Real Wedding: Italy

Real Wedding ItalyPlanner: Diana Da Ros, Diana Da Ros Event Planner,www.dianadaros.com, info@dianadaros.comPhotographer: CameraOff Alessandra FuccilloLength of time in industry: 6Businesses involved: Palazzo Durini, La Fenice Catering, Alberto Menegardi Flower Designer, DJ Andrea Spigarelli from Wedding Show, Actor Gianluca Iacono as celebrantWedding date: December 12, 2015Guest count: 75The couple: Paola and Claudio wanted a winter wedding with a civil ceremony in a historic building in Milan, which is why I proposed Palazzo Durini as the venue.Involvement: Full consultingInspiration: Chocolate was the inspiration, because the bride and the groom love high quality chocolate and rum. In winter, it’s a great theme because you don’t have to worry about temperatures, you can offer a great selection of chocolates to combine with the best international rum. Chocolate also has the typical brown color loved by the bride."Aha” design moment: The sweet table. Usually in Italy the sweet table is called , because it’s all about traditional confetti sweets tasting. In this case, because of the chocolate winter theme, I had the opportunity to put more creativity on the table, using chocolate dragees, chocolate meringue pops, small meringues, chocolate confetti, dark brown elegant fabrics, wood pieces, pinecones, and a lot of chocolate-scented candles. The guests were surprised, because the table was unusual, elegant, and chocolate-scented.Most unique design element: Chocolate and pinecones. The dark-brown chocolate color was used for many details: bouquet’s handle ribbon, ribbons on ceremony chairs, chocolate made ribbon on the wedding cake, and napkins. Placecardholders were chocolate bon bons, while pinecones were positioned on the ceremony table, guestbook table, sweet table, and dinner table (as the main decoration) with chocolate and white candles. After dinner, next to the sweet table, we prepared a fine chocolate tasting and big chocolate bars were used to decorate tall vases. Chocolate scented candles were everywhere in the location so the smell was very good across the entire building.Color palette: Brown and whiteBudget: €20,000 euro or approximately $21,843Staff hours: 14 hours the day of the event (me and my 2 assistants). The catering worked 15 - 16 hours, the DJ worked three hours, the flower designer nine hours.Planning time: One year and two months.NUMBER OF MEETINGS: Six meetings and about 150 emailsSet up/strike details: Set up took five hours. To take down all the set up it took us about three hours. Except for hundreds of chocolate-scented candles, there were not any unusual elements involved.Revenue breakdown: 100% full consultingBiggest challenge: The biggest challenge was respecting the clients’ budget. They wanted to concentrate all the budget on the menu and drinks, because they are food lovers, so they wanted the best quality possible. Once the menu was decided, there was not much for sets and decorations, so thanks to our experience and attention to materials and thanks to our good business relationships with vendors, we were able to plan an amazing chocolate, winter-themed wedding—even if we didn’t have so much budget to spend.