Our perfect September wedding!” 5 on 5 star Reviewed September 19th 2014 Firstly we would like to say a massive thank you to Marco and Monica for your extraordinary organisation skills. Without your dedication, precision and commitment the whole process wouldn’t have been so smooth and without complication. Upon arrival, we received a warm and friendly welcome from Monica who was waiting for us, to show us around the villa. As every person who has previously stayed at San Crispolto has accurately described, the pictures on the website are superb, but nothing compares to the real thing!! The villa and surrounding area are absolutely beautiful. Each apartment has individual character, making them unique and each decorated with various antiques which gives it that real ‘rustic Italian’ feel. Each apartment has air conditioning, but we didn’t need to use this during our stay as the ceiling fans, along with the thick stone walls kept the interior cool. The gardens surrounding the villa are beautifully kept and maintained and the stunning pool is kept clean. The only issue that we had was the amount of flying, biting insects. I don’t know if this was due to the time of year, but I definitely recommend, that if you’re staying at the end of August to the beginning of September, then you invest in some decent insect repellent. It was mainly around the olive trees and pool area. They weren’t so much of an issue in the apartments. Although the villa is probably only one mile to the town, it is set on a hill and therefore walking back up the hill in the heat would prove quite difficult. It would therefore be better to have a car, which we did and so made supermarket trips and eating out in the town, much easier. After our tour of the villa, Marco arrived and we then went through the details for the wedding day. Marco rings every single supplier in your presence to confirm all the details. This automatically put Gary and I at ease, knowing that each supplier was aware of their responsibilities for the big day. We were then given a mobile phone so that we could contact Monica or Marco should we need them for anything. No request was too great or small! On the first night, as everyone was arriving at different times, we were able to order pizzas from Ciao Ciao using the mobile phone provided to us. We ordered more pizzas later on in the week when we couldn’t be bothered to cook or go in to the town. A brilliant service provided and tasty pizzas. Now let’s talk about the suppliers….. Catering – Renata I don’t think I can explain how exquisite this meal was!! Each course was cooked to perfection and the flavours were out of this world. Nearly everyone got seconds (and some people got thirds!!) of each course. The course that was most talked about was the trenette Pasta with pesto, a taste sensation! The wedding cake was my favourite, absolutely delicious. I was so happy when I found out they had saved the leftovers and I had some the following day!! Gary requested to speak with the chef herself to express his gratitude for such a delicious meal and she was very modest and flattered by this gesture. Although you may think 8 courses is too much, the fact that it was spread out over the afternoon in to the evening, there was always room for the next tasty course (until the end of course when I couldn’t possibly eat anything else!) Valentina/Riff Raff Photography – Mark, Ryan and Dominic Mark had been personally recommended to us by friends and colleagues. We had witnessed some of his work at a friend’s wedding and also viewed some of his work online. This only confirmed that we couldn’t have anyone else but him! Mark was really easy going and very professional, staying with our wedding party until late in to the night (despite the fact that he had contracted a sickness bug on the wedding day, he didn’t even falter!). Gary and I don’t really like having our pictures taken but Mark put us at ease right from the start. A few days later, Mark sent us a sneaky peak of some of the wedding shots which we weren’t expecting and they are absolutely stunning. He managed to capture all of the positive emotion associated with our perfect day. After seeing Ryan’s video on the San Crispolto website (which made us a little emotional as the views were spectacular) we had to have him at our wedding. So many guests spoke highly of Ryan and his approachable, friendly nature. Ryan has recently invested in the quadcopter which is an awesome piece of technology and was able to capture video footage as well as still images from the air. Not many other suppliers are offering this technique so I would definitely recommend. If you’ve seen the footage on San Crispolto, it will only confirm how superb Ryan’s footage is. Dominic had only just got a flight in to Italy on the day of the wedding and he came straight out to Cortona to assist Mark and Ryan with the photography and videography. Now that’s dedication!! Like