How much does a wedding in Tuscany cost?

We list venues and suppliers across Tuscany, and we checked. Among the villas, borghi and estates on this site, essentially none publish what a wedding costs. They publish capacities, photographs and enquiry forms. Villa Scorzi, to take one example, states that its Limonaia holds up to 180 guests and its Granaio 140 — and no price at all.

That is not evasiveness. A wedding quote in Italy is assembled per couple from guest count, season, day of the week, how much of the property you take and for how long, and whether catering is yours or theirs. There is no single number to publish.

The practical consequence is that any website telling you a Tuscany wedding "costs €40,000 to €120,000" is quoting a feeling. We would rather give you the numbers that exist, and the machinery behind the ones that do not.

One exception is worth recording, because it is the only one we have found. Marry Me in Tuscany, a planner based in Siena, publishes three packages with starting figures attached — Daisy, Roses and Orchids — each tied to a guest range and a type of property, from around 40 guests at a farmhouse up to 60–100 at a villa or castle. The figures are given in US dollars and described as starting points. Read them carefully before comparing: the site does not say whether they cover the planner's fee alone or a whole wedding, and those are very different numbers. It is a real, checkable, published figure from a named business — which on this evidence makes it close to unique in the Tuscan market.

If you marry legally in Italy, the comune charges you, and — unlike the private market — it publishes the tariff. What the same legal ceremony costs varies enormously between Tuscan towns.

So the same ten-minute civil ceremony costs €100 at Cortona's registry office on a weekday morning and €5,100 in Florence's grandest setting. Florence also does not refund cancellations made within 30 days.

The pattern repeats within each town: residents pay a fraction of what visitors pay, mornings cost less than afternoons, and Saturdays cost more than weekdays. In Lucca a non-resident pays €480 on a weekday morning at Palazzo Orsetti and €1,000 on a Saturday afternoon. In Cortona the council chamber is €800 on a weekday morning and €1,000 on a Saturday afternoon.

These are minor individually and awkward if unbudgeted, because several must be paid in person in Italy.

A *marca da bollo*, the Italian revenue stamp, recurs. Cortona charges one €16 stamp for banns if both of you live there and two — €32 — if one lives elsewhere. The Australian Embassy requires a €16 stamp to be bought before the nulla osta can be legalised at the Prefettura.

Consular fees vary by nationality. The Australian Embassy charges "the Euro equivalent of A$70.00 per Australian citizen" for the sworn declaration, by card only.

Then there is translation and legalisation of documents, which is priced by the translator rather than by any authority, and a day of your time in a Prefettura office. Our legal requirements guide sets out which of these apply to your passport.

Six variables do most of the work, and you control four of them.

Guest count. The single biggest multiplier, because catering, hire, staff and stationery all scale with it. A small wedding is not a cheaper version of a large one; it is a different quote.

Season and day. Peak-season Saturdays are the most contested dates in Tuscany. Midweek dates in the shoulder months are the same venue at a different price. See best months to get married in Tuscany.

How much of the property, for how long. Exclusive use of an estate for three nights is a different product from a Saturday afternoon.

Whether you may bring your own caterer. Many estates require their in-house kitchen or a short approved list. This constrains the largest single line of the budget and is worth asking about in the first email.

Accommodation on site. Beds included in the hire, sold separately to guests, or absent entirely — this changes both your cost and your guests'.

Where the legal ceremony happens. A ceremony at the venue may not be possible at all; the comune decides which settings it authorises. Lucca's published villa programme is an example of a town that does authorise outside settings, at a published fee.

Before you set quotes side by side, normalise them.

VAT. Italian quotes may be shown with or without IVA. A quote "plus IVA" and a quote "IVA inclusa" are not the same number, and the gap is large enough to change your ranking of two venues.

Service and staff. Sometimes inside the per-head price, sometimes a separate line, sometimes billed by hours worked on the day.

Time. Most contracts end at a stated hour, with overtime priced per hour. If your plan runs to 2am and the contract says midnight, the quote you compared was for a different evening.

Corkage and drinks. Whether you may bring wine, and at what fee, varies by property and matters in a region where good wine is made next door.

Music. Live or recorded music at a private reception in Italy requires a licence from SIAE, the collecting society. It is not large, but it is a real line and it is frequently discovered late.

Wet weather. Ask what happens if it rains — whether a covered alternative is included, and what a marquee would cost. A plan that only works in sunshine is not a plan.

Send these with your first enquiry. They cost nothing and they change what comes back.

1. Is the price inclusive of IVA?
2. What exactly is included — tables, chairs, linen, lighting, staff, cleaning?
3. Is there a minimum spend or a minimum guest count?
4. Must we use your caterer, or an approved list?
5. At what time does the contract end, and what is the overtime rate?
6. Is exclusive use included, or are other guests on site?
7. How many beds are included, and at what rate are the rest sold?
8. What is the payment schedule, and what is non-refundable and when?
9. Can the legal ceremony take place here, or must it be at the comune?
10. What is the wet-weather plan, and does it cost extra?

A venue that answers these clearly is telling you something useful about how the year will go. A wedding planner will ask them on your behalf and knows which answers are unusual.

These sit beside the wedding budget and are routinely left out of it.

An interpreter, if neither of you speaks Italian: the Comune di Firenze requires one at both the declaration and the ceremony, and does not provide one. A second trip to Italy, for viewing or for paperwork. Transport for guests between accommodation and a venue that is, by design, in the countryside. Marriage certificates and their official translations, which are cheaper to obtain while you are still in Italy. And the ordinary destination-wedding costs of flights and accommodation for the two of you, over more visits than you expect.

Costs and budgets are different problems. This page is about what things cost; deciding what to spend, how to split it, and when the money actually leaves your account is the subject of our Tuscany wedding budget guide.

One figure from that guide belongs here, though: the deposit. Venue and supplier deposits in Italy are typically payable on booking, long before the wedding year, and are usually non-refundable. The money leaves earlier than most couples plan for.

Every euro figure here comes from the comune or embassy that charges it, with the source and the date it was checked. Municipal tariffs are revised, so confirm the current figure with the comune before you plan around it.

We do not publish estimated ranges for venues, catering, photography or flowers. We could — every other site does — but we would be making them up, and this is a page people use to decide what they can afford.