The Italian Villa Wedding - South Coast Weddings

Full Wedding Planning

April 2023 saw the lovely wedding of Len & J’ae at The Italian Villa in Canford Cliffs, Dorset.

I have been to the Dorset Wedding Venue many many times, so I was familiar with everything, but this was my first time planning a wedding to be held there.

Wedding Planning

I met with Len & J’ae to get a sense of how they envisaged their wedding day to be, as well as what their likes and dislikes were. Despite having a healthy budget for their wedding, they were not showy people. They also didn’t want to do any of the planning themselves but hand over everything.

I gathered ideas and consulted them when needed but for the most part, planned everything based on our initial conversations about what they liked and didn’t like. It was a joy to plan their wedding!

Wedding Set-Up

As there was no event taking place at the venue the day before, we were able to get in and do some of the set-up, which takes some pressure off for the wedding day.

It also meant we had time to play around with the room layout. The wedding had 30 guests, so the tables were set-up in a horse shoe shape.

The cake table, traditionally put at the edge of the room, was moved into the centre of the horse shoe as a centrepiece to the room.

As they weren’t having an evening, reception, everything (other than the ceremony) was taking place on the main floor, so we really went to town on making it look great.

The Wedding Day

On the day of the wedding, it rained for a large part of the celebrations. Luckily, The Italian Villa has more than enough room for guests to comfortably relax all day, without going outside.

I always wait until the Groom and groom’s party have arrived at the venue before putting on buttonholes, so they don’t get squashed during the journey.

The bride’s bouquet tied in beautifully with all of the venue styling.

During a break in the rain, Kirsty (the photographer) took Len & J’ae into the garden to get some photographs. This is also a great opportunity for them to have a little time to themselves.

As the cake had been place in the centre, none of the guests needed to move for the cake cutting. They went for lemon flavour, which I can confirm was delicious!

During the drinks reception, wedding breakfast and relaxing afterwards, a saxophonist played, which was a lovely addition to their day, as they really love saxophone music.

It was really lovely to work alongside Bianca, the Event Manager at the Italian Villa. She is extremely efficient and good at her job and it was a pleasure to work as a team on the day.