Destination Wedding in a Tuscan Castle

“We met at high school- at that time we didn’t know that it was love. Lionel asked me for a date but the week after he moved to Canada with his family. We kept in touch by MSN and after five months he moved back to Norway, stood on my doorstep with roses in his hand and that was the start of our love story. When we got engaged, Lionel suprised me with a weekend trip. I had no idea where we where going. He had given me one hint every day for a week. The surprise was a weekend in Venice, and an even bigger surprise awaited when he popped the question in a gondola on the Grand Canal in Venice.

We love Italy and Lionel is half Italian with some family in Italy, so after some thinking and searching for an old but romantic castle we ended up with Castello De Magona in Tuscany. When we found the castle it was important to us to keep it a bit private, we had ten roms and booked the castle for the whole weekend. Other friends and family lived at a place nearby.

We sent out the “save the weekend” six months ahead and the invitations three months ahead. We went to Italy from Norway a month and a half before the wedding to visit the castle, meet with our wedding planner, have a food and wine tasting and schedule appointments with florist, bakery and so on. We used a wedding planner, and we did a lot on our own with good help from family.

We went with a romantic theme with an olive, grey and white palette. We searched for a lot of ideas and inspiration on Pinterest, wedding blogs etc. We found the stylde that we liked most and used colors and flowers that would go well with the surroundings. The best decision was going to see the venue by taking a trip there before the wedding. Most memorable moment, that was of course the aisle walk and the kiss after we were pronounced husband and wife. But the weekend gave so much impressions an memories, and we feel grateful and blessed. Everybody in the family extended their trip, and made a vacation as well. The closest family stayed with us at the castle for the weekend.

Finding a location takes time and planning- if you are planning a wedding abroad I would recommend a visit to see the location before the big day. Carry out thorough research on the area, the venue, the planner, and also be sure of your menu: we made some changes after the food tasting before the wedding.”