If you have a legal civil wedding, the ceremony is performing by the mayor or someone he has chosen and our wedding planner will be translating the ceremony. This is by law in Italy.
Information
- Who will be the officiant for our wedding?
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First off, there’s a difference between an officiant and a celebrant. An officiant is one who marries couples in a legally binding ceremony while celebrants perform non-legal ceremonies. All our officiant partners are accredited while all our celebrants are trained in performing ceremonies. Your celebrant will work directly with you to write your very own personal wedding ceremony.
- How does a symbolic (non-legal) ceremony look like?
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Exactly the way you want it.
Because this is a symbolic and non-legal ceremony, you can customize it the way you want to. Your only limitation is the location’s rules and regulations. However, if you wish to have a format similar to a legally-binding wedding, you can have it! You can have an exchange of vows and rings and do virtually everything that couples do in a legal wedding.
- What is SIAE and why do I need to pay it?
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SIAE is the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (www.siae.it). Italian law requires that those who organize a private event (be that a wedding, party or any form of show) where intellectual works are used (i.e. live or recorded music) must obtain a license to be able to play music at this event. This applies to ALL intellectual property on music, not just Italian works.
Inspectors from the SIAE will issue heavy penalties to anyone who does not obtain the license. Most importantly, the arrival of the SIAE inspectors will cause a big disruption to your big event especially if the SIAE fees have not been paid beforehand.
Please note there are NO exceptions for the SIAE tax. We do not work with companies or musicians who do not ask you to pay SIAE tax because it is illegal.
The good news is we will always take care of the SIAE license at your behalf. The SIAE license cost for ceremony and reception music is always included in all our wedding packages for Italy, so you don’t have to worry about any unexpected additional costs!
- Do we have a choice in what flowers, music and wedding cake we get?
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Absolutely! Once you’ve booked and began the elopement planning process with us we will ask you to tell us your preferences for each element. For flowers, send us reference photos of bridal bouquets that you like and our florist will match this as closely as possible. For music, work directly with the musician to establish your music preferences or choose from a list of songs recommended by us. For wedding cake, tell us your preferred flavour and finishing style. A reference picture also helps here!
- How do we choose the vendors booked within our package?
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We’ve already chosen the best vendors for you! When booking your elopement, small wedding or vow renewal with My Secret Tuscany, you are hiring a team of established wedding professionals working together to produce the perfect wedding experience for you. Over the years we hand-picked a group of reliable suppliers for each location and have been working with these suppliers for every elopement. By always working with the same team of people are have been able to negotiate the best rates for your clients as well as ensuring that each supplier is very familiar with the location, flow of the day and their role in producing the perfect wedding day for you. So when you book an elopement with us we will assign specific vendors to your wedding based on your requirements and ceremony location.
- What payment methods do you accept?
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We take payments in Euros (€) or British Pounds (£) depending on the local currency where you get married. Payment can be sent by direct bank transfer (international wire transfer) or paid via credit card or PayPal. Payments made by credit card and PayPal are subject to a 3% transaction fee.
- Will you be there in person on the day of our wedding?
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Yes, we always stay with our wedding couples from the day before the wedding until the wedding and party is over.
- Do you help us write the ceremony?
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Yes, the Celebrant assigned to your wedding will reach out to you directly and work with you to personalise the ceremony following your desires. He will also help you write your own vows to design a truly unique ceremony.
- Do you help us with accommodation and other services
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Yes, we help with all bookings and always try to find the best offers for our guest's. We also organise excursions and all other services our wedding couples and guest require
