WELCOME to the new look Dream Italian Weddings & Honeymoons which we think you’ll find even more glamorous than ever! We’re absolutely delighted that the phone has been ringing off the hook with happy brides wanting to share their magical weddings in Italy with us.

WELCOME to
– Dream Italian Weddings! –

WELCOME to the new look Dream Italian Weddings & Honeymoons which we think you’ll find even more glamorous than ever! We’re absolutely delighted that the phone has been ringing off the hook with happy brides wanting to share their magical weddings in Italy with us. You can feel them beaming down the phone as they relive the moments, including how they managed to get their delicate wedding dresses all the way out to Italy – no mean feat! That’s the fabulous thing about getting married abroad, although organising weddings is obviously stressful, whether you have a wonderful wedding planner or not, we’ve found that all of the brides getting married in Italy seem to have just taken everything in their stride.

Perhaps it’s the thought that they’ll have a backdrop that’s out of this world, that the food will be perfect and that their guests will have a fabulous holiday too, that makes all the little problems seem just that… little.

In this issue we’ve got lots of very happy couples, all of whom have chosen Italy as their wedding destination. We start with Kendra from England and her husband Brian from New Zealand who got married on the breathtaking estate of Il Borro in Tuscany. The estate restored by the esteemed Ferragamo family a few years ago which means of course that every little detail of the venue is perfect. Another fabulous aspect is that Il Borro estate houses a medieval village that sleeps 150, so their guests found it really easy to find accommodation and they certainly couldn’t give any excuses about getting lost on the way to the village church.

Their wedding weekend sounded blissful, as did Heather and Greg’s wedding in Florence. The bride and groom are both from Mississippi and Greg is a combat medic stationed in Iraq. We were touched to hear how Heather had contacted wedding planner Bonnie Bates because she saw on Bonnie’s website that she too comes from a military family and therefore would understand the support needed with her fiancé being stationed abroad. It’s a heart-warming story with a very happy ending. Last but not least in this issue, we meet a real life couple; beautiful bride and groom Hayley and Andy who got married at Lake Garda and Hayley recalls her moments leading up to and during her dream Italian wedding in our feature ‘Diary of a bride’.

As ever, we’ve got some wonderful wedding experts giving useful tips. In a feature by wedding planner and wine lover Marion Hunter and owner of Villa Giona, Paolo Saletti, we find out exactly how to choose the right wine to serve at your Italian wedding.

There’s good advice about what goes with the food you are having and whether your preference is red, white or prosecco, you’ll find some great ideas. Then renowned photographer Giulio Mazzarini, who’s a wedding photographer but also works with many big names including L’Oreal, Vanity Fair, the Design Council and Manchester United, takes a look at all the things you need to consider to ensure that you get the very best out of your wedding photos in Italy. Giulio tells us how to get the best shots with minimum stress and worry. Just as it should be of course so that you can enjoy the big day as much as your guests do!

Buon divertimento

• Lorenzo the magnificent
• Poles apart… then together forever
• Marion Hunter and Paolo Saletti: wedding wines from a ‘Wow Factor’ villa
• The pearl of the Tyrrhenian
• A break from war
• Diary of a bride
• Ask the experts
• A sense of place
• A sense of place 2