Mark and Ryan, Dominic was also friendly and professional and was so easy going as the day progressed. I cannot recommend these three highly enough!! Flowers – Mario and Federico I can quite categorically say that the flowers provided by Mario and Federico, were the most beautiful pieces I have ever seen. The flowers were stunning and so fresh. I took some cream bird cages with me and explained what I wanted and he executed them to absolute perfection. I hated that we had to leave them behind at the end of the week, but I hope that the couple arriving for the following week were able to enjoy them. DJ – Alex Alex came along to visit us before the day of the wedding so see what kind of music we liked. We were relatively easy going and just requested a mixture of music that would suit all generations. Alex nailed it!! His song choices were excellent and he had everyone dancing until the very end….in fact we didn’t want the party to stop. Originally, we didn’t know if we wanted a DJ as there were only 30 of us, but now that we had the experience of Alex Deejaying for us, we are so glad we booked him. The party wouldn’t have been the same without him. Sting Trio They were fabulous. The music was so beautiful they had people filled with emotion and crying as soon as they started playing in the Town Hall of Cortona. They performed to an excellent standard and really set the ambiance for the ceremony. They then played a mixture of classic and modern music whilst the aperitifs were served. One of the artists even flipped his guitar over and used it as drum, they were brilliant!! Hair and Make up – Monia I went for a hair trial the evening before the wedding and showed Monia a picture of how I wanted my hair. She looked at the picture only 3 times and then perfected it straight away. She is extremely talented. We hadn’t planned it, but I then asked if my mum could have a trial, expecting that she would say she had other appointments or that she didn’t have time, but she agreed straight away and styled my mum’s hair to her liking! On the day of the wedding she had another hairstylist attend as well to assist with the bridesmaids’ hair and again, I showed her a picture and she did her own version which looked beautiful on the girls. I would definitely recommend Monia and her hair salon! Transport Holiday Planners – Matteo:- we organised a coach to transport people to and from Cortona. We were even able to arrange 3 different pick up locations which was ideal. I would definitely recommend this as it means your guests don’t have the pressure of having to find parking and locating their way to the Town Hall. Drive in Style – Alvis TA21. This car was beautiful and the driver was friendly and professional. I do think it was a little pricey, however you couldn’t beat the experience. The only issue was, that the guests actually didn’t get to see you in the car. My suggestion would be that the guests could wait at the top of the drive way of San Crispolto and greet the married couple as they arrive in the car, so they too can enjoy the experience. For the last night we organised to go for a meal at Ciao Ciao and chose the set ‘meat’ menu. The food was superb! When the starter arrived and was placed in front of the first person, we thought that it was so big that it would be 1 plate between 2 persons……No! It was one each! Massive portions and so tasty. I phoned Marco that morning and asked him if he could organise a cake that could be presented at the restaurant as it was my mum’s birthday. He did this with no problem and it was a nice surprise for my mum. No request was too large for Marco and Monica. We chose to have our wedding at 12 o clock, rather than 1530, as we wanted to enjoy a full day of celebration. It was an early start with the hairdressers but I don’t regret choosing this time as it meant the meal lasted longer and there was no rush. I didn’t think I’d be able to last until 130 am but I didn’t want it to end. The day was absolute perfection (apart from the weather, unfortunately there was a drop in temperature and there was a bit of drizzle, but it did mean the marquee was a nice temperature and the men weren’t too hot in their 3 piece suit!). Our perfect day was very much down to the professionalism of Romantic Italian Weddings. Would we recommend San Crispolto? Absolutely!! And we would book again in a heartbeat if we were to do it again! If you’re having doubts about it, then don’t, you will have the best day of your lives, as Gary and I did. romanticitalianweddings #destinationweddingitaly #romanticitalianweddings #weddingvillaitaly #italy #cortona #wedding #italywedding #underthetuscansun tripadvisor.it/Hotel_Review-g657847-d653349-Reviews-Villa_San_Crispolto-Passignano_Sul_Trasimeno_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html#REVIEWS
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 17:22:24 +0000
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