Getting Married in Tuscany: A Practical Guide

Tuscany is the easiest Italian region to photograph and one of the harder ones to plan, and both facts come from the same source: it is open country. There are no mountains taking the sun off the water early and no cliffs to constrain where a wedding can happen, which gives the longest usable evening light in Italy. It also means the venues are spread across an area the size of a small country, and the drive between them is the thing most couples underestimate.

This guide covers what we would tell anyone starting to plan: which part of Tuscany, which month, how the ceremony generally works, how guests get around, and how the photography fits. For the light month by month and the properties that define the market, see our Tuscany page.

Which Tuscany

The region divides into three or four landscapes that photograph quite differently. Chianti, between Florence and Siena, is wooded hills, vineyards and stone villas, and it is the closest to both airports. The Val d’Orcia, south of Siena, is the open, rolling, cypress-lined country of every postcard — emptier, more dramatic, and a longer drive. The Maremma, in the south-west, is rougher and quieter, with a coastline and far fewer weddings. And Florence itself offers city ceremonies in Renaissance rooms.

Choosing between them is a choice about what is in the background of your photographs and how far your guests will drive. A Val d’Orcia estate gives you the view; a Chianti villa gives you the view and an hour less on the road.

When to marry

The season runs from late April to October, and Tuscany holds its shoulders better than most of Italy. May and early June are green, full and comparatively cool, with the countryside at its best before the summer bleaches it. July and August are hot and bright, with a hard vertical sun in the middle of the day; the evenings, however, are long and spectacular.

September is the month most couples want and the first to book — the light turns, the heat drops and the harvest begins. October is the region’s quiet secret: low golden light all day, vineyards in colour, and far fewer people, at the cost of shorter days and a higher chance of rain.

For a Saturday between May and September, nine to fifteen months ahead is typical.

Villas, estates and the drive

Most Tuscan weddings happen at a villa or an agriturismo taken for several days, with guests staying on the property or nearby. That is a different shape of wedding from a hotel event: it usually runs across a welcome dinner, the wedding day and a lunch the day after, and the photographs that couples end up loving are often from the evenings on either side rather than the day itself.

The practical constraint is distance. Properties look close together on a map and are separated by twenty minutes of unlit gravel road. If the ceremony is in a village church and the reception is at an estate, that transfer is real time out of the day, and it usually falls in exactly the hour the light is best. Where it can be avoided, avoid it; where it cannot, put it earlier.

Legal or symbolic

A civil ceremony in Italy is legally available to foreign couples in a town hall or an authorised venue, and several Tuscan comuni are set up for it. The documents take preparation. A church wedding involves paperwork through your home parish. Many couples marry legally at home and hold a symbolic ceremony at the villa, which frees both the hour and the place — and in a region where the hour matters this much, that freedom is worth something.

Your planner or the local comune will confirm what applies to your nationalities. Ask early: it can affect the date.

Getting guests there

Florence and Pisa are the usual arrival airports, with Bologna and Rome as alternatives for a longer drive. Fast trains connect Florence to Milan, Rome and Venice, which makes combining the wedding with a few days elsewhere straightforward. Once in the countryside, guests need cars or organised transfers; there is no useful public transport between estates.

Because of that, shared transfers for the wedding evening are worth arranging. The roads are narrow and unlit, and dinner runs late.

How the light works here

This is the part that distinguishes Tuscany. Open hills mean nothing blocks the sun at either end of the day, so the golden hour is genuinely an hour, and in June closer to ninety minutes. Low light running across cypress lines and vineyard rows gives depth that flat ground does not.

The other side of that is the middle of the day, which is unforgiving. Ceremonies set for one or two in the afternoon in July put guests in full sun with no shade and faces in hard shadow. The fix is the same one Italian weddings have always used: push the ceremony to late afternoon, let dinner run into the night, and use the hour before sunset for the portraits.

How we photograph a Tuscan wedding

Most Tuscan weddings here are booked as our Full Day commission at €2,250 or, where guests are travelling and the day runs across a welcome dinner, our Destination Wedding commission at €2,950. Both cover the full day with one photographer. A second photographer is available as an addition, and is worth it where preparations happen in two buildings on a large estate.

Before the day we work out where the light will be on your terrace at your ceremony hour in your month, agree the portrait window with your planner, and decide a covered alternative in case of a storm. Travel and accommodation are quoted separately, itemised and at cost. You receive a preview within seven days and the complete edited set within eight weeks, with full-resolution downloads and a personal print release.

For a smaller day our Half Day commission starts at €1,450, and couples marrying with only witnesses can book our Elopement commission from €850. Everything is on our investment page; the exact price comes in reply to your inquiry.

If Tuscany is not quite right

Couples drawn to Tuscany often also look at Provence, which gives a similar landscape with a different architecture, and Puglia, which trades hills for white stone and olive groves and is considerably cheaper. Lake Como is the opposite proposition: water and mountains instead of open country, and a much shorter evening.

If you have a property or a date in mind, tell us about it. We will check availability and tell you what the light is doing there in your month.