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Getting Married in Abruzzo | Print |

Abruzzo is the perfect setting for a romantic wedding ceremony. This Italian region offers many panoramic settings for your wedding pictures-- sandy beaches, Romanic churches, majestic mountains and lovely old town centres on hillsides. Destination weddings in Abruzzo are quite new but they are becoming popular for couples who want to get married in an unusual and spectacular location.


Mirian Iparraguirre is a certified wedding planner, owner of MI Wedding Planner . We interviewed her to learn more about getting married in Abruzzo:
wedding1.jpg Mirian, what is the first thing that future spouses should do if they want to get married in Abruzzo?
Well, they should first make sure that they can get married in Italy. You don’t have to be an Italian resident to get married in Abruzzo. A civil service performed here is legal and recognized throughout the world. But it’s important to know what the law allows, and this depends on where the couple is from.

Is it difficult to do all the paperwork for getting married in Abruzzo?
It’s not difficult, but you need to be patient and follow all the steps on-time. I recommend speaking with the town hall in the town you’ve chosen to get married in before starting with all the legalities, or ask a wedding coordinator for assistance, especially if you don’t speak Italian.
For civil ceremonies, non-resident foreigners such as Austrian, Swiss, Spanish, British and German citizens must submit a “Nulla Osta”, which is a certificate of their capacity to contract marriage. This certificate must be issued by their Embassy in Rome (e.g., British Embassy ). Some embassies allow a third party to obtain the certificate on behalf of the couple.
In cases of United States citizens or Australians, the couple has to obtain the Nulla Osta in person at their embassy in Rome (US Embassy in Rome or Australian Embassy), and before their arrival in Italy, it is best to get an “Atto Notorio” from the Italian Consulate in their home country.
After obtaining these documents, you have to take care of all the other legalities at the chosen town-hall.

porta stanza sposi.jpgIs a religious ceremony in Abruzzo legal in other countries?
 Matrimony in a Catholic church can be either a religious blessing (where the couple arrives already legally bound) or a priest can perform both a Catholic and a civil ceremony simultaneously. The certificate of this ceremony is legally recognized throughout the world, just as the civil one is.

What reception locations do you recommend for a destination wedding?
The venues I recommend depend on the couples’ dreams and needs for their wedding.
Generally, when I organize a Destination Wedding I suggest choosing a reception venue where your guests can stay in the venue’s hotel, or nearby. And, of course, I recommend venues with high-quality Italian cuisine where you have authentic made-in-Italy food for your banquet.
Some good examples that satisfy all these conditions are: Palazzo Tour D’Eau , a historic Villa in a medieval town called Carunchio ; Villa Livia where you have a big garden with a seaside swimming pool, or Le Macine a beautiful little country-house for less than 50 people where you have breakfast with their own home-made marmalade.

wedding 2.jpg What about wedding services in Abruzzo? Are they flexible with foreigners’ requests and with destination weddings?
Yes, I am sure that you can find quality services if you explain exactly what you are looking for. And it is better to choose suppliers based in Abruzzo because it saves you some transport expenses.
Regarding wedding pictures, foreigners are used to the photojournalist style and Roberto Colacioppo is one of the best Italian wedding photographers with this style. He has experience working in Abruzzo as well as in other Italian regions and abroad.
Personally I use Stellair – Airport Express as a transportation company – a must if you want to be sure your guests get from the hotel to the ceremony venue on-time, or if you want to hire a vintage car.
Music and entertainment is also important. If you’re looking for a fluent English-speaking dj, you can contact DJ Service . But if your dream wedding reception includes an elegant and classic piano-bar I recommend Carlo Pellicciaro who has played not only in Italy, but also in the US, UK and Germany.

If the service providers are ready for destination weddings, why should the future spouses hire a wedding planner?
Abruzzo is a sentimental region where a lot of value is placed on dealing with people personally, face-to-face. So, it’s very important to have an Italian-speaking person based here who can contact the service providers frequently to ensure that everything is going as planned and that they have all the information and direction they need to make your wedding day perfect.
A certified wedding planner is also trained to negotiate contracts with caterers, florists, photographers, and other suppliers. Therefore, a wedding planner saves you valuable time and money. A wedding planner knows how to work within a couple’s budget and can take advantage of discounts not available to private parties, and at the same time turn your dreams into reality.

Finally, when a bride lives far away from location of her destination wedding, she enjoys the preparation phase and the wedding day much more if she can see all the details beforehand. At MI Wedding Planner, we support our couples by telephone, e-mail and skype in English, Italian or Spanish. This way, we send them pictures of the flower arrangements, music demos, ceremony texts, maps for arriving to the venue, etc. and they only have to have contact with one person instead of trying to keep track of all the service providers separately.

weddings.jpgKnowing that you have experience organizing events for Italian, English, Spanish and American citizens, how is a wedding in Abruzzo unique compared to a wedding in other countries or Italian regions?
In my opinion, it’s a combination of different things:
  • The variety of places: there are very romantic places for your reception and ceremony: Medieval Castles, Romanic churches, ancient towns, beautiful high mountains, and sandy beaches. Also, most places in Abruzzo are not over-run with tourists, so you get the real Italian feel to the wedding.
  • The people: Abruzzese people are warm and friendly. They’ll lean off their balconies or go out to see the new bride and groom as they come out of their wedding ceremony and they love to say “Viva gli sposi!”, especially in little towns. I have seen traffic jams caused by cars that stopped to see the bride coming out of the town hall, and at another event I met two old women sitting down in front of their house to watch as guests came out of the church.
  • The food and wine: here you can find high-quality authentic cuisine with local Abruzzese products. The local wines are world-renowned, for example, “Montepulciano d’Abruzzo” and “Trebbiano d’Abruzzo”, and of course the highest quality wines are found closest to their origin.
  • The traditions: Instead of old shoes and tin cans, the Italians adorn their cars with flowers and ribbons, and during their reception the couple offers sweet Jordan almonds to their guests. This tradition has spread all over Italy, but the coincidentally the most famous sweet almonds, called “Confetti” are made in Sulmona, right here in Abruzzo. So, really, Abruzzo is at the heart of so many beautiful Italian wedding traditions.
With all of these elements in place, a wedding in Abruzzo is truly magical.
 
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