I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas, I certainly did, food and family, perfecto! Today I have the real wedding of Carla and David. Carla was a fan of Secret Wedding Blog and was also getting married herself so she was more than happy to have her beautiful wedding day shared with the SWB readers! I simply can't emphasise how lovely their wedding is and the stunning photography. Below is Carla's story on their big day...

The bride's story

"David and I got engaged Christmas 2011. For the first 6 months we looked around various venues in Ireland and went to several wedding fairs. Although we had seen some beautiful venues at home we couldn't quite find exactly what we were looking for. We started consider the possibility of having a destination wedding and came across Romantic Italian Weddings by Marco Bernasconi. It seemed like the perfect solution and everything that we were looking for.

Marco owned two luxury villas situated on the border between Tuscany and Umbria and his company provided all of the wedding planning services that we would need.

In June we decided to take a holiday to Italy and visit the villas and meet with Marco. We fell in love with Italy and the ideas of having a destination wedding and so booked our wedding for September 2013.

Of the two villas we chose Villa San Crispolto. A beautiful villa situated on a hilltop overlooking lake trasimeno. We rented the villa for a week and flew out with our closest family and friends to spend a few days relaxing before the wedding. More of our guests flew out the day before the wedding and stayed in the nearby towns of Passignano and Cortona.

Thanks to Marco and his assistant Alexandra, planning a wedding abroad was made as stress free as possible. Marco has even devised an online 8 step wedding planner which takes care of every aspect of the wedding planning process. Their professionalism and attention to every detail could not be surpassed. All of the suppliers recommended by Marco have been carefully chosen, from the hairdresser, catering, flowers, music, were exceptional. In the build up to the wedding they answered countless emails, we discussed ideas and they delivered beyond my expectations.

On the wedding day we travelled to the Cathedral of Cotona. Cortona is a beautiful medieval hilltop town in Tuscany. Following the wedding mass we went on our photo tour around the town while our guests enjoyed ice cream and drinks before heading back on the bus to the villa for the reception.

Our photographer was Siobhan Hegarty. Siobhan was absolutely amazing to work with and we are delighted with the images that she captured of the day. We couldn't recommend her highly enough.

The reception back at Villa San Crispolto began with aperitif by the poolside followed by dinner and dancing in the marquee. Monica, the venue manager was in hand throughout to ensure the day ran smoothly. We had a fantastic day and it was everything we hoped it would be.

We not only had the wedding day that we dreamed off but we had an amazing week away with our family and friends." - Carla

Wedding Planning by Romantic Italian Weddings by Marco Bernasconi

All other suppliers e.g. Caterer, florist etc was arranged through Romantic italian Weddings

Wedding Venue: Villa San Crispolto, Tuscany, Italy

Photography: Siobhan Hegarty Photography