A day in the life of a destination wedding planner in Italy!

The other week I was in Tuscany, I popped in to see one of my favourite florists,  who if I could take all over Italy with me to work on every wedding we plan, I would!

I was met with even more enthusiasm than normal, which on a normal day is pretty enthusiastic! But today they greeted me with ‘Thank God you are here’ many hugs and begs for help. The cause of their stress quickly became apparent, a very sweet wedding planner from the USA who does not speak a word of Italian was trying to communicate with the head florist who does not speak a word of English!  Plus the florists apprentice, who has some knowledge of English had the day off!

For the past hour the florist had been trying to understand what flowers the wedding planner from California wanted.   As this was her first wedding she was organising here in Italy and because I adore my florist who looked like she needed a Valium, I took pity on both parties and agreed to assist them.  Translating what flowers the wedding planner wanted and encouraging her to make vital decisions as she snapped photos on her ipad to show the bride, who thankfully was resting after her long flight back at the hotel and missing out on all the ‘fun’.

3 hours later and I do not know how many cigarettes the florist had smoked, the heat was almost unbearable and the balance of trying to keep the florist from losing her temper with this poor girl and keep everyone moving forward through the list and all the indecisiveness, was taking its toll.  When it came to setting a time for the set up on the day, the florist told the wedding planner she would get there 3 hours earlier than actually required because she was worried the planner would have a nervous breakdown on the day and this would give her time to recover her composure! I was more worried that the florist was going to bury the wedding planner under the rose petals! 

Finally the wedding planner left happy, if some what rattled after her experience working of with the rather rambunctious family of florists, it was my turn to book flowers for one of my weddings. 20 minuets later I was done, (although I will do a run through a few days before the wedding to check the flowers) my florist knows exactly what I want, I know she will do a fantastic job and we work well together, trust each other and whilst we sipped Prosecco in her office and laughed about how fortunate she was I walked in and how unfortunate I was I had chosen that moment to walk in, it made me realise how important it is to have a wedding planner who understands both the Italian suppliers mentality and the bride and grooms! 

A wedding planner who has a good relationship with her suppliers, who speaks the local language, who has built trust with the suppliers and knows what works in Italy, is imperative to a wedding running smoothly!  But it is more than that for me, I do this job because I enjoy it and I work with suppliers I know are wonderful at what they do, honest with pricing and fun to work with! 

That night the florist was so sweet, she booked me a table for dinner at the wonderful restaurant in the hotel I was staying to say 'thank you for helping' and a BIG 'thank you' to my friend who had been waiting patiently for us to finish!

As we raised a glass to wish her luck for the day of the wedding I thought 'I love my job!' :)