Create an circuit party of sorts
While they were spoiled for choice with regard to the ceremony venue, the couple ultimately decided to hold it on the villa’s back lawn. Originally plotted as the property’s formal entrance, the area was flanked by two stone walls built around statues representing the changing seasons, followed by two long parallel lines of thin cypress trees. The dramatic framing of the couple was focused further by a circular floral arrangement. Guests then strolled back to the villa for a cocktail hour with food stations set against its atmospheric facade. The event then moved to the front yard, where guests took their seats at a long dinner table beneath cantilevered chandeliers. During dinner the backyard was transformed into a dance floor.
The rotating venues reminded certain guests of a certain type of (often queer) celebration. “My friends all came up to me like, ‘You threw a circuit party at a villa!’” Tina laughs. “We turned the lights off, so the only light came from the villa[‘s windows], so it really did feel like a circuit party. It was so funny.”
Build that wedding website early
Tina and Joe created their wedding website two years out so that guests could figure out whether they could swing the trip, and keep track of the dates, schedule, travel details, shuttle timelines, and other FAQs of the wedding thereafter.
“Thankfully all of our friends are self-sufficient. We didn’t get any questions from friends,” Tina says. The couple also supplied yet more information on-site, at the villa, and on paper, for their immediate family to stay on top of things.
Go all out on food
Though the villa has a kitchen (and booking a wedding there comes with a food and beverage minimum spend), it isn’t equipped to cater for 100 guests, so the couple had to work with an outside vendor and establish a temporary, detached outdoor kitchen. They opted for Valerio Ricevimenti, a caterer based near Florence that came recommended by their planner and had great reviews on Reddit. The logistics were handled by their planner, who had worked with Ricevimenti for over a decade. Their wedding dinner began with a risotto with zucchini flowers, then a squid ink raviolini with sea bass, followed by a porchetta-style rabbit with olives and pine nuts.
