Choosing an English wedding planner for your Italy wedding
Lucy and Danielle talk to bride Sadie outside the church the day before the wedding. May 2016.
Lucy pins the buttonholes on the groomsmen, May 2016.
When you start to think about planning your Italy wedding it can seem overwhelming. Believe me, I’ve been there! Over 3 years ago now I decided to hire my now partner Danielle Wiskow as a wedding planner for mine and Ben’s wedding. After just a few weeks of trying to organise the wedding ourselves, it was a very easy decision to make.
I started researching and planning our wedding from home on the internet. I soon worked out that you don’t get the full choice and the full picture. Queue a small range of generic hotels and venues with comparable UK wedding prices. This was disheartening and dented my view of how wonderful Italy was. I couldn’t believe the options were this limited, and pricey! This is what Danielle and I enjoy fixing the most. We use expert, insider knowledge to find unique venues and suppliers for every wedding that we work on, to suit the bride and groom’s needs and budgets – not limiting the options nor accepting these high costs. This is something that isn’t possible from the UK or through the internet. Danielle’s expert negotiation techniques and dedication to sourcing suppliers has meant that we’ve had very happy and relaxed clients time and time again.
Then there’s the whole not speaking Italian thing. Even when I did find suppliers that I wanted to enquire with, communication was often impossible. I couldn’t communicate exactly what I wanted, or negotiate and I was starting to get really concerned that we couldn’t afford a wedding in Italy and that we’d end up with the wrong flowers, music, food etc. as the wedding!
From working with Danielle for my wedding, I realised the importance of having an English planner. Danielle is English and moved to Italy 25 years ago. She understands how things work in the UK: that certain quality is expected, timings and briefs are adhered to, every detail is considered and covered and that things happen quickly. There isn’t the same culture in Italy. Initially I would often be told that ‘everything’s OK’ and I would be there saying, ‘but can you email to confirm or send me a contract’ and that was just not how many suppliers would work. Danielle and I ensure that everything is always concrete and there’s no ambiguity for our clients!
Our combined experience over the years has driven our creation of Wiskow & White. We want to make the Italian wedding planning experience simple, easy and pleasurable the bride, groom and their family and friends. We want it to be open, transparent and as reasonable as possible. That’s why we don’t work with the same suppliers for each wedding, why we don’t have any supplier partners and why we put hours and hours into finding bespoke venues for our clients.
I’d recommend using an English wedding planner for an Italian wedding time and time again!
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Making sure Sadie looks perfect for her entrance into the church, May 2016.