Caravella. Any of the hotels or restaurants will do a reception for you either straight after the ceremony or in the evening.

The Summer is very hot, we married in April when it was cooler.

You won't regret a wedding in Venice, it is beautiful! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Hi thankyou for your reply. are there any hotels you would recommend? and did you get flowers and a cake whilst in venice? if so where did you get them from?

your wedding sounds amazing just like what i would like

xx

Hi Natalie

We didn't have flowers or a cake! I carried a Venetian Mask instead (I wore a red dress, which fits in really well with the surroundings) so it was pretty theatrical! With regards to hotel, we stayed here http://www.alpontemocenigo.com/ It is an amazing hotel, only small so you could pretty much book it out for your wedding party and not too expensive. It is one of the highest rated hotels in Venice on Trip Advisor They could not have been more helpful on the day, they put Prosecco in our room for us. The location is very close to the Rialto Market and the San Stae vaporetto station although if you want to arrive in style to your wedding I am sure they could arrange a water taxi or a gondola as they have a door leading straight out on to one of the canals.

The one thing I did spend on was a make up lady. There is a department store called Coin, which has a Mac counter and one of the girls did my trial the day before and then came to the hotel on the morning. It was not cheap (about £200) but then nothing in Venice is cheap! I didn't have a hairdresser as the quotes were very high and my hair is very short :-)

Bev

With regards to the photography, consider using a UK photographer, we do travel :-)

Wow thats so different. did you go out to venice to plan it all? xx

No, we had never been to Venice until two days before our wedding! It was all done from the UK with the help of Anna in Venice. If you Google, there are some Venice forums which have sections on weddings.

Hiya,

I'm not getting married in Venice, but I am getting married in Lake Garda. Some of my guests are considering flying into venice rather than verona. I definately plan to visit Venice as part of our honeymoon. I would agree with hiring a Wedding planner to help out if it's within your budget (i'm paying 1200 euros) but she's organising all the legal bits and pieces, that I worry I would get wrong if left to me. I contacted the castle directly where the ceremony is being held and also booked a restaurant directly. We're planning to have a lake cruise after the ceremony, which I can't wait for.

As for prices I'm paying 480 euros for the ceremony...all my legal fees for the license etc are included in the WP fees, so not sure what thy would be seperately. The restaurant is 75 euros a head which includes canapes, meal, and a wedding cake with unlimited soft drinks and wine (beer is extra). The lake cruise is about 300 euros. If I hire a band they will be 350 euros and I've been quoted between 900 and 1500 euros for photographers (my OH thinks we should just ask a guest to do the photos as they are semi professional, but I'm not sure as I would like someone who knows the area)

I'm hoping my guest who is a hairdresser will do my hair and I'll probably do my own make up.

I too would consider asking a UK wedding photographer to cover your wedding. My previous experiences with foreign photographer and suppliers isn't that good.

I travel throughtout Europe and the Caribbean so please consider me. My website is www.davidblackshaw.com

Wishing you all have a lovely wedding day

db x

There are plenty of great Italian wedding photographers and I don't think the OP was asking about that anyway!

I've not arranged a wedding in Venice but we did get engaged there and it was wonderful, loved the whole place!! We are getting married in Positano and not using any wedding planners...

When we were in Venice we stayed in the Hilton Molino Stucky. It's over the Guidecca canal so a bit out of the way but it was fabulous and they have a frequent free shuttle over to St Mark's Square.

It's not known for being a very foodie place but the little taverns that do canapes and small glasses of wine are fantastic.

Get tickets for the water bus services to explore (validate it before each journey or you can get a hefty fine) as the taxis are really expensive.

As with JennyH we're not planning to get married there but Venice is the place MrApples too me to propose and it could not be more perfect. The weather was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. in february and i cannot think of a more romantic place to get married.

Have oyu been thre beofre? i'd recommend a little trip to have a reccy and see where you want to get married etc, what a perfect excuse to go there twice!!

good luck x

Thankyou for all your help. my sister is brilliant at photography so she has that job!!! i have visited venice twice whilst on cruise ships so i know its definately where i want to get married. i was proposed to on a cruise ship setting sale into the sea in Koper couldnt have been any more beautiful, chocolate covered strawberrys, flowers, dinner, pink champagne couldnt have wished for more.

Jennyh10 - where is Positano?

Looneysh - is lake Garda near Venice then?

Bev - Thankyou for all your help so far. do you know of any good restaurants in venice? i would really like one where are reception could be on a roof top so we can watch the sunset!!!

xx

Hi Natalie,

The transfer time between venice airport and Lake Garda is approx 90 minutes, so not too diffiult to get to. My OH has been to Lake Garda a few times and gets the train to venice, he says its dead easy.

I am not sure about rooftop restaurants but this is a really useful book, unfortunately I gave my copy away. It tells you all about the best restaurants.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chow-Venice-Serenissima-Savouring-Restaurants/dp/1934259004

Ok i will check out that book. thankyou everyone for your help xx

Hi Natalie! Your proposal sounds wonderful, so romantic ?

Positano is on the Amalfi coast; stunningly beautiful place.

I can't really recommend a decent reception venue in Venice as we didn't eat all that well when we were there, just basic touristy food TBH although our hotel Molino Stucky has a couple of fantastic restaurants (we didn't get to eat there unfortunately); http://www.molinostuckyhilton.com/restaurants.php

Omg thats the hotel i thought looked amazing when i was in venice and its got a roof top restaurant thankyou so much for your help x

Totally forgot to reply to this, we had our honeymoon in Venice and Lake Garda. We stayed at the Hotel Metropole in Venice, it is amazing!!! Totally recommend.