Tuscany wedding checklist for couples planning from abroad

Before the list, the two constraints that make a Tuscan wedding different from one at home.

Comuni require notice, and the notice period varies. Lucca asks for the publication request "at least 3 months before" the wedding date. Florence requires the documents at least four days before the ceremony, but the date itself is booked far earlier. Siena requires the fees paid at least 15 days before the celebration.

Consular documents expire. An atto notorio is valid for 180 days. An Australian nulla osta is valid for six months. Start them too early and they lapse before the wedding; too late and there is no room for a rejected document.

The result is a squeeze: the paperwork cannot start very early, and cannot start late. Roughly six months out is the working window, which means everything else has to be settled before it.

• Agree the guest number, in writing, between the two of you. Everything downstream depends on it.
• Decide the shape: legal ceremony in Italy, or symbolic in Italy with the legal marriage at home. See legal requirements.
• Choose the area, then the property — in that order. Where to get married and the venues guide.
• Set the date, with the month trade-offs in front of you. Peak-season Saturdays go first.
• Ask the comune, not the venue, whether the legal ceremony can happen at your property.
• Engage a planner if you are going to. Earlier is better; they shape the shortlist.
• Build the budget as a calendar of payments, not a total. Budget guide.

• Book the venue and pay the deposit. Get the payment schedule and cancellation terms in writing first.
• Book the comune ceremony slot and note the fee — it varies by day and hour, and the published range across Tuscany runs from about €100 to €5,100 for non-residents.
• Book the suppliers who take one wedding a day: photographer, caterer where you have the choice, music.
• Block accommodation for guests, particularly if the venue's beds are limited.
• Send save-the-dates. Guests flying from three countries need more notice than guests driving across one.
• Plan a viewing trip if you are having one.

• Read your own embassy's current requirements. They differ by passport and they change.
• Order the civil documents you will need at home: birth certificates, and where relevant divorce decrees or death certificates. Apostille them in the country that issued them.
• Arrange certified translations into Italian.
• Begin the consular paperwork. US citizens: the atto notorio needs four adult witnesses unrelated to either party, and lasts 180 days from issue. British nationals: the notice must be witnessed by a notary before it goes to the embassy. Australians: the sworn declaration must be made in Italy — declarations sworn elsewhere are not valid.
• Book the interpreter if neither of you speaks Italian. Florence requires one at both the declaration and the ceremony, and does not provide one.
• Arrange guest transport. Rural venues need coaches, not goodwill.

• Submit the publication request where your comune requires it — Lucca asks for at least three months.
• Confirm what the comune needs and when, in writing, from the comune itself.
• Plan the Prefettura step if your nulla osta needs legalisation: buy the €16 revenue stamp beforehand and allow a working day.
• Finalise numbers with the caterer and confirm whether quotes include IVA.
• Confirm the wet-weather plan: what the space is, whether it holds everyone seated, what it costs, who decides and when.
• Check music restrictions and the curfew, and confirm who is arranging the SIAE licence.
• Send invitations.

• Pay the comune fees by their deadline — Siena requires payment at least 15 days before.
• Confirm your two witnesses, one for each spouse, each with valid photo ID. This applies however small the wedding is.
• Deliver documents to the comune by its deadline — at least four days before, in Florence.
• Reconfirm every supplier's arrival time, and the venue's set-up access window.
• Note the cancellation cliff: Florence does not refund cancellations made within 30 days of the ceremony.
• Check that every document is still in date. A 180-day atto notorio issued early in the year is the classic failure.

• Swear the declaration at your embassy if it must be done in Italy, then legalise it at the Prefettura where required.
• Make the declaration before the registrar, with the interpreter present if required.
• Bring passports and original documents, not photocopies — the Australian Embassy is explicit that photocopies are not acceptable for divorce and death certificates.
• Allow a whole working day for anything involving a government office.

• Order several certified copies of the Italian marriage certificate.
• Have them officially translated. Doing this later from another country is slower and more expensive.
• British couples: there is no further step. A UK register office states that "if you have married abroad there is no facility in UK law to register your marriage in the United Kingdom" — the Italian certificate and its translation are your proof. Couples of other nationalities should check their own rules, which differ.
• Keep the certificates somewhere you can find them. You will need one sooner than you expect, usually for a bank or a name change.

Comuni differ, and so do consulates. The fixed dates above come from Florence, Lucca, Siena and the Australian and Italian consular services, and they are the pattern rather than the universal rule.

Confirm your own two: the notice period at your comune, and the current requirements at your embassy. Everything else on this list can move by a few weeks without harm. Those two cannot.