My Experience At An Italian Wedding Reception

I entered new travel territory recently and I think it was one of the dreamiest travel experiences I have had: Traveling for my friend’s destination wedding. In fairness, it was a destination to pretty much everyone at the wedding but not the bride and groom themselves. They live in Tuscany, and that is where the wedding was.

Specifically, the wedding ceremony was in Florence and the reception was at an agritourism events center about an hour outside of Florence, in Tuscany.

And it was about as gorgeous as you can imagine.

Honestly, I pictured agritourism to be something like camping but it wasn’t. There was a stunning event venue complete with a patio area for outside portions of events, an indoor dining room for the indoor portion of an event, and rows and rows of vineyard in the distance to really bring home the feel of Tuscany. It made me see the appeal of having a weekend agritourism getaway, and learning about the agricultural beauty of the area.

The reception began with an appetizer section that of course included a variety of drinks, including aperol spritzes. Then we went inside for dinner which was several courses and lasted several hours in itself, as per my experience with meals in Europe.

Towards the end of the night, we returned outside for the cutting of the cake and the dance portion of the evening, which mixed slow dances and dances that made you feel like you were in the club.

This particular wedding was a cultural mix. The bride is from the USA and the groom is from Italy. And the guests were a mix of these nationalities as well as a few others. A lot of American traditions were kept (father-daughter dance for example) along with what I assume are Italian traditions (which I mostly saw in the wedding ceremony in the Catholic church).

The food, justifiably so, was kept mostly Italian though. The dinner included risotto, ragu, and a beef fillet. I especially liked the final course since Tuscan chefs seem to be so experienced cooking beef given the popularity of the Florentine steak. The presentation of all of the food was perfect, even the appetizer buffet.

The biggest cultural difference was how long the wedding reception went, lasting to 2 am, and only ending when the DJ wrapped things up. I am so used to late nights in Spain by now that I was unphased. But coming directly from the average town in the USA, that is not exactly the normal wedding schedule.

But why would you want a normal wedding schedule at a beautiful, abnormal, cultural mix of a destination wedding?

I am more experienced with Spain destinations than Italian ones, but if you are looking to have a similar, charming travel experience, consider a visit to El Escorial near Madrid